“Prayer works. Prayer is work. Prayer leads to work.” This is a quote I copied, without attribution, into the back of my Bible some thirty-plus years ago. I know that the operative word here is prayer, but I sometimes act as if the most important word were work. Have you ever been guilty of that? When your list of pressing… Read more »
As fitting and appropriate as it is to call upon God from the foxhole, prayer should really be our first and natural response in all of life’s circumstances. When awed by His works, we should praise Him. When struck by His greatness, we should worship Him. When encumbered by doubts, we should trust in Him. When ensnared by sin, we… Read more »
I distinctly remember crying when my firstborn was only four days old, because our time together was ticking by so fast. And sure enough, it seems like I barely blinked before he was grown and gone, with a wife and four sons of his own. Although I still had nine little chicks in my nest when that first one fledged… Read more »
Memories are curious things. A person or event from our distant past can lie dormant and forgotten in the deepest recesses of our brains for literally years at a time, only to be stirred to life in a split-second by a glimpse or sound or smell of something that calls that memory to mind. When the face of a friend… Read more »
An interviewer once asked Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison how she had become such a great writer. Did she study a particular method? Read books to hone her craft? Study under famous authors? To which Morrison laughed and replied, “Oh, no, that is not why I am a great writer. I am a great writer because when I was a little… Read more »
Pray hardest when it’s hardest to pray? I don’t think this means we should pray hardest when we’re in the most trouble. Most of us find it pretty easy to pray when we need God to get us out of a tight spot. For me, this quote means that I need to pray hardest when I’m . . . …. Read more »
I’ve been meditating on 1 Thess. 5:17 lately: “Pray without ceasing.” Try as I might to maintain a continual attitude of prayer, I get distracted by the million other things that vie for my attention. Consequently, I often lose sight of that goal. Yet my days are sprinkled with enough mindless tasks that it’s easy to pick up the conversation… Read more »
Even in grade school, my favorite section of the library was the “how-to” shelf. While my friends were reading their way through all 175 volumes of Nancy Drew, I was checking out book after book on crafting and building and drawing and sewing. About the time I was running out of projects in McCALL’S GIANT GOLDEN MAKE IT BOOK, I… Read more »
To read the beginning of this story, refer to part 1. I love the scene in THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE where the Beavers are forced to flee from the White Witch. While the others hurriedly don coats and boots, Mrs. Beaver scuttles about the den packing provisions for the journey: sugar, tea, matches, two or three loaves… Read more »
