Mary Hamilton
To help establish our relationship with Cinder after we adopted her, my husband and I attended an obedience class with her. The first thing we learned was to get her attention and help her focus on us rather than her surroundings. I’d hold a treat up near my chin and say, “Look at me.” As …
Now and then, I find a book that significantly changes my way of thinking. One of those books is The Life You’ve Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People by John Ortberg. The author describes how, in the first century AD, much of the rabbinical writings dealt with circumcision, keeping the Sabbath, and dietary laws. …
The news isn’t good. ISIS atrocities continue, seemingly unstoppable. Police are under attack for unwarranted brutality. Winter blasts keep coming with extreme cold and lots of snow. Marriages are crumbling. Drug abuse claims more and more victims. Ever wonder…is God even paying attention? Doesn’t He see what’s going on? Trust me. He sees. He knows. Remember Hagar, Sarai’s …
Someone once commented on the way we approach reading the Bible. We tend to read certain chapters more than others, shying away from those that seem hard to understand or boring. We pick and choose sentences, verses, passages, but never read the book as a whole the way we do other books. How much would …
Today, on my morning walk, I noticed the clouds and thought, “God could have made a cloud and said, ‘That’s enough. I’m done with clouds.'” But no, He did so much more. He made flat clouds that stretch across the sky like elastic, and sometimes He added ripples. He made fluffy clouds that sail across …
I’ve heard death comes in threes. I suspect that’s not always true but since January, we’ve experienced the death of my 93-year-old mother and both of my in-laws who were in their 80’s. My mother was somewhat expected, since she’d been declining over the fall and early winter. But the deaths of my in-laws, two …
The Swaddling Clothes By Amber Schamel About the Book Through the ages, many stories have been told about Mary, Joseph and the birth of the Messiah. Stories of shepherds and sheep, kings, angels, and stables. But there is one story that has never been told. One story that has remained hidden in the fabric of …
It’s a typical country church with white siding and a tall steeple topped with a cross that shines in the night. The church sits atop a hill, surrounded by dairy farms and corn fields and an apple orchard. Gravestones dot the cemetery on one side of the old church. On the other side is a …
My guest this week is Carole Towriss. Carole grew up in beautiful San Diego, California. Now she and her husband live just north of Washington, DC. In between making tacos and telling her four children to pick up their shoes for the third time, she reads, writes, watches chick flicks and waits for summertime to return …
My guest this week is my good friend Joanne Sher. I met her at Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writer’s Conference last year. When she mentioned this date was her spiritual birthday, I knew she needed to be my guest today! I think you’ll enjoy her story of how she came to faith in Jesus Christ. …
Welcome to Marji Laine, co-author of A Dozen Apologies. Marji’s story of coming to faith excites me because of it happened at a youth camp. Tell us your story, Marji. I became a Christian at age eleven, during a week of youth camp the summer after my 6th grade year. I’d been brought up in …
Dramatic stories of how people came to faith grab our attention. It’s exciting to hear how God turned someone’s life around, gave them hope in a hopeless situation, or rescued them from danger or harm. As a storyteller, I understand the attraction to conflict and resolution that makes those testimonies so appealing, so interesting. But …
HopeSprings authors continue to celebrate the season of giving on Sydney Avey’s blog today. Comment to win an audio version of her newly released book The Sheep Walker’s Daughter. And don’t forget to click on the Rafflecopter link for a chance to win a Kindle! Thank you to all who left comments about what they …
I always thought the name passion flower came from the romantic scent the flowers give off, but the name comes from Spanish missionaries in the 15th and 16th centuries who used the flower’s structure to illustrate Jesus’ last days, or the Passion of Christ. The tendrils, for example, remind us of the whips used to …
If you’ve ever wondered about the banner picture, it’s from a painting done by one of the counselors at Lutherdale Bible Camp many years ago. When my family lived there, this was the site for the evening campfires during summer camp. Three sections of benches faced this structure built of logs. It too had a …
If you’ve ever wondered about the banner picture, it’s from a painting done by one of the counselors at Lutherdale Bible Camp many years ago. When my family lived there, this was the site for the evening campfires during summer camp. Three sections of benches faced this structure built of logs. It too had a …
I posted this last year on a different blog and decided to use it again because Dad is the model for Zeke in my soon-to-be-released novel, Sticks & Stones. Thirty-six years ago, I observed my first father-less Father’s Day. Weeks earlier, on the day after I returned home from my junior year of college, my …
I posted this last year on a different blog and decided to use it again because Dad is the model for Zeke in my soon-to-be-released novel, Sticks & Stones. Thirty-six years ago, I observed my first father-less Father’s Day. Weeks earlier, on the day after I returned home from my junior year of college, my …
I thought the dream was dead. It died a slow death, giving me time to look around for a new one. At last, I felt ready to put the old one to rest and move on. Move forward. And then… Boom! I met an editor at a writers’ conference who expressed a strong interest in …
I thought the dream was dead. It died a slow death, giving me time to look around for a new one. At last, I felt ready to put the old one to rest and move on. Move forward. And then… Boom! I met an editor at a writers’ conference who expressed a strong interest in …
A head cold kept me under the weather and less than sociable this week. It’s difficult to keep my spirit strong when my flesh is weak. I become discouraged about anything and everything. I guess the Lord decided it was time for me to re-learn a lesson from the past. While rummaging around in one …
A head cold kept me under the weather and less than sociable this week. It’s difficult to keep my spirit strong when my flesh is weak. I become discouraged about anything and everything. I guess the Lord decided it was time for me to re-learn a lesson from the past. While rummaging around in one …
I’ve always been a morning person. Even as a teenager, if I slept in until ten, I felt like I’d wasted half my day. Maybe it’s because I grew up out in the country where one can more attuned to the rhythms of nature. Or maybe God just wired me to wake up with the …
In honor of Valentine’s Day, I thought it would be fun to feature a real life camp romance. Cleo Lampos is with me today to share her story. Welcome, Cleo! Tell us your story. It wasn’t supposed to turn out like it did. My one week stay at Camp Joy at Whitewater Lake in Wisconsin …
