Good morning... I wake to the special email below, reminding me of this week's Holiday Gathering. Whimsical. Welcoming. The invitation quietly whispers, "Get ready for a wonderful evening." God and I have been diligently discerning fresh wisdom to share with the down-to-earth women of our community. If you are free on Thursday night, please consider joining us as [...]
Good morning... During last night's Fall Festival at Northside Church, I sensed our shared experience tipping toward the holidays. Halloween. Thanksgiving. Christmas. It is hard to imagine. Just two short month from today, we will wake up on the morning after Christmas 2023. An important question lifts her head and opens her big brown eyes: "How might I [...]
Good morning... A few nights back, I texted a friend, "I am up praying for you. Love for your precious family fills my heart. Any specific requests I can prayerfully ponder with you?" A few days later, her response filled my phone. In the middle of the night now, I revisit the text string creating a roadmap for [...]
Good morning... Ginny Owens is a blind singer who relies on God as her vision. "Owens was born in Jackson, Mississippi, with poor eyesight and has been blind since the age of three," says Wikipedia. In her own words, Ginny explains her situation: "I inherited everything from cataracts to glaucoma to just several things that were not great. [...]
Good morning... In the middle of our ordinary days, the three of us text or email regularly. Two from Atlanta, Georgia; one from Jacksonville, Florida. Yesterday a devotional page was generously shared with important insights. All three of us could totally relate. Too often we let our own thoughts interfere with God's intimate invitation, to listen to the [...]
Good morning... After I asked a clarifying question, she said I was being rude. "Rude" was not my intention, but her strong reaction gave me pause. She felt judged by my inquiry. Thinking about it later, I felt convicted. I had brought up her past mistake and opened an old wound. To her that felt like judgement. I [...]
Good morning... When my friend texted me her picture of sheep grazing in a gorgeous field on the back roads of France, I could not help but return to her my own sheep picture. "The photo of our borrowed sheep is not as stunning as yours," I admitted, "but I am learning so much about the tedious process [...]
Good morning... There are separating lines between us. From all sides, opposing forces jockey for power. Good and evil. Left and right. For and against. Us and them. Seen and unseen. Opposing forces exist also within, as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn illuminates. “Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor [...]
Good morning... With our internet still out, I come to Starbucks to get service for the third day in a row. I pull out the brochure from our trip to Montgomery, Alabama and snap the photo above. I am struck by the fact that among all the informative words and haunting images, I am holding the pamphlet with [...]
Good morning... The rains held off, and we walked in wonderful weather, mild and inviting. Along our way, we ran into two 'soul friends' also walking and talking at the horse farm. One is supporting her husband through treatment for his pancreatic cancer and the other is blossoming beautifully on the other side of a divorce and remarriage [...]
