Amelia’s courage grew as she reached for the handholds on the rock wall. She gripped tightly to the blue and yellow holds while moving her feet onto the green and red. My husband and I built the playground to last so I had boarded off two open rail sections to keep the babies from falling. …
Preach
I’m stymied! I’m committed to memorizing Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount this year but I’m barely twenty verses in and I’ve hit a wall. Focusing on new verses interrupts my memory of the initial ones. I could use my age as an excuse or cite unrealistic expectations and simply give up but I have other …
But It Worked Last Time
My biggest misconception as a new mother was that once I had survived two years with my firstborn, I had mastered year one and two with my newborn. Somehow I never imagined that each child would march to the beat of a different drummer. Looking back, I get a good laugh at my own naïveté …
No More Ice Cream
Hot and humid was the forecast for our zoo day so I promised my grandbabies soft serve ice cream after lunch. We stood in line behind half a dozen other patrons inching our way toward the ordering window. When only two people remained ahead of us, the worst happened. We saw the lone cashier, half …
Perpetual Praise
You wouldn’t find me very sympathetic were you to complain to me about the inconvenience of traveling to or waiting to see your doctor. You may assume this is because of my husband’s profession but you would be wrong. For the first two years following Jacob’s brain surgeries, we traveled to Houston to follow up …
Best Invitation Ever
Variety is the spice of life, they say. I especially enjoy variety in my diet but very often I seem to get stuck in a rut where I rotate the same few meals. My husband and I quickly tire of once favorites and I’m scratching my head wondering what’s for dinner again. My husband is …
Feel The Beat
Life has seasons that run their course almost as quickly and as often as winter turns to spring here in the southern United States. From daughter to sister, bride to mother, empty nester to Lolly, my fifty-five years seem but a breath until I begin to reminisce. Then I wonder how such a wealth of …
Open Doors
My pastor regularly makes use of elaborate sermon illustrations and being a visual learner, I gain a mental peg on which to hang his messages. He insures that I will think about them again during the week as I encounter the everyday articles he chose. My eldest grandson still has not forgotten the sermon where …
No Shame
My husband and I have enjoyed the warm temperatures this week by taking a walk in the woods once daily and sometimes twice. Our path snakes around the top of our property before plunging through the middle above the creek line. While the trees were bare in winter, Paul and Jake, our Great Dane, have …
Tales As Old As Time
“What are you doing?” It wasn’t a casual question expressing interest. The tone and timber of her voice let him know that he had crossed a line, though unseen. His actions and intentions had been called into question and he reacted badly. This scene plays out in a million storylines of television drama or film, …
A Fitting Reply 