If Jesus Had a Dog (Selah Awards Finalist 2023)
Honored that this essay (first posted Summer 2022), inspired by our late Finley, was chosen as a Selah Awards 2023 Finalist. If Jesus had a dog, I’ll bet His would be a good shepherd—inclined toward tending goats and sheep, striving to keep them safe. His…
Why a Word for the Year?
Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path (Psalm 119:105 CSB). ***Read to the end for a chance to win a wonderful new book!*** You’ve heard it asked. What’s your word for the year? This inquiry is everywhere come…
A New Year’s Letter to Wee Emory Wren
He settles the childless woman in her home as a happy mother of children. Praise the Lord (Psalm 113:9 NIV)! Dear Emory Wren, Here we are, at the close of another year. How ever can it be? Your second Christmas already, preparing for another trip around…
Recipe for Turning Grumbles to Gratitude!
Praise the LORD! Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good (Psalm 106:1a NRSV). What should have been a lovely autumn morning began with grumbles. Trying to get out the door for a family outing to Sky Top Apple Orchard, I quickly swept…
Trust Me!
(***Read to the end for a special announcement.***) “Then God said, “Take your son… whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you” (Genesis 22:2 NIV). “All I want for Christmas is a…
Full-Circle Moments
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1 NIV). Lately, I’ve been pondering full-circle moments, as I see each as an opportunity to acknowledge, despite all life’s twists and turns, that we’re right where God intended, rooted in…
I Love Jesus, But…
Yesterday as I drove our daughter to school in fog thick as pea soup, someone zoomed past me. A bit startled (he came out of nowhere), I looked to my left just in time to see a small white truck barreling down the two-lane road,…
Broken Crayons
“My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise” (Psalm 51:17 NIV). ***Today is the one year anniversary of the Abbey Gate tragedy in Kabul. We will not forget.*** ******* My little friend sat at the…
A Letter to a Bride and Groom
“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face…” (I Corinthians 13:12a ESV). Dear Ones, You’re preparing to spend the rest of your lives together. Wedding plans are coming along, though I know. I remember. All those last minute details. All…
Reflections on 33 Years of Marriage
“Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days” (Ecclesiastes 11:1 ESV). Marriage. That day a couple says, “I do”–it’s like stepping out in faith to walk on water, is it not? Promising to love… In sickness and in health,…