Mornings with Jesus

ONE OF THE HARDEST COMMANDMENTS of Jesus, for me, is the order to forgive. Anything. Anyone. Seventy times seven. But how do we do this when whatever wrong we’ve suffered is raw—and our feelings still fresh? Worse yet, probably, when the other person

ON SATURDAYS OUR CHURCH runs a soup kitchen where we feed about 200 people, giving them a hot meal and some groceries to take home. I’m not much of a cook so I set and reset the tables, fetch coffee and greet the guests. A sort of glorified busboy.

YEARS BEFORE SHE DIED, I noticed my mom was more forgetful than normal. I’d ask her about common things, and she’d struggle to give me an answer. Or, when she did, her answers were obtuse, loopy, or just plain wrong. Then I found out the truth. What

MY HUSBAND, LARRY, AND I consider praying together for our children and grandchildren as one of our most important ministries. Every morning, we lift their names to Jesus. One morning we used Joshua 6 and the destruction of Jericho as a prayer princi

MY SON PIERCE’S FIRST FLORIDA basketball season was wonderful. The coach was a longtime resident and former local star, a seasoned pro who skillfully affirmed the kids, bringing out their best. He and Pierce built a nice rapport, and we looked forwar

YEARS AGO, WHEN I LIVED in Alaska, I knew a man named Joel. Joel was a funny, smart young man in his early twenties with Down syndrome. Joel was the kind of person you could talk to about a wide range of subjects. We loved playing cards together and

MY HUSBAND, BILL, AND I took a spontaneous day off to visit an art museum about an hour from home. He’s not the art lover in the family, but it was a togetherness opportunity, and the art museum is known for its nature/outdoors gallery displays. Part

JUST THIS WEEK, I FOUND out that a dear friend of mine has cancer. Another friend’s child is facing a series of medical tests. And still another friend is facing great financial difficulty. These are all people who love Jesus and are doing their best

A GIRLFRIEND RECENTLY TOLD ME about several personal storms she was experiencing: Her husband had been laid off, her daughter’s marriage was about to end, a grandchild had suffered injuries in a car accident, and her sister needed help after having s

I ONCE HEARD A MAN say that his faith would be much stronger if he had lived during the time Jesus walked the earth and had seen Him in the flesh. The Bible talks about many people whose lives were transformed after seeing Jesus face-to-face. A short

I WAS EXHAUSTED AFTER I finished an editing job for a client who was also a friend. Because of my health issues, the project had taken a lot out of me. Still, I savored doing meaningful work and earning a bit of money. As I prepared to email her my n

I GET PUMPED BY MILITARY recruiting commercials that show the buff and burly soldiers pushing through the pain to save a beachhead, dodging bullets to rescue a fellow soldier, or leaping from helicopters into churning dark waters at night. And I did

MY FRIEND CORRIE RADKE HAS a blog called Choosing Colorful. There’s an entry there with the title “God Is Not on My Side.” In it, Corrie writes, “When we claim to be on God’s side, we’re announcing that we’ve arrived at the spot where we are no longe

WHEN I FIRST BECAME A Christian, I could barely contain my excitement about my newfound faith. I read my Bible every day without fail, prayed fervently, and was in church almost every time the doors were open. I was on fire for the Lord. I loved Him

AS I LOADED MY GROCERIES on the conveyor belt and then prepared to pay, the employee bagging my groceries started what soon become a study in patience. Mine. The employee pitched nonstop questions, each one punctuated by a high-pitched giggle. “Do yo

THE SUBJECT LINE OF THE email grabbed my attention. “How do we pray about our chronic illness?” A reader had reached out to me for guidance. I know how to pray when there is a short-term need, and Jesus either provides the answer, guides in a tangibl

THIS WEEKEND MY HUSBAND, DAVID, and I took a drive to the coast. As the day wore on, the weather grew chilly, so after lunch we searched for indoor pastimes. Cruising along a winding tree-lined lane, we spotted a glass-art gallery. The wooden buildin

WHEN MY SISTER AND DAD heard the same radio sermon separately and felt prompted to pray for my former husband, I knew I should do the same. I confess that I fought the side of me that felt justified in leaving him off my prayer list. He’d abandoned m

MY SON MATTHEW AND HIS wife dropped in one morning while running errands. Over homemade muffins and freshly brewed coffee, they told me and my husband, Gene, about visiting Victoria, British Columbia, for their tenth wedding anniversary two weeks pri

MY HUSBAND SCOTT’S FAMILY TREE can be traced back three generations to Southampton, England. His mom’s cousin sent him a newspaper clipping telling him about how his family members had paid for the stained glass windows in a chapel there. He has sinc

I RECENTLY VISITED AN OLD friend, a former professor of mine who just turned ninety. A classmate alerted me that he was very sick. She knew I would want to say good-bye. My teacher hugged me when I stepped through the door. I could feel his bones. Hi

