Yesterday morning I wrote a blogpost and had stimulating conversation with my college-age son. I waited till the outside temperature crept slowly up to just under 55 degrees Fahrenheit then donned a fleece sweatshirt and a jacket and went out to work in the nonsunny garden. It felt very satisfying to get that 4-pack of… Read More Day 179- Thankful for fellowship with friends, family, and God
The room was round, dark, and silent. Indistinguishable faces peered blankly into the darkness all around the huge, round conference table that almost completely filled the room. The few footlights at floor level cast a dim, eerie, lavender glow. Suddenly, a palpable presence entered the room, invisible yet real. To Ruth it felt like wonder,… Read More Day 169- Thankful for Stories with a Lesson
Today was one of those days where a lot of random things happened. For example, the bad news is that my ID expired. The good news is that I was able to get it renewed. The bad news is the medical office called while I was in the middle of the grocery store. The good… Read More Day 112 – Thankful for focus and light
When my granddaughter was here last weekend, we played hide and seek. She is 5 and little. I’m, um, not 5 and big. 😁 My daughter-in-love was helping her hide, but with all my years of experience, I still managed to find her every time. At one point I hid by the side of my… Read More Day 87 – Lessons from Hide and seek – God wants us to find Him!!
“These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings.” Revelation 17:14a There is so much darkness in the world today. I’ve all but stopped watching the news, and even the news that comes into my inbox, some days, I just can’t… Read More Day 57 – Thankful that the Lamb will overcome!
I love beauty, don’t you? I’m so glad God gave us beauty! When I try to imagine a world with no beauty, I actually have certain images that flit across my mind’s eye. The first is the outdoors in the dead of winter, mid-January, Christmas decorations all taken down, and no snow on the ground.… Read More Day 29 – Thankful for beauty
Have you ever thought what the night sky would look like if there were no stars and no moon? Every night would be blackness in the entire expanse! The other night I spent a very relaxing bit of time close to midnight just staring up at the stars as they became more and more visible.… Read More Day 15 – Thankful for the Stars
The other day we were in the car listening to the Voices of Lee singing their challenge. What if our only job in this life was to change this world for the better? Wait! Isn’t that a large part of what worshiping and serving God is about? Jesus told us to shine our light in… Read More Change the World, Part 1
What is your focus when you look at this photo? The murky-looking waters? The gray clouds? The darkness of the tree line? The fence? Or are your eyes drawn first and foremost to the light and the colors, which are produced because of the reflection of the light off the clouds? In life, also, we… Read More It’s a Choice to Rejoice!
Last week I went to a funeral. Now mind you, I’ve been to quite a few funerals in the past 15ish years, but this one was different. This was the funeral of the patriarch of a large family, many of them family friends since my youth. I believe this was the most emotionally painful funeral… Read More Storms of emotional pain
One super, freezing cold morning, a number of years ago,when everybody else was staying indoors as much as possible, I put on double, triple and even quadruple layers of warm, winter clothing and went for a walk around the track at the local college. Needless to say, I was the only one walking the… Read More God’s “Just-Because” Surprises
The room was small and dimly lit. One bare bulb hung above the door reflecting off the white walls. I had come to this place surrounded by fields of grain, in the middle of nowhere, during the daylight hours, but night had fallen, and with it, a thick, inky, impenetrable black darkness under a moonless… Read More Safe in Him
Welcome to Worship with me! Please join me in lifting up this prayer of worship to God. 😊 🙏 Thank You, Lord, that YOU love me unconditionally. No one else is able to do that perfectly, but You are able! Thank You that You will NEVER abuse us, not physically, not emotionally, not psychologically. You… Read More Worship with me #39
Welcome back to Worship with me! God is worthy of our praise! Please join me in recognizing how great He is! Thank You, Lord, for being so kind to us! Lord, compared to You who are so big and vast, we are like little specks before You. And yet we are specks that You love… Read More Worship with me #35
1. A friend warms the heart Her smile gives to my heart wings To fly up on high. 2. A friend wraps your heart In lace and in soft velvet And cradles it close. 3. A friend is a hearth Love’s flame brightens the dark night And melts frozen hearts. 4. Friends are a fortress… Read More Friendship Haiku
Hello! Welcome to Worship with me! Please join me in this prayer to God, and if you would like, please write your prayer of worship in the comments below so that I can join you in your additional praises! Dear Lord, Thank You that by Your grace I am in You! Thank You that You… Read More Worship with me #26
I stand in the the midst of deep darkness. But I am not in the darkness myself. The LORD is my light. He cuts through the inky darkness from high above me, shining like a brilliant shaft of clean, white light, like a spotlight from heaven that does not diminish in its intensity as it… Read More God is De-Light-ful
Head tilted forward, Black fedora hiding forehead, White-rimmed glasses With opaque yellow lenses Masking the eyes, Hiding the anima, Of the mannequin-faced persona Facing me here In this white, sterile place. Shadows behind her As she steps into the light, Her hand tips the fedora Like a salute As she strides toward me. Then she… Read More Masked Mortals Moved to Hope
Welcome to Worship with me! I invite you to pray this with me: Lord, I thank You that when we go through tough times, You are right there with us to carry us through. I thank You for these opportunities to trust You and to run to You for help, knowing that there is no… Read More Worship with me #13
Night has fallen, and My hands have stopped their trembling. But inside, my heart trembles still. I left a part of myself Back in that classroom with you, My dear friend. My heart weeps with you For a dear, suffering man, And his courageous wife. The thought of what they face Brings tears to my… Read More Rest in the Storm
When I was younger, I had a really hard time understanding what holiness was. I knew God was Holy, Holy, Holy. And I knew that we were supposed to try to be holy. But I found all of that really confusing. Somehow, in trying to piece it all together, I got the idea that God… Read More What is Holiness?
Can you believe that we are at week 9 of “Worship with me” already? God is so awesome! We can never run out of things to praise Him for! Let’s lift up our prayers of praise! At the end of this prayer, I’d love to have you add your own praises in the comments so… Read More Worship with me #9
When I was younger, Lamentations was NOT my go-to book of the Bible, except for chapter 3:22, 23, the verses that must have inspired the old hymn, “Great is Thy Faithfulness”. All the negativity and lamenting and sadness and depression found in this book seemed so overwhelming, and since it has a lot of poetic… Read More Eat Dirt?
Not long ago I was chosen to sing the tenor voice in a duet to be performed with the choir at our church. My duet partner and I practiced our parts separately, each with our own CD, for weeks before we arranged to practice together. On the evening that we met to practice, we decided… Read More The Lord is my “Chauffeur”?
I remember as a child waking up one night with the poison ivy on my leg itching like crazy! I crept quietly through the dark to the medicine cabinet where I knew I would find the poison ivy aerosol spray. Still in the dark, I grabbed it and began spraying it on the poison ivy. … Read More Turn on the Light! Mistakes made in the dark
