Sometimes I am able to write so causally, as though I were chatting with a friend. Someone told me recently after reading a post that she felt like we had just been in the church nursery together, talking. I love that she told me that. It meant a great deal to me. But, sometimes I feel a great need to write, as though the Holy Spirit is pressing me to do so. I am careful now about listening to that still, small voice. Much more careful than I used to be. And someti

I was able to spend the day with my sister the other day. We hadn't seen each other for over two years, when our family took a trip west to celebrate my son's college graduation. He still doesn't have his diploma. Long story. Anyway, we had flown into Las Vegas from the east coast because the flights were so much cheaper into there. None of us had ever been to Vegas, and I'd heard about those amazing and inexpensive seafood buffets. And it gave us a chance to visit wi

It took me a while to come up with any more useless facts about myself. I conclude from that fact that I just might be a little more boring than I'd like to admit. But, I finally came up with ten, and here they are: 1. I have had lasik corrective eye surgery. It was about ten years ago. I had worn glasses since I was in the third grade, and then contacts from the age of eighteen. First hard contacts, and then gas permeable. Old school. The surgery is probably the n

Okay, so now I can't get the circus out of my mind. See, I wasn't kidding about being visual. :) It's an early-grade-teaching thing. Everything becomes visual. My daughter is visiting with me. She came from the other side off the country to surprise me for my birthday. Best gift ever! You met her here in The Princess and the Lieutenant. My sweet grafted-in son loves me very much to do without his beloved for two whole weeks. I love him big like that right back. S

I'm not sure that this will help anyone but me today. But it's what God laid on my heart. I saw it written recently: Not my circus, not my monkeys. Apparently, it's a Polish proverb. It made me laugh. And then it made me think. How I live my life and interact with people is the most wonderful thing that God could have ever asked me to do. I love the ministry and I love counseling. He created me for this. I count it a privilege to be a part of other people's live

Once upon a time, there lived lots and lots of caterpillars. There are caterpillars everywhere. Whole fields full of them. You are a caterpillar. I am a caterpillar. All of God's children are caterpillars. Okay. I know. Things just got really weird. I taught little kids for a long time. Stories come easily to me. Bear with me. One day you (who are a caterpillar, remember?) find yourself hanging upside down from a twig. The world is spinning around you. At le

Anyone who knows me personally knows that I am not the biggest fan of most professional sports. But there is one exception. I am a diehard fan of the Baltimore Orioles. Win or lose. First place or last. I love me some Orioles baseball! Now, we have the most beautiful stadium in all of MLB. It always ranks in the top five, and the only reason that it's not listed as number one all of the time is because they have to shuffle the order around a bit sometimes to make it l

Growing up, I became very good at pleasing people. When you learn to keep everyone happy, you can avoid lots of trouble. Trouble for yourself as well as your little sisters. Then you grow up with skills. :) Old habits die hard. Especially ones formed at such a young age. Especially ones that had served you so well. I managed to get well into my adult life avoiding confrontation with most everyone. Oh, I knew that folks who were not saved disagreed with me on matter

People get discouraged when they are in the midst of a trial because they want to know how it's all going to turn out. Right now! When life is turned completely upside down, our nature is to want to fix it. Immediately. But most of the time, God does not reveal things to us that way. Jesus said in Matthew 6:34, "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." In other wo

I have been saying for many years that if the Lord were to take me tonight, I've lived a fuller and richer life than anyone I know. I've known some heartache, but mostly I've lived with incredible blessing. God has been very good to me, and I sure can't complain. And I wouldn't trade my journey for that of anyone else I know. But then there came a great trial. Huge trouble that changed everything. I was blindsided. And when I stopped seeing stars, I realized the secon