Mornings with Jesus

I often read stories written by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, founder of Guideposts. I find his words powerful and applicable to life today, even though they might have been written thirty or more years ago. The story below is just one inspirational mess

THE WEATHER TODAY IS DISMAL. The rain is melting off the remaining snow from what had been a white Christmas. Not exactly spirit lifting. Although keeping a hopeful, positive outlook when things look bleak and gray can be challenging, Jesus reminds m

THOUGH I WAS RAISED NOMINALLY Catholic, it wasn’t until I was thirty-three that I really recognized Jesus. I’d had a challenging childhood and left home as soon as I could, aiming to start what I thought was a new life. Turns out, it wasn’t as new as

JESUS HAS BEEN TEACHING ME to pay attention to my self-talk. It’s been a valuable lesson because it has revealed pet phrases that are far from the truth. One of the degrading thoughts is you’re not enough. I’ve caught myself thinking this phrase with

I STARTED A DIET A few days ago, limiting my portions and counting calories. I recorded every mouthful of food that passed through the trapdoor of my lips. I already have results. I’ve gained a pound. I’m not surprised. Whenever I concentrate on eati

WHEN I PACKED AWAY CHRISTMAS decorations, I kept out my newest candle purchase. The crackling wood wick soothes me, but the best part is the effect the flame has on the candle holder. Unlit, the vase looks solid red, but the fire reveals pretty, glow

AS A YOUNGSTER, I WATCHED the offering basket get passed around at church each Sunday. Almost everyone gave, and we dutifully put our family’s envelope in too, with my mom’s perfect penmanship indicating name, address, and amount. I grew up understan

MY SON SAVED HIS MONEY to buy a high-quality virtual-reality headset, and the first time I played with it, he secretly recorded me with his phone. He showed me the video when I was done, and I couldn’t help but laugh. I looked ridiculous! I swatted a

“ADJUST YOUR OXYGEN MASK AND breathe normally. If you don’t know how to breathe normally, just breathe as you normally would.” The passengers erupted in laughter as the flight attendant sprinkled his standard safety speech with humor. Air travel can

“BECAUSE I SAID SO.” If I had a dollar for every time I’ve uttered that nonnegotiable statement as a parent, my children’s college savings would have been fully funded. A debate always preceded my frustrated declaration, my daughters arguing their si

YOU’D THINK WE’D WON THE lottery at my house when my friend’s letter arrives in the mail. My excitement in receiving the fat envelope of handwritten pages rivals that of a child receiving a Christmas stocking stuffed with surprises. Patty and I used

I LOVE TO TRAVEL. I even love the research involved in finding places to explore and sites to see. My family is dreaming of a European vacation, and we are currently narrowing down the countries we’d like to visit. England, Ireland, France, Germany,

I GOT A NEW CAR. Reluctantly. I loved my old car. I don’t particularly like new things, but my husband, Jeff, thought I needed a car with the latest safety features since I haul around the grandkids. I couldn’t argue with that. This new car doesn’t e

TOMORROW IS BLUE MONDAY. THOUGH not proven through science, the third Monday in January is often tagged as the saddest day of the year. New Year’s resolutions have proven challenging, Christmastime bills have started to arrive, and the weather is dar

ONE OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER King Jr.’s first experiences of segregation happened when he was about six years old. He was told by the parent of a white friend that they couldn’t play together anymore. It’s no surprise, then, that in his famous “I Have a

I WASHED YARN FROM LONG ago today—wool from one of our flock that I’d spun in grease, full of lanolin. Most of the lanolin had drained away, but some remained, leaving a sweet scent and softness behind. This is #208’s yarn, according to the index car

I AM NOT A SPONTANEOUS person. I love to plan, and seeing my calendar full makes me happy. But as a mom of ten children, my days rarely go as planned. I’ve made arrangements with friends only to have my children become ill. I’ve designed a relaxing e

I enjoy watching all types of game shows. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, The Price Is Right, Deal or No Deal, Wipeout, Family Feud. But my all-time favorite game show is Wheel of Fortune, a competition in which three players spin a huge roulette-typ

I OFTEN TRAVEL WITH MY husband, a minister and district superintendent in our denomination, as he visits churches under his jurisdiction across the West Texas Panhandle and the High Plains Desert region. The arid landscape has a beauty all its own, w

I HAVE QUITE THE COLLECTION of flat shoes. They’re comfortable and cute, and I can find a style that is appropriate for almost any occasion. I marvel at how women can walk in sky-high pumps. To me, that goes against the law of gravity. But I received

