“They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green.” (Psalm 92:14 NIV) Late last spring, like a lot of other people during the pandemic, I experimented with container gardening. Conditions were far from ideal when I took the last, wrinkled grape tomato from the basket and just stuck it in…
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…
It has been said often that refusing to forgive someone is like drinking poison and hoping that your enemy dies. In many ways, this is true. Unforgiveness is often far more damaging to the one holding on to it than to the one who has committed the offense. God knows that, and He doesn’t want…
March brings with it several things: March Madness (I’m more of a football girl, myself). The start of springtime. And good ol’ St. Paddy’s Day. Now, there’s a really neat Christian backstory in the life of St. Patrick the man, but when I think of St. Patrick’s Day, it floods me with fond memories from…
Today marks the 79th anniversary of the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the event that propelled our nation into history’s bloodiest war. Looking back, I have to say stories from WWII have captivated me from an early age—probably from the day I first picked up The Diary of Anne Frank in school. I also remember…
The specter of death walked the land of Israel. After three years without rain, streams ran dry and wells became mud. Crops failed and food supplies dwindled. The effects of the drought gripped nearly everyone, from the poorest laborer to the king and queen in their palace. But in Zarephath, a Canaanite city far away,…
Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse and finally stopped breathing. She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?” ~ 1 Kings 17:17-19 (NIV) After…
[Alyssa Roat] Hold Fast to Dreams
I started my debut novel, Wraithwood, at sixteen. I finished the first draft at seventeen and brought that unpolished manuscript with me to college. I was pursuing a degree in Professional Writing. I’d been promised I’d be published within my first semester. I knew other graduates had gotten their books published in college. This was…
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