Back to Autumn Spices on the Stove
I love warming the kitchen with a simmering pot of spices on the stove. The whole house smells of cinnamon, cloves, and apples. To make your own simmering spices, fill a pot on the stove with water and add the following: sliced apples, sliced orange (peel on), two cinnamon sticks, a teaspoon of clove, pumpkin […]
A Date
Last night, my husband and I wandered around downtown in the crisp autumn evening air. With 25 minutes before the start of the high school homecoming football game, we left one daughter with the marching band and another with her friends by the stadium. We considered having a little snack of a gourmet hot dog, […]
A Pressing On. A Bringing Through.
I read Psalm 66 and pause at verse 12: “We went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance.” For nearly thirty years, I’ve read that psalm figuratively, as if fire and water were symbols of any kind of hardship. But today, I think about the literal fire and water […]
Two Reasons God Brought You Here
I can think of no more powerful inspiration for having an eternal perspective during personal difficulty than Paul’s statement in Philippians 1:12-14. He writes this from a Roman prison: Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become […]
When It’s Hot But Also October
For after school snack, it’s pumpkin milkshakes made from pumpkin ice cream. I’ll sprinkle a little pumpkin spice on top the whipped cream. It’s been such a warm October in Pennsylvania, and I’ve worn more flip flops and t-shirts than anything else. And today, with the rain and general mugginess, both in weather and in heart due […]
Three Little Writing Tips for Completing a Book
I love helping writers envision new projects and, most importantly, complete them. Here are 3 little tips. Create the skeleton of your manuscript with all the chapter headings. Keep this document always open on your computer. When you have an idea, find a quote you want to use, or imagine a piece of dialogue, insert […]
The Opposite of Dread
As I continue to study dread and the biblical solution to such a paralyzing and thwarting emotion, I ask my youngest daughter what she believes is the opposite of dread. “It’s peace,” she says. But then she revises that statement because we don’t think it’s altogether accurate. If dread involves assuming the worst and anticipating […]
Tipped with Autumn
Each new morning, I’ll note the colors. A painter dipping his brush into fall colors—gold, burgundy, burnt oranges— Autumn happily descends upon the valley.
From a Single Seed
Overwhelmed with Dread When There Was Nothing to Dread (Psalm 53:5)
For the last few weeks, I find myself overcome with irrational dread. It made no sense; I couldn’t understand it, articulate it to myself, or explain it to others. I tried. I tried to tell people about upcoming events and the dread, but I could never justify it. I wasn’t nervous, unhappy, scared of something, […]