Mornings with Jesus

THE STORMS BLOW IN from the west, rain slanting against our windows, fine dust and pollen dulling their surface. Finally came a clear day, a chance to clean them of their grime. A chance to enjoy the view. I got out the Windex and roll of paper towel

MY STAFF AND MISSION TEAM had just ended a day of service in Kamuli, Uganda, when we entered our office. Toward the front was a row of stately women sitting on a bench. They were wearing perfectly creased dresses with posture that held them upright a

HIDE-AND-SEEK CAN BE A FUN children’s game, but in real life, our efforts to run and hide from Jesus can be tragic. Imagine, if when our Lord walked into the garden and discovered that Adam and Eve were missing, He simply left them to their choices,

IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN WHEN pools close until next summer. But some in our house still have a little pool water clogged in their ears, and we’re trying to unclog them. It’s not fun! When no amount of hanging upside down and shaking your head is working

MY NINE-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER, ADELAIDE, IS a natural teacher. She has her own desk, fully supplied, and a chalkboard in her room, along with a massive bookshelf. She pilfers papers and worksheets from her teacher aunt. She teaches her sister, her cousin

MY DAUGHTER LASHED OUT AT her younger brother, but the anger in her eyes quickly turned to fear. She rushed to her bedroom and something in my mind told me to follow. I found her in her room packing her backpack. I asked what she was doing. “I’m pack

AT AN AUTHOR FRIEND’S BOOK signing in a library, I sat in one of the side chairs and observed her interactions with the crowd. In deference to the public library setting, my friend didn’t try to turn the event into a preaching opportunity. She talked

AS MY GRANDDAUGHTER ENTERED THIRD grade, her family moved to a school district with a strict dress code. Students wore pants in khaki, black, or navy; polo shirts in a handful of colors; and plain dresses with polo-style tops. No jeans or glitzy acce

I DROVE HALFWAY ACROSS THE United States recently and had difficulty finding my way home. I’m a pretty good navigator with a paper map but I’ve started to depend on my smartphone’s navigation system. I won’t do that again. First, my phone couldn’t se

FEAR GRIPPED THE ISRAELITES WHEN they learned that the Philistine army was advancing toward them. They begged Samuel to ask God to rescue them, so he sacrificed a young lamb and prayed on their behalf. God answered by speaking with a mighty voice of

I SUFFER FROM BOUTS OF discontent, times when I seem to focus on what’s lacking in my life rather than on what abounds, which, by most standards, is plenty. Take where I am today. We recently moved to the Florida Gulf Coast, a physical paradise and t

RECENTLY, I REPOSTED A BLOG on Facebook that I had written a few years earlier called, “If Only We Had Known.” It’s a poem that reflects the familiar what-if exercise we writers often use to give wings to our thoughts. I read that poem again as other

I’VE GONE THROUGH A SEASON of discouragement lately. But between mass shootings, the refugee crisis, friends’ problems, and my own personal issues with finances, marriage, parenting, and a full-time job, I’ve had a serious case of the funk. I take me

I COMMITTED A RIDICULOUS SIN the other day. Not unpardonable, but falling into the “What were you thinking?” category. I gave Jesus counsel. A problem confronted my family. One that seemed closer to impossible than merely perplexing. In prayer, I sug

FOR SIXTEEN YEARS I WORKED in elementary schools, either as a teacher or a consultant, and I’m not sure who learned more—me or my students. Each day “life” lessons proved to be far more powerful than whatever textbooks could teach, and I learned some

IN SEPTEMBER 2016, I READ a new story about Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster. I’ve always been a skeptic, but I’ve got to admit that this report included a compelling picture. The headline suggested it was the most convincing photo ever taken of the sup

I REGULARLY TEACH OUR KIDS’ class at church. We have a wide variety of ages from preschool through fifth grade. As I welcome kids to the class, I will often have a table set up with an activity or craft. One they all seem to enjoy is Play-Doh. There

MY DOG, RUE, LOVES TO watch our chickens. She’s practiced being calm around them and has to leave if she gets too excited or shows any sign of aggression. She was doing very well until the other night when she poked her nose through the electric net

AN ACQUAINTANCE CALLED ME AND wanted advice and encouragement. I listened to her dilemma, helped her brainstorm solutions, and did all I could to remind her that Jesus had not stopped loving her. After I got off the phone, I felt wistful. She hadn’t

WHEN MY DAD PASSED AWAY a few months ago, I took my mom to the Social Security Administration so she could apply for survivor’s benefits. After we answered all the questions and showed the proper documentation, the representative handed us a copy of

JESUS USES ACTION WORDS TO describe the essence of prayer: ask, seek, and knock. I’ve pondered these words for decades and have come to realize that asking prompts us, seeking confuses us, and knocking just plain irritates us! The question is why did

