God’s not-so-random acts of encouragement

God’s not-so-random acts of encouragement

My friend has experienced God’s very present help in trouble. But Ann has a problem. After seeing so many signs and wonders, she worries that people might not believe her testimony. Last year proved the most difficult one of Ann’s life. A corporate calamity loomed overhead for months on end. Meanwhile, both her parents’ health […]

Down with resolutions – except one

Down with resolutions – except one

It seems I picked the right year to nix the idea of making my annual list of resolutions. Fortunate too that I stocked up on boxes of tissue, antihistamines and expectorant. My first week of 2012 was spent depleting those supplies, not thinking a whit about any personal goals beyond getting well and back to […]

‘150 Quick Questions to Get Your Kids Talking’

‘150 Quick Questions to Get Your Kids Talking’

Non-Fiction Review by Patti Richter 150 Quick Questions to Get Your Kids Talking Written by Mary E. DeMuth Trying to get our children to open up and talk often proves futile. Seemingly overnight they can go from endless chatter and questioning to quiet reserve and disinterest in parental perspectives. How do we share our values […]

De-stressing at Christmas – in the closet

De-stressing at Christmas – in the closet

Some people trim their Christmas tree after Thanksgiving dinner. They head out early on Black Friday and do all their Christmas shopping by day’s end. They have their family-photo-Christmas-cards in the mail by Dec. 1. Then there are the rest of us. We pull out our Christmas boxes and let them incubate for days, as […]

A lesson in forgiveness at Thanksgiving time

A lesson in forgiveness at Thanksgiving time

A depressed soul and a holiday make a poor pair. I sat down to pray about my unhappy condition on a mid-November morning. I had my health, my family, and a new home. I could have written a turkey-size list of things to be thankful for. But instead, complaints ran through my mind like newsfeed […]

Of snakes & pumpkins: even a perfect fall day is better with prayer

Of snakes & pumpkins: even a perfect fall day is better with prayer

 Our Texas porches want pumpkins in autumn, temperatures notwithstanding. There might not be color in the trees yet, so we depend on pumpkins and chrysanthemums.  I’ll set my favorite yellow and deep orange mums atop a weathered bench on the front porch and add a few pumpkins to accentuate their glory. I’m only a fair-weather […]

In a dry and thirsty land

God knows what he’s up to, and it’s for our good So this is a drought. Many of us have never really seen one. We’ve seen images of drought in world news and in magazines from relief organizations. It’s not life-threatening here in Texas, except to livestock and poor creatures of the field. But even […]

‘When Someone You Love No Longer Remembers’

Non-Fiction Book Review by Patti Richter When Someone You Love No Longer Remembers Written by Cecil Murphey                   Illustrations by Michal Sparks It’s too late to give my friend the beautiful book I just read by well-known author Cecil Murphey. The illustrated gift book is intended to encourage caregivers, friends and family members of those whose […]

1 11 12 13