Sylvia Schroeder


Politics and the Real Life

I confess. I yell at the TV. I’ve even thrown a pillow or two. Watching media news at our house looks much the same as watching a football game, albeit a very depressing one. Why watch you ask? It draws me like a mosquito to the zapper. I can’t help it. I react like a […]

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Invisible Me

She knelt by the bed as if in prayer, the soles of her pajama footies upturned, her little body in plain sight. A blanket covered her head. In two-year-old logic, if she couldn’t see me, I couldn’t see her. I called out in sing-song question, “Where is Amee?” She quivered, excitement boiled inside her, invisible […]

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Perspectives

My perspective has been askew recently, I think. The airplane dips its wing to the right in a slow descent arc above Genoa, Italy. I lean forward and gaze through a tiny oblong window. Below a thick white outline divides where waves and shore meet. A sail bobs. A ship glides like silk. Red tile […]

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Put It On Pause

My family drives one another crazy with the pause button on the TV remote. We pause to go to the bathroom, we pause to get something to eat, and we pause because someone didn’t catch on and we have to rehash what happened. The more family we have around, the longer it takes to watch […]

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Do you have Holes in your net?

My net has holes. “While walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.” Matt. 4:18 (ESV). Peter the fisherman, spent a lot of time repairing nets. It’s where Jesus first found him. It’s the […]

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True love cares for the soul

My dad sang like Pavarotti, my mom accompanied him as if she could read his heart. Because they were so talented, we sang. A lot. Evenings we often gathered around the piano and harmonized. We reached heaven often, but dad, who had perfect pitch dropped us to earth just as frequently with, “You’re sharp on […]

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As a Father

As a Father “I can’t fix her,” ragged sobs shook the bed where we slept. For just a moment I thought I was home in Italy again where sometimes the earth trembled, but then I recognized the source of the tremors. Raw waves of terror rose from the core of my husband, the doctor, the […]

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Check Your Words At The Door

Check Your Words at the Door, Please  “…From the same mouth come blessing and cursing, My brothers, these things ought not to be so.” James 3:10 (ESV) I remember the gagging rancidity of soap on my tongue. I can’t recall the words I’d muttered, or perhaps it had to do with the way those words […]

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Pink and Blue

Ephesians 5:33 (ESV) However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. As Pastoral care workers for our mission agency, my husband and I do an online virtual group centering on Ephesians 5:22-33. A delightful group of couples that span, three continents and […]

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Don’t Blink

To my dear daughters and daughter-in-law, who are doing a priceless job of being mommies who love Jesus and train my grandchildren to love Him as well.  People say it will all be done in a flash, that the kids will be grown and out of the house in the blink of an eye. Sure, […]

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