Gaining a heart of wisdom
It has been said that "imagination" is the 21st-century equivalent to the scriptural word "heart," the center of emotion and intellect in biblical physiology. That may well be true, for many times it is my imagination that causes me to run aground in this following life. As if there were not enough stressful events going… Continue reading Is It Possible to Overcome Worry?
The unexpected takes many forms. A single phone call can change the shape of an entire day -- or a lifetime. A trip to the grocery store can yield blessing or bane, and this truth about life compels me to keep my ears open to the stories that are unfolding all around me like an… Continue reading Listening to the Stories
For Martin Luther's fifty-seventh birthday, his wife designed, commissioned, and then presented to him a carved doorway for their home. It's elegance incorporated numerous features that demonstrated Katharina's knowledge of and devotion to her husband; however, there is no way that she could have realized how completely appropriate her gift would be. Michelle DeRusha's biography… Continue reading Together through the Doorway of Marriage
Because we started our family later than some, my husband and I are well into our fifties and are still up to our fetlocks in parenting. Because our oldest son and his wife started their family earlier than some, we are also beginning the season of grandparenting. Since I'm a bit over-the-top in the whole… Continue reading Staying Strong in the Seasons of Life
Meteorologists are having a field day, rummaging around in their thesauri for words equal to the task of describing the nor'easter that is hammering the east coast on this January day. "It's Beauty and the Beast!" crowed NPR's morning weather guy. "I get the "beast" part," chirped the perky news anchor, "but you've got to explain… Continue reading When It’s Snowing Sideways
Some were mentioned by name. Others were never identified, but throughout the life of Jesus, we learn that there were "certain women" who traveled with Jesus, who welcomed Him when he needed a meal or a place to stay, who "provided for Him out of their means." It is significant that there is no record… Continue reading Join the Women of Easter
I'm a little tentative about the practice of assigning meaning to my dreams, but there's one that came to me when my children were tiny, and its message was clear. In the dream, I was making piecrust and realized, to my dismay, that I had forgotten to double the recipe. "No problem," I thought with… Continue reading Die Before You Die (Till We Have Faces Discussion Group — Conclusion)
When my thrifty mother-in-law made mincemeat, she would start with the venison roast from a deer who may have had the audacity to nibble on her tulip leaves. From there, she would improvise, adding whatever needed using up on that particular day: a batch of jam that didn’t “set up” just right or an over-abundance… Continue reading Start Where I Am. Use What I Have.
For years I celebrated Easter as if it were a stand-alone holiday, singing "Up from the Grave He Arose" without giving much thought to the horror of the Dying or the silence of the Dead. Providentially, my early efforts to incarnate and to enliven an invisible God in the hearts of four sweet boys found a way into the obtuse heart of… Continue reading One Weekend in History – For Ruby Magazine
Before children and homeschooling, I worked as a compensation analyst in a large hospital, so whenever a manager wanted to change a position or to reorganize a department, it was my job to look at the changes in relation to their impact on the incumbents' compensation. Are the additional duties essentially the same kind of… Continue reading Writing Her Way into Truth: Till We Have Faces (9)
Living Our Days 