Good morning... Regrets ruin. The unsaid undermines. When the moment is lost, so is the opportunity. As spring fades to summer, my unsaid regrets linger. I have lost an opportunity. I feel convicted to say "I am sorry" for two things this spring. First, in March, I went on two spring break trips back to back. One week to [...]
Good morning... Thanks to a friend of a friend, who is an intake worker at a dog rescue organization, we patiently found our way to our next family member. We are still settling on a name as this eight week old golden retriever/yellow lab pup settles into our home. I have not cared for a puppy or a baby [...]
Good morning... Spring is tipping into summer everywhere I look. The pruned back branches of winter gave way to small leafy buds this spring, and now those same trees are exploding with green growth. I watched my neighbors' lawn guys dig up still beautiful pansies yesterday. Purple and white flowers remaining poised atop thinning, scrawny stems. A few weekends [...]
Good morning... Jesus promises, "...in Me you may have [perfect] peace. In the world you have tribulation and distress and suffering, but be courageous [be confident, be undaunted, be filled with joy]; I have overcome the world.” [My conquest is accomplished, My victory abiding.]" (John 16:33, AMP). As I read this passage, one word sparkles in a brand new [...]
Good morning... Walk. Bunt. Balk. These words fill my phone this morning. Bases load. Strike out. Home run. All of my years (from ages fourteen to twenty-two) of scoring little league, softball, and baseball for our hometown recreation department came in quite handy last night. Full count. Pop fly. Wild pitch. An avid baseball fan, my friend with cancer [...]
Good morning... I was on an elliptical machine in the hotel fitness room in Asheville, N.C. when my phone signaled her group text. Throughout the day, five of us Bible study friends had been texting support, encouraging our friend whose ten year old daughter was undergoing her six month scans for the cancer she has battled for the past five [...]
Good morning... Twenty-nine years ago today, I woke up in Ohio on my wedding day. Excitement and nerves. Family and friends. Fears and hopes. I woke to it all. I remember getting my hair done after taking a mid-morning nap, being surrounded by the special people who had influenced my first twenty-four years, and soaking up hugs and good [...]
Good morning... We wait in solitude and silence, beginning to feel God's answers emerging. Dallas Willard recommends, "Stay there long enough for the inner being to be different. Muddy water becomes clear if you only let it be still for a while." (The Divine Conspiracy, p 359) Dallas reveals an interesting phenomenon. I google: "How does still water become [...]
Good morning... As I deepen into my Spiritual Direction training program, I find myself marinating in the wise words of Dallas Willard found in The Divine Conspiracy. Here are some favorites quotes I have gathered in my notes. "The cure for too-much-to-do is solitude and silence, for there you find you are safely more than what you do. And [...]
Good morning... He said to me, "If I really want to talk with and listen to God, I have to get away with Him privately, for a big chunk of time." He likened it to my husband and me, "If you really want to talk with and listen to Steve, you would not do it in a crowded room [...]
