(2 minutes, 9 seconds) The customer service gal caught my fancy with her bright yellow blouse, paired with a bright yellow hair bow that matched a pair of bright yellow glasses, completing her cheery ensemble. Her attire matched her upbeat personality. I couldn’t help myself:…

(2 minutes, 48 seconds) My sister is a self-proclaimed non-green thumb. She loves to beat this old joke to death: “I give new meaning to hanging plants!” Having not grown up with green and living things in pots around me, it never occurred to me…

(2 minutes 38 seconds) Years ago, out of necessity but quite unceremoniously, I started jotting thoughts and reflections from Scripture in my online journal, tagging them “Hephzibah.” This habit of grace has become for me a soul-anchoring practice. I had stumbled, fallen and crawled, making…

(2 minutes, 50 seconds) I sadly learned this week that one of my favorite teachers died. He was only 71 years old. When I first met Mr. Schroeder in my 7th-grade science class, he was fresh out of college, in his early twenties, and my…

(1 minute, 59 seconds) My husband and I have experienced numerous relocations in our thirty-five years together, totaling thirteen moves for our family. Perhaps, in His kindness, the Lord orchestrated these changes to prevent us from becoming overly attached to our physical home, emphasizing its…

(1 minute, 56 seconds) A new acquaintance asked if I had written a book. Though not yet published, my manuscript, Shuffle If You Must: Lessons of Perseverance from Along the Broken Road, is finished. I described it to this person as my offering to suffering sisters…

1 minute, 42 seconds Our tiny cottage rental was charming in every way except for one nearly undetectable flaw: sloped floors. I never would have noticed if it weren’t for the cheap scale I bought to help keep our eating honest while we worked remotely….

2 minutes, 18 seconds Joy is one of those things we all long for, but without practical tools and real application, it can feel elusive. I recently shared three truths about joy based on Galatians 5:22 in A Settled Disposition. We don’t try to manufacture…

1 minute, 51 seconds Saltine crackers. That’s all I had in my cupboards that seemed anything close to acceptable to feed four abandoned and hungry puppies one summer day. About half a mile into my daily walk, at the gravel crossroads between Robey’s hog farm…

1 minute, 50 seconds My college degrees were in Athletic Training and Fitness. Early in my career, I taped a lot of football players’ ankles, and over the last two and a half decades, I’ve trained many clients as a personal trainer. I particularly remember…