Good morning... I wake early in deep prayer for my special friend. Today I support her, as she supports her husband, as he lays his father to final rest. After weeks of facing serious health challenges, her father-in-law went to heaven at age 85. My own dad turns 85 this week, and, as many of you know, my [...]
Good morning... This baffled woman surrounded by a wide variety of delicious possibilities represents the way I feel the morning after my fun filled birthday: "I don't remember the name, but it had a taste that I liked." I couldn't possibly name all of the nuanced ways God's love pours through you to me yesterday. Just like a [...]
Good morning... If you look closely at our old weathered tree skirt, you will see that it was handmade in 2001, twenty years ago this Advent season. Red felt. Gold cording. Not sewn but glued. Glittery gold paint captured our children's names, ages, and handprints. Back then, our kids were six, four, two, and six months old. Born [...]
Good morning... "Look what popped up on my screensaver!" Kitty Crenshaw, co-author of The Hidden Life Awakened, texted me this photo from a visit we shared with Betty Skinner a few years back. "Oh, I love it!" I replied. "Such beautiful affirmation of mutual love. Betty is so present and so precious." At age ninety-five, our friend Betty [...]
Good morning... "Mom has been down with a virus," said the caringbridge message written by Betty Skinner's daughter, Betsy, on August 11th. "She was not tested for Covid, and has been in isolation for the past several weeks. The health center is again prohibiting visits to rooms, and she wants no porch visits. She says, 'I feel so [...]
Good morning... "Hey sweet and wise Sue," she wrote. "I’m catching up on my emails from yesterday and ironically saw your post “Surviving the Teen Years”....and it was as if God told you to write that for me!" "I’m in the THICK of it with my oldest daughter," she explained. "My sweet girl has faced so much rejection [...]
Good morning... Our four kids have left their grandmother's house, a modest log home beside a small lake in Pennsylvania. "It's really more like a pond," one of our daughters said this year, as we can see from one end of the lake to the other. Thirty-three of us gathered from all over the country - Washington state, [...]
Good morning... As our baby turns 20 years old today, our family of six has officially survived the teen years. What have we learned along life's bumpy way? We serve God as we serve our family. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people (Ephesians 6:7, NIV). Trust God from the bottom of your heart; [...]
Good morning... Weeding through our overgrown ivy a few weekends back, I uncovered an old gift. This stained, clay square reads, "A garden of friends is always in bloom." On my fifty-eighth birthday, I sense this is true. Just as flowering occurs naturally in the garden, to my quiet amazement friendships bloom beautifully. Investing time together may cultivate [...]
Good morning... In yesterday's blog post I uncovered the word summing up for me this unusual semester of learning, "Unfinished." Unfinished is uncomfortable. Unfinished is unsettling. Unfinished is often unavoidable. I pressed "send" on our message then hopped in the car and drove to a friend's to walk and talk before our final class. Back and forth conversation. [...]
