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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Resurrection Hope Moves the Stone Away

Things had begun to get dicey. Fame’s two sided coin’s darker side threatened. Not everyone was a fan of Jesus nor of those who claimed to be His followers.  Jesus laid out coming events, preparing them. His heart to heart talks revealed details of betrayal, scourging, and killing. He explained to His disciples what would […]

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Jesus Gets Personal With His Disciples

It’s the craziest thing when you see someone who looks like someone else from some place else in a place they shouldn’t be found.   When we moved to Italy across the ocean, across culture and language, the ghost of my USA neighbor seemed to be in the face of Franco. The imprint of my […]

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Should the Church Put Up With It? 

Do you know where the term “green with envy” stems from? Shakespeare is credited with the English idiom in Othello. Before he came along to make it popular, the Greeks are thought to have associated it with bile. That icky feeling in one’s stomach when envy is stirred likely gave it a nasty green color. […]

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What’s Wrong With Grandpa? 

When I think of my grandchildren, there is a sweet glow in my mind of happy holding-on-the-lap book reading, coloring pictures together or baking cookies. Quiet blissfulness. Togetherness. And so ridiculously unreal.  When my husband thinks of our three youngest grandsons, something comes over him. He becomes the terrible and mighty Foota-eat-a-saurus. What might that […]

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Who Will Be The Greatest

My six-year-old and three-year-old grandsons have never even seen Star Wars, but the way they go at it, you’d never know. They grunt and shout in victory and defeat. It is a run-for-your-life war to the finish. Apparently, it only takes a few years of life to figure out someone gets to be the greatest. […]

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Do You Know Gawd?

  “Do you know Gawd?” Arched back, hands on hips, lips puckered, the question comes from knee high, completely out of the blue. I look down at his upturned face. A light saber pulsates in his hand with Darth Vader’s ragged breathing. He’s only three, but he pronounces Gawd like the great-grandfather he never knew. […]

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