Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be ...
The Christmas tree still stands happy and bright at our house, the wreath still hangs on the door, and half the neighborhood must feel the same way I do: I’ll get to it, but just not yet. Most years, I relish the first few days of the new year. I set aside a couple of hours to sit down with my planner, a goal-setting journal, and a cup of ...
She was bought by my grandma Sweetie in the 1960s and survived decades of Christmases, along with Joseph, Baby Jesus, and an assortment of gentle, porcelain barnyard animals — despite the perilous attentions of eight grandchildren. For the past decade, she has lived at my home, most of the year tucked in the dark safety of a high shelf, wrapped ...
I’m seated on a chair in the middle of the kitchen in my childhood home, a towel draped around my neck like a makeshift cape. My mom and grandmother read instructions from the back of a box. How hard can a home perm be? The curl-inducing chemicals smell like a lab experiment gone wrong. I go back to third grade looking like a poodle. Has anyone ...
The doorbell rang. My heart leaped as my three dear friends came bearing gifts and plates of food for our feast. I set out my favorite tea pot and cups. My friend Amy busied herself in the kitchen brewing chai. The aroma of cloves, cinnamon, and ginger swirled through the house. Terry warmed the homemade tortillas with papas and soyrizo. My tongue ...
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV) Wishing you the happiest New Year's Day! May you feel peace in knowing that you are a new creation in Christ, that He will renew your heart and offer fresh mercies every day. May you resist the temptation to ...
Then it will be as though I had sprinkled clean water on you, for you will be clean — your filthiness will be washed away, your idol worship gone. And I will give you a new heart — I will give you new and right desires — and put a new spirit within you. I will take out your stony hearts of sin and give you new hearts of love. And I will put my ...
This week we not only approach the beginning of a new year but the birth of a new decade. Our family feels it especially, as my oldest daughter prepares to deliver her second child and we celebrate my second daughter’s twentieth birthday. I still remember the fear and uncertainty of expecting a child in the days before Y2K, when the world wondered ...
I will make known the Lord’s faithful love and the Lord’s praiseworthy acts, because of all the Lord has done for us— even the many good things he has done for the house of Israel, which he did for them based on his compassion and the abundance of his faithful love. He said, “They are indeed my people, children who will not be ...
One of my favorite sounds in all the world is the sound of water traveling over pebbles in a creek bed in the quiet hush of early winter. I may be walking with only the rustle of foliage underfoot on a trail to keep me company and the occasional songbird calling out to its friend. But when I happen upon a creek, I always feel a peaceful feeling ...
