No one likes to suffer. Or at least, we don’t want to suffer unnecessarily. We’ve all heard the phrase: No pain, No gain. Although we normally associate these words with today’s exercise and fitness industries, this principle can apply to other parts of our lives. In last week’s blog post, I shared the Apostle Paul’s…
I wish life came with its own remote control. So often in the past weeks and months, my heart has longed to “go back”. Go back to a time when life felt safe and full of hope and promise. Maybe you can relate. When life hurts, we often look back with nostalgia to easier times….
When I married my husband some twenty-nine years ago, I had only known him for ten months. Yep, we met in August, got engaged the following April, and were married two months later. For some, our courtship appears very rushed and quick. But they don’t know the back story. From the moment I began to…
Peering through the window, my heart dropped. Clouds hid the sun as the trees danced in the wind. Typical for a spring day, the weather had turned chilly. A similar storm began brewing in my spirit. My husband and I had planned to attend an outdoor gathering with friends. But the thought of sitting outside…
“I actually think about heaven a lot.” After twenty-eight years of marriage, I thought I knew everything about my husband. But this comment, made during a recent road trip, took me by surprise. I’m almost embarrassed to admit this, but heaven rarely graces my thoughts. I tend to focus on the here-and-now. Since heaven will…
Boxed in with hundreds of other travelers and trailer trucks, my husband and I remained stranded on an Arizona highway for twelve hours. Slippery and icy roads had caused several accidents. Without notice, the Department of Transportation closed the highway. As temperatures dropped into the teens, we received no information indicating when the pass would…
Sobbing so hard she could hardly breathe, my daughter gasped out four words. The four words I heard stopped my heart and threw me off balance. “My baby just died.” Fortunately, my son-in-law intervened and clarified my daughter’s actual words. “My baby has jaundice.” Normally, jaundice itself would create anxiety. But in comparison with what…
Moving through my daily routine felt like swimming against a current. A restless night turned into an anxious day as I checked my phone every few minutes for an update. A watched pot never boils. This idiom perfectly describes how slowly time passes when you are waiting for something. Or in my situation it could…
“I plan to keep living until the day I die.” I first heard these words of wisdom nearly twenty-eight years ago, shortly after my mother-in-law received her terminal cancer diagnosis. The heavy burden of her illness didn’t prevent her from enjoying the remaining days of her life. Her words always resonate with me, but I…
