Devotions
Rain Dancin’ – Hebrews 12:2
“Can we, Mommy?” Three pairs of little eyes stared longingly up at me. They wanted to go rain dancin’. To jump in puddles. To shuffle their bare feet over the wet grass and have their toes and bottoms wriggle and slosh through the water that flowed along the curb’s edge down by the street. But I hesitated. All I could think of was the effort it would take to clean them all up. The extra [...]
Beautiful Sacrifice – Isaiah 53:2
Not long ago, I came across an incredible story—the story of Mary Ann Bevan, the “Ugliest Woman in the World.” She was actually a beautiful woman in her youth. She married and had four children. She was educated as a nurse and quite prosperous. Yet in her early thirties, she developed acromegaly, a disease that caused her face to become distorted and her body to grow abnormally. After a time, her husband died unexpectedly, leaving [...]
Stand In Awe – Psalm 95:2-4
Beside a long, winding two-lane road that climbs up Mt. Humphries almost to its peak is a popular hiking trail called Aspen Loop. At first glance, the trail has no eye-catching features. Its head, in fact, is littered with potholes and mud piles, byproducts of the high-altitude showers that come during fall and spring afternoons. Nevertheless, if you can endure the muck and have the patience to hike down one sloping ravine, through a dense [...]
Copy Me – 1 Corinthians 11:1
“Stop copying me!” My oldest daughter yelled from across the kitchen table. I was busy chopping kale into a salad while the girls smooshed and cut balls of play dough into their own flattened piles of green. As usual, little sister was mimicking everything big sister was doing. “Why does she do that?” My frustrated girl asked, as I turned to intervene. “Because you matter,” I empathetically replied. “You matter so much sissy wants to [...]
Sing a Song – 2 Chronicles 20:21, Psalm 32:7
On Monday, I awoke to a worship song stuck in my head. I’d heard it at church on Sunday and then again on the radio coming home. So, I made lunch while humming it. I cleaned the house, got the kids’ stuff ready for school, swept the driveway, all while continuing to let it roll around in my mind. I even went to bed singing it. And now, on Monday morning, it was irreparably stuck. [...]
Laugh A Little – Psalm 126:2
I awoke this morning to the sounds of laughter reverberating down the stairwell just above my bedroom door. My three children were sitting in pajamas at the top of the steps. They’d tied blankets as capes around their necks and were giggling nonsensically about their superhero adventures, imaginative play at its finest. I listened to them carry on as warm, soft daylight began to filter through the window next to me. The warmth of gratitude [...]
