A Pebble In Our Pile
Good morning... Yesterday's morning message, My Change Of Heart, set off the largest avalanche of responses from one blog post, ever. Too large of a pile to sift through in one follow-up, we will examine a single pebble from our pile today. "I trust you know what God is doing," one subscriber wrote and many of you echoed. "While I am looking forward to new blog posts, I am really going to miss [...]
My Change Of Heart
Good morning... At our Writers' Group gathering this week, we enjoyed a delightful dinner together under outdoor ceiling fans. When it was my time to share, I heard myself say, "Well, the big thing for me is that God has changed my heart as a writer." Meeting one year ago in the final week of May, everyone in the group remembered me saying, "I cannot wait for the Summertime Devotional to come out so [...]
One Special Dinner
Good morning... Last night I enjoyed a very special dinner. I slid into my seat with a private tableful of women, three I knew mildly, four I had never met. These longtime friends asked me to join them as they discussed how to help their teenage daughters process a time of deep loss and great grief. Another family in our community is waking up to an excruciatingly difficult day. These women and their [...]
Deep Then Wide
Good morning... Our writers' group of ten women has been meeting most months for over ten years. So when one writer challenged us last week with the quandary of a quote, a variety of comments came cascading down. You will remember the initial words from our recent post Drill Deep. "This a small section of something I read today," the instigator wrote. "When one gallon of water is spread to its thinnest molecules, [...]
Our Heart At Home
Good morning... "Oh Sue, I know what you mean!" one subscriber wrote to me after reading last week's posts, Welcome To Our Messy Home, Does My Mess Bless, Seasonal Insanity, and Dust If You Must. "I think any mom who has cherished the happy chaos of childhood gets it. Ok don’t laugh, but one of my favorite rainy day activities was piling flour onto big cookie sheets and letting the boys play with their [...]
Remember
Good morning... "Sue, my dear friend," he wrote, "this weekend I hope everyone will take three minutes to remember the hundreds of thousands of Americans who died on battlefields across the globe over the years in places like Belleau Wood, the beaches of Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge, the sands of Iwo Jima, and the meat grinder of Okinawa so we can live free today." My special friend continued: "Then I would [...]
Savor Sunday: Spring Up
Good morning... As I circle my way down into God at my core, a new idea springs up. Instead of encouraging you touch six times the "Previous" link on the top of each Sunday message, I am inspired to connect us directly to the Everyday Blog tab on our SueToYou.com website. Now that's a fresh, ingenious thought. Easy. Colorful. Inviting. At our leisure this Sabbath, we simply scroll through old messages we may [...]
Drill Down
Good morning... Saturated by the mayhem of May, I received a convicting email from a friend. She wrote, "Here is a small section of something I read today: 'When one gallon of water is spread to its thinnest molecules, it can cover an area of nearly five square miles. It would be difficult to see, and beyond that it would be ineffectual for any real purposes. However, if the molecules of that same [...]
Dust If You Must
Good morning... An empty-nesting mom ministered to a group of pre-school moms right before my eyes. In class she read aloud the following poem, encouraging us all to savor the life season surrounding us right now. Regardless of your current season of life, what creative juices flow as you experience God's joyful invitation? ****** Dust If You Must by Rose Milligan Dust if you must, but wouldn't it be better To paint a picture, or [...]
Seasonal Insanity
Good morning... Earlier this week our post, Welcome To Our Messy Home, stepped on a common nerve. One of you wrote: "I'm so glad that you took a picture of your Messy House. My mom has told me for years how much that I will miss a messy house, loads of laundry, shoes left all over the place, crumbs on the counter and floors, etc. I tear up thinking how non-messy my house [...]
Be A Favorite Sweatshirt
Good morning... "Sue, I love this message - and it’s a lesson I’ve gradually learned this past year hosting a weekly Bible study in my home for the first time," one of you wrote after our Monday post, Welcome To Our Messy Home. She noticed her change of heart: "For the first meeting back in September, I made sure everything from the kitchen to the front porch was cleaned, fluffed and freshened. Bit [...]
Does My Mess Bless?
Good morning... I fell in love with a song when our kids were young, a song comparing two neighboring houses "side by side on Baxter Street." Allen Levi's soothing voice tickles our heart with this chorus: "1412 is a magazine cover. 1420 is covered with kids. One's just a picture post card. The other's where real people live." The song goes on to ask a few personal questions. "Now is my house a [...]