I slid into the church pew next to my two brothers and my dad, my husband on my left. A group of senior saints, finishing up a monthly luncheon, made their way into the sanctuary. My mom’s Bible study ladies clustered in neighboring rows, and a few of our family’s local grandchildren took the front …
Back when I lived in Los Angeles, I gigged for a couple Christmas seasons with a company that supplied atmosphere entertainment for corporate events and mansion-size holiday parties. In other words, I dressed up like a character in a Dickens novel and sang four-part harmony while blending into the rest of the Christmas decorations. I’ve …
To be honest, I winced at the first topic I was assigned to teach the group: humility. Great topic. But unless you want to be a hypocrite, you gotta live what you’re gonna teach, and there’s always more to learn. I groaned. Teaching on humility, I figured, is in the same category as praying for …
Heroes come in all sizes. I find them in books, and I meet them in everyday places. It’s not their dazzle or perfection that inspires me as much as their ability to lay hold of a tenacious faith that is larger than themselves. Elli became a hero like that to me when I met her …
I’ve sat across the table from inmates who express a common struggle: “I believe Jesus died for my sins, and He forgives me. I just can’t forgive myself.” The struggle isn’t theirs alone, is it? We carry a sense of vague or specific disappointment in ourselves over what we should have done differently, where we …
The little girl in this story turned 21 this year. I celebrate with gratitude the physical and spiritual vitality God has given her. A nasty virus made a tag-team run through our family. As soon as one child began to recover, another would look at me with glassy eyes and say, “I feel hot.” Even …
They surprised us in the lobby of the theater. My daughter and son-in-law had met me in the parking lot before the ballet. When my husband showed us to our seats, along with two grandmothers and a cousin, Anna mentioned we would need three more spots for some friends of theirs. Shortly before the curtain, …
I forgot that I had written this–exactly six months ago. Maybe some things are best served at the proper time. I hope that’s true of this “food for thought.” I’m not one of those people who remembers the dates of every milestone in my life. I’m the mom who had to jot down my child’s …
Surrendering each facet of our lives to Jesus’ Lordship is a familiar theme for every believer. It certainly has been a consistent subject in my journey. We yield the “big ones,” and we make blanket statements of giving all we are to Christ. There’s nothing wrong with that. But He sometimes focuses on the facets …
My husband and I were somewhere between Texas and Florida, eager to see our girls at home after almost a week away. Unable to cover the whole stretch in a day, Ross had picked a stopping point and booked one of those super-economy, just-a-bed motels that we could reach by 10pm. Granted, anything would have …