WHO COUNTS IT ALL JOY when they face trials? Seriously? I desperately want a life of ease and comfort, and tend to bristle at trials of any size. Still, having lived out my faith for a number of years, more or less gracefully, I believe the truth of

WAS “JESUS WEPT” (JOHN 11:35) one of the first Bible verses you memorized, too? I was blessed to be raised in a home full of faith, rich in love, and well-versed in the importance of the Bible for daily living. I filled my young mind with truths from

TEN YEARS AGO, MY MOM planted a rosebush in our backyard. Each spring its old-fashioned roses overtake the side of the gardening shed. They are light yellow, edged in apricot and crimson. The blooms are fragrant and as big as my hand. The bush itself

THIS MORNING WE RAN LATE and my daughter, Adelaide, missed the bus. As I drove her to the high school, making myself late for work, I practiced mindfulness in order to rein in my anxiety. I looked at my daughter’s face in the rearview mirror. I paid

HEAVY STOMPING POUNDED UP THE stairs, followed by a child’s cry. I hurried in that direction and found my six-year-old holding her foot. Her thirteen-year-old sister had been sent upstairs to clean her room, and was apparently frustrated by the task.

MY SON, JACK, IS AN asker extraordinaire. He is persistent when it comes to asking my husband, Scott, or me for something that he needs or wants. And while he uses steady pressure applied on a daily basis, his approach varies. There is the gentle ask

IN A PERFECT WORLD, OUR friends and family would provide a safe place for us to share our dreams and hopes. They’d be the sanctuary where we could confide the visions that Jesus plants in our hearts no matter how impossible or illogical they seem. Th

AUTUMN HAS BEEN IN THE breeze the past few days. A yearly relief from the muggy midnineties! It calls me outside because the sun no longer seems angry. I actually get the same boost to my spirit in the first days of summer, when I can bypass heavy, c

MY BEES ARE FIGHTING. IT’S fall and I’ve begun feeding them to help them build up their winter honey stores. One hive, though, is stronger than the other and rather than wait in line at their own feeders, they’ve decided to rob the weaker hive’s feed

KING JEROBOAM ENCOURAGED IDOL WORSHIP in Israel, but when his son got sick, he wanted help from the Lord’s prophet. Jeroboam had his wife take off her royal robes and jewels and visit Ahijah in disguise. Imagine her surprise when the elderly, blind p

THIS IS ADDISON’S LAST YEAR in elementary school. There are no superheroes on his backpack. It’s all black with grey trim. Because life is serious now. He has started slicking his hair over to one side. He looks like a young executive heading off to

MY SISTER AND I SAT in the loud football stadium, watching my son play his final season in high school. To take my mind off how big his opponents were—and the fact that he was playing offense, defense, and on special teams—we began to talk about funn

MY SON, HARPER, AND HIS friends laughed at a joke I thought wasn’t funny. Most would probably explain it as he did—just typical teenage stuff. He felt I was making a big deal out of nothing. The poor kid didn’t really have a chance at getting a break

I COULD SPEND HOURS RESEARCHING information about a topic that stirs my curiosity. If I had no other responsibilities in life, I’d easily become a full-time information junkie. In college I was fascinated with Kennedy’s Camelot years during the 1960s

LAST WEEK I FELT AS if I accomplished nothing. Interruptions and distractions kept me from my plans. Like a farmer who has scattered seed and keeps peering at the field for a sign of life, I felt disheartened. What difference had I made for God’s kin

WHEN MY HUSBAND TURNED SIXTY, we decided to celebrate his milestone by doing something extra special. Together with another couple, we rented bicycles and rode along the Danube River from Passau, Germany, to Vienna, Austria. We covered approximately

I HAVEN’T BEEN SLEEPING WELL lately. My husband, Mike, and I have been going through a lot of changes at a time of life when I expected to be beyond that kind of chaos. We’re selling a house, my husband is job-hunting, we’re combining households, sor

HAVE YOU EVER GOTTEN THE wind knocked out of you? Your chest feels like it’s carrying a two-ton weight, and you can’t get enough air. It’s painful and scary, leaving you to wonder whether you’re going to breathe again. It happened to me a few times a

MANY TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY CHRISTIANS DON’T WANT to linger on the thought of a devil, let alone one who actively prowls for prey; yet, the Bible asserts that he is real and looking to do us harm. Authors like C. S. Lewis and Frank Peretti have written

IT’S ONLY LOGICAL TO BREAK food into pieces before dividing it among people. What’s not logical is for an individual lunch to stretch into an all-you-can-eat buffet for a crowd of thousands. Yet in Jesus’s hands, a few small loaves of bread and a cou

I HAVE THREE FRIENDS FROM college whom I text regularly. We don’t live near each other, but we want to stay connected. We want to know what is going on in each other’s lives. I love these conversations. The only problem is that my phone does not do w

