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Steadfast Love

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       Well, here we are! The first quarter of 2022 has been flying by. How are we feeling about it? A lot sure has changed since the last time I wrote.       I suppose every generation feels like this at one time or another, but - the world seems to be moving far faster than the hearts and minds of its inhabitants can follow.  In my "Open Letter to 2022"   I tried to touch on the hope we have as believers, regardless of anything happening around us. This hope we possess is often like a strong tree branch hanging over turbulent rapids. It's an assurance that, if we take hold, we will never be swept downstream.  It's a broken analogy, and doesn't quite capture the full emotion I want to convey, especially since if it were to be taken literally it would imply that we  are the ones holding on to the tree branch in our own power. In fact, it's quite the opposite! Part of that same hope is the fact that the Lord is the one who holds. The Lord who says in Deuterono
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An Open Letter to 2022

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  Dear 2022,      We haven't met yet, but everyone has heard of you. I hope you'll write back and tell me a bit about yourself! Are you gentle or are you wild? Will we even like each other?  I must admit, I've got some misgivings about ya. See, your two older siblings kind of taught us all to look at a new year differently; since nothing has been 'normal' for quite some time, it feels like we all eye the horizon in a sort of battered dejection. "What wretched thing is going to happen next?" Not a great welcome, I know.  But I want to change that for you. I want greet you with something deeper than the froth of a bubbly hope anticipating its pleasant fulfillment like other years. No, I want to welcome you in tonight with a quiet confidence; knowing that whether you come bearing even more upheaval or a reprieve from the pressure that continues to mount, the One who made you holds us.  I told your brother, 2021, that I would get to gain more Christ during the
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Ebenezer

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    It's Christmas time folks!  We all have traditions at this time of year that are peculiar to each household: traditions that are eagerly anticipated and kept close. One of my family's favorites began in 2009 with the release of Disney's motion capture rendition of "A Christmas Carol" with Jim Carrey.   I'll never forget the  first time we watched it together in our dear friends' living room; friends who were more like chosen family than anything else. It may sound silly, but the memory is so vivid that I can still taste the popcorn and candy canes we munched, and even feel the texture of their couch!  It was the first "scary movie" I'd been allowed to see, and 11 year-old me couldn't have felt more grown up. There was one problem though: it was  scary. So, while I understood the point of the story, the rich goodness of Dickens' genius was a bit overshadowed by how much I'd trembled while I watched Scrooge's ghostly encount
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Gateway Drugs

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     So, I have a question for you: who here still uses Pinterest? Not many? Okay well, I've just showed my age as simultaneously too young and   too old.  XD If you've frequented Pinterest at any point over the past 5 years or so, you've probably noticed its migration from fancy craft inspo to more of a social networking platform. And with that migration comes a natural consequence: memes.       I'll shoot straight with you: I love myself a good meme. I even have a board solely dedicated to them that now has a carefully curated collection of over 600 pins. Is that a little embarrassing? Maybe... But the laughs were absolutely worth it!  Since my appreciation for memes has been firmly established, there's one meme in particular that had the cogs of my brain turning several weeks ago. And I'd love to share it with you! Here it is: Isn't it just the cutest?! I love the artistic style, and the saying makes me giggle. It's so  true!  I'm pretty sure this
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Hemmed In

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      I don't know about you, but I've always wanted to learn how to sew. In fact, it's been such a long term desire that I can distinctly remember sitting myself down at six, determined to make a doll's dress... and I didn't even like dolls! Back in the day, I was way more of a stuffed animal kind of girl. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me paint the picture for you:  You remember getting that 'wild hair' as a kid and desperately wanting some random item you saw in the store? Yeah, that has to be everyone's childhood experience. It was the middle of summer, 2003, and I was in a Hobby Lobby with my mom and her mom (my Grammy) while she visited us after a big move states away. I don't remember very much about that Hobby Lobby trip other than that we were there to get decorations for my six year old birthday party with our new neighbors. But I vividly remember seeing her  : a completely blank, stuffed canvas doll form, about five inches long.
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The Green Veil

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T his "middle ground" time of year between winter and spring can be one of the most fascinating and frustrating: it's so neat to watch the shadow of new life preparing to burst on the scene, and frustrating that it's not quite here yet. My mama has a term for that shadow of coming that I absolutely love: "the green veil." You can see the veil get greener as the trees' buds swell into leaves, the dead grass starts to give way to the new shoots peeking just above the surface, and as the crops take root in the newly-tilled fields.  That last part was a sight I didn't grow up with, but treasure more and more as I get older. We moved to a rural area from Surburbia, USA in the late spring of 2011, and missed the phenomenon by several weeks. Actually, we landed on the old family dairy farm smack in the middle of tornado season, surrounded by the bugs and stifling humidity of early May. If I remember correctly, the soybean crop across the highway was already
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