Recognizing You on Father’s Day Even Though Your Hair Is Gray

“I didn’t recognize that gray haired man,” my husband and I squinted together at the photo on his camera’s screen.  I saw him immediately in the group picture. He wasn’t so ready to claim himself. His twenty-year-old-self-portrait imagination inhabited an older person he didn’t recognize immediately.  But I’d know him anywhere.   If my twenty-year-old […]

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Does Putting Ourselves First Come Naturally?

“Putting ourselves first doesn’t come naturally,” a glossy magazine lay open on my lap.   I said aloud to absolutely no one, “Well that’s a bunch of bologna.”  The article continued in the same vain and I understood a bit of where it was coming from, but really didn’t like where it headed. Filled with […]

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what is behind the clouds

Going Beyond Clouds That Hide the View

I’m a cloudy kind of person. Something in my soul shuts out the light inside me like clouds that hide the view. But when the shadow passes suddenly it’s as if the glory of the sun explodes inside of me. Going beyond the clouds I find everything brilliant again and the view clear. Gloom is […]

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Catching Up with Life

My mother-in-law, Esther Kangas Schroeder went to be with Jesus last night. Life has a way of spilling one thing onto another, and stuff can end in a big heap. Yes, even for almost-retired people. I know, I know, I’ve heard all my life how busy retirement is, and I’ve rolled my eyes. In about […]

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Are You Looking High Enough?

You know that wonderful feeling of having connected with someone of your same interests, passions or thinking? That feeling of he or she gets me? Psalm 139 is a great reminder of just how much God gets us.

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Little Boys, Escape Artists and Cunning Hearts 

We have an escape artist in our family. The kind that scales double safety gates across the stairway, the type who climbs out a crib in a sleep sack, through open windows and sneaks out locked doors. We have an escape artist who runs like the wind into the middle of the street, one stealthy […]

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When Mom Forgot Me

“Where do you live?” she asked. Wind whipped her white curls into a crown around her head against a blur of golden wheat fields as we sailed along the dirt road.  I glanced her way. She sat slightly hunched in the passenger seat. We’d been catching up while I drove. Two long years had passed. […]

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Slow Food, Fast Food. What’s Your  Spiritual Palate’s Recipe? 

“How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” Psalm 119:103 ESV When fast food started flipping burgers in Italy, it raised a commotion.  Protests and picketers lined streets in Rome where the first McDonalds was  built.  In fact, McDonald’s initial foray into Rome incurred a lawsuit. Designer Valentino claimed […]

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Birds, Brains and Semi-Retirement

Our yard is full of psychologically needy birds, and my husband is the reason.  For those of you who know this man that God gave me, you must realize he will not grow old like the rest of the pack. He informed me at his semi-retirement date, that old people are supposed to garden and […]

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The Resurrection Isn’t Over 

Hey, not so fast. Although the Easter holiday is past, the resurrection is not.   “After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.” Acts 1:3 NIV Sometimes the best […]

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