• Learning from the Israelites

    This year I am reading chronologically through the Bible and finished Deuteronomy a while back. Admittedly, some of those books of the law (Genesis through Deuteronomy) can be hard to get through, but then along the way in an area where I may be struggling to get *something* from God’s word and BOOM! I find a gold nugget. A lot of times, we don’t get anything out of our Bible reading because we don’t understand the culture of the people, what was going on in that time in history, or the context of the scriptures. How I have improved my Bible reading is I allow myself time to look up…

  • Well-Worn Paths

    For the last six years come spring we have bought a small herd of Angus steers to have up until the late fall. My husband grew up raising beef cattle, and this is a “hobby” for him. The interesting thing is that every year when we get a brand new herd, they tend to walk the very same paths through our fields. The well-worn paths never grow grass to cover where they walk day in and day out while living on our farm. Their well-worn paths made me think about the well-worn paths in my life. The same things I do day in and day out. My habits. Habits. They…

  • Known By Name

    Our names are often one of the first things we give when we meet someone. In the English grammar world, names are a proper noun, but in essence they can be thought of as an adjective or descriptive word because they represent to us who that person is. Pretend with me a personality dictionary of everyone existed (and one may exist in our minds). It would give a detailed characterization of what we think of and know about a person. For example: Leslie: forty-something years old, wife to Wade, mother to Elizabeth and Andrew, likes to cook, likes to keep a clean house, likes to craft, etc. If you personally…

  • Fallen Away

    Part of my Bible reading this past week was reading through 1 Kings when Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal, a pagan god (1 Kings 18:21-24). He wanted the children of Israel to turn back to God wholeheartedly. Much like people do today, the Israelites had not completely rejected God, but they had made Him a very small part of their lives (1 Kings 18:21). Our Baal may be our careers, children, hobbies, spouses, popularity…whatever takes first place in our day-to-day. While reading this chapter, it was so sad to me to read about the prophets of Baal cutting themselves “till the blood gushed out upon them” (1 Kings 18:28).…

  • How Happy is Your Easter?

    As a young adult, I will admit Easter was not a favorite holiday. The truth is, I was not even acknowledging it as a Holy Day. As a Christian, I was completely missing the scriptural importance of this holiday. Once our children were born, we celebrated with the usual Easter basket and dying of eggs, but I knew I needed to introduce more of the doctrinal reasons for Easter. We would make resurrection rolls and talk about their meaning, and then we added resurrection eggs to our traditions. They loved the resurrection eggs, and it was a meaningful way to teach the essential details of Holy Week. However, this year…

  • Living Like a Barnabas

    The other day as I was checking out at the grocery store, a baby was squalling somewhere nearby. I wasn’t sure whether to feel sorrier for the mama or the baby. It sounded like a newborn and quickly brought back my own memories as a young mama with little ones. Looking around, I was able to spot the mom with her sweet baby. She had already bought her groceries and was over by the bathrooms in the front of the store trying to get the babe calmed down. When I went to my car to put my groceries inside, I saw the mama was across from me trying to hold…

  • Improving Your Prayer Life with Technology

    One of the great things about the age of technology and smart phones is how it can be used to better your life. Fitness apps, Bible apps, bank apps, grocery list apps – it helps us to save time, money, and keep up with how we are doing physically AND spiritually. My prayer life is something I work hard to have, and yet I feel like I struggle with it almost every day. I know why! One reason is my own fault with how I’m not disciplining myself. The other is I know the devil wants to keep me from being more like Christ. He wants to be a stumbling…

  • Passing Down Heirlooms

    Last week I was going through my closet for the youth’s semiannual garage sale at church. Trying to make sure I had rid it of anything I didn’t want, I came across this little dress which had actually belonged to me as a baby. (You can tell how old it is!) As a child, I used it as an outfit for my favorite stuffed pink rabbit named “Pinky.” When my son, Andrew, was almost six years old, he saw Pinky at the top of my closet and asked me about her. I told him how my grandmother had given Pinky to me when I was three as an Easter gift.…

  • Look to the Light

    The temperature got above my age the other day which means it was warm enough to go outside. 😉 So I took a stroll around the yard investigating my flower beds. Some of my daffodils, hyacinths, and a few crocuses had bloomed. It did my heart good. 💚 I noticed the crocuses on one side of my flower beds bending toward the sun. Do you remember when you learned in elementary school about why these pretty, dainty flowers were straining toward the sun? Photosynthesis. (Did you remember? 😁) God created plants to need light. Lots of light. The simple fact is we need light too! However, I’m not talking SUN…