Stepmom: The Place Between Rock and Hard
When I saw the uncontrollable shaking shoulders of my stepdaughter-in-law as she wept at our wedding, I knew the stepmom life was going to be harder than I thought. Since both my husband and I were widowed, I thought our situation would be less complicated, and...
Two Funerals and a Wedding
It was a sunny Fourth of July weekend. Red roses and navy ribbons were the ideal backdrop for my fiancé, Robbie, and me to join in matrimony. With Robbie in his dress blues and me in my white ball gown wedding dress, we looked like royalty. It was a day of...
Survival Tips for the First Year of Stepfamily Life
The first few months into my second marriage were a rude awakening. I thought I knew my new husband well: He was a dedicated Christian, a hard worker, and his children loved and respected him. All the major no-nos checked out. What more was there to know? I’ll never...
Obsessing Over Love
The whole world seems obsessed with love. The music industry, Hollywood, and thousands of years of literature have focused on the idea of loving and being loved. Someone said, “I once asked an old man: Which is more important—to love or to be loved? He replied: which...
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From Winter to Spring
My young son, looking out the window at dark dead trees against a foggy gray sky, uttered this profound question, “What is it about winter that causes so many flowers to bloom in spring?” If a person visited earth in winter, he would have no idea that in a few short...
Learning to Speak Marriage Again
I have magic feel-good fingernails. I know this because my late husband, David, told me so. Every time I scratched his back it was like taking him to the spa. “Someone should invent a way to duplicate your nails so all husbands can feel like this,” he often...
Sheltering Kids from the Cares of This World
My children became aware of the trauma of tragedy as babies when their father died in a car accident. It especially impacted my son who was two years old at the time. He watched as his mother turned into a slave of grief filled with extreme emotion and stress-infused...
Finding Comfort in the Midst Grief
My first husband was killed instantly in a head-on collision, leaving me with a two-year-old son and a three-month-old nursing baby girl. I was devastated. We were madly in love when it happened and living on top of the world. He had just started his dream job,...
A Guide: Why Does God Allow Suffering?
Recent school and church shootings have people saying things like, “It’s strange to think these people thought they were going to have a normal school or church day. Innocent people moving along with their lives as usual. Now, it’s over for them. Why would God allow...