“DO YOU LOVE ME?” my friend Pam playfully asked her husband one night. After Henry answered yes, she wanted to know how much. Henry paused for a moment and responded with one word: “Enough.” At first Pam was taken aback, but after thinking about it,

THIS PAST WEEKEND, OUR COLLEGE friends Lance and Tina came to stay with us. They were taking a much-needed sabbatical as lead pastors of their church. Our weekend together was full of laughter, mostly because Tina has the best laugh ever. Tina and I

IT HAD BEEN A TOUGH WEEK: work pressures, health challenges, and a whole lot of discouragement. By the time Friday rolled around, the only comfort measure I craved was a juicy cheeseburger from a local restaurant. My husband and I had been trying to

OUR YOUNGEST CAT, PRINCESS DI, is a mixture of loving and mean. And when she’s mean, she’s a bully. Dr. Phibes, the old man of my four kitties, loves to snooze on the back of my brown recliner. If Princess Di sees him, she’ll leap onto the seat, stan

I LIKE TO WEAR WHAT I call my unity sweater. It’s a cozy, V-neck sweater that is half light gray and half chocolate brown. The colors are split straight down the middle in the front and the back. I bought it because of the heightened division in toda

I FELT HELPLESS AS I read proposed legislation that would adversely affect students with whom I work. As a school counselor, I wondered how to advocate for vulnerable children and situations that lawmakers might not fully understand. I considered ran

EVERY DECADE, I UPDATE MY final wishes. The original document, prepared in my forties, included an outline of funeral details— preferred speaker, message theme, songs, and scriptures. A later version loosened the instructions a bit and focused more o

MY FRIEND SHARON CARED FOR her husband, Larry, in his final stages of Alzheimer’s disease. For more than forty years, Larry taught third graders about Jesus at church. Just before he was moved into hospice care, Sharon found Larry giving what appeare

WHEN MY CHURCH WAS CLOSED during COVID-19, I’d park my car in the back parking lot and sit inside, having breakfast with Jesus. It brought me so much peace to commune with Him away from the chaos of my home. There was one thing, however, that interru

EACH MORNING WHEN MY HUSBAND, Jeff, and I wake up, we say the same three words to each other—and they aren’t “Good morning, darling!” Nope. We say, “Did you sleep?” Sleep is an elusive prize in the Dyson household. Jeff has trouble sleeping because o

YESTERDAY, I LEARNED SOMETHING NEW from a Wyoming shepherd about the instincts of very young lambs. In the high country, large flocks of sheep graze unenclosed by fences. Shepherds and dogs keep them safe day and night. The sheep rest near the herder

I TRY TO MAINTAIN A healthy body image, but because I’m just under 5 feet tall, it’s hard not to notice extra pounds when they collect on my waistline and squeeze out the top of my jeans. The older I get, the more my clothes seem to shrink. I shared

I OPENED MY EMAIL SPAM folder to clear it out, and this message header greeted me: “Let eHarmony show you what real love looks like today!” Later I opened my music library to choose some housecleaning accompaniment and noticed how many songs had “lov

OUR YOUNGEST DAUGHTER HAD INVITED my husband and me to her home for Sunday lunch. I always try to be fully present wherever I go, but my mind was elsewhere this time. A close family member had been hospitalized with COVID-19 two days prior, and his c

HAVE YOU HEARD THE EXPRESSION “fake it till you make it”? The idea is to act as if you feel a certain way until you actually do. For instance, acting confident at a new job or pretending to love an unlovable person in your life. By imitating the qual

HAPPY FETTUCCINE ALFREDO DAY! DON’T laugh, but I have a quirky way of setting days apart from one another. I incorporate national food holidays into my meal planning. I first adopted this practice while working as an activities assistant in a Christi

THE LIFE OF A TEENAGER preparing for high school graduation is all about taking exams and filling out applications—for college admissions, grants, scholarships, or jobs. One early morning, I drove AJ, my son, to take the SAT for the second time to se

BIRDS USED TO SWARM THE five feeders outside my office windows year-round. I loved the happy distraction from deep and draining thoughts. Sometimes I took a break, grabbed my bird book, and attempted to identify new fluttering beauties. Then, all the

TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS AGO, I ATTENDED my first writers’ conference with the hope of having a novel published. I only had a seed of an idea that I hadn’t spent much time on, and I’d reworked the first twenty pages of my novel dozens of times but hadn’t g

LAST SATURDAY, I WAS INTERVIEWED on a podcast. I subscribe to quite a few, so I was excited to participate. I remained at home and borrowed my husband’s headset, but his microphone didn’t have a “sock” on it. The audio technician said the sound quali

