Brothers and Sisters.

Wow.
This article from Abigail Hope of the Source of Joy blog convicted me so much.  Have I ever taken my responsibility as a big sister seriously?  Not seriously enough, that’s for sure.  Wow.  When I think of all the time I could have spent with my siblings, all the opportunities I could have taken…and then I [...]

Do you love me, Lord?

 
“Dear Lord,” I prayed, “Do you love me?”
“My child,” He said, “I painted the skies for you.  I made all the flowers in the world for you.  I rock you to sleep and protect you from harm.  I planned out your life lovingly even before I laid the foundations of the world.  I love you [...]

Oh, to see all interruptions in this light!

  
“I think I find most help in trying to look on all the interruptions and hindrances to work that one has planned out for oneself as discipline, trials sent by God to help one against getting selfish over one’s work.  Then one can feel that perhaps one’s true work -one’s work for God- consists in [...]

Pray for our troops…

 

 
I recently read the following piece and it reminded me to keep our service men and women in my prayers.  Whatever your stance on the war, please remember to pray for our soldiers.  Personally, I am convinced that they are helping to protect the whole world from a dark threat.
Do you know one of these?
The [...]

Keeping Christmas

 Awww!  This article makes me smile.  But it also makes me think.  Lanier Ivester reminds us all that Christmas is about more than a mad rush and a mountain of gifts.  It should be a season where we, like Mary, take time to “ponder these things in our hearts” (Luke 2:19).
I think this is so true.  [...]

Merry Christmas!

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.  Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:17, ESV
Rejoice!  For today, a king has been born.
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall [...]

Surrender

 

    
All my life You have been watching.
Every breath I breathe you give.
Each short day and every hour
Yet in fear I walk and live.
  
You who know my deepest longings
You who see my inner strife
Hands that fashioned every sparrow
Will I trust them with my life?
  

Every storm I feel fast coming
Each long hour I tremble here
Oh this battle fierce within me!
Can [...]

O Holy Night.

 
It is Christmas Eve.  We’re planning a big dinner, complete with sparkling cider (which, to our family, says “celebration” like none other).  The kids are jumping around excitedly -promised one present this evening.  They probably won’t get much sleep tonight.  Everyone is so full of Christmas secrets they could burst.  The tree is decorated and [...]

Strawberries, Pianofortes, and the Militia.

A winter night.  A cozy fire.  A cup of hot tea.  And a book by Jane Austen.
In the words of Jane herself, is there any felicity in the world superior to this?*
The appeal of this 18 century woman’s keen human obvervasions have endured throughout centuries of fleeting feminine fads.  Even today we are enthralled by her.  Her [...]

Be Still, and know.

I am afraid of many things.  In the old classic, “Hinds Feet on High Places”, the main character is named Much-Afraid.  Sometimes I think that would be a good name for me.
  
I fret over tomorrow, over money and school, over what I will eat and wear and do when I graduate, over what other people [...]