There it lies, this brand new year, like an empty page, a new beginning, a fresh start.We often make resolutions and set goals for ourselves. We want to fill those blank pages and start on a new adventure. Every year, I dutifully record my goals. Some of them I achieve, but others I do not. These promises I make to myself become like cotton candy -- sweet to my mouth, but soon evaporated and gone, leaving me with a bitter taste.And I have a feeling I'm not alone. How can I accomplish my ... View the Post
What Did Mary Really Know? Hope for Your Desperate Journeys
How can we obey God despite difficult circumstances? Maybe we should ask Mary. But what did she know?She knew she was bearing the Son of God in her womb, she knew ridicule and misunderstanding from almost everyone, and she knew joy. The kind of joy that comes through obedience to God's revealed will.We all have journeys that are difficult. What got Mary through and what can we learn from her story? It's not an easy journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Especially when you're ... View the Post
6 Powerful Secrets to Reclaim Peace of Mind and Joy
Contentment is the lost ingredient of joy. Have you noticed how little joy there is in our world today? Where has it gone? Why did it leave? How can we get it back? Discontentment is stealing your joy. Have you ever noticed that no matter how much people have, they still want more? The advertising industry is built on this concept: create a need and then fill that need. Make people discontent with what they have and then show them how your product will fulfill their desires.Nearly ... View the Post
Seven Stupendous Ways to Improve Your Life Right Now
How can you improve the quality of your life? You can do it. Here's how: 1. Make wise choices. It begins with choices. We make them all the time, yet we often don't connect the choices we make with the quality of the life we lead. Sometimes we make really bad, foolish choices. Sometimes our choices are good and wise. How can we make consistently wise choices that will improve our lives?We met a man once who personified wise choices. Joe Waterman lived in Grangeville, Idaho. We met him when ... View the Post
Fifteen Minutes to Live — From Paradise Here to Paradise There
Kauai, Hawaii. Say it out-loud. The name sounds like the lyrics of a song – poetic, beautiful. It seemed like a dream to be boarding a flight for Hawaii. For months, Dan and I had planned, saved, and anticipated the day when we would wing our way across the Pacific Ocean to celebrate one another and 48 years of married life. We left early January 9th from a snowy Spokane, shivering our way from the motel to the airport, pulling our luggage. We had over a foot of snow and freezing ... View the Post
Indiana Wendy and Thor Ginger in the Lost Crusade of the Wacky Sister’s Retreat
“This is not right.” Lost. It's a lonely word for someone who has come to a sister's retreat and figures on having lots of conversation.I sat in my car in the deserted parking lot of the city beach in Sandpoint, Idaho. It was past midnight. I was totally alone. I discovered that Sandpoint has no beach nightlife in October, so I was fairly safe. I saw no high life, low life, or life at all. I was lost in a town of 8,000 people, most of whom were all in bed, as I tried to find the train ... View the Post
