Good morning... Fall begins to form slowly, like the rising of the sun. A commitment here. An activity there. The calendar starts to fill. On Sunday morning at Northside Church, I spoke in all three of our worship services, inviting women of all ages and stages to explore our friendly schedule of fall offerings. My notes from that [...]
Good morning... Last week, I heard myself tell a friend, "I just feel kinda muddled." Complex. Confused. Snarled. Struggling. Dazed. Discombobulated. Muddled is not a word I use very often. "Sounds like you are sorta betwixt and between," my loving friend replied. Finding myself in a foggy funk, I prayerfully dumped out the separate items cluttering my inner [...]
Good morning... Last Saturday, the end of a cherished era came to a quiet end. My husband and I were planning to spend the night at Red Top Mountain in our beloved pop-up camper, but the night before he said, "Suz, we are 62 years old, I wonder if we have reached the end of our camping days." [...]
Good morning... I snapped a photo of these handwritten words from inside my friend's birthday card. "God will take you where you haven't intended to go in order to produce in you what you could not achieve on your own. It's uncomfortable, but it's GRACE." Then, she read to us wisdom from a devotional book she loves. ***** [...]
Good morning... "I grew up with a mom who often overreacted," said my friend, as we talked to and from the horse farm. "She would blow up over the littlest thing." Now my friend finds herself wrestling with the same impulsive tendency. "I'm trying to learn to PAUSE more," she explained, "like the Bible verse about being quick [...]
Good morning... Overwhelmed by heavy emotions, she said, "I don't know whether to keep things to myself (which usually leads to me eventually blowing up) or to talk out my feelings, telling my husband exactly how I feel (which often hurts his feelings)." After pondering her difficult dilemma, I said, "I wonder if there is a third choice. [...]
Good morning... On June 17th, we put our dog Tate to sleep. Now, eight weeks into her absence from our home, our family is still really missing her soft presence. This weekend I happened upon an award winning short film, a touching film that made me smile, laugh, cry. [...]
Good morning... "This is from Ogunquit, Maine tonight," wrote a friend who lost her husband in May. "So gorgeous," I replied, before climbing into bed. "Full moon tonight. Hope you are enjoying Maine's unique beauty and the companionship of old friends." "Full moon is gorgeous here, too," I texted [...]
Good morning... “What kills a soul?" asks Shauna Niequist author of Present Over Perfect. She answers herself: "Exhaustion, secret-keeping, image management." "And what brings a soul back from the dead?" she wonders. "Honesty, connection, grace.” For me, what will it be? Exhaustion. Secret-keeping. Image management. Honesty. Connection. Grace. As I notice where my heart is drawn, I focus [...]
Good morning... Amid the chaos of this world, we are invited to experience the calm of God. Those who know Love will rejoice as the nations learn to cooperate, as the peoples of the earth recover their true heritage. The people say, "The time has come to dwell in peace and [...]
