Not Yet, Baby!

I was sitting in my recliner when suddenly I noticed the all-too-familiar odor of a skunk. Our 18-month-old goldendoodle, Sheba, was in the back yard. Even through the walls, the stench was so strong that it burned my throat! We'd just moved to the country seven months previously, into the house that I built, with...

Real Men Cry, Too (A final message from my late husband)

While sorting through things of my beloved late husband, Hank, I stumbled across what appeared to be notes he was writing for a sermon. He had titled it, "Real Men Cry, Too". The haunting words on the paper both inspired me and broke my heart, as my children and I still grieve the loss of...

Remodeling Job

They dropped the price of the empty house again, now below $30,000. What could we possibly expect for that little money? But we asked our realtor to show it to us, anyway. Since my husband retired, we needed additional income, and there is a shortage of rental property in our town. Also, since my dad...

The House That Love Re-Built (Pt. 2)

[Part 2; Continued from last week’s Inspiring Hope Blog] “I just want ya’ll to know that momma died three weeks ago.” Her words were piercing as hot tears stung my cheeks. I felt her pain as one who’d lost loved ones, and I also grieved for Jeffery and Jaycie, who now had lost not only...

Sheerah: Grieving Woman… Builder of Cities

I was reading last week in a perhaps not-so-frequented passage of scripture in 1st Chronicles chapter 7, and was literally stopped in my tracks at one particular verse. In the plethora of hard-to-pronounce names of men, grandsons and great-grandsons, an unexpected name in a paradoxical moment of history was revealed. Describing the lineage of Ephraim, who was one of the...