Do you make New Year’s resolutions? Have you already fallen off the path—or maybe you haven’t even started yet? Or perhaps you don’t make resolutions at all. Wherever you find yourself, let me ask you this: Do you feel broken, defeated, depressed, disappointed, hopeless...
Lately I have been meditating on love, the Greatest Commandment (Mark 12:29–31), and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18–20).Love, as referenced in the Greatest Commandment, is specific in its two directions. First, we are called to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul...
My kids are old enough now to have some set expectations at Christmastime. We cut down our own tree; they each get an allowance to buy gifts for each other; we take a family picture for Christmas cards; and probably their favorite tradition is what happens on Christmas Eve...we...
FEAR– The worries begin to roll in like a fog, subtle at first. It starts with one question: “Is there enough money for…?” or “How can I help the kids with…?” Even when I feel like I’m doing all the right things, I wonder: Why don’t I seem...
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...