I am a very easily frightened person. My biggest fear, is… balloons.
It’s ridiculous, right? What is so terrifying about a little piece of latex filled with air?
Continue reading “The Blessed Secret: The Biggest Thing Susannah Spurgeon Taught Me”
Category: Encouragement
Resolved: He Will Hold Me Fast
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?
Continue reading “Resolved: He Will Hold Me Fast”Longfellow Revisited: A Gospel Poem for Christmas
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.
Continue reading “Longfellow Revisited: A Gospel Poem for Christmas”
Perfection… In Every Act: Reflections from Another Year of Life
“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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When We’re Old Enough, Again
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?
Continue reading “When We’re Old Enough, Again”
Dear Homeschool Mom
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.
