Jacob was not the only wrestler that preceded the WWF. As I pulled the red-colored digital thermometer out of my daughter’s mouth, my cheeks turned hot with tears. Her pediatrician’s warning echoed loud in my memory, “Do everything you can to prevent her getting this year’s influenza. It will attack her lungs and wreak havoc […]
Category: Prayer
Hectic Days Need Heaven’s Hushes
There are some Sundays, no matter how early I’ve woken up and earnestly I’ve tried, getting out the side door to church is as easy as…well, it’s just plain hard. Those are usually the days I end up driving behind a tractor with double yellow lines down the road, a little girl with an attitude […]
One Way To Hear God’s Heart Beat
Words I never dreamed I’d hear in all my twenties or thirties, I now enjoy from time to time in my late forties. But they often have come at a painful cost. “Mommy, just snuggle me.” Blink, blink. My shoulders dropped while a smile rose across my face. The request came with laundry in my […]
Disney’s Revelations Three Feet High
You know how little kids are. They can crack through any curmudgeon’s scowl when they use over-sized words or misapply vocabulary. Then, if it’s a pastor’s kid, Bible stories, interpretations of God and explanations of the world should be recorded for future laughs or blackmail when they get older. One morning, a conversation with my […]
Praying for Chronic Possibilities
A television in the far corner of the waiting room adequately occupied most of the people. The remainder thumb-punched their cell phones quietly. The weatherman said wind chill temperatures were dangerously below zero and echoed obligatory warnings that come with such a forecast. I looked out the window and watched a woman make her way […]
Who’s In Control?
I’ve come a long way from the slightly obsessive, “need-to-feel-in-control” person I used to be. Years ago, the Lord put an older woman in my life that was a walking scalpel to my character. Despite the tears she brought to my prayer closet, the Lord knew exactly where my flesh needed to die, where sensitivities […]
5 Ways the Father Loves
“Maddie, get your book bag,” my husband said in his let’s-get-moving-because-we’re-late voice. “Time to pray.” I grabbed two familiar hands, squeezed them both and bowed my head. As my husband began to pray, Maddie let go of my hand, entwined her arm around mine, leaned into me hard and began to squirm. I opened one […]