MY TEN-YEAR-OLD SON IS A serious fan of Stephen Curry, the basketball star. As far as sports heroes go, “Steph,” as he is widely known, is a fine choice. He’s a Christian from a strong family, so I don’t really object to my son’s starry-eyed obsessio

WITH THE GRANDCHILDREN LIVING IN our home this year, I often fight back giggles when bizarre issues trigger a meltdown. At dinnertime, my granddaughter has been driven to tears when the zucchini touches the mushrooms or when she’s given the Cinderell

MY MOM TOLD ME I had the ability to talk using somewhat proper sentence structure when I was only eighteen months of age. To this day, I credit her for my expansive vocabulary and love of reading. But walking was another thing. “She just won’t let go

THE STORY OF JESUS ASKING Peter to feed His sheep makes me think. I understand this disciple’s trials and the failures that darken his testimony. Despite my usual boldness, there have been times I’ve also denied my faith. And the shame hurts. As an i

WHEN I VISITED MY DAUGHTER’S family for the Thanksgiving holiday just before Lilah’s second birthday, I enjoyed seeing her progress in language. The first morning, Lilah woke up around five and I sat in the kitchen as Holly gave her a prebreakfast ah

A FAMILY PHOTOGRAPH PRINTED ON canvas rests on the mantel in our family room. Each time I look at it, I whisper a prayer for my kids’ and grandchildren’s well-being. I long for loving and healthy relationships for all my relatives—parents to grown ch

BELIEVING THAT OUR JOY IS connected to our circumstances can cause serious discouragement and wrong perspectives. Some of the Jews experienced that during their seventy years in Babylonian captivity. Psalm 137 records their memories of that time as t

I KNEW MY FRIEND SUSAN’S family loved food, but when I arrived at their home and looked at the spread, I understood how deep their love of cooking and eating truly went. Several hours later, we sat around the table playing their favorite game, Mexica

OVERHEARD AT A LOCAL STORE: Woman: “We’re not going to give our grandson a gaming system for his birthday without games to play on it.” Man: “You did look at the price tag of this thing, didn’t you?” Woman: “No one’s saying they’re not expensive. But

THREE YEARS AGO, MY DEAR friend Janelle’s son had a freak accident on his all-terrain vehicle that crushed his leg. He spent much of fifth grade in a wheelchair, enduring multiple surgeries and undergoing therapy to get him back on his feet. Finally

I LOVE THE SYMBOLS WE use during Advent and Christmas. Each year, our family sets up an Advent wreath. The circle shape represents the gift of eternity that is given to us because of Jesus. The evergreen boughs remind us that the love of Jesus is con

WHEN MY THREE BROTHERS AND I were babies, our dad settled on a nickname for each of us. The names didn’t have any reasoning behind them, and a couple of my brothers’ nicknames were downright odd. As we grew older, Dad stopped using the boys’ nickname

HAVING CHILDREN IS A BLESSING. There is also no greater responsibility, but there’s no greater joy. Although my two sons are grown men in their thirties, I still worry if they’re eating properly, if they put their seat belts on, and if the women they

SOMETIMES I’VE FELT LIKE GOD is holding out on me. After the liberating Good News of the Gospel, somehow, it seemed like many things were suddenly off-limits to me, even though they aren’t plainly addressed in the Bible. Why can’t I dress a certain

BEFORE MY CONVERSION, I WAS terrified of flying. And then Jesus took all my fears away in one miraculous sweep, and for the first time in my adult life, I enjoyed flying. My religious conversion has lasted and grown deeper over the decades. But the f

“WHAT IS IT ABOUT THIS family and hope?” my youngest grandson asked. “We have a cousin named Hope, and there’s hope everywhere in this house!” I love his exuberance on the subject. Ours is a house filled with hope. It shows up in books on the bookshe

I LOVE GOOD FOOD. WHEN I was growing up, meals weren’t just for filling an empty stomach. Food represented love, especially during the Christmas season. As I’ve grown in faith, my focus has shifted from the season’s overindulgence toward understandin

AS MY PARENTS GREW OLDER, every Christmas I would struggle with what to give them. If I offered to update their wardrobe with a new shirt or blouse, they’d insist they didn’t need clothes. What about a more personal item? Something for the house, the

I VISITED A NEW FRIEND’S home shortly before Christmas. “Come, see our tree,” she said as she led me into the living room. Twinkly lights, red baubles, and yards of curly white ribbon bedecked the tree. It resembled something from the pages of a home

I GUESS YOU COULD SAY that my dad was not into clothes. For sixty-nine years, my mom made the decisions on clothes purchases, and each day she laid out what he would wear. When he died, Mom encouraged family members to take the items they could wear

