Confessions of a Thief
Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you (I Peter 5:7–NLT). I fear I may be a thief. There. I said it. “How so?” perhaps one wonders. After all, it’s not that I pickpocket, and I don’t shoplift at the local…
Good Friday Hope
Who would have imagined there’d be Good Friday hope found in a Kalanchoe? Winter over, it was recently time to purge the gardens for replanting—strip brittle bean vines and pull up dried tomato plants, uproot any remaining beets and harvest several ripe spaghetti squash. What…
God’s Gift of a Good Dog–Part 1
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows (James 1:17—NIV). (***Read to the end to discover a unique way YOU can help a furry friend.***) My very first memory includes a dog….
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–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…