What a beautiful city! The area around the San Antonio River that flows through the historic district is a goldmine. Known as the River Walk, it is a huge tourist draw, and contains restaurants, bars, shops and hotels. Originally constructed by the WPA in the late 1930s, it has served as a way to minimize…
Last week I wrote about many of the fantastic authors and friends I met or reconnected with at this year’s annual ACFW Conference. That part of the conference is truly a blessing, but I failed to capture the true essence of the gathering. We all came essentially to connect with Jesus. To ask his blessings…
ACFW’s annual conference was: informative, exciting, renewing, brilliant, star-studded, amazing! I departed Indianapolis bound for Atlanta at 7 am Thursday, September 26th full of anticipation and excitement. And a few nerves. The trip to Atlanta was pleasant. I totally recommend Delta Airlines. The crews and flights were fantastic! One thing I love about ACFW is…
Ephesians 6 reminds us that there are spiritual forces at work that we cannot see. They are real. They are powerful. They are malignant. They are dark. And they exist, albeit in an invisible state, alongside the humans on planet Earth. These are the forces with which we are at war. They are our true…
A new book released on September 24th and written by father/daughter duo Rob and Danielle Koke promises to raise the veil on addiction and provide insights into the mind and heart of an addicted person. Check out the book trailer here. My own story contains brushes with addiction and with many other addicted persons. The…
This new category of mine will most likely be underused. I rarely watch, let alone, go to the theater to watch, movies. But recently, my husband and I took a little time off to see Overcomer. I had several friends recommend seeing it. As a track coach, I identified with the difficulties presented with teams…
I accompanied my husband to a livestock auction today. Each year we sell about half of the calves our herd of nineteen cows produces. Today was the day of the sale. We sorted and loaded nine calves into the trailer and set off. Once the calves were unloaded and the trailer parked, we entered the…
Matthew 25:14-30 are the verses that share Jesus’ parable of the talents. I’m told that in Biblical times a talent was a monetary unit worth approximately a year’s wages for a servant. (I’m not a Biblical expert, so don’t ask me what kind of servant, or in which country or any of the other technical…
The past two Sundays Wes Raley gave the sermon at our church. His latest message resonated with my place in life at this moment. He spoke of the Kingdom of Heaven existing now. Right now, not at some point in the chronological future. We are called to be in tune to the indwelling Spirit’s urgings…
Tomorrow (August 8th) begins my nineteenth year working in secondary education. That is hard for me to believe! I began as a substitute teacher and bus driver the first year and was asked to accept a permanent position as an Enrichment Aide the next year. I taught Spanish to sixth and eighth graders and Math…
Say “Yes” to God at Taylor’s Professional Writers’ Conference. Read how that message impacted this pre-published author.
This is not a new story. It was published in 2017, but it is new to me. I’m not sure how I found it. Some recommendation from somewhere, but however it ended up in my library, I’m super glad it did! This is the story of Laila and Chad Richardson. Divorced because of Chad’s chronic…
My friend Allison Grace posted this on her blog recently and it looked fun, so I thought I would try it. Thanks Allison. Read her blog here. The rules: #1: Acknowledge the blogger who gave it to you and display the award. #2: Answer 11 questions that the blogger gave you. #3: Give 11 random…
Travel through Freiburg and Heidelberg Germany’s old towns.
Switzerland I hope you’ve been enjoying the blog account of our student group travel with EF Tours this June. If you’ve missed Parts 1, 2, or 3, I encourage you to check them out. The highlight our our tour was our visit to Lucerne, Switzerland. We loved everything about the area. It was gorgeous with…
Innsbruck, Austria, Venice and Verona, Italy Welcome to part three of this summer’s travel adventure. For those who missed the previous posts, access them here. Part 1 and Part 2. Two of the pleasant surprises of this journey were our lunch stops in Innsbruck and Verona. While neither of these were highly lauded destinations, our…
Germany : Munich and Dachau Concentration Camp If you missed Part 1, I’ll restate, that I believe in experiential education. And to put my belief into practice, every three years, I organize a journey travel through a company called EF Tours for students and adults. You can check them out here. My experiences with them…
Germany : Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Bavaria, Munich Travel is an important part of experiential education. I fully support this educational philosophy. Of course, I believe in reading and listening and watching, but there is nothing like doing or seeing first hand to drive home a lesson. This is, after all, where the dreaded practice…
The best way to maintain our attitude of joy is to remain close to Jesus, through prayer, scripture, and fellowship, but sometimes, because we are human and have human failings, we need tangible reminders of the well of joy we have access to at all times. Each person reacts to different stimuli. Lee in my…
In many ways, the story of Strength to Stand‘s heroine, Lee Russell, mirrors my own. I began my Christian walk filled with love and joy, but over time, the troubles and contradictory messages of this world siphoned my joy away. I went through life living for myself. I had no higher purpose and therefore little…
More than Meets the Eye tells the story of Evangeline Pearson Hamilton and Logan Fowler, two young people with tragic pasts. Each has chosen a very different way in which to deal with the past, and that is where they meet. Evie has managed to turn her losses into strengths. She has chosen to live…
So what can we do to ensure we don’t get caught in the traps life sets for us? #1. Pray maintaining a close relationship with our Lord Jesus is the best defense against Satan’s pitfalls. Pray specifically the armor of God on yourself. He gave us these things to defend against the devil’s schemes. We…
