*In all the years of raising our children, the eager anticipation of October 31 meant only one thing for us: the celebration of Reformation Day. Over the years, to celebrate, we did art projects, read stories of the reformers, studied the music of the Reformation, had picnics, parties, or hosted movie nights with friends to [ Read More ]
Archive for October, 2010
From as far back as I can remember, there was nothing I wanted more in this life than to be a wife and mother. Every cell in my body longed for the day when I would nurture children. If God had ordained a different path for me, His grace would undoubtedly have sustained me in [ Read More ]
This past week, Dan and I hosted a dinner party for the employees of our business along with their spouses, and a couple of primary contractors and their wives that have worked for us since we first started in the company. They all work so hard to make the business successful, and consequently, we wanted [ Read More ]
The Bible begins and ends with marriage. It begins with the creation of the first man Adam and his bride, Eve, and it ends with the marriage of Christ (the “second Adam”) and His Bride, the Church. Well, more exactly, the Bible begins and ends with God. “In the beginning, God…” (Genesis 1:1) to “…Come, [ Read More ]
Sometimes it feels like Dan and I live in paradise. But, actually, we don’t. In reality, we live in a beautiful little canyon on the edge of the rugged Cascade Mountains. Our home is surrounded by majestic pine trees, a wide variety of birds, deer, and sometimes even bear. In the intense quiet of summer [ Read More ]
My grandson Jakob was just 3 years old before the last presidential election. I was babysitting him once during that time, when he sat at my kitchen table in a grouchy mood. In his crabbiness, he was apparently trying to think of the worst thing possible that he could say to annoy me. Finally, not [ Read More ]
Today was another busy day. Yet in the rush, it was turning into one of those annoying days when irritating thoughts of failures and mistakes kept subtly cropping up, quietly accusing me until I started to recognize that I was becoming worn down and discouraged. In the process of it, involuntarily I started to think [ Read More ]
Urging a young woman to be ‘good,’ as Paul urged in Titus 2:3,4,5 seemed about as broad a command as I could imagine. Webster’s 1828 Dictionary of the English Language provides a lengthy definition of the word that fills a whole column of the dictionary. Apparently, it encompasses a lot! Among the lengthy descriptions of the [ Read More ]
“Let the older women teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers of the home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.” Titus 2:4,5 Prior to meeting my husband about 37 years ago, I enjoyed a [ Read More ]
On a sunny fall day in ’02, my daughter Sarah and I were driving to town to get some wedding preparations started. Enthralled with the happiness of her recent engagement, she dreamily sighed, “Mom, I just don’t deserve Jason.” My instinct, because of my love for Sarah, was to immediately respond, “Of course you do!” [ Read More ]