Like a new school year with its anticipations—Who will be my teacher, who will be in my class, who will be my friends?— so has been my life, Lord, with more changing roles than I ever imagined. My name as wife, then mom took getting used to. Then it became comfortable . . . and […]
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Friendships Enable me to live so as to deserve a friend and if I never have one on earth be Thou my friend, for in having Thee I shall have all that is dear and valuable in friendship. Amen. We had dinner with sweet friends the other night. Friendship came up as she shared how […]
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Intro from Barbara: “ I know exactly what Judy means when she writes in this post about remembering to breathe. Though it’s a built-in automatic bodily function, when you have a prodigal or one of your chicks is wandering in their faith, we mamas hold our breath … a LOT. Most every Christian parent wants […]
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Have you ever awakened in the morning and felt your senses dulled? Has a lack of sleep, preoccupation with one or more of your kids, or ongoing loss left you feeling dull or even dead inside? Or could it be some other unnamed something? Recently over dinner, my husband shared a story with me about a […]
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This is not an easy topic. I’ve been thinking a lot; reading and praying since the latest wave of shooting terrors began. News cycles move on. People can’t. Especially those in Southhaven, El Paso, Dayton and now Midland-Odessa. My first two thoughts were, I can’t believe it happened again … but then again I can. […]
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Do you know what values motivate you? Years ago Dennis and I made individual lists of what mattered to each of us then combined those lists into one page of values we then used to make decisions about how we raised our kids, what we taught them and how we spent our time as a […]
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Unbelievable that we are here! Again my man and I are in a place irritating and all too familiar. I just discovered our schedules are not in sync. “We talked about this,” he said, “yes, but I couldn’t look at my calendar in that moment and then forgot.” And now we are double booked. He […]
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One of the most profoundly helpful books of my life is by Jerry Sittser. A Grace Disguised belongs on the shelf of every follower of Jesus so it’s close in times of need. Last fall I reread this book, cover to cover, and strongly encouraged Dennis to do the same. And he did. Chapter six […]
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For years I avoided reading the book of Job because I was afraid I’d contract some of his suffering. I knew enough about his story to have zero envy of his previous and post suffering wealth and success. But my Bible study class during my children’s teen years included a week focusing on Job. I’m […]
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Safely settled in sculpted seats, we wove our way through the labyrinth freeways that connect the disparate pieces of San Diego. Neighborhoods, shopping malls, schools, even open spaces whizzed by. As we neared downtown, out our side windows we were surprised to see a community wholly unlike any other we’d passed. A city within the […]
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