Devotions
For Mom – Isaiah 49:15, 66:13
Being ‘Mom’ without having a mom can make not just Mother’s Day but any day of motherhood a bit difficult. Every new and happy milestone my children face often comes tainted with a smidge of grief, envy, fear, and even resentment. Every new season comes with unanswered questions too. What did she do when I was this age? How did she manage this situation? How did she discipline that behavior? What advice did she follow? [...]
A Near Miss – Psalm 46:1, Romans 8:31
A near miss. That’s what it was. The eighteen-wheeler barreled on down the road, but I sat there shaking. With white knuckled grip on the steering wheel, I felt a flood of gratitude mingled with that torrent of fear. I pulled at my seatbelt to remind myself, yes, I was okay. I’d gotten out of the way in time. I’d dodged, swerved, braked just enough to miss the truck. But the driver hadn’t even seen [...]
Rain Dancin’ – Hebrews 12:2
“Can we, Mommy?” Three pairs of little eyes stared longingly up at me. They wanted to go rain dancin’. To jump in puddles. To shuffle their bare feet over the wet grass and have their toes and bottoms wriggle and slosh through the water that flowed along the curb’s edge down by the street. But I hesitated. All I could think of was the effort it would take to clean them all up. The extra [...]
Beautiful Sacrifice – Isaiah 53:2
Not long ago, I came across an incredible story—the story of Mary Ann Bevan, the “Ugliest Woman in the World.” She was actually a beautiful woman in her youth. She married and had four children. She was educated as a nurse and quite prosperous. Yet in her early thirties, she developed acromegaly, a disease that caused her face to become distorted and her body to grow abnormally. After a time, her husband died unexpectedly, leaving [...]
Stand In Awe – Psalm 95:2-4
Beside a long, winding two-lane road that climbs up Mt. Humphries almost to its peak is a popular hiking trail called Aspen Loop. At first glance, the trail has no eye-catching features. Its head, in fact, is littered with potholes and mud piles, byproducts of the high-altitude showers that come during fall and spring afternoons. Nevertheless, if you can endure the muck and have the patience to hike down one sloping ravine, through a dense [...]
Copy Me – 1 Corinthians 11:1
“Stop copying me!” My oldest daughter yelled from across the kitchen table. I was busy chopping kale into a salad while the girls smooshed and cut balls of play dough into their own flattened piles of green. As usual, little sister was mimicking everything big sister was doing. “Why does she do that?” My frustrated girl asked, as I turned to intervene. “Because you matter,” I empathetically replied. “You matter so much sissy wants to [...]
