It’s raining today. That’s right. We’ve prayed through this oppressive heat that the Lord would send rain and as I write, the skies are clearing. The dark clouds are making their way toward my parents home. Our weather systems typically move in from the west or southwest, first passing my daughter, then my son on …
What Does Repentance Look Like?
“I need to ask you a question.” When the girls and I are together and turn our attention from the children to chat, this is Thomas and Amelia’s favorite interrupter. It’s their attempt at polite manners. “What do you need?” “Timothy was trying to knock over my tower or Ezra jerked that from me.” “That’s …
Time To Be Tested
My morning was planned around two scheduled grocery pick ups. Many of the retailers who transitioned to pick up during pandemic half a decade ago have continued to offer this option. I first used it during my cancer treatments but have continued because of the convenience. Also I am an inefficient shopper. I go too …
Like Father Like Son
Now that my son has a son who’s a year old, it’s fun to watch for similarities between Ezra and his dad, things I remember so clearly when I see them fleshed out in his little boy. He doesn’t have his dad’s dimples as his sister does, much to his mom’s chagrin. He has one …
Compared With When?
I despise needing reading glasses but I reach for them more and more often. My husband and our three children have worn glasses since they were teens. Our grandchildren, like their parents before them, look suspiciously at Poppy when he takes off his glasses to wipe his eyes. They’re trying to find the familiar face …
See the Snake
Blistering heat and palpable humidity has settled in to stay in my neck of the woods. Stepping outside is like walking into an oven, no, a sauna. I’m drenched within a minute. I’ll need to join the grandkids in the water sprinklers for the wet to actually be refreshing. The sun is shining fifteen hours …
Keep the Spirit Alive
Influencers are a new spin on an old idea. We’ve been called motivators, navigators, encouragers, drivers, activists, even instigators and aggravators. What started as an idea catches on and gains momentum. Trends and fads are sparked by such ideas but so are movements and revolutions. Christianity has its roots in Judaism but its inception was …
Ask the Animals
One of my best investments of late has been renewing our annual zoo membership and taking my girls and our grandchildren to the zoo their parents visited as children. Some of the exhibits are different. The elephant enclosure now houses rhinos, there’s a splash pad in the garden during summer, and there is an aquarium, …
We Are His Hands
Our birds enjoy berry, seed, and mealworm cylinders near our front porch throughout the day. These now last a good deal longer since we installed a squirrel baffle. The squirrels still stop by, along with the doves, to glean the scattered seeds that fall from the feeder to the ground but they’re no longer eating …
Without Love
Chicks were hatching as we arrived at my parent’s house to see the new litter of puppies. It was hard for the adults, let alone the grandchildren, to decide where to look first. Little faces crowded around my dad as he lifted the lid from the incubator. Two downy chicks wobbled around one hatchling who …
A Fitting Reply 