SOMETHING WAS WRONG WITH EARL, the lovable stray cat I’d adopted. He wouldn’t eat, and instead of snoozing on his chair, he stayed outside. I made a vet appointment for the following day, but Earl didn’t come in that night. The next morning, he was n

I live in a wonderful little neighborhood. When we first moved in more than twenty-five years ago, my husband and I were one of the younger couples. When our two kids came along a few years later, the neighborhood was starting to turn over—older folk

LIVING IN WISCONSIN, I MOURN that our garden’s growing season is so short. I’m often scraping snow aside, wondering if my trowel will hit frost when digging in our first plantings. I watch others in warmer climates harvesting their crop of veggies wh

I’M A SALT FANATIC. I’VE been known to even salt tortilla chips at restaurants after dipping them in the salsa. (I’ve checked with my doctor and my sodium levels are fine.) As most people know, salt brings out the flavors of food and acts as a preser

YEARS AGO, I HAD a sound engineer boyfriend who toured with big-name stars. I was fortunate enough to join him on the road and saw a very famous singer in concert some twenty times all over the world. It sounds glamorous, I know, but it soon became e

YESTERDAY, OUR TWENTY-YEAR-OLD SON, GABRIEL, a college junior, texted my husband and me in our three-way chat: “Dad and Mom, I’e witnessed to three people! Please pray I’’l have more opportunities like this.” Misty-eyed at the man he’d become, my min

I SAT IN THE STYLIST’S chair, energized for the jam-packed weekend. First, a hair appointment, then helping my daughter-in-law clean the house she and my son were moving into the next day. From there, I’d drive several hours to speak at a retreat. My

MY HUSBAND AND I ARE avid gardeners, so it wasn’t a surprise that for our special anniversary, we traveled to Kauai. On Kauai, known as the Garden Island, tropical flowers carpet the countryside, and blooming vines entwine the treetops. The prized or

OVER THE YEARS AS I’Ve taken part in outreach efforts to share Jesus with people, I’ve oflered them little pocket-sized booklets about salvation. These little books vividly illustrate how people are separated from God due to their sin, complete with

Our mission is to inspire people to believe anything is possible with faith, hope, and prayer. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Contributors: Becky Alexander, Susanna Foth Aughtmon, Jeannie Blackmer, Isabella Campolattaro, Susan Dow

I OPENED THE MOTHER’S DAY issue of a women’s magazine and read reader responses to the question, “What’s a positive phrase you remember your mother saying often?” The answers varied from “those hardest to love are the ones who need it most” to “clean

MY FRIEND LESLIE HAS ALWAYS been able to make me laugh. We spent ninety minutes on the phone yesterday, sharing the ins and outs of our lives, talking about our families, and rehashing who liked whom decades ago. In the real world, she is a high-powe

AFTER MY FOURTH BOOK—Moving from Fear to Freedom: A Woman’s Guide to Peace in Every Situation—was published, every subsequent idea I pitched to editors for a fifth book was rejected over the course of several years. I began feeling as though my effor

I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A caregiver. My most important role in this vein may have been as a transport nurse. I careened across hundreds of miles of two-lane roads in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in ambulances with lights blazing and sirens blaring. I e

SOON AFTER RETIREMENT, I DECIDED to clean my closet. My unworn teacher’s clothes took up too much space. I thought the process would be easy. But as I sorted through my skinny pants and fat pants and fatter pants, as I pulled blouses off hangers and

I OFTEN SEE HERONS STANDING in ankle-deep water when I walk along the Fraser River near our marina. On one occasion, several stood in a cluster, enjoying the sun’s warmth. Suddenly, a single bird took flight. It circled above its buddies and then lan

OF ALL THE FRUIT of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22, patience is the one I need to work on the most. I can spend two hours watching a movie, four years earning a college degree, and decades learning how to be a good wife, but when I need a prayer

MOST MORNINGS, MY HUSBAND, TED, and I take a walk around our neighborhood. We chat, talk about the coming day, and enjoy the sunshine, fresh air, and each other’s company. There are mornings when it’s hard to drag myself out of bed, but I’m always gl

ONCE OR TWICE A WEEK, my daughter and I head to a horse farm where she volunteers mucking stalls, tacking and untacking lesson horses, and exercising the older horses. I don’t share her affinity for barn scents, and I don’t have her natural comfort w

I DIDNṔT REALIZE HOW AFRAId of heights I was until my family talked me into zip-lining in an underground cavern beneath the city of Louisville. Geared up and strapped up, I stood on a platform waiting my turn, my pulse elevated. I preferred my feet o

I WENT TO AN OUTDOOR concert with some friends to hear one of my all-time favorite R&B groups. Before we even made it to the entrance gate, we discovered we had to return a small cooler to the car because we couldn’t take it into the venue. Two of us

MY HUSBAND AND I ADOPTED children from foster care, and recently our twin girls turned eighteen. They decided to reach out to their biological mother, whom they hadn't seen in a decade. Our daughters had high hopes of a good relationship with her but

YEARS AGO, I FREELANCED FOR the weekly newspaper of the tiny village where we lived. My favorite assignments were interviewing community members and writing profile pieces. I soon discovered that each person’s life had an overarching theme that emerg

JEWELRY HAS NEVER BEEN MY thing. I wear two rings—my Texas A&M college ring and my mother’s wedding band. My three-yearold granddaughter, Blake, likes to play with my rings, and because I’m a pushover, I let her. But I keep a close eye on Mom’s ring.

ONE OF THE HIGHLIGHTS OF my life was accompanying my Korean War veteran father on an Honor Flight trip to Washington, D.C. At eighty-eight, Dad suffered from pulmonary fibrosis and was very weak. We’d have a jam-packed itinerary and he’d have to use

YEARS AGO, PHOTOGRAPHS OF A similar theme popped up in my Facebook feed. Each picture displayed flat, palm-sized rocks painted white then decorated with a cute angel dressed in blue with a yellow halo. Some anonymous artist had been sneaking around o

THE TRAIL BISECTED A COOL, dark section of forest. The scent of loamy soil and spicy cedar mingled with the fragrance of the evergreens to create a lovely perfume. Just ahead, the trees opened to a small meadow, a natural cathedral of sorts. At the b

I WAS PRIVILEGED TO HAVE a father worth emulating. I’m not uncomfortable with his reputation or the memories he created. I wasn’t traumatized by his words or actions, although I must admit I didn’t care for his choice of socks, and sometimes his ties

THE MORNING AIR WAS PLEASANT on the beach when our family set out with our metal detector to navigate miles of white sand near Destin, Florida. I watched the detector head swing left and right. Every now and then, it beeped, prompting one of us to di

THIS WEEK, I FINALLY GOT around to cleaning all the grunge from the bottom of my silverware drawer. I shake my head in shame whenever I take on this chore because it reminds me of a time in my life when I held a less-than-Christlike attitude toward m