IN OUR HOME, BY THE second Sunday in Advent, we usually have our decorations up, and the excitement for Christmas is building. We gather around the Advent wreath and light the “Bethlehem Candle.” The light grows as Christ’s birth draws nearer. This c

I FOUND A SCENTED CANDLE for our living room in a home store the other day. I got in line behind a mom and her little girl. The line to the register wound its way through a maze of goodies displayed on either side. The girl asked, “Mom, can I have th

MY LOVE OF LETTERING BEGAN with my writers’ group’s Christmas gift exchange, when I went home with a set of calligraphy markers and a notepad. I’d dabbled in calligraphy before, but this time I was ready to get serious. I couldn’t wait to write some

HAVE YOU EVER ENCOUNTERED A Scrooge or a stingy person? You know, the ones who never offer to pick up the tab at lunch even though they are financially stable? Or the person who claims she wants to volunteer a couple of hours at the soup kitchen but

AS I WRITE, AN UNRULY pile of loose yarn covers the table beside me, waiting to be rewound. I avoid glancing over, knowing what lies ahead. Last autumn, I had knitted a shawl for my daughter. The pattern seemed simple enough. I followed the direction

THE ANGELS COULD HAVE SAID anything. There was no protocol to follow that night, no script. In fact, if you think about the story of Jesus’s birth, there’s nothing conventional about it. Two teenagers, unwed, make this rigorous trip to Bethlehem, as

ON THE THIRD SUNDAY IN Advent, we light the shepherd candle. Although the other candles on the wreath are usually purple or dark blue, the shepherd candle is traditionally pink—a reflection of the joy the shepherds experienced at hearing the Good New

MOST BIBLE SCHOLARS AGREE THAT the law of Christ is to simply love (Mark 12:28–31), so the meaning of Paul’s assertion in Galatians is clear. During my recent visit with a newer girlfriend, she shared a few challenges from the previous few days. A fr

A FRIEND COMPLAINED TO ME that her husband always leaves the kitchen cabinets open after he retrieves something from them. Every time, she tells him, “You forgot to close the cabinets,” and he immediately closes them but will forget the next time. Fi

AS A CHILD, I WAS afraid of the dark. At bedtime, I couldn’t sleep for fear that a bogeyman lay in wait, hidden under the bed or in my closet. I knew if I let down my guard for even a second, he would get me. Thankfully, I outgrew that terror. Now th

ON THE SUNDAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS, our family hurries home from church, excited to light the “Angel Candle.” The circle of light was finally complete on our Advent wreath, and our celebration of Christmas was just around the corner. It’s no wonder so ma

LAST CHRISTMAS, MY YOUNGER SON, Kevin, gave me a gift bag that included a cute blue tunic (I had previously mentioned my new collection of stretchy pants that needed longer tops), a big scented candle in greenhouse lilac (heavenly!), a high-quality j

DURING THE CHRISTMAS SEASON, I usually hang a simple marquee sign that lights up the word PEACE across our carport. Until this year. When I turned it on, it read ACE. I have another marquee sign for the bookcase next to our fireplace that reads JOY.

I LOVE MAKING HOMEMADE ROOM sprays and body products out of essential oils. This year, I started making body butter. When I made some for my sister Sherry, she requested a jar to give to a friend. Instead of using the same recipe that I’d used in the

AS A CHILD, I WAS always fascinated by the Christmas story: the animals, the shepherds and wise men, and, of course, the baby Jesus. I loved the baby Jesus. Something about a God Who came into the world as a baby was so relatable. It was a beautiful

EDITING IS A NECESSARY PART of a writer’s job. Most authors love to craft their initial stories, but rewriting takes a backseat. Some spell-check and revise as they go, while others wait until completing their first drafts. If we’re wise, we writers

MY SON ISAAC HAS DOWN syndrome. For the longest time, Isaac didn’t speak much at all and what he did say was largely unintelligible. Since the development of kids with Down syndrome can vary dramatically and they are unpredictable in their level of f

A YOUNG MAN I RECENTLY had a conversation with commented on a lyric he claimed was written by his favorite pop singer. “I love that!” he said. “Isn’t it, like, deep?” “You do know that’s from the Bible, don’t you?” I hoped he caught the importance of

ON EITHER SIDE OF OUR church stage sits a container holding a dozen worship flags. Everyone’s welcome to use them during the music portion of the Sunday service. More often than not, however, the majority remain untouched. I’ve never walked to the fr

MY FAMILY IS SPREAD OUT across the western states of Oregon, California, and Colorado. We try to stay informed with what is going on in each other’s lives by phone and text. But once a year, after Christmas, my parents bring us all home. They fly all

THROUGHOUT THE YEAR I HAVE invited the Lord to point out anything wrong in my heart (Psalm 139:24). That’s a good thing. Jesus accepts our confessions and loves a pure heart. Unconfessed sin blocks our fellowship with Him and makes us vulnerable. On