Just for Women

---

What is more powerful in shaping the heart and faith of a child than a mother who prays for her children?

---

---

Lord,

We pray for them late at night and early in the morning; when we stand face-to-face with our own failings as mothers.

We ask that You fill them with the knowledge of Your will.

Give them all spiritual wisdom and understanding to walk in ways that fully please You.

Let their lives bear...

 

---

Life is as full of beauty as it is uncertainty if we open our eyes to see the divine fingerprints of grace.

---

---

The coastline stretches wide and inviting. The call of a loon skitters across the water, my heart skips a beat in reply.

Trees aflame in oranges and reds in the vast wilderness, giving one last hallelujah to this year instead of mourning the coming winter.

Our headlights illuminate a moose that...

 

---

Perhaps the biggest gift of

---

---

I suppose it's safe to say we all have "Jonah Days," as Anne of Green Gables called them. Hard days. Crashing off a wonderful weekend to nitty-gritty Mondays that stretch into Tuesdays. Days when the AC breaks, the refrigerator sits in the middle of the kitchen due to a burst pipe. Days when the toddler could wear a big red tag saying, "FRAGILE: Do Not Touch!"

I suppose we are...

 

---

Don't focus on the building waves or let the pitching boat convince you otherwise.

---

And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But [Jesus] was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" And the...

 

---

The more I discover, the vast possibilities ahead yawn even wider before me.

---

---

For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord — who is the Spirit — makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image (2 Co 3:17-18).

---

...

 

---

I knew the picture looked different zoomed out.

---

---

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.
— Jesus of Nazareth (John 3:8).

"But she BROKE it!!!"

A crime had been committed and, clearly, justice must be...

 

---

I still remember the feeling of holding my mouth perfectly still while she put lipstick on my lips, the smell of the old wig on my head making me want to sneeze.

---

---

Special Note:
These were words about Margaret Ware Jolly, whose life was celebrated yesterday at a gathering of friends, family, and spiritual family. So often we hear about well-known church leaders who stumbled and embarrassed all believers by...

 

---

I think if I had known all we would face, I couldn't have breathed. Except for one thing. God would be with us.

---

---

Splendor and majesty are before him;

strength and glory are in his sanctuary.
(Psalm 96:6).

The stone walls of the ancient castle had...

 

---

What would you take if our house were burning down, and, if everyone were already out of the house?

---

He paused with his hands hovering above the dishwater, water dripping from his almost man hands.

"What would you take if our house were burning down, and," he added quickly, "if everyone were already out of the house?"

I stopped and...

 

---

Instead of getting frustrated and pushing the assignment, I sat down with him at his desk in his superhero bedroom.

---

---

I've lost a year with my kids battling over school, and I'm done.

My seven year old and I were in the midst of our usual asynchronous day battle. I had his writing homework in my hand from school. He'd written several full, well-thought-out sentences.

But he won't do the same for me, at...