Good morning... Saturating my waking mind is a song we taught our church youth group twenty-five years ago. "Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me. Melt me. Mold me. Fill me. Use me. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me." My soul (my life, my inner [...]
Good morning... "I trust that God is at work in me. More and more, I feel His presence. Day by day, I sense God changing me, softening my heart." She continued, "But trusting that God is also at work in other people, that's my biggest challenge." By nature, we want to save and to fix, to make peace and [...]
Good morning... "Our minds are always active," said Henri Nouwen's 1.14.16 morning meditation. "We analyze, reflect, daydream, or dream. There is not a moment during the day or night when we are not thinking. You might say our thinking is 'unceasing.' Sometimes we wish that we could stop thinking for a while; that would save us from many worries, [...]
Good morning... "The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you really are," says Carl Yung, the Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. 'Who we really are' is established by our Creator long before the day of our birth. Each of us whispers in wonder the words of Psalm 139:13-16 (NLT). "You made all the delicate, [...]
Good morning... Following our opening prayer, we began a new semester. "As I read aloud the first paragraph of our book, notice which words pop out to grab you." Together we listened attentively. "When applied to the spiritual life, the metaphor of a journey is both helpful and somewhat misleading. Helpfully it reflects the fact that the essence of [...]
Following our opening prayer, we began a new semester. "As I read aloud the first paragraph of our book, notice which words pop out to grab you," I encouraged. Together we listened attentively. "When applied to the spiritual life, the metaphor of a journey is both helpful and somewhat misleading. Helpfully it reflects the fact that the essence of [...]
Good morning... I discovered a short prayer formed in the humble heart of missionary Amy Carmichael. "Holy Spirit think through me till your ideas are my ideas." May this short prayer begin to form a humble heart within each one of us. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the [Holy] Spirit who is from [...]
Good morning… I received many encouraging emails hoping for a meaningful, memorable meal after yesterday's post, 'Our 6:00 am birthday party.' Truthfully, our family's early morning celebration was a complete dud. Annoyed, sleeping siblings hugged a halfhearted "Happy birthday," before climbing back into bed for an extra hour of sleep. No pancakes were eaten. Most of the eggs were [...]
Good morning... I love meeting new people in my weekly classes each semester. One special woman I met last fall sent me a beautiful blessing to begin this new year. "May you be delightfully cracked open in 2017 ;-) When you start to crack open, don't waste a moment gathering your old self up into something like you knew [...]
Good morning... "When you arrive at the manger, where do you stand? What do you do, think, feel, and say," asks my devotional book. My imagination responds: "After asking, 'Mary, may I hold your sweet baby?' I cradle Jesus in my arms. I kiss his forehead gently. I slowly rub my cheek against his cheek then draw back to [...]
