Good morning… After I spoke at a recent gathering, I was given a precious "Thank you" gift, a pack of tiny cards bearing scripture verses and a miniature cardholder. The gift now lives in my guest bath, and I change the position of the twenty-three cards regularly. This morning, the card in the front bears this Bible verse. "I [...]
Good morning... I love the promise given in the Message translation of Luke 1:79. Through the heartfelt mercies of our God, God’s Sunrise will break in upon us, Shining on those in the darkness, those sitting in the shadow of death, Then showing us the way, one foot at a time, down the [...]
Good morning... Speaking light into the formless dark, God creatively gave order to life's chaos. As we read the first chapter of Genesis, verbs tumble all over us. God saw and separated. God called and said. God made and named creation "good." Then the land itself creatively cooperated, producing and bearing, plants and trees. The expansive sky also joined [...]
Good morning... "Transitions are messy. Transitions are chaotic. Transitions are where our hard-won order breaks down into disorder," admits Margaret Silf in The Other Side of Chaos: Breaking Through When Life is Breaking Down (p. 43). The Bible tells us that all of creation was born from chaotic disorder. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the [...]
Good morning... Emailing about the importance of our morning devotionals, she discovered a typo. Writing "mooring" instead of "morning" and she marveled at her mistake. "Wow - this is an accidental typo - but mooring is a good word. Choosing to cut from my regular schedule to make sure I had time to keep things in order at home [...]
Good morning... "You're a good, good Father. It's who You. It's who You are. It's who You are." "And I'm loved by You. It's who I am. It's who I am. It's who I am." "You are perfect in all of Your ways. You are perfect in of Your ways. You are perfect in all of Your ways, O [...]
Good morning... Meeting through my blog, we regularly write encouragement back and forth, but our eyes had never met until this week. After sharing stories over a meal, he gave me handwritten copies of some of his favorite quotes. I said, "You may see these words returning to your heart some early hour." Sure enough, here is wisdom he [...]
Good morning... This morning I wake pondering the song "Make new friends but keep the old." So I write to my friend of twenty-something years, a friend with whom I share a two or three hour meal most every month. She keeps in good touch with old friends and family while remaining openhearted to the new friends God brings [...]
Good morning... After reading yesterday's blog God's Grace With Skin On, my writer-friend wrote: "I read your blog with tears of joy and gratefulness. God really does make beauty from ashes. He used your extraordinary skills to transform what I felt was ugliness into something for His Kingdom. Sometimes people need to see an honest exchange like we had in [...]
Good morning... As I prepared to speak at the kickoff gathering for the Moms in Prayer group at the Lovett School, I gathered pens for a writing activity. Pens from around my house. Pens from inside my purse. Pens from crazy crevices in my messy car. Instead of just gathering pens like a fiend, God nudged me to slow [...]
