Gifts and talents are a form of God’s grace we can offer to others, and they say “to the world who we are.” I love the quote below from Mr. Rogers, and I wish my grandkids had a Mr. Rogers to watch and love. In spite of good advice from Mr. Rogers about using our gifts and celebrating how we are all different, I struggled with being myself and using my gifts in childhood as well as young adulthood. As... Read more
If you want to accomplish something and you feel you don’t have time, see if you can find 20 minutes. Twenty minutes a day of making art added up to my first solo show in 30 years. This can apply not only to art, but also to other endeavors. Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together. —Vincent Van Gogh Putting It Off Back in 2016, I was one of thousands of... Read more
“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” —Mark 10:51 NIV It seems strange that Jesus asked a blind man what he wanted, but it makes me wonder about the nature of God. We tend to think we should ask for only certain things from God. And I believe that’s true to an extent. I mean, I don’t think we should ask God for a Ferrari to... Read more
1. Sharing Meals Together Before COVID, we had friends over to eat on a regular basis. We took for granted being able to gather with anyone and everyone we knew. I’m not a great housekeeper, so I get a little stressed about cleaning for company, but it’s so worth it. I enjoy the cooking and baking part. Once I get it all on the table and friends are gathered round, I love the feeling of all of us seated together... Read more
I learned a valuable lesson from an ink splat in the middle of a portrait drawing class. After the professor’s action shocked me, he taught me to just keep going in spite of mistakes. The Ink Splat I’ll never forget the ink spill day in drawing class. I was attending a liberal arts university, majoring in fine art. Day after day we studied by drawing from a bust of the “David” by Michelangelo. We sketched in charcoal, pastel, pencil, ink—I... Read more
And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. —Matthew 18:3 NIV 1. Find Joy in Simple Things A few years ago when my granddaughter was almost two, we took a family trip to Gatlinburg, Tenn. The little ones were so excited to play in the splash park at the hotel. Little Judith would burst into laughter again and again when a fountain sprayed up, soaking... Read more
As a child I thought the Underground Railroad was a literal underground railroad, but instead, it was a series of secret trails and safe houses that Harriet Tubman and other abolitionists used to help the enslaved escape. Perhaps Colson Whitehead had the same ideas I did as a child. Whitehead wrote a fictional account of the Underground Railroad in his Pulitzer Prize winning novel by that name. I listened to his book in which an actual underground railroad carried passengers from... Read more
We’ve been married for 40 years. I can’t believe it’s been so long, but I can’t imagine life without my husband. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh” (Ephesians 5:31 NIV). I wrote the story below after we went wilderness camping with the children and grandchildren in the fall of 2020. Wilderness Camping In some ways, I felt like an intruder on the camping... Read more
In the letters to the Corinthians, Paul is challenging us to see things from a fresh perspective, by fixing “our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen” (2 Corinthians 4:18a NIV). For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all (2 Corinthians 4:17 NIV). —the Apostle Paul The Perspective of St. Paul I wouldn’t call what many of us have endured over the past year or so... Read more
Sojourner’s Wisdom Religion without humanity is very poor human stuff. —Sojourner Truth So many Americans are angry. The non-religious are angry at Christians, lumping them all together with the group that stormed the capital, assuming all Christians are of the same stripe. I understand, to an extent. They have seen too much “religion without humanity,” and have rejected it. Then some Christians are angry at the liberals, the democrats or the Muslims, and on it goes without end. Putting a... Read more
Learning to Love God by Loving Others
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