Look, the winter is past, and the rains are over and gone. The flowers are springing up, the season of singing birds has come, and the cooing of turtledoves fills the air. The fig trees are forming young fruit, and the fragrant grapevines are blossoming. (Song of Solomon 2: 11-13) As I watch new life springing up from the cold…
…When Our Tears Touch the Heart of God… I HEARD HER VOICE CRACKING as she described the situation in her marriage to me over the phone. She paused briefly, cleared her throat, and resumed her story. I could tell she was trying to hold back her emotions. At the end of our conversation, I asked if I could pray with…
THERE’S SOMETHING SCARY and surreal about entering a new year when your life is in upheaval—kind of like looking ahead into a vast unknown. You don’t know if you want to step out into it, but you know you have no choice. Time propels you forward. Whether you choose to take that step or not, you will be there. The…
SITTING BENEATH THE STARS at a Christmas concert in the park, I listened to the familiar strains of “We Three Kings” soaring sweetly into the air. As I lifted my eyes to gaze through the interplay of branches above me, my mind drifted with the words of the song. I thought about those three kings and the star they followed. …
SO HERE WE ARE in the midst of this messy political season– accusations, half-truths and, contradictory statements swirling around us from everywhere. How do we navigate through the confusion to land on the truth of where God would lead us? In the last few weeks my Bible study has been studying Jesus’ letters to the seven churches in Revelation. In…
STANDING AT THE FRONT of the church, I gazed into my husband’s eyes and repeated our wedding vows—promises that would join our lives together in marriage. “I Linda take thee, Marvin, to be my wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love…
When you don’t feel loving, you never know what might put the love back in your heart . . . and in your marriage. I awoke one morning not feeling very loving toward my husband at all. I was still upset with him because of a conversation we’d had the previous evening. At dinner, I had asked him to help…
WHEN PROBLEMS BEGIN eating away at your marriage, one question that often rises to the surface is whether you might be happier with a divorce. In fact, if crisis erupts, it may be one of the first options that come to mind. But would divorce make you happier? Would it resolve the turmoil and nagging anxiety that keeps you off…
When you feel your marriage beginning to crumble in crisis, fragments of unresolved issues, confusion, and pain can shatter your dreams and expectations for the life you thought you had. You feel all alone. You look around and see two camps of people: One camp with marriages intact, happily moving forward in their lives; the other camp with people who…
IN THE WEE HOURS of Tuesday morning I sat beside our much-loved 15 year old Akita as he passed from this life. With grief flooding my heart, I prayed that he was entering into a Heaven where God promises that “the wolf will live with the lamb.” Although scripture doesn’t specifically say it, I interpret that to mean that our…