I was once in an accident that blindsided me. It happened in a startling flash! And though nearly four decades have passed, I haven’t forgotten sitting there in the car, shocked that while making a left turn in a blind hilltop intersection, I’d just been spun around and was facing an entirely different direction on the hill I’d intended to drive down to go home. Soon I would talk with an officer and would receive a citation and have to go to traffic court. It was a mercy that a very lenient judge determined that though the accident was my…
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My husband sent me a link to a site — I clicked the link and read the words: What will your verse be? I read and reread the article — trying to comprehend the depth of the meaning of the words. I read the poem from which the thought was taken. I still mulled over the words. In an instant they’re easy to read and understand. What will your verse be? What will your verse be? What will your verse be? What will your verse be? Hmmmm… you mean today, right now? Does this mean tomorrow? Does this mean in the…
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[cp_quote style=”quote_left_dark”]Two births — the birth of a mother, the birth of a child.[/cp_quote]Every time I assist a birth I watch and watch and watch for not one, but two miraculous births — first the birth of a mother, that powerful time of dying to herself with a burst of unparalleled bravery and resolve to give every ounce of energy, hope, and strength to that little life in her pain racked body…and then, of course, the emergence of that little baby — that life that’s been at the center of all the hopes, all the tears, all the anticipation, and…
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Every day in the news: a new outrage and the unintended consequence, hypocrisy. Outrage (and hypocrisy) on both sides for or against the cause du jour. Facebook memes, articles, quotes — all over, we’re seeing the proliferation of outrage over the so-called discrimination against behaviour and gender identity. For all these, Christians are viewed as hatemongers, intolerant, religious bigots. All of these events are instructive, we need to be careful we’re not hypocritical in what we say and do. [cp_quote style=”quote_left_dark”]“And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High,…
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For days my mind’s been flooded with grief and all sorts of other CSA emotions I’ve been trying to stifle. (I wrote this a week ago; gripped with the reality that sexualabuse steals and steels. Today I wondered if I wrote it as another of many, many entries I would write and never publish. But I’ll publish this today with the prayer that grown up little girls might be helped, encouraged and comforted — not alone, not wrecked, not forever bad or without hope.) [trigger warning] Hot tears flooded my eyes as I read a letter describing the discovery of…
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Surveying the Year — (a reprint of a message from 12-31-2001) Happy day to you as you work in your home. I trust the LORD has been working in your heart and home creating in you the woman He designed you to be. As we come to the close of another year, it sure is interesting to look back over the months to review and rehearse the ways of the LORD in the year(s) past. Are you pleased with the ways the LORD has been preparing for you? Are you thankful for the paths on which He’s taken you? Did…
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I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. philippians 3.14
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And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. 2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. 3 Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I…
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Every seed grows. In the midst of everyday life, seeds are planted. A lot of the time — perhaps most of the time — we don’t even notice the seeds that are planted. Ideas. Pictures. Envy. Desires. Regrets. Pride. Shame. Hope. Doubt. All sorts of seeds drop, drop, drop into the soil of our lives. Good seeds, bad seeds… whatever they are, they grow. The more we feed them, the more they grow. Interestingly, we might believe the only things we plant are things we intend to grow — you know, like seeds that are purposely planted in gardens or…
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I thought of the Scripture today where Paul is talking about pressing on and is saying, “… I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” And I found myself saying, but I just can’t seem to do that. You know, the forgetting what’s behind and pressing on. O, it’s easy to realize I haven’t attained to something or haven’t apprehended something—that’s easy to…