Good morning... Four days out of each week, I teach Bible studies in our home. I arrange the furniture for my different groups, welcoming between 10 and 25 women, one morning and three afternoons. I put out a platter of healthy finger foods, a transparent pitcher of ice water with orange slices, and, on my stove, I heat two kettles of water to bring to life my extensive collection of teas. For an hour [...]

Good morning... The generation I grew up in did not test for learning differences. The first time I remember knowing I was a "slow reader" was in fourth grade, when I could not read quickly enough to comprehend the timed sentences projected on the board in front of the entire class. Seeing the writing on the wall, I cheated off my neighbor's paper during the assessment so I would not be embarrassingly placed in [...]

Good morning... I hate to see my worst qualities popping through my kids' skin. Overreacting when Plan A expectations are not met. Snapping, in tired exasperation, to normal, everyday requests. Struggling to comprehend and remember details, overwhelmed by a dyslexic brain tainted with ADD. I hate to see my worst qualities popping through my kids' skin. That is why the paper forwarded to me by my college freshman came as such an inspiring relief. [...]

Good morning... Do not ask me how this conversation came up at our yard sale. Amid small talk, a woman said, "Someone recently told me, 'Our place of most effective ministry is where we can not be replaced.'" Think about it. In what areas of our lives does it matter that we, wired uniquely, remain present, available, whole-heartedly committed? In the family, is it our role as attentive mom? Supportive wife? Care giving daughter? [...]

Good morning... Dripping with multi-colored wax, her old coffee table told a story of gratitude. When she was going through her divorce, she was having a hard time. Girlfriends came to spend time with her, to cheer her up, to hear her heartache. Whenever a friend would visit, they would light candles on the coffee table in her living room, share some wine, and talk out the contents of their hearts, hour upon hour. [...]

Good morning... Growing up in the north, we experienced months and months of snowfall. When there are fireworks of various colors on every autumn hillside, so many different shades of green in each still forest, and a huge array of colors displayed in birds, flowers, and insects, why does falling snow everywhere across the globe look white as it blankets the ground? My curious mind wonders, so I google this question, "Why is snow [...]

Good morning... We had a laundry chute when I was growing up at 525 Fair Street in Berea, Ohio. Now, for those who have never experienced the life saving ease of this awesome invention, a laundry chute is a shaft, running between the upper and lower floors of a home, used to transfer soiled laundry to the lowest level by gravity. Think with me now: "Isn't the laundry chute a great symbol of prayer?" [...]

Good morning... In the fall of 2004, I remember sitting across the lunch table from a forever friend. "I feel like my life is just a smattering of random dots," I heard myself say. "God has littered my page with daily commitments and important relationships, different interests and future possibilities. When I look at my life right now, all I see is a page filled with scattered, disconnected dots. I have no idea what [...]

Good morning... Do you remember the board game "Chutes and Ladders?" As kids, we would take turns flicking the plastic dial on the cardboard spinner, waiting impatiently until it stopped on a number. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6. Moving spaces methodically to the number indicated, we would race each other up the game board toward the finish line. Turn by turn. Flick by flick. Square by square. Life's predictable pattern was interrupted [...]

Good morning... As I taught class, wisdom broke the surface of my lips: "We would not scold a spring bulb for failing to pop from the soil more quickly. Why do we scold ourselves for not being further along in our spiritual progress?" Invisible to the eye, bulbs are experiencing significant movement, day after day, tucked six inches deep down in the dirt. Establishing first a strong root system is essential to sustain future [...]

Good morning... This weekend, my husband and I were given tickets to see "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" at the Alliance Theater. Powerful. Meaningful. The play forced me to see the battle between evil and good, in subtle and not-so-subtle forms, in each character and in each audience member willing to look in the mirror. Dressed in the costume of a helping angel, Nurse Ratchet leads the "peckin' party" for the enemy of [...]

Good morning... To prepare for our upcoming "Women's 1st Wednesday Book Club" at Northside Church, I am reading Corrie Ten Boom's The Hiding Place. I fell in love with these words on page 31: "He turned to look at me, as he always did when answering a question, but to my surprise he said nothing. At last he stood up, lifting his traveling case from the rack over our heads, and set it on [...]