Persevere in faith; be resilient in love. Discover Jesus-filled Hope.
I love doing life with friends & family!
Only a few hours earlier I’d bonded with this precious new friend at breakfast. We sat and talked for nearly two hours, sharing backgrounds and dreams. This Texas small town girl felt an unlikely kinship with this Chicago gal and I was excited about this newly forged friendship. Now I’d just flipped her into waist…
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This past weekend I drove 1200+ miles round trip to Suzie Eller’s “Come With Me Launch Party & Retreat” at a ranch in northeast Oklahoma on the OK/AR stateline. I knew no one. Not a soul. Earlier this summer, Satan tried to sabotage this trip. “You have no business being there. You don’t belong.” He…
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As Hurricane Harvey’s first wave of devastation landed, news media began to flood my television twenty-four hours a day with picture after picture of horrific damage and loss in the Rockport and Victoria areas of the Coastal Bend. All the while I sat cool and comfortable in my home. My elderly parents and youngest brother…
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My cell phone rings and caller ID shows it’s my college-aged daughter. The conversation goes like this. Meredith: Hey Mom! I’m thinking about going on a mission trip to Haiti. Me: “Meredith, is it safe there? Why do you want to go there? Why do you think you need to go there? I’ll have to…
Read MoreYesterday I celebrated my 54th birthday. As I spent the day with my precious family, the three of us road-tripped thirty miles to a nearby vineyard. With no set plans for the day, it was simply a day to relax and spend time together. We taste-tested assorted offerings at the vineyard and peppered them with…
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I woke up, stretched, and then reached for my phone. Out of habit, I opened my Instagram account. This picture stared back at me. The sleepy Saturday morning brain fog instantly swept away as I sprang up in bed thinking, “Wow! There’s a reason I have gray hair,” and I grinned from ear to ear. My next thought was…
Read MoreHer son caught my daughter’s eye and my daughter caught his. As the courtship began and my daughter spent time in her home, she came to know my daughter. And me. As her son dated my daughter, I got to know him. And her. High school football, volleyball, basketball, FCA, swimming, prom and graduation…our childrens’…
Read MoreA burst of laughter rang out. I spun to witness a crepe in mid-air landing perfectly on Meredith’s crepe pan. Meredith and Steve broke out in a touchdown-like celebration filled with high fives and fist pumps. They laughed uncontrollably and cheered. I chuckled to myself and thought, “even in learning to make crepes, there’s competition!”…
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According to my mom, I tapped rhythms on pots, pans, and everything in sight as a young child, so she signed me up for piano at six years old. My first teacher was our church’s organist. After I learned the basics, church hymns quickly became my practice material. Trust me, I was no child prodigy.…
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I slid my hand into his large, calloused hand. And wept. I wept over the chaos in our lives, the turmoil within our congregation. I wept because he didn’t reject my hand. I wept for the hope and promise beget in that small gesture. “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors” washed over…
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