Living an Easter Sunday Life: On “To Do” Lists and Brokeness
My "Things To Do" list for this week is long, and there's some important stuff on there. But this morning, my head is filled with another list that speaks to me of Eternity. We're stepping into that painful climb to Gilgotha. It's the Holy Week. Christ has been heralded as King. Soon He'll be tortured as blasphemer. Every Lenten season, in...
In Good Company for a Nostalgic Journey
I call the biennial Festival of Faith and Writing my "guilty pleasure." What could be better than spending three days surrounded by people who love to read, have a passion to write and like nothing more than talking about both? My fifth Festival experience is awash with nostalgia as I hike back and forth across the beautiful Calvin College...
Honoring the Saints Among Us: A Teacher’s Gift
I am delighted to share with you my friend Monica Clark's tribute to a teacher who made a lasting impression. The third-graders were ready for their last rehearsal. The girls dressed in white linen costumes lined up along the windows. Gold and silver halos danced and dipped, and stiff, silver angel wings stood at attention. The boys in their...
Am I a Writer?
Join me today with others writing here at Lisa-Jo Baker's blog "Five Minute Friday". Our prompt for today is "Writer." Planning my wardrobe for next week's Festival of Faith and Writing in Grand Rapids, Mi, I have to stop and ask myself: Am I a writer? Sure, I blog and I write for a couple of local publications. And I hope someday to...
The “Betty Effect”: Honoring the Saints Among Us
She had sparkling eyes, a warm smile and a sweet voice that I can hear to this day. For a brief season, Betty was my mentor and my friend. In thinking of the people who have left their mark on my life over the past 60 years, Betty immediately comes to mind. She attended the little country church where I worshiped as a newlywed, and she took...
You Get to Choose
Blogging today with a great community at Lisa-Jo Baker's "Five Minute Friday". Click on the icon above to read other five-minute posts on this one word: CHOOSE We sit in a circle on the carpet, those six sweet teenage girls and myself. Bibles open in our laps, finding intimacy in this corner of church. I want them to choose, each one of them,...
When Beauty Is Used To Exploit
Their names are Nina, Lily and Chrissy. And I just tossed them into the fire. Beautiful smiles and, yes, lovely bodies. God is a master craftsman. So why did their beauty bring me to tears? This week, Sports Illustrated unveiled its 50th annual swimsuit edition. A subscription to S.I. has been making its way into our mailbox as a "bonus" to my...
Remembering Uncle Bill and His Legacy of Love
There were those crazy red neon lips atop the billboard on Lakeshore Drive. And the alley by the brick high school where we played games on summer nights. That walk to the little park with the swimming pool that would be full of local kids. Warm, fragrant "dilly" bread, rich chicken soup with doughy "rivels" and wonderful German cookies and...
When Blessing Others Means Doing The Dirty Work
My first coherent thoughts as I awoke this morning were prayers that the Lord would bless my youngest son, a college student, on his 19th birthday. And that God would show me how to bless my husband. My Man has had a rough winter. An independent business owner, he's been missing our sons who have worked alongside him all these years in this...
Finding Beauty in a Snowbank
The temperature rose to a balmy 24 this morning and the sun was shining on northern Indiana, so I bundled up, grabbed the snow shovel and went to work on our huge front porch. We live in a 140-year-old brick house that sits on a rise at the edge of a glacial valley. When the wind sweeps down the hillside into our corner of this valley, it can...