Gaining a heart of wisdom
Something inside me freezes when I hear the word discernment. Whether I'm making a major purchase, giving advice to a friend, or standing in a voting booth feeling as if I'm taking a test I haven't studied for, discernment is the quality that's lacking and the thing I long for. We want good things for… Continue reading Discernment: Pursuing the Good, the True, and the Beautiful
What do you bring with you when you come to God? Psalm 95 suggests thanksgiving as cargo: "Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms." (Psalm 95:1, 2) I'm thinking about… Continue reading What Will You Bring to Worship? – Sunday Scripture
“I want to keep it handy in case I need it,” she said, matter-of-factly. She wasn’t talking about a flashlight. Not a package of tissues. Not a cell phone – they hadn’t been invented in 1978. She was talking about Isaiah 55. “I liked it,” she went on. “So I memorized it.” “Come, all you… Continue reading 6 Books for Friends-in-Training
According to the Apostle Paul, gratitude is more than a pumpkin-spice-feeling. It is a matter of obedience to the will of God. Author and poet Wendell Berry put words into the mouth of a fictional, elderly widow named Hannah Coulter who, in addition to being a crackerjack farmhand when needed and probably making a great… Continue reading Sunday Scripture ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Friends and family chuckle when they discover that my spice cupboard is alphabetized. Some are amused because it lines up with what they already know about my personality, others because the idea seems ludicrous to them. Nevertheless, for me, the minutes of hunting I save by consistently replacing the marjoram or the dill seed in… Continue reading Following the One Who Has Set Us Free
I love a decisive verb, especially when it appears in the setting of a solid, declarative sentence. Isaiah 12 is just right for this season of gratitude, falling leaves, and stiff breezes. The prophet’s bracing words stand up to the fading light here on the far edge of the Eastern Time Zone with a pronouncement… Continue reading Sunday Scripture ~ Isaiah 12:1
Here on the hill, we are a breakfast-loving family. Back in the days of six Morins around the table on a school day, I scrambled 22 eggs and piled strawberry jam high on the toast. We took our oatmeal with brown sugar, and any leftover blueberry muffins were fair game for mid-morning snacks. Weekend mornings… Continue reading Recipes for Starting Your Day with Fresh-Baked Love
If the statisticians are correct, and American adults really do get to make over 35 thousand choices every single day, I should be much better at choosing than I am. Maybe you feel this way as well, for rarely are our decisions simple and uncluttered. Like author and speaker Lucinda Secrest McDowell, we often find… Continue reading Accept the Challenge of Choosing What Matters Most
“When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” The Pharisees challenged him, “Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid.” Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my… Continue reading Sunday Scripture ~ John 8:12, 18
When is the last time you walked into a room full of women and just fully enjoyed everyone? The talkative and the more reticent? The natural leader and the sweetheart with the gift of helps? The carefully coiffed and manicured and the all-natural girl without a speck of makeup? My natural tendency is to compare,… Continue reading You Can Shatter the Habit of Comparison
Living Our Days 