The holiday season is upon us, and many are looking forward to the reliving of family traditions and the forging of new memories to complement the old ones. But for many of us, some of the key human components in those memories are no longer with us. And that can tend to weaken the potency of...
It’s interesting how life hits you at my age; 80 is not that far away. Not that long ago, about this time of the year, Wayne and I would start talking about what we’d like to accomplish in the next year and how we would be able to do that. Now, as I think about next year, I...
Over the last few years, I have been very aware of God’s provision in my life. I was brought up in the church, however over the past fifteen years I have not been a regular attender. My journey of spiritual renewal began when I turned my focus to Bible study. For 25 years I had listened...
We started a tradition about seven years ago that we revisit when the school year is about to start called the “Hopes & Apprehensions Jar.” There are plenty of traditions and rhythms that I’ve tried to start or started and endeavored to maintain in our family over the...
In the fall of 2022, the Lord startled me with a word. It was one of those quiet, yet clear, ways he speaks that leave you in no doubt he has spoken. The startling thing was not that he had spoken, but what he said. I remember thinking, “Really?” A few days after this encounter, I...
Wisconsin summer nights are just lovely. Very different from the Southern California summer nights I grew up with—the Mediterranean climate there is dreamy. But these nights…a mix between ethereal breezes and the weighted, still air that surrounds. This night, as I walk the meadow...
For most of my life, this has been my definition of “camping”: To forget to bring something really important, so that I can remember all the things I can live without, so that I can be eternally grateful for the things I have. To be in complete nature, alone, away from as many...
Imagine this.Your father has passed away, and you, the younger sibling, didn’t know him all that well. But you’ve got an older brother who worked closely with him for years, keeping the family business running.One day you find a stack of old letters your dad wrote — full of...
Sometimes God winks to remind us He was there the whole time. In 2013, my husband Lloyd was accepted for postdoc work in South Africa, studying the Acacia tree at Kirstenbosch Gardens. We packed up our three-year-old, Louis, and moved to a funky beach town called Muizenberg, just outside Cape...
Happy Fourth of July! Have the fireworks started in your neighborhood yet? I’m sure we’ll hear fireworks all weekend celebrating our nation’s Declaration of Independence from Britain 249 years ago. The apostle Paul reminds us in 1 Timothy 2:2 that we should be praying for...