In 1997 the first sign of a pending spiritual and emotional battle was a car trip during which I was singing and praising the Lord for the beauty of the early dawning day. As I did so, I said, "Surely the Lord has created the beauty of this earth for His glory and my delight." In a split second the Lord spoke to my heart and said, "Tell others." At the time I wasn't sure what I was to tell or to whom I was to tell it. Saturday I will be the keynote speaker for a women's day at a small church near my home. This is way out of my comfort zone. I've spent countless hours in preparation. I feel...

The last two weeks have been a blur. I worked a men's retreat the weekend of August 26-28. There was a hurricane moving into the Gulf of Mexico so my husband, who works at a TV station, had to stay home to help with the round the clock weather coverage activities at the station. By Sunday night the storm, which had been headed for Panama City, had moved further west and was targeting the Mississippi- Louisiana border area. As it turned out, Hurricane Katrina landed a glancing blow to the New Orleans/ Grand Isle area of New Orleans as she bounded into land at Biloxi. The devastation has been...

I have a friend who is a retired pastor. He was our family pastor for about a year when our children were young. Through the years we've come to realize what a profound impact he had on our spiritual formation during that year that we were under his care. He writes a weekly column on matters of faith for a small city/county daily newspaper. This week's column was on the changing of the seasons in his beloved Alabama home. I, too, am Alabama born and lived there for more years of my life than anywhere else to date. We raised our two children there. I have fond memories of Alabama in my life....

The legendary (?) story of Lady Godiva (whose name means 'gift of God'), the beautiful wife of Leofric III (968 – 1057), Earl of Mercia and lord of Coventry, is an interesting one. The people of Mercia were terribly burdened by the earl's oppressive taxation. Lady Godiva appealed again and again to her husband, who obstinately refused to lower the tax. Finally, weary of her pleas, he said he would grant her request if she would ride naked through the streets of the town. Lady Godiva took him at his word, and after issuing a proclamation for everyone to stay inside and shut their windows, she...

Sometime back I heard a radio preacher comment that satan is not creative. He doesn't need to be. The tools he has he uses very effectively. There is no need for any new ones. This week I was ambushed. Satan used a tool on me that he has used very effectively for quite some- my excessive sensitivity to what my husband and daughter think and my tendency to make quantum leaps from one innocent comment to monumentally extrapolated conclusions that reinforce my exaggerated concerns about what they might think. I was in a fit of anxiety over an issue related to my daughter when my husband...

It's been said, and I mostly agree, that the pain of childbirth is forgotten in the joy of the new arrival. My experience with childbirth and other physical pains is that one can remember that the experience hurt, but the memory of the pain itself is not acute and recalling it cannot bring one to tears afresh.But today I have experienced the memory of a psychic pain, an emotional trauma just a year and a half old, and found the memory, much to my surprise and dismay, to have been just as painful as the original event, at least for a few hours. It was a pain I thought I'd recovered from and...

My husband and I have been in a 'new to us' home for about six months. I had made a resolution to try and be more attentive to the plants at this home, which has a lovely yard. I had even begun to nurture some very nice potted plants in the lanai on a garden cart. All 7 pots of various plants were looking quite healthy and thriving with a minimum amount of nurture from me. Then hubby decides that the house must be power washed....... Well, power washed it was and now all my plants are dying. They evidently got a stout dose of bleach in the process, as the contractor neglected to move the...

Our son's family had been here for a week. Yesterday was departure day. Bill made two trips to the airport- once at 4:30am for our son's flight, again at 10:30am for that of the daughter in law and the 3 children. When I arrived home from work at 4:30pm, the house was eerily quiet. It's amazing how quickly one can get accustomed to the noise of other people being around, especially the sounds of small children happily being part of the household, even if only for a week. I was reminded of a story my father tells of a couple in the little town in which I was raised. They kept their...