I'm a lot more spiritual after I've had caffeine. I know it's sad but true. I've lost count of how many times I've joked about it. It usually gets a laugh because we all know what it's like to stumble out of bed, hair tangled and blinking through puffy eyes, unready and unprepared to face another day. Sunlight seems like an offense. We mumble and grumble through our morning routine, grouching at loud noises or quick tempers. We snap for others to leave us alone until we've had our coffee, our Mountain Dew or whatever our stimulant of choice may…

The florescent lights in my laundry room died several weeks ago. After unsuccessfully trying to fix the problem, my husband declared that it would take the work of our friend, a skilled electrician, to repair it. Days turned into weeks as my hubby forgot to call to set up the appointment. So here I am, enjoying the wonder of doing weeks of laundry in the dark. But you know something? It wasn't too bad. I got used to it. Even comfortable, believe it or not...although many of our socks turned pink, but I digress. I even got to the point…

As I walked down our road for some early morning exercise, I was surprised to hear the distinct cry of a hawk overhead. I shrugged the sound away, assuming he was out for a little breakfast. A minute later, I heard the hawk screech again. Squinting against the sunlight, I shaded my eyes and searched for the source of the hawk's cry. Sure enough, in the field next to the road, a large hawk was circling. Nothing new there. But before I could turn away, I saw something I've never seen before. Apparently the hawk was circling over a nest…

I recently returned from my second mission outreach in beautiful Belize. I say beautiful because the people and children there have stolen my hearts many times over, and although there are certainly beautiful, breath-taking parts of Belize, the area I traversed is extremely poor---the children are often without electricity, water and only manage to eat, on average, one meal a day. I spent all day Saturday teaching on fruits of the Spirit to the amazing women who had gathered in Belmopan and on Sunday I found myself sitting on a simple wood bench in the tiny chapel of Mahogany Heights,…

God makes the impossible possible. I was recently studying Psalm 134, the last of the Psalms of Ascent. The psalmist encourages the people to bless the Lord but ends with, "May the LORD, Maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion." Something about the Psalm left me troubled and I finally figured out why. I can bless God all day, meaning I can acknowledge and thank Him for who He is, but my praise pales in comparison to the way He blesses me. I can come to God with all that I am and surrender every fragment of my…

For each new year, I pick a word to meditate upon, a word to help me dig deeper into the truths of God's love. 2014's word was freedom. After much thought and prayer, my word for 2015 is 'joy'. God has recently impressed on me that our human emotions are rarely in a state of consistency. We are beings that fluctuate. In anything, whether hate, love, boldness, fear, diligence, bitterness or hope, we can either grow 'more and more' or 'less and less'. It depends on what we feed. So for 2015, I choose joy! "The joy of the LORD…