-
One Day at the Well
This is a guest post I wrote for Dainty Jewells about how one Samaritan woman’s encounter with Jesus not only changed her life but also led to the salvation of many of her people. You can view the original post HERE. The midday sun scorched the back of her neck as she bent to her task. She worked alone. It had been her fate for years and she accepted it. Even preferred it that way. Anything to avoid the disdainful glares from the others. The woman was wary as she watched the man approach. A Jew. She tugged up the heavy clay pitcher and dumped the water into the vessel…
-
What’s With All the Hot Sauce?
I’m about to either inspire a coming-together-of-wives or elicit an angry riot of husbands, but… How many bottles of hot sauce does one man need in the house? My husband, Andy, LOVES heat in his food–and I’m not talking about temperature. I mean, he wants the spicy heat to make him break out in a sweat. My darling will ask the waitress at a fully-authentic Mexican restaurant if the jalapeños they use in their burritos are fresh or the “weak pickled ones out of a can”. Even when he’s assured that the dish is guaranteed to leave him gasping for air, Andy will still ask, “Yeah, but, honestly, is it…
-
He Knows My Name: Having Faith for Myself
This is a guest post I wrote for Dainty Jewells. You can view the original post HERE. It was just after four in the morning. I had gone to bed late. Yet, I had awakened moments before with a sudden urgency to pray for my daughter. I pulled back the covers and went to obey the call. After the burden lifted, I crept back to bed, careful not to wake my husband. Less than a minute later, a chirp from my cell phone on the nightstand informed me of an incoming text. It was from my daughter. “Mom, can you pray for me right now?” God had known the need. I told her…
-
The Myth of Writer’s Block
I stared at my laptop for ten minutes before realizing there wasn’t one word typed on the screen. Instead, my mind had drifted off to my mental checklist of things to do before the weekend. Refocusing on the blank screen, I shook my head, chastising myself, “Get something down, girl–anything.” Why was this so hard? During other writing sessions, I can have a rough draft of a blog post or a book chapter tapped out in thirty minutes. Today, and–realistically–over the past several days, I have lacked even a morsel of creative inspiration or focus. I was obviously in the throes of a full-blown case of writer’s block. No, that’s…
-
La Forteresse
René and Armand lived in France in the 1930s and were best friends. They’d been close friends since their early days of primary school. Growing up just houses away from each other, the two played together every day after school, rushing through their chores in order to have more time for fun. They spent hours slinging stones at squirrels and fishing in the creek on the outskirts of their village. When they were in middle school, Armand and René built a tree fort in the wooded area behind Armand’s house. Every afternoon was spent dragging wood planks from behind the shed at the back of the property to the massive…