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Strength for the New Year
The beginning of every year is a time for fresh starts. We set out new goals. Some pick one word to focus on while others make New Year Resolutions for change. We dream of losing weight, running a marathon, finding a new job, or perhaps, writing a book. Statistically, the great majority of these fresh…
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Love Came Down
The Gift of Love at Christmas is permanent and priceless. All the presents are open. The festivities are complete. Everyone has returned to their regular routine after the whirlwind of preparation leading up to Christmas. Sometimes the calm after all the craziness leaves me a little melancholy. I enjoy visiting with friends and family who…
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Happily Ever After
At Christmas time, the promise of “happily ever after” breaks into our reality. Jesus’ birth began the great redemption story.
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The Gift of Time
Out of all the gifts we give at Christmas, isn’t the gift of time what our hearts long for the most? Too much to do with too little time. This is my life much of the Christmas season. I love preparing for the celebration and choosing gifts for family and friends but every year I…
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Attitude is Everything
I know that it is cliché to say it, but attitude really is everything. How a person thinks determines the success or failure of a day, a year, or even a life. The good news is that your attitude can change. Even the most ingrained ways of thinking can be transformed. Most doctors are obsessive/compulsive…
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The Table is Set
The holidays are upon us. Doesn’t Thanksgiving seem early this year? The pumpkin pies are done but I still have a ham to bake as well as green bean casserole and sweet potato soufflé to take to my sister’s house. The table is set. We’ll have enough food to feed a small army, I’m sure.…
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Solid Ground
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Instant access to news from around the world is both a blessing and a curse. If you’re like me, you wonder sometimes what is real or true. The world seems to have suddenly changed into a crazy place with no solid ground to stand upon…or has it? The key to…
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The Power of One Seed
Seeds are amazing. Within every seed is the genetic material needed to create a whole plant. A single seed in the crevice of a rock with enough soil, sun and rain, can produce a tree that will split the rock as it grows. Little by little, as the roots and trunk grow, they push the…
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Risky Prayer
Prayer, by definition, is an entreaty or petition to God. Many prayers contain thanks or praise for what God has already done, though almost every prayer consists of asking God for something specific. Give us this day our daily bread. Heal my illness. Help me find a job, a mate, or even a parking…
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A Cloud by Day and Fire by Night
Do you ever struggle choosing what direction to go or what action to take next? How great it would be if I had a cloud guiding me by day and a fire lighting my way at night like the Israelites. After they were freed from captivity in Egypt, God instructed Moses to build a Tabernacle…
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Cherish the Old Ways Through Passing on Life Skills
My morning began in the garage painting the storm windows to replace them before the winter cold returns. We live in an old farmhouse in rural Indiana where sharp winds blow across the open fields. All the windows except these last 4 we replaced with modern, high-efficiency vinyl ones. I love the huge casement windows…
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Battling the “Not Good Enough” Dragon
We arrived home late last night after spending three days in Michigan at the Maranatha Christian Writer’s Conference. This was my second year to attend and I felt better prepared as I walked into the lodge to check in on Thursday. I copied samples of my writing: devotions, short stories, blog posts and even a…
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Love One Another
“Love one another…as I have loved you.”1 These are some of the last words Jesus spoke to His disciples before his crucifixion. The world does not understand this kind of love. The world says: Love those who love you. Love those who look like you, talk like you and agree with you. The world divides…
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Country Girl at Heart
I could hear the wind rustling through the dry corn stalks in the fields as I was walking down to the of turkey farm at the end of my road this morning. The sound was so soft and soothing. Only the birds chattering above my head on the electric wires, broke the stillness of my…
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9/11: A Seminal Event
We chronicle the passage of our lives by events. Each year of my life is commemorated by births, deaths, marriages and divorces that occurred within them. These events delineate specific beginnings and endings. Some events become seminal for a generation, denoting the beginning and ending of eras. They are like lines drawn in the sand…
