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A Legacy of Selfless Joy
Funerals are always sorrowful and deeply sobering. But when it’s the funeral of a 21-year-old girl who bravely battled cancer, radiating joy through every painful moment, it’s not just heart-wrenching, it’s also life-transforming.
Jenita is the daughter of my husband’s cousin, Rajiv. Or, more accurately, as Rajiv said at her funeral, he is “Jenita’s dad.” We ...
To My Fellow Mamas Of Teenagers
We’re in the thick of it. The thick of what, you ask? Raising teens, that’s what. The husband and I are the proud parents of a 16-year-old boy and an almost 15-year-old girl. So, as I said, we’re in the middle of those supposedly rebellious, angsty, door-slamming, defiant, hell-raising teen years.
But here’s what we’ve been discovering: the ...
5 Lessons From 50 Years Of Love
With Valentine’s Day less than a week away, it seems like a good time to talk about love.
But what makes it an even better time—actually, no, the perfect time—is the story of two people who exchanged wedding rings on Valentine’s Day fifty years ago. And what makes it even more special is that I happen ...
Advent Devotional 2023
It has been several years since I wrote my last Advent devotional. I remember writing that Bible plan as a challenge to myself. Could I keep the focus on Christ and manage to write 25 devotionals for Christmas? It was one of those God-sized goals—but it wasn't to show the world that I had "nailed" ...
What Are You Wearing?
In the late 19th century, two nuns from Belgium set sail for India. They landed on the shores of the coastal hamlet of Mulagumoodu in the south of the country. The two Catholic missionaries had traveled across the world to care for the orphan girls in the little town. But they also taught the girls at ...
A Letter To My Husband On Our 18th Anniversary
Dear hubbers,
You’re not one for “open” letters—you’re too logical to comprehend why a letter to you would be launched in the public domain. You’re right—there is no reasonable explanation. But humor me this time, would ya? (You’ve had excellent training in that regard for the last 18 years. If I do say so myself.)
Since we’re ...
A Christmas “Activity” You Won’t Want To Miss
Women are getting angrier.
At least that’s what a recent poll reveals.
An annual survey by Gallup suggests that women, on average worldwide, have been getting angrier over the past 10 years. In 2012 both genders reported anger and stress at similar levels. But more recently, it was found that women were angrier—by six percentage points. The ...
We Need This More Than We Know
Sitting in the second row of the auditorium, I watched as my daughter and the rest of the choir filed onto the stage. Dressed in black and white, they looked like piano keys and my heart played a proud, happy tune.
Being an overenthusiastic, trigger-happy mama, I leaned forward to speak to the two ladies in ...
Get On With The Life God Has For You
Our first year of marriage wasn’t all rainbows and roses.
Of course, we were newlyweds in love. But, like many freshly-baked marriages, year one was like a cake with an undercooked, wobbly middle. Back then, though, I hadn’t the faintest clue that your relationship could go from idyllic to irritating in a nanosecond. Or even if ...
MEET SUSAN
