Category: Advent Series

  When our daughter Prisca was a little girl, she and her best friend Katie liked to fish in a local pond. They added bait to the hook, threw the line in the water and waited patiently for a nibble. The fish did not jump out of the water into their hands. The girls spent …

    Gene and I have only met Kelsey once but we pray for her daily. Our son John’s sister-in-law, Kelsey, has cancer. She is a lovely young woman, full of life. She loves the Lord. She has a wonderful husband and beautiful little daughter. Yet she is fighting pain and the effects of chemo …

    A year ago I was diagnosed with osteoporosis. It is especially bad in my hips and, knowing that one of the dangers of this disease is broken bones due to falling, I talked with my physical therapist about balance exercises. She asked me try standing on one foot with my eyes open. I …

    Why do prisons provide a condemned man with a lavish meal the night before he is to die? Believe it or not, you can go on the Web and find photos of men on death row next to the last meal they chose to have before facing execution. The meals requested varied from …

    When my husband I were first married, he confessed to having some very personal concerns. He had done his own wash up until then but now I would take over that chore. I wasn’t concerned, but he felt uncomfortable having someone else handle his dirty socks and underwear.   In John 12, Peter …

    Big family gatherings at holidays mean lots of food prep.  Over the past 40 years, I can’t even begin to count the number of meals I have prepared and the number of people who have sat at our table. Those familiar with my cooking habits know I never wear an apron. Somewhere along …

    My childhood home was a safe place. I never remember being afraid to enter the house. I never once worried about an abusive father who might beat me or drug-addicted mother who might be strung out in a stupor. Within the walls of our home, I always felt safe and secure. My husband …

  When our children were small, my husband read a book by Gary Smalley entitled The Blessing. It influenced Gene deeply and thereafter he made a practice of blessing our three children each night as they headed to bed.

    Every day I write in my prayer journal. In addition to prayers for others, I include in that book my most personal thoughts, my failures, my hurts, my needs. Some of the entries record wonderful blessings. Others reveal times when I wrestle to understand God’s perspective on life.

    One time I was on a road trip with friends from college. We stopped for gas and, eager to stretch our legs after being cooped up in the car, several of us raced to the far corner of the parking lot. I was just reaching full stride, when my friend Gary grabbed me …