Isn’t it easy to make a judgment about someone else based on our own experience? Then later, if we are forced to walk the road they traveled, we gain understanding and drop our critical opinions. If only we would seek to understand others, to walk in their shoes, before we decide to judge them.
Reviving Old-Fashioned Wisdom in Modern Culture
American culture sorely needs the rules by which older generations were raised. Let’s bring back old-fashioned wisdom. Mother always said this when we kids blamed each other for starting a fight or an argument. When provoked, we can choose to react or to walk away. #oldfashionedwisdom
Don’t Be Sorry You Missed an Opportunity
45 years ago, I was sleeping in on my first day home from my junior year of college. I heard my dad and younger brothers in the kitchen having breakfast and getting ready for work and school. I thought about getting up to see Dad, having only seen him a few minutes when I got in the night before. But it felt good to be in my own bed with no reason to have to get up. I snuggled in and went back to sleep. Later that day...
Fevered Reflections on Christmas
I’d planned much more for this month, but the flu waylaid me for two weeks. Consequently, all the things I’d planned to accomplish by now are not going to get done. So here are just a couple of insights that came out of my illness. With little energy for anything else, I had lots of …
Advent and The Discipline of Waiting
“I love to wait,” said no one, ever. Most of us associate waiting with uselessness—waiting in traffic, waiting in the doctor’s office, waiting in the grocery line to check out, waiting for a repairman, waiting for a teenage son or daughter to come home, waiting for your flight to board and take off. Recently, …
Signatures in an Autograph Book
Friends are the people who leave their signature in the autograph book of your life. A couple weeks ago, I received a welcome surprise in my email inbox. A friend from my freshman year of college wrote asking if I was the Mary Watson he used to know. Indeed I am, and we spent the …
Have You Made God Too Small?
Three weeks ago, I attended the annual conference for the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW). More than 450 published and unpublished writers came together in Dallas for 2-3 days of learning, talking, and eating, sleeping (maybe) and breathing writing. Rubbing shoulders with Christian superstar authors like Bill Myers and Francine Rivers. The conference is exhilarating, …
Change Is Good
Change can be hard, exciting, challenging, welcome or dreaded. As a high school graduate, I gifted my best friend with a decoupaged wallhanging I’d made from a magazine ad. It showed a picture of a young child, forehead against the window of a school bus with a tear sliding down his cheek. The caption read, …
Crown of Thorns
Have you seen this plant? When I was growing up, I recall my parents having a gnarled old plant like this in a metal bucket. Most of the year, it looked thorny and ugly. But when it bloomed with small round flowers all over, it was beautiful. The Crown of Thorns is associated with Passion …