When Wounds Are Buried Deep
I’m not what most would call adventurous. I’m a homebody. I like to play it safe, appreciate routine, cleanliness, and order. Recently, however, I stepped out of my comfort zone. My husband and I were invited on an excursion to Brimstone—an ATV recreation park in…
The Art of Invitation
It’s an art. Yet, in our busy lives, we miss it, or perhaps we purposefully choose to ignore it. God demonstrated it in his desire to be in relationship with us–calling out “Where are you?” (Gen. 3:9) to Adam and Eve that they might walk…
T.I.M.E.–Take It / Make Eternal
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven … [God] has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of [humans] … (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 11–NIV). Time. Is it just me, or does time…
If You Give God’s Girl a Bible
For an opportunity to win a prize (Not a cookie!), please follow the crumbs to the end. ********** There’s a sweet children’s book our littles loved called If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. This story by Laura J. Numeroff tells of a mouse who simply…
Lessons Learned from Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma
I am both proud and humbled to introduce my guest for this week’s Penning Pansies. Carol is my cousin, but usually we call each other “God sisters.” Her mom was my Grandma Helga’s sister. We share a Finnish heritage, a love for words, and, mostly,…
The Night Before Christmas–Finale
Turn your wounds into wisdom. ~~Oprah Winfrey~~ This world is very small. As I sat with my new friend Lauren, heard her stories and shared some of my own, I was amazed at how God connects people for a greater purpose–like dots linked number by…
The Night Before Christmas–Part 2
“To share a table with someone is to share everything” (Paul Krueger, Steel Crow Saga). The menu was determined. The food purchased, then prepared. What was unplanned, unexpected, were the added guests. They came, shaken and weary, to our back door on Christmas Eve. But like…
The Night Before Christmas–Part I
The longer I live, the smaller this world seems. This world into which a Baby was born–where He grew to be a Man, was condemned and killed before coming back alive to again breathe life into the dark, sin-stained void. The same formless void into…
A Portion of Linda’s Story–A Friend’s Perspective
“There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside of you.” ~~attributed to Maya Angelou, who quoted Zora Neale Hurston in her 1942 published work Dust Tracks on the Road. I think I’ve lost count of the times my friend Linda said, “Perhaps you could…
Letting the Light In
The other day, my girl and I drove to school in gray chill. My heart, too, felt the grip of cold. I turned up Pandora–choosing Hillsong worship, hoping the music would thaw my sullen spirit. I grappled with a grumbling attitude–pointed out several of Allie’s…