Word Watching
We met in the woods. In a quaint log cabin nestled in a forest by river’s bend, five women opened. Here, God joined. Five Marys leaving their Marthas behind for a day. How quickly one can refresh when God is included! How quickly poor become rich when hearts touch beauty and extend grace that’s been […]
Song of True Life
Psalm 23 is the most well-known psalm because it’s the one most often read at funerals. I find that odd. To me, Psalm 23 is a TRUE LIFE psalm. It’s the best psalm for helping us walk through this LIFE! Last year, a friend and I did a study of Psalms and decided to write […]
Recipe for Life (and Dinner?)
“What’s for dinner?” the boys ask. When I tell them I’m making their favorite dish, I hear a simultaneous “Yay!” Sweet and sour pork. About once a week, fall through spring, this dish pleases. So tonight I get out my recipe, which I almost know by heart, and start mixing. Brown sugar and cider vinegar. What […]
Casting Cares
Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you. Psalm 55:22 Todd and I are watching two loved ones wither, closing in on Heaven’s gate. And they want comfort—something to soothe their aching souls. The hardest part for both is letting go of their independence, their control, their freedom. They are siblings nearing […]
Loving Means Listening Well
These young ladies are so precious to me. Every Thursday night they get in their cars and drive to our farm where we sit and get real. No masks, no pretensions, no judging—just truth and encouragement and growing together. Two still in college, one graduated and passionate about social justice issues, three working with children, […]
Sacrificial Fire
I admit I’m a bit of a pyromaniac. Fire has always fascinated me—the color, the movement, the power to warm, the power to burn, the smell, the sound, the light. We always seem to have a fire going here on the farm somewhere. We burn our paper waste in the barrel by the barn. We […]
Feeling the Heat? Burned Out?
I’m sitting here at 5:15 am, as usual, with a hot mug of coffee, candles lit in my little corner of the world, not a bit of light outside except for the stars, and still more than two feet of snow on the ground. It’s cold. It’s Wisconsin. Steady heat doesn’t come here till June’s […]
Coping or Living?
I’m clinging. I’m holding tight to a Scripture verse and not just as some theoretical, pie-in-the-sky, feel-good, hope-it-works, string of words. I’m clinging to a verse as though my life depends on it. Because it does. Because if I don’t cling—if I don’t savor and swallow and live each word, I will die from anxiety. […]
Questions
A dear young woman I am blessed to know wrote me an email this weekend. She’s asking hard questions—questions I’ve asked and still ponder. Why do those who don’t love God prosper? Doesn’t God say He will prosper His people? How can I have faith in God when my basic needs aren’t […]
Alabaster Jars
One of the best blessings of having kids is the great books we read together. And though our kids are older, some books we read over and over because they are so special. Our favorite Lenten book is Journey to the Cross by Helen Haidle. Every day for forty days we take a step closer […]
It’s in the Blood
He tells me just as I crawl into bed and try to warm up in the flannel sheets. Talked to Bruce tonight. It’s in the blood—in the marrow. He has been training our lab puppy for the past year and watching him with her in the field hunting pheasants is nothing short of amazing. Probably […]