I don't hate this! I love it! This may seem like an odd list, for we aren’t supposed to hate anything, are we?  Oh, but that’s where we’re wrong.  Six things the Lord hates, yea, seven are an abomination to Him.  Seven, the perfect seven—the things to hate. ~   I hate pride, especially in myself.  I especially hate spiritual pride— the pride that keeps track of one’s own “good deeds” and spoils them all by announcing them and expecting something in return.  ~    I hate unf

Ever since I was a toddler, I have loved tiny containers— little plastic suitcases, wood boxes, and secret hideaway places like built-in closets and drawers.  I loved the little plastic farm and zoo animals at Ben Franklin’s and McCrory’s. I have always loved shells and even used to have dreams where I walked the beach and found hundreds of unique shells, which I collected in breathless ecstasy. ~ I loved collecting pictures of nature from old calendars and sometimes wrote li

Nine years ago, one week before Christmas, my beloved mother passed away.  Sunday morning, December 18, 2016, at 4:20 of a cold, foggy morning, the Hospice nurse confirmed what my sister and I had just witnessed:  our precious mother was gone.  For eighteen sleepless hours, we had kept vigil at her side, reading Scripture, praying, and singing hymns.  At one point when we were quoting verses about heaven, I suddenly realized that my focus was misguided.  Thinking about heaven

My niece Autumn tagged me to write about Autumn! Q. If autumn isn't your favorite season, what is? And if autumn is your favorite...

She doesn't know this, but my niece inspired me to post my ideas that have been sitting in my draft box almost all summer--my post...

The Dead Tree Perhaps every neighborhood has one--the dreaded dead tree in a neighbor's yard that you hope does not fall on your house...

It was Sunday, October 29, 2017, in High Point, North Carolina. I had pulled in my parents' driveway on my way home from church, as I often did in those days. Somehow their sweet spirits lingered in their house among all their precious things, even though my father had passed away at the end of June and my mother had died a week before Christmas in 2016. Losing them six months apart had taken a toll I was not capable of comprehending at that time. My own health had broken

Most of what I have learned about teaching over the course of many years in the classroom has nothing to do with professional learning...

Many years ago when I was only six years into my teaching, a little episode happened at school that I have remembered all these years. I...

I am reminded that there are still those small lanterns burning in the world, no matter how dark things become. It was 8:45 p.m. on May...

Introduction: Too often we hear preachers today thunder out the message--that is, if they preach with authority at all--that salvation is by grace alone , misquoting Ephesians 2:8-9 with no qualms. But I always want to shout back, "What have you done with 'through faith ?'" Yes, what have they done with it? And, even when they do include "through faith," what have they done with faith ? Like so many things these days, salvation, grace , and faith don't mean what the

Arthur Lucas Junior High School, Durand, Michigan Arthur Lucas Junior High School in Durand, Michigan--built in 1920, only two years after the close of World War I and not quite a decade before the Great Depression--was closed as a school in 1996, to be ungraciously abandoned after serving as a great hall of learning for 76 years. Apparently, it was later sold to be converted into apartments. Other than driving past one time a few years after we moved away from Durand, I h

Southside Elementary School in Sanford, Florida I love old schools. In my opinion, there's nothing like them, and I take it personally...

“Let go”—just two little words with so much meaning.  But what do they really mean?  Like Janus, the Roman god with two faces—one facing...

It struck me recently—and with some chagrin—that I have now lived three generations.  Deciding there was nothing I could do about this, I...