Gaining a heart of wisdom
Just this morning I penned gift number 4,013 into my gratitude journal where, for four years, I have been recording everyday blessings: candle light before dawn; everyone home for dinner; first apple pie from our very own tree. Eileen Spinelli has created a rhyming picture book that will set readers onto the path of remembering all… Continue reading Everyday Blessings
In a life time of reading, we make friends with a variety of authors, usually total strangers to us in real life, but nonetheless, known and beloved, because we have come to know them intimately through their books. In Writers to Read, Douglas Wilson invites his readers into the circle of friends he has formed… Continue reading 9 Names that Belong on Your Bookshelf
For me, it was a case of the right book at the right time when Girl Meets Change by Kristen Strong showed up in my mailbox. I am walking through a season of boys coming and boys going; setting the table each night with only four plates . . . or hearing that we may possibly need nine plates;… Continue reading Change: Friend or Enemy?
The prosperity gospel is deep in my bones -- not that I technically hold with any kind of "blab it and grab it" theology or the idea that God owes me a BMW. I do know better than that, but truly, I just want to be able to tell you that God has always answered… Continue reading Embrace the Detour
Two weeks into the Beatitudes with my Sunday School class, and my ear is finally becoming accustomed to the cadence of another Kingdom, one in which those who are meek and mournful are pronounced fortunate -- even happy. All of this is a fitting backdrop for reading Joshua Choonmin Kang's Spirituality of Gratitude. His collection… Continue reading The Language of Thanksgiving
For the past twenty-one years, my designated occupation on our tax forms and all official (and unofficial) documents has been "domestic diva." Given the flashy title, my house should look a lot better than it does, but my fierce and steadfast focus within that job title has been to raise four young men to love… Continue reading Love Them Into Being
The only thing better than a good biography is SEVEN good biographies, and that's what Eric Metaxas offers in 7 Women and the Secret of Their Greatness. Through touching down at seven distinct historical and geographical points, my mind was coaxed beyond its tendency to "see everything in the dark glass of [my] own era, with… Continue reading Seven Women. Seven Virtues.
A journey through cancer and a journey of joy would seem to be two very divergent paths -- particularly if the cancer is terminal and if it hits in the midst of a season of health and productivity. However, Steve and Sharol Hayner have invited readers into their experience of Joy in the Journey --… Continue reading Finding Abundance in the Shadow of Death
It's become a cliché, really. "Wait on God." In the glib heart, it's an all purpose non-answer. It's what we say when we don't know what to say. In Waiting on God: What to Do When God Does Nothing, Wayne Stiles opens the lens of Scripture to take in the Old Testament life of Joseph and de-formulizes that… Continue reading Wisdom for Waiting: Ten Lessons from the Life of Joseph
As a child of the Cold War era, I learned a chilling fascination for anything to do with "The Iron Curtain." When my high school music teacher started spending her summer vacations on short-term missions trips to Eastern Europe, I was certain that I, too, would be called to minister in lands closed to the… Continue reading Brother Andrew: Still Opening Doors
Living Our Days 