Gaining a heart of wisdom
Sunday Scripture and Book Talk Winter has come to this country hill, and the trees stand gaunt and leafless, silent, even in the wind unless a strong gust rattles their branches or snaps a limb. Barren trees in mid-winter brought Nicholas Herman to faith, dramatically, in 17th-century France as he considered "that with a little… Continue reading Let the Power and Providence of God Change the Way You Practice Your Faith
Sunday Scripture and Book Talk How much does worry weigh? By my observation, enough to round the shoulders, slow the step, and lengthen the daily darkness. Worry absorbs energy, steals sleep, and dampens conversation. My time spent in public school classrooms warns me that even our children are not immune to worry, for it's not… Continue reading A Great Alternative to Worry and Two Resources to End Your Ceaseless Striving
Sunday Scripture My not-quite-two-year-old grandson has an extensive vocabulary, and one phrase that is serving him well these days is, "Do it self." Instead of holding his mother's hand on the slide: "Do it self." Climbing the stairs or building a block tower with Bam: "Do it self." Clearly, he is both loveable and capable!… Continue reading What is the Meaning and the Method of True Rest?
Anyone who tries to keep up with the publishing industry--even if your scope is as narrowly focused as mine--can attest to the truth of King Solomon's sigh: "Of making many books there is no end." It does seem that way at times, and I've responded by making some adjustments to my reading life to prevent… Continue reading The December Book Talk: Old Acquaintances and Old Books for a Happy New Year
Sunday Scripture Sunday morning at Spruce Head Community is a sociological patchwork. Members with advanced degrees worship cheek-by-jowl with high school dropouts. Successful businessmen toss their offering into the same receptacle as welfare recipients, and the octogenarian great-grandmother grins at the antics of tiny, scampering escapees from the nursery. I can't help but picture our… Continue reading No Longer a Divided Space, Now It’s a Celebration Place!
This month I have been making a practice of noticing all the regular, ordinary parts of my life that inspire gratitude. If we’re friends on Instagram, maybe you’ve seen that I’ve been posting a gratitude journal (almost) daily in my stories, but I haven’t been calling it a gratitude journal. I’ve been calling it a… Continue reading The November Book Talk and Why I Think Gratitude Is Like a Bouquet
Have you ever gritted your teeth over an annoying behavior in your child--only to connect the dots back to its origin in your own behavior? The power of example is monumental in parenting, and nowhere is it more needful than in the area of gratitude. I'm welcoming the month of November with a guide to… Continue reading 5 Great Resources for Raising Grateful Kids
My joyful sunflowers have bowed their heads in the garden, waiting for the long winter to begin, but I have picked my last tomatoes and green beans, dug up the beets with my grandkids, and all the pumpkins and squash can sit on the deck for a bit longer while we wait for the first… Continue reading The October Book Talk Where We Are Celebrating Abundance!
Hope has become one of those words that might show up on a couch pillow or stenciled onto a wall hanging. We’ve domesticated the word, taming it until it’s become a floating, sentimental abstraction: "Faith, hope, and love... now you may kiss the bride." The truth is that hope is our lifeline, but we do… Continue reading The Peril of Hoping in Hope and the Solid Joy of a Better Hope
Who would imagine that biblical lists could be a rich source of spiritual insight? It's really tempting to just skip over them, but lately, I've come upon a better plan. Rather than skipping over the lists as if they were somehow “extra,” what if we viewed them as a string of beads to finger and… Continue reading The September Book Talk Plus a FREE Printable to Guide You Into Scripture Meditation
Living Our Days 