Good morning... "In all of creation, identity is a challenge only for humans," writes David Benner in The Gift of Being Yourself. "A tulip knows exactly what it is. It is never tempted by false ways of being. Nor does it face complicated decisions in the process of becoming. So it is with dogs, rocks, trees, stars, amoebas, electrons [...]
Good Morning... A generous friend gave me tickets to see the musical version of The Color Purple at the Fox Theatre. For years and years, the main character, Celie, languished under the silencing power of incest, emotional and physical abuse, and the debilitating pain of being labeled "ugly." Reaching her breaking point in the second half of the play, [...]
Good morning... "I liked your message," wrote my 22 year old son who is ministering to college students for a year in Australia. "The steps of discerning God's purpose/plan for our lives are challenging. I came across this study worksheet that looks into 'What is God's purpose for me?' It creates a few solid purposes that we all have [...]
Good morning... The whole room pulled off a great surprise as we celebrated a milestone birthday with our friend. Nearing the meal's end, she spoke words of raw, real thanks and owned with her eloquent voice an inspiring poem she had discovered just that day. "The second half of my life will be black to the white rind of [...]
Good morning... My forever writer-friend emailed me. "Loved your post about tweaking your final tweet. We are in constant edit mode, aren't we, as we listen harder, hear more? Reading a book of poems called A Maze Me: Poems for Girls by Naomi Shihab Nye this morning and loved this one. I thought you would, too. ****** Because of [...]
Good morning... We self-published our first book in 2004, my artist friend and me. Our book, Scribbling a Masterpiece: Doodle to Your Destiny, took a poem I had written when I was in my twenties and married it with her colorfully creative drawings, drawings which captured the essence of God's truth. On the back of our book, we shared [...]
Good morning... I had heard the phrase before, but I chuckled when she said it in a casual conversation. "Don't 'should' on yourself." I "should" do this. I "should" not do that. I "should" say this. I "should" not say that. I "should" think this. I "should' not think that. We "should" on ourselves all the time. Other people [...]
Talking after class, we stumbled upon God’s peace-making wisdom: "Comparison kills. Conversation brings life." Often we catch ourselves comparing, beating ourselves up for not being "good enough" or seeing ourselves as "somehow superior." Might this be the perfect time for our brain to tell our heart, “Raise your white flag?” In times of combat, the white flag is recognized [...]
Good morning... I have a good friend who explores the meaning of "spirit animals," so when my weird dream included a pampered guinea pig in a king-sized bed, I thought to myself, "What do guinea pigs symbolize?" Sure enough, there are several websites on such topics, so I asked God, "What do You want to teach me through this [...]
Good morning... A mutation is a a sudden departure from the parent type, the act or process of changing, an alteration in form or nature. A variation or evolution. A modification or transformation. Grief forces a sudden departure from the "parent type" of our old, cohesive normal. The messy process of change rudely interrupts our routine agenda. Our very [...]
