Emily Parke Chase
  Yesterday I dandled a friend’s baby on my lap. What a sweet lump of flesh! Despite drooling and clumsy efforts to hold a toy, he charmed all in sight. What a contrast to a night or two earlier. That night I lay awake in the wee hours of the morning while my son …
Read More Advent 2013: Day 2 For over thirty years, our family has used the first 24 days of December to prepare our hearts for Christmas. Each year we have focused on a different devotional theme for those few weeks. The themes have included 24 different names of God, 24 items on God’s Christmas wish list, 24 transitions Jesus experienced …
Read More Advent 2013: Day 1It is official! Both my very first book Why Say No When My Hormones Say Go? and my newest release Standing Tall After Falling Short carry the imprint of WingSpread, but as of the beginning of November, WingSpread has been bought out by Moody Publishers. As a result future editions of my books will carry …
Read More A New Publisher! Here’s one more devotional for the woodworking series before we move into December and the newest series of 24 Advent devotionals that round out each calendar year. Be sure to return to this site daily during December as we prepare our hearts to celebrate Christmas! (You can find the rest of this series by …
Read More Stains and scars…Special news like the first day a new book is released deserves a headline! This afternoon I picked up the first copies of my newest release, Standing Tall After Falling Short. Like any newborn baby, this one looks beautiful in the eyes of its mother!  This book is the fourth in my series on …
Read More Another Book is Born! In cartoons and sitcoms, the amateur do-it-yourself man usually hits a thumb with his hammer, so one day I asked my cousin, “Have you ever injured yourself while working in your shop?” He laughed and held up his hands. David’s hands betray his history as a woodworker. He learned his lesson the hard way! …
Read More Scarred for life…Â Â When my cousin’s daughter moved into her first apartment, she asked her father to make something for her new home. Her dad pulled out a furniture catalog with photos and told her to pick out something she liked. Her choice? A Shaker-style dresser for her bedroom. The photo showed a dresser made of …
Read More Another option…This has been a busy Spring! A rush of speaking engagements, among others, included presenting a workshop at the Pennsylvania Adolescent Sexual Health Conference: Everyone Counts. My session focused on encouraging the people to include parents in the conversation about adolescent sexual health. Eight-eight percent of sexually active teens say that it would have been …
Read More Speaking, Writing Update   (You’ll find the rest of this devotional series on my author’s page.)  Wood has a special warmth to it. Unlike other artistic mediums like stone or clay, wood has life. While the wood was yet part of a tree, roots absorbed water and nutrients from the soil, sap flowed through the …
Read More Of life and death…Â Â Morgan was a good friend of our family. He died recently but he often came for Sunday dinner after church and joined our family for holidays like Thanksgiving and Easter. Sometimes he brought a gift of candy or a book, but the gift I enjoyed the most was an intricate set of nested …
Read More Facing the right direction…