My family and I were listening to Christmas music in the car when these lyrics caught the attention of my 6-year-old son: He sees you when you’re sleeping. He knows when you’re awake. He knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness’ sake. “Mom,” he said...
Tomorrow is the second year anniversary of my husband’s death. When I look back at all the ways my life has changed in those two years, it feels more like a decade. I see everything differently now; I feel as if I’m on the verge of a new beginning, a new life, and...
Helen Keller had every reason to bitterly complain about life—she was blind and deaf as the result of a disease contracted as a toddler. It wasn’t until she was nearly eight years old that a teacher helped her intelligibly communicate with her family for the...
I write and speak about blended families quite often. Once I was on a panel discussing stepfamily ministry, and a woman later asked me if I could give her a list of scriptures to use in her church for stepfamily ministry. I gave her a few off the top of my head, but I...
The best way to describe the last three years for me would be to call them a barrel ride down a long river—always uncomfortable, frightening at times, but not without occasional calm and continual overwhelming beauty. My journey started when my first husband died, and...
Recently I saw an ad in a magazine that listed the “20 Things You Should do in This Lifetime.” This is what the company suggested: 1. Visit the country your ancestors called home.2. Leave a dollar where a kid will find it.3. Fly over the Grand Canyon in a...
My parents didn’t always have money, but growing up they gave me something far greater than the expensive trappings of the middle class children at my school. The first gift was a model of what a relationship with the Lord looks like, both in faith and the study of...
I had no idea how desperate Christian women were to find satisfying physical intimacy until I heard the Focus on the Family radio program with Jim Daily interviewing Juli Slattery and Dannah Gresh on the research they’ve done about the book series Fifty Shades of...
I feel like all I’ve done is cry since the tornadoes tore through central Arkansas and took away many beloved lives. A friend and former co-worker Rob Tittle was one of those taken, along with two of his daughters, and now his wife Kerry has just been plummeted into...
My husband, Robbie, and I are in the process of building a house, and we are considering naming it “Havilah,” which is a Hebrew word that has two meanings: “writhing in pain” and “to bring forth.” You see, both of us were widowed when we met, and the suffering is...
Somewhere along the way my Christian walk became complicated. There were so many questions about living that weighed on my mind. What do I do with my money? How do I get along with my family members? What does God want me to do with my life? It seemed the...
