Category: Encouragement

Encouragement

Are You Glad to Be a Christian?

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I suppose Mrs. Allan is too old to dance and sing and of course it wouldn’t be dignified for a minister’s wife. But I can just feel she’s glad to be a Christian and that she’d be one even if she could get to heaven without it.

Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Green Gables has been my favorite novel, second only to Stepping Heavenward, since I was a little girl. I’ve read it countless times. This spring, I downloaded it on Audible and have been listening to it over the last few weeks. I was standing at the sink one afternoon, scrubbing some dishes after lunch, when Anne met Mrs. Allan, the new minister’s wife. Then Anne described her to Marilla in a way that really captivated me.

But I can just feel she’s glad to be a Christian and that she’d be one even if she could get to heaven without it.

She was glad. Not because of what she got out of being a Christian, just because she was one. She was His. The thought prompted the question that would logically follow.

Am I glad to be a Christian?

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Encouragement

Maybe He is the Answer, and He is Enough

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It’s early morning. My coffee sits in the window sill of my Dad’s office, which happens to be my favorite room in the whole house. No one else has woken up yet, and there’s a precious stillness around me. I turned on some soft instrumental music and the morning seems calm and quiet.

But it isn’t.

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Encouragement

Resolved: He Will Hold Me Fast

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Oh, how I love New Years Eve. I always have, and as I’ve gotten older, I have begun to understand why. I like fresh starts, I like getting organized, I like new beginnings, and new days with “no mistakes in them…yet.” (Cool people will picture their favorite Canadian red-head right about now.) What better time for all of those than the beginning of a brand new year?

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Encouragement

Longfellow Revisited: A Gospel Poem for Christmas

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Douglas Bond, author of several historical fiction novels, recently hosted a contest where one had to write a stanza that matched the syntax and style of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, and captured the essence of how the Gospel proves that “wrong shall fail and right prevail.”

The following is a poem that was born during this contest, when I began to ponder the depths of the Gospel, and how Christmas is far more than the birth of Jesus, it is the coming of lasting hope, the promise of peace, and the gift of redemption. Many thanks to Bond and Longfellow, for their work, and for turning my eyes back to the Savior this Christmas.

The final stanza is from Longfellow’s original work. Merry Christmas, dear friends.

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Encouragement

Perfection… In Every Act: Reflections from Another Year of Life

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“You may not understand why He leads you now in this way and now in that, but you may, nay, you must believe that perfection is stamped on His every act.”

Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss

I remember one year ago, waking up on my eighteenth birthday. I crept downstairs in the dark early hours, made a cup of coffee, wrapped myself in my Charlie Brown blanket, and sat on the couch where I could sit and stare at the Christmas tree. I took my glasses off, because my favorite way to look at Christmas lights is when my vision is unaided, and my near sightedness takes control, blurring the colors into a magnificent display of light and wonder. Then I just sat. And stared. And dreamed.

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Encouragement

When We’re Old Enough, Again

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My Dear Lucy,

I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound, you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can take it down then from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand, a word you say, but I shall still be

                                   Your affectionate Godfather,

C. S. Lewis

Do you remember being six years old, and dreaming of the day when you would be old enough?
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Encouragement

Dear Homeschool Mom

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Dear Homeschool Mom,

I know you work tirelessly from before sunrise to after sunset. I know you sometimes forgo your morning shower to help me with a math problem. I know you say “no” to lunch invitations from your girlfriends because I have a piano lesson. I know you cry sometimes, because you’re afraid I’ll never learn to read. I know you think you’re a failure at the end of some days because I still can’t remember the difference between a pronoun and a noun.

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