Good morning... Every holiday season, the attention of her grandmother was focused on who WAS NOT at the dinner table. "Joe should be with us." "Tonight would be perfect if Katie was here." "Nothing is complete without Angela and the kids." My friend remembers thinking each year, "But, grandma, we ARE here and you are missing the good time [...]
Good morning... With her husband and kids away, our friend invited a cool group of women to a "Pop-Up Christmas Party." Yummy food. Water and wine. Great conversations. "It's been a very hard year," said one person I see periodically. Her husband, in his fifties, has faced life-threatening health scares. "It has been humbling to need people in a [...]
Good morning... "I guide you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths," begins the devotional my friend texted me in a screenshot on the day she received her difficult news. "I know how confused you sometimes feel - and how you long to find your way forward. You have tried many different things; you have [...]
Good morning... I joyfully journal to the glow of our Christmas tree lights for the first time in 2017. I love this morning every year. These still, quiet moments reap the benefits of having finally chosen our tree and somehow gotten it home safely strapped atop our car, having struggled it centered into the stand then tying it upright [...]
Good morning... "Take your sails out of their wind." I am not sure when I first heard this wise phrase, but I am learning to put it into practice regularly. When the fierce winds of crazy conflict start picking up speed inside and around us, we take down our sails. When anxious winds begin gusting hard in our direction, do [...]
Good morning... Heading into the holidays, we need reminders. Yet we must remember: It’s not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth—this defiles a person (Matthew 15:11, CSB). Especially when we eat like crap, we are wise to rise from the table, to curl up on the couch, and to talk [...]
Good morning... In an unusual act, I set my alarm for just before 3:00 am, intending to pause and to change the message I had pre-programmed very early in the morning. A fifty-five year old husband, father, and friend to many was laid to rest yesterday, four days after he died in a freak car accident. I wanted to [...]
Good Morning... As I nestled in for the annual retreat weekend with my Writing Sisters from Northside Church, my cell phone read, "No Service." Initially I was frustrated, afraid I might miss something important with family and friends back home. Yet over time I felt my anxiety melt into the mountains of Highlands, North Carolina, and I settled softly into my [...]
Good Morning... “Sue, thank you for bringing Hospice to the forefront of prayer,” one subscriber wrote. “My dad founded Hospice Atlanta Center and was the first medical director there. For so many, ‘hospice’ has such a negative connotation. Yet, it is a ministry of sorts. My dad used to always call it a way to provide people with their ‘soft [...]
Good morning... I sensed God concluding yesterday's message with this deep desire: "Connected to our Creator, I want me, the real me, and you, the real you, to mature into the unique people God is coaxing us to be." This concept had expanded from an vivid picture of the lasting mother/child bond painted on Mother's Day morn to a [...]