I’M FORTY-FOUR YEARS OLD, OKAY? Old enough to know that a junior high football game won’t have much significance in the scope of a lifetime. I know this. And yet, yesterday I was sick to my stomach all day before the game, developed a migraine during

I’LL NEVER FORGET THE PANIC I felt as a young child when I was separated from my mother in a large department store. After winding my way through the maze of clothes in the women’s section, I discovered I was alone. At that time, not much daylight sh

MY SON IS IN SEMINARY, and I love discussing theological issues or difficult biblical chapters with him. The last time we visited, we chatted at the supper table about various denominational differences and the Scriptural basis for their views. Later

THE MINUTE THE SPEAKER FINISHED her talk I bolted to find my place in the line of women who wanted to speak to her. She spoke on knowing our purpose and being assured we’re doing what Jesus has called us to do. When it was my turn to whisper my confu

SOMETIMES I LIVE AS IF God needs me to uphold His reputation. If I’m cranky getting to church, you can bet I’ll fix my expression into some semblance of pleasantness before I walk through the doors. Am I really trying to protect God by pasting on a s

MY GRANDSON, ROMAN, HAD A hard time paying attention in kindergarten, until testing revealed that he read beyond fifth-grade level and scored exceptionally high on other skills. Once the school put Roman in more challenging settings, his behavior imp

WHEN MY SON, ISAAC, WAS born with Down syndrome six years ago, I was devastated. Even though we’d been warned of the possibility early in my pregnancy, I had frankly prayed it wouldn’t be so. When Isaac arrived and the diagnosis proved accurate, I co

RETIRED FRIENDS TELL ME THEY’RE busier now than ever before. Based on what my life looks like, it’s hard to imagine picking up the pace when I reach that life stage. I begin every morning with a to-do list. Inevitably, e-mails and phone calls bring o

I GREW UP IN A small town in Northern California. As in many small towns there was a local rivalry. Our rivalry team was the Mt. Shasta Bears, and we were the Weed Cougars. Yes, the town I grew up in was named Weed, and as you can imagine the Bears c

ONE OF THE STRENGTHS I’VE long admired about homeschooling is a principle our family adopted even though we opted to send our children to a small public school—“lifestyle learning.” Making homemade applesauce taught skills like coordination, followin

ONE MORNING I WENT FOR a walk with our family puppy, Bea. It’s one of her favorite adventures. Part of my joy comes from her excitement. Some days she senses the end of school. She’ll stand by the door, wagging to say it’s time to walk to meet the ki

MY SENIOR YEAR OF COLLEGE should have been a breeze. Each of my roommates had assignments during the summer so we’d be ready to launch a smooth new year when we arrived at San Diego State University for the fall semester. Within a day or two of arriv

THREE YEARS AGO MY HUSBAND and I rented the basement of a large empty house as our ministry office. It later seemed logical to rent the upstairs for ourselves, but we needed to find renters for our townhouse first to make it financially feasible. We

ONE THING I APPRECIATE ABOUT my husband, John, is that he’s a man of his word. If we have a broken sink and he says he’s going to fix it, he does. If he promises to take me out on a date, he will. If he offers to take the kids to the park so I can ha

ONCE A MONTH A NUMBER of local novelists gather at my home. All morning we write in silence, but for the tapping of our laptop keys. Being with other authors fuels our motivation to keep going in our stories. After lunch we discuss chapters and offer

THIS MORNING I WOKE UP with an unpleasant memory stuck in my brain. Over and over my mind replayed the scene: I walked into a room just as someone was telling a lie about me, obviously trying to cast me in a negative light with several people. The li

BECAUSE OF KING AHAB’S REFUSAL to honor God, for almost three years rain had not drenched the earth in Israel. But after demonstrating His power repeatedly, including the massacre of 450 Baal prophets, God once again used Elijah, His prophet, to anno

I LIKE SHOES. EVEN THOUGH as a mom of small kids who works from home I have few chances to get dolled up, I still have a lot of shoes. I just appreciate any good-looking shoe. My ten-year-old son suffers from the same affliction, though for basketbal

I CAN BARELY TURN ON my computer without being confronted by the suffering in the world. Headlines and social media can plunge me into a day’s worth of depression. I am empathetic. The thought of refugee families ripped from their homes and left dest

MY DOG, RUE, IS A good little swimmer but, like me, she has a problem with focus. She swam the length of a football field into frigid Lake Superior to check out a couple of floating seagulls. Tuned in to the birds, she seemed not to hear me calling h

Every attempt has been made to credit the sources of copyrighted material used in this book. If any such acknowledgment has been inadvertently omitted or miscredited, receipt of such information would be appreciated. Scripture quotations marked (AMP)