How was your Mother’s Day?Was it all you dreamed it would be, surrounded by your children being showered with love, gifts and pampering? Or did disappointment fill your day instead, from being slighted, underappreciated, overlooked or forgotten? Were some missing due to estrangement, neglect, or health problems? Is there a lingering hole in your heart … Continue reading Happy Mother’s Day?
The shiny surface echoes back my visage. The lips purse and slide to one side, eyebrows scrunch together, eyes reflect displeasure and my chest fills and expels heavily. “Ugh!" Suddenly, words come floating into my mind, “You are offending the LORD.” He created this face, and here I stood criticizing His masterpiece. He made me … Continue reading Mirror Image
“Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD; O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive To my cry for mercy. If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.” Psalm 130: 1-4 With each stumbling … Continue reading Out of the Depths
Word and Light. Those are the two main descriptors John uses for the Lord in the opening verse of his gospel. THE Word, THE light. It seems inconceivable that the One who created the universe, galaxies, our world, and us, came into it and was not known. Yet, it still happens now. Even as one … Continue reading Word and Light
Lately, I have heard, and read a lot about only women being present at the foot of the cross, and all the men deserting Christ. Satan likes to divide. And he finds easy prey in the battle of the sexes. Oh, how we love to puff ourselves up, by seizing any opportunity to prove women … Continue reading It’s a Trap!
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” John 15:1-2 NIV My stepfather was an impulsive, eccentric, no-nonsense, but intelligent man. Once he got … Continue reading Becoming Fruitful
I quickly glanced at my watch to confirm the date was the 16th, and that is what I saw. But it didn’t jibe with my devotional reading for the day. I rechecked my watch, and it read the 17th. Things aren’t always how we first perceive them. I was a nurse for many years. Once, … Continue reading Assumptions
The grey asphalt with its twin ribbons of yellow stretched out before us. Outside the passenger window, various heights, lengths, and shades of green nourished my soul. Resting on the horizon above stretched a fluffy white vista of mountains and valleys, like another land or a far-off, unknown world. As a girl, I loved lying … Continue reading A Far-off Country
A new year. 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days. It feels like a fresh slate, a horizon of possibilities spreading out before us. But it is just another day. No magic to it, or much different from the day before. There is nothing more special about New Year’s Day than any other day. Each morning … Continue reading Fresh Starts
Recently, my sister sent a cartoon meme. The picture is the nativity scene, but instead of three wise men, there are three women with diapers, formula and casseroles. The title is ‘if there had been three wise women instead’. While amusing on the surface, a red flag went off in my soul. Several lies lurk … Continue reading Good Gifts