The world will give you that once in awhile, a brief timeout; the boxing bell rings and you go to your corner, where somebody dabs mercy on your beat-up life.” —Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees One of the winter activities our family enjoyed pre-COVID was what we called Soup Saturdays. We’d put out…
What is an attractive life? Let me explain. I don’t mean attractive as in physical appearance. I’m not talking about a life that looks like an air-brushed magazine cover. When I searched ‘definition of attractive’ on Google, I came up with these definitions: Appealing or pleasing to the senses Having beneficial qualities or features that…
The orange glow from my bedside clock mocks me as I blink away the hours. I roll over and groan. I know I should get up, but the coziness of my blankets and the weight of my heart keep me in bed. It is the Christmas season, and I feel weary. There are many reasons…
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. (Col. 3:2 ESV) There’s a common admonition among Christians, to “be in the world but not of the world,” but you may wonder what, exactly, this means. Does it mean we don’t engage the world, that we avoid anyone and…
Recently, while reading through 1 Corinthians, I came to a full stop at chapter 3, verse 5. Paul was talking about how he had heard the Corinthian believers were dividing into factions. They seemed to have been bragging about who were the better Christians. “I follow Paul,” “I follow Apollos,” “I follow Cephas,” or “I…
It started with a box of letters from Togo, West Africa. During a cross-country visit to see my husband’s family, my husband’s aunt, Shirley Cropsey, told me that someday, she wanted to write a book. During the 1980s and ’90s, when her family had been medical missionaries in Togo, West Africa, she sent hundreds and…