[Kristen Hogrefe Parnell] The Secret to Anticipating Christmas

How do you anticipate a season if you’re dreading it? For some, this year has been full of blessings, but for many, it’s been one challenge after another. I feel you. This year has been a mixed bag for me.
The secret is that anticipating Christmas doesn’t depend on our circumstances.

[Bradley Caffee] The Clarity of the Diminished Self

I never wanted to be a writer. The written word was for people whose brains operated differently than mine. Much of college was dodging professors who assigned papers in favor of those who leaned on exams. Grad school was an exercise in getting papers finished as efficiently and quickly as possible. Being an analytical thinker

[Jeanette-Marie Mirich] Collector of Memories

C.S. Lewis writes in his essay on Historicism, ‘pre-historic poetry has perished because words before writing are winged.’ The oral tradition of storytelling is in hibernation. Sitting on the porch watching the fireflies’ nightly dance creates time for reflection. Today, who has time to sit quietly and listen to the family lore dished up with

[Patricia Lee] What Writers and Squirrels Have in Common

Every good story needs a main character. Writers work at creating a personality readers will care about and root for. This story has one. A rodent. Brown beady eyes, a big furry tail, and a set of feet that permit it to climb to unfathomable reaches. My husband and I named her Mischief. Intrigued? She

[Dana McNeely] Who Can You Trust?

But after a while the brook dried up, for there was no rainfall anywhere in the land. Then the Lord said to Elijah, “Go and live in the village of Zarephath, near the city of Sidon. I have instructed a widow there to feed you.” ~ I Kings 17:7-9 Trusting God in Good Times and

[Bryan Davis] Message for Young Men – Knights in Shining Armor

Whether you love books or broadswords, as a young man you are wired for greatness. You want to take a step above the norm and rise high above mediocrity. You desire excellence in all things. From head to heart, you want to be a knight in shining armor. As a knight, your weapons and armor

[Susan Kimmel Wright] Our American Journey

July 4, 1986, we observed Independence Day at the U. S. Ambassador’s residence outside Tegucigalpa, Honduras with our two-year-old son Tony and newborn Francisca. We didn’t know a third adopted child would be joining our lives the next morning…but that is a story for another time.   The Ambassador had opened the grounds to any