Jesus felt joy. He received it from the Holy Spirit and praised God with it. In John 15, Jesus entreats us to remain in his love, follow his commands and receive his joy in ourselves that by doing these things, our joy may be complete. He wants us to have joy, but how can we…
You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. Psalm 16:11 NIV Peter quoted these verses of David in Acts 2:28 on the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came to the apostles. From them we glean…
4 Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. 5 Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. Psalms 25:4-5 NIV All of us have a life paved with circumstances, decisions and choices . Paved with our experiences. Each…
Today I participated in a 3K Color run/walk the high school Student Council organized to raise funds for Riley Children’s Hospital. As I contemplated what to wear at a too early 7:30 am, I mulled over the reasons why I had volunteered to participate in this activity. As a former patient at Riley, I relished…
Here they are again––my favorite Irish band. Rend Collective’s latest album, Good News, is my favorite thus far. Their distinctive folk sound is as appealing as ever with the eclectic mix of instruments–Jingling Johnny, anyone–and the unique blend of their voices, but the lyrics have always been what drew me to this group. From their…
I attended my first Winter Jam two Fridays ago in Indianapolis’ Bankers Life Fieldhouse. My friend suggested we take three of the teen girls from our Wednesday night outreach group. It was a good decision. The experience was an incredible outpouring of love and worship to Jesus Christ. It was also a call to experience…
I remember my first cell phone. As a matter of fact, I use it in my classroom for “phone” conversations in Spanish. The kids hoot when I show it to them. It was a Nokia bar phone. The numbers are so tiny and the display about an inch square. Not nearly enough by today’s standards….
What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon is a book I am excited to review and recommend . I listened to the audiobook version and was entranced, both by the amazingly intricate storytelling and by the voice of the narrator. It was a perfect combination. But you don’t need the narrator for this to be…
In Indiana the spring is traditionally windy, but the past few weeks have been exceptionally so. A recent bought of wind blew an entire patch of shingles right off our house. It organized them into a fairly neat pile in our back yard, which was generous, but prevented the shingles from doing their jobs. What…
Wow! I can’t say enough about the depth of this book. Katie Ganshert said in an interview that she felt compelled to write it. I’m so glad she did. No One Ever Asked is a contemporary fiction account of the transfer of students from a primarily black, lower income school district to a predominately white,…
What is the point of birthdays? Are they markers of the past, memorials for the future or anchors for the present? Read more to find out my thoughts.
Read guest post from Allison Grace as she reflects on Casting Crowns’ Only Jesus and the legacy writers should leave.
I know it’s past January and most articles, blogs, news stories and other media forms generally do their review of “The Best” or “The Most” from 2018 earlier than the middle of February. Oh well. I’m a bit slow. The reason I thought of this topic now is that my local library did a 100…
Are you an armchair Christian, or do you answer the call to develop your talents and join the game? Read this post on the Spiritual Superbowl.
I posted that my word for 2019 is growth. I’ve also recently written a post about priorities. In this blog, I want to combine these two concepts and let you know how they’re connected in my life, and how I’m doing. Maybe I can be an encouragement to you. When I chose growth for my…
You may have heard the admonition, “You need to work on your priorities.” Or, “Your priorities are messed up. You need to decide what is more important.” But what does it mean to prioritize? Why should we? The dictionary definition of prioritize is: to designate or treat something as more important than other things. Another…
Who or what get your attention? How do they get it? Is God seeking more of your attention? How does he tell you?
Jesus takes our pre-Christian selves, pulls us out of the world, forgives our sins, cleans us up, teaches us to love, then sends us back to be salt, light, yeast, and seed for those left in the darkness.
So I think I told someone that I found out about the One Word idea last year, but I realize that’s incorrect. This is my fourth year using My One Word instead of New Year’s Resolutions. First of all, if you’ve never heard of My One Word, it’s an idea that began in the church…
Happy New Year! That’s the traditional wish at midnight when New Year’s Eve turns into New Year’s Day. For some, that’s a tall order. Happiness, after all, can be difficult to find. And once found, hard to maintain. It’s slippery. It tends to slide through our fingers. The harder we try to hang on, the…
I’ve written about waiting before. Waiting is something most of us do not do well. During this Christmas season, let’s revisit the topic. Waiting has been part of Christmas before the word “Christmas” was coined. The Israelites waited hundreds of years for the Messiah. During this time of profound silence, God gave hope to an…
From the beginning of human history as much as archaeologists and anthropologists can surmise from artifacts and other evidence, humans, like many animals, had preferred herds. What I mean by that is, excluding the occasional hermit or mountain man type, humans tend to settle near each other. Whether it be in a cave, a tent,…
My Sunday School class is going through Louie Giglio’s study Goliath Must Fall. We are on Session 3 which deals with the Giant of Rejection. Now, if you know me, you’d probably say that I’ve never dealt too much with the problem of rejection. All through my childhood, adolescence, and high school years, anyone looking…
I love Crowder. I love how he displays humility, brokenness, joy, and hope, all while pointing to Jesus Christ – his (and my, and I hope, your) Savior. I was first introduced to Crowder at Passion (find out more about Passion here)when I served there as a Doorholder. He had no inhibitions as he interacted…
