I must confess, I was a bit of a pandemic cliché. Two years ago, I looked for some at-home hobbies to while away the time during lockdown. Like a lot of people, I baked loaf after loaf of sourdough bread, read numerous novels, and bought about a dozen houseplants. On one of my first weekly…
everyday faithfulness
4 Questions for Your Bible Reading in 2022
Every year, in the days following Christmas, I make promises to myself. Weary of traveling for most of the holidays, sleeping little and eating one Christmas dinner after another, I spend the last days of December mapping out a healthier life plan for the new year that includes more vegetables, earlier bedtimes, and less screen…
Daylight Savings & Spiritual Disciplines
I’ve long used January 1st as the day I’m going to get my life together. New diet? Clean slate starts January 1st. Exercise plan? I’ll begin on the first of the year. Keep the Tupperware cabinet from throwing plastic containers at me every time I open it? Organization will commence on the first day of the…
What the Seasons Say
A few days ago on my early morning walk, I noticed some leaves drifting down from the neighborhood trees. A few leaves scattered in the breeze, falling right in front of me. I happily crunched over them because when the trees start undressing, I remember that the heat of a long, discouraging summer will certainly…
Sometimes I Need a Sunrise
Every morning this week, I’ve watched the sun rise. Every morning, without fail, the sun persistently pushes down the dark of night, lower and lower, into the horizon until I can’t see anything but light. It happens so slowly that you can’t tell it’s happening at all. Were you to try to decide which moment…
The Word That Never Fades
Last December, one of our faithful elderly church members passed away. As frail as his health had been prior to his death, his wife of seventy-one years had already been suffering from Alzheimer’s. She was recently moved to a nursing facility that specializes in the type of care she requires. As restrictions have recently lifted…
Sorrow, Joy, and Forty Years
A warm June rain soaks the world outside my window. We’ve had a few of those wild, humid summer storms that send us to the basement listening for the tornado sirens. But not today. Today, it’s just a good, gentle soaking. While I sit at my dining room table tapping away on my laptop, everything…
How Do I Study the Bible with Others?
Several years ago, I joined two other women from church for a weekly Bible study. I was no stranger to study as I’d been digging into the Word for years and growing by God’s grace through daily reading and prayer. I’d never really done this with others, though, and I wasn’t sure how it would…
Christians Survive Differently
I well remember the exhaustion of brand-new motherhood. When my first son was born, I didn’t pick up my Bible for months. I was so sure that I’d arrive at the magical land of discipline later when my baby wasn’t so needy. I didn’t realize that keeping the habits of Bible reading and prayer when…
Maybe We Knock on the Door
I pulled a loaf of sourdough bread from the oven and popped it onto the cooling rack before getting out a blank greeting card and pondering what to write in it. I didn’t know my new neighbors’ names, so after jotting down our names and phone numbers on the inside of the card, I simply…