I wedged myself half onto my daughter’s hospital bed. The other half rested uncomfortably over the gap between my cot and Charity’s paralyzed body. I’d prayed every possible prayer in every possible way. I’d pled, I’d believed and I’d offered God solutions, but His silence deafened the dark room at Mayo Clinic in 2007. If […]
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“The week of the goat,” I will label it. It began the day I came home from school to find a goat tied up in our yard. For a thirteen-year-old it wasn’t cool, and as the bus came to a stop at our driveway, the whole bus confirmed it. One day after a long school […]
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Lovingkindness. I linger over the word like a morning cappuccino. I lean my head back, close my eyes, and savor it. “Let me hear Your lovingkindness in the morning; for I trust in You” (Psalm 143:8 NASB). What does lovingkindness sound like in the morning—or at any time? Is it in the voices of my grandchildren playing or […]
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“In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” Isaiah 30:15; NKJV. When Phil and I left for Italy with a two-year-old, a four-year-old and a seven-year-old, we were about as prepared as any missionary could be. Like a couple without children are experts on childrearing, we had […]
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The sun was shining. Blue sky filled the kitchen window. My eight-year-old daughter played in front of our house with friends. I could hear voices, a mixture of laughter and children’s bossiness. Busy with laundry and cleanliness I scrubbed inside while outside wars were fought, princes and princesses declared, and games were invented. Peace reigned […]
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They watched the One they loved suffer agony and succumb to a tortuous death. It was the greatest event of history, but they likely didn’t realize it. To experience exceeds preparedness. Surreal grief must have shrouded the horror of those events and ripped the hearts of Mary Magdalene and the other Mary as they followed […]
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My name is Sylvia and I am technophobic. Technology scares the crud out of me. “Hover,” my husband advises. “Just hover and see if it is a good site or one that will eat your computer alive in chomping bites that chew up your fingers, your arm and eventually invade your brain. There’s nothing to […]
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The car doors slam, and we slide into opposite sides. We look at one another, then sit silently and think over the last hour. The question comes again: “Will we be like that?” As our car heads home, my husband and I add to our verbal inventory for our future. We talk about what we […]
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I plunked her diaper-padded bottom into the shopping cart and directed two little legs into the slots. The mission began. I had one hour, one child with me, two others at home, and a whole lot of errands to accomplish. I shoved some apples into a bag and twisted a green wire around the top […]
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Spring Cleaning My hands immersed in suds, I stand at the kitchen sink and gaze at the aura of green tinging the trees against blue sky outside my window. Buds are beginning to open. A hint of spring awakens. Bloom is coming to the brown earth. As I savor the beauty, I become aware that […]
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