I waited on purpose to post an Easter blog until after the Day. It’s such a busy time of church programs and family gatherings, and good messages coming from everywhere. But if you’re like me, you might need a little something after the celebration dies down and you’re coming off the high. When we’re exhausted from all the busyness, that’s when we need to be reminded it’s not just a feel-good story, but a miraculous, impossibly true event, worth staking our lives on. On Easter our pastor was talking about what we need to do to keep on walking in our Christian faith, even after the first glow i ..read more

My dad died unexpectedly on January 26. I’m missing him. He was 90 and could no longer read, or drive, or teach Sunday school, since his stroke last Christmas Eve. But Dad was back to playing pickle ball three times a week, and lifting weights for two. His sense of humor was quick and sharp, and our times together were sweet. But it ended rather quickly. My husband was just recovering from a double hernia surgery. A week into his healing my mom was rushed to the hospital and had her own emergency surgery. So, my sisters and I were taking turns staying with Dad. I brought Mom home from the hosp ..read more

These are the darkest months of the year and many are floundering emotionally. Including me. I already struggle with seasonal darkness and occasional depression, but right now I’m going through what many believers call a dark night of the soul. We’ve been praying more than two years for my daughter’s healing and it feels like God’s not there. In December 2021, she contracted covid, which developed into pneumonia. And she’s never been the same. My daughter has gone from being a physically fit mother of three in her 30’s, to a person who spends most of her time in bed, in constant pain. And no o ..read more

Tis the season for Hallmark, plus a wide range of other Christmas movies old and new. Some are based on the actual reason we celebrate Christmas, but most are either crazy humor or fluffy sentiment. I like a mix of all. But I’m disturbed by the sweet-sounding advice we get from more and more movies and songs, especially at Christmas, that everything will work out if we “just believe.” “Have faith,” they say, and the “magic” will happen. I can “just believe” I’m a giraffe, but that’s doesn’t make me one. I can “just believe” I will win the lottery, but that doesn’t mean I will (especially since ..read more

As we look forward to Thanksgiving tomorrow, this piece in the series seems especially appropriate. Thanksgiving seems to me to be the purest of holidays. With no wish lists and huge decorating frenzies, we simply gather and thank God for all our blessings. What joyful simplicity! The other day I got some unexpected time with one of my grandchildren. Ella was out of school for the day, so she came to hang out, while her mom did bookwork for our business. Ella snuggled up to me while I ate lunch on the couch, and we hunted for the Waldo-like character in our Bible Sleuth book. She didn’t need a ..read more

I had planned to post a different article today for my Hope Series, but right now, I just need to talk. This morning I learned that searchers found the body of our twenty-one-year-old friend, who’s been missing for three weeks, floating in the Bay. We’ve prayed diligently every day for his safe return, since he left home. I know his mom and brother have been going out of their minds with worry and fear. This is exactly why I began the series in the first place. Hopelessness and despair has a grip on people young and old. We have lost our anchor. Life is hard. We all have days when we wonder ho ..read more

In “What’s in a Name” from this series, I talked about how wounding nicknames can be, and how we need God to give us new names to give us hope. There was an outpouring of response from you readers. So many of you have been cut down by hurtful words. Praise God for the healing He offers us, that releases us from the grip of those labels! This week my topic is how words can either wound or bless; crush or offer hope. Throughout my life, I’ve received many comments—about my work, character, appearance, parenting—that have devastated my soul. I’m sure you’ve experienced the same thing. Those words ..read more

Years ago, my friends fostered two little girls, two and four. They lavished them with love, clothes, plenty of food, books and toys galore. The girls had everything they could possibly need or want. Yet, they continually stashed food in their pockets, backpacks, under their beds, and in their closets. Their mother had been a drug addict, the father absent. The four-year-old had been “taking care” of her sister by scavenging food from the dumpster outside their apartment. My friends explained to the girls over and over, “You don’t have to do that anymore. You have a home now with a mommy and a ..read more

When my big sister told me there was only one way to vacuum the living room, I balked. In fact, instead of following her systematic method, I instantly wanted to do it in the most random pattern possible. Isn’t that how we often react. When someone tells us there is only one way to do something, or a single correct answer to a problem, we immediately want to rebel. We like to have choices. We like multiple food options—steak, sushi, seafood, ice cream, salad, vegan, fast food. We want to decide how we work best—in an office or outdoors, fast-paced or laid back, brain or brawn. And we like to w ..read more

There were times during my separation and divorce, and for years afterward, when I could barely function. It came unexpectedly, like a flood (more of a tsunami really). I was in shock, devastated, destroyed. For months I couldn’t sleep more than 2-3 hours a night. I went from being a stay-at-home-writer-homeschooler-mom, to a career woman with two high schoolers, whose lives were also turned upside down by the breakup. I was so exhausted. Most days I functioned on coffee power and a desperate hold on Jesus. How I wished I could escape the pain and go lay in the sun on a beach somewhere until ..read more