ONE OF MY FAVORITE GADGETS is the remote garage door opener. It comes in handy, especially when it’s dark or rainy. With just the push of a button, the heavy door slides up. When I’m safely inside, I push the button again and the door slides down. Ye

DURING A FEBRUARY VISIT WITH my mom, we stopped inside the church doors as I admired the beautiful new light fixtures that had recently replaced the old ones from my childhood. Then we carried our contributions for the Valentine’s Day lunch to the ki

TOMORROW IS MY FORTY-NINTH WEDDING anniversary. Kevin and I decided to get married on Valentine’s Day in 1975 so we could be special valentines. Of course, our marriage hasn’t been perfect. Before you think, Wow, they need large trophies for staying

I CAN TELL A LOT about a person by their tattoos—birds, flowers, words, or Asian characters. I enjoy learning the stories behind the ink crawling up an arm or leg or blanketing a chest or back. Tattoos reveal an individual’s mindset, what they choose

IT WAS THE FIRST DAY of our church’s three-week corporate time of prayer and fasting, and I woke up early with great anticipation. My husband, Hal, and I had committed to an intermittent fast during that period: no food or caffeine between 6 a.m. and

I LOVE LISTENING TO MUSIC and singing along. Loudly. This morning, after dropping off my fifteen-year-old son, Addison, at school, I cranked up “God Will Work It Out” in the car. I launched into a full-voice vehicular praise-and-worship session on my

I STARED AT THE UGLY lumps in the muffin tin. What went wrong? My body needed a reset, so I’d been avoiding sugar, grains, dairy, and a few other things to promote gut healing. I’d been experimenting with unique ingredients like cassava flour often u

I PRAY FOR STRANGERS. SOMETIMES when I’m sitting in a crowd, I silently pray, Jesus, who needs Your love and help today? Then I scan the backs of the people’s heads and trust Him to help me settle on one person. Praying like this seems a little like

I ATTENDED A CHRISTIAN WOMEN’S conference a couple of years ago, and one particular phrase from its theme jumped out at me: Be Brave. “Uh-oh,” I said. I immediately knew Jesus had a message for me that day. I have problems letting go. I’m what some e

“YOU ARE SO RICH. I envy you,” our Airbnb guest gushed as her husband packed their car. The comment caught me off guard. As new empty nesters, we enjoy hosting guests in our now-vacant spaces, but our home is not grand. It’s a modern farmhouse with n

MY HUBBY AND I ARE preparing for a vacation. Minnesota winters are bitter cold, and we’re traveling to Florida to stroll on a beach and collect seashells. I’ve been checking my weather app frequently. Even southern states have been unusually cold and

THIS YEAR, I CHALLENGED MYSELF to look at all the 2:22s in the Bible—the second chapters and twenty-second verses, since those are the first numbers in my February 22 birthdate. (The last four numbers shall remain a secret!) Today, I considered John

I’M NOT A FAN OF reading instructions. After all, I’ve earned a college degree, published six books, and raised two children into adulthood. I should be able to figure out how to install a light-therapy lamp. Or so I thought. I inserted the plug into

FOUNDED IN 1848, OUR TOWN, Albany, Oregon, has more than 700 historic structures—including our home. Out of respect to the original craftsmanship, the historic society encourages homeowners to retain as many of the original features as possible. Cons

AS I SAT IN MY car after church, warming up the engine, I watched an older couple walk across the parking lot. Their hands were linked, and I noticed their feet moved in perfect unison, seemingly without conscious thought, naturally and rhythmically.

RECENTLY MY DAUGHTER WAS VISITING our home with her toddler and baby. Just before bedtime, my three-year-old granddaughter, Amelia, hurt herself while playing. It wasn’t anything serious, but since she was already tired, she couldn’t be consoled. Tha

I WAS SHOCKED TO RECEIVE word recently that one of my college roommates had suddenly passed away. It had been more than twenty years since I’d seen or talked to Debbie. But I remembered her beautiful eyes, friendly smile, quick-cadence speech, and un

THE POST OFFICE PARKING LOT was so congested that I almost didn’t stop. But I needed stamps, so I joined the long line of disgruntled patrons and waited impatiently. As I reached the front of the line, it was almost closing time. A diminutive older c

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Our mission is to inspire people to believe anything is possible with faith, hope, and prayer. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Contributors: Becky Alexander, Susanna Foth Aughtmon, Jeannie Blackmer, Isabella Campolattaro, Susan Dow