What is Life to You?

What does life mean to you? Life for Paul meant living for Jesus, taking the opportunities presented to Him to tell others the gospel message. That’s what he meant be fruitful labor, seeing others brought into the kingdom. He is well aware of the need around him. Our world is in great need. Men and women need to hear the truth of the gospel. How are you and I going about fulfilling that need? Paul urges believers to ‘conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ,’ verse 27. We need to look at the manner in which … Continue reading

Trusting God Despite Hardship

Fiction reflects life to us, I believe. I’m an avid reader though not usually of Christian fiction. However, recently from our library I picked up ‘All the Days of My Life’ by Jo-Anne Berthelsen, published by Ark House Press. This is the third book I have read by Ark House Press and they have each been very different but all interesting. Although written as fiction, it was ‘inspired by the real-experiences of a post-war Czech immigrant to Australia.’ The book was also a sequel to Helena which I hadn’t read. It didn’t matter. I quickly became interested in the story … Continue reading

Making the Choice to Believe

There may come a time in your life when you are faced with the choice of whether or not you will continue to have faith. In fact daily you make choices that either build upon your faith or tear it down. These choices can sometimes lead to the big moments that can affect you for the rest of your life. If you think back on your life you may have a moment or two that stand out as the times that you chose to continue to have faith or you chose to begin to have faith. These moments may not … Continue reading

A Day All to Yourself?

Have you ever said, ‘I just want one day to myself?’ I thought that’s what I was going to have on Friday. Then Thursday night I found out our choir had a concert on Friday at one of the local nursing homes. ‘Oh no, I thought.’ After a crazy week including along with the usual housework and writing project, two other concerts, shopping, and a book launch I was organizing for GROW- UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS – an anthology edited by Anne Hamilton and Lyn Hurry and containing a number of Christian writers that included me, the last thing I … Continue reading

Faith: This Week’s ASPCA Featured Dog for Adopt-a-Dog Month

Have you seen the two-legged dog named Faith who walks everywhere on her hind legs? (If not, YouTube has Faith videos galore which you can watch by clicking here. Or visit her website.) My friend Brenda first introduced me to Faith when she sent me an email with pictures of Faith accompanied by “his” story. (Faith is actually a girl. And belongs to an American family from Edmond, Oklahoma. But there’s a lot of Chinese writing on the pictures in the email. I’m thinking somehow they’ve been passed around a time or two, something got lost in translation somewhere along … Continue reading

Coping with Death

We all have to cope with death. As the saying goes: “No one gets out of this world alive!” We know it must inevitably happen yet we are often not educated or prepared for it when it does come. We cope with the death of loved ones largely by avoiding its certainty for as long as possible, and hope that when the time comes we will somehow muddle through it. There is probably nothing in life we prepare for less, and yet there’s nothing in life that is more inevitable. When you think about it, it’s a funny way to … Continue reading

A Ring of Endless Light – Madeleine L’Engle

A Ring of Endless Light is one of my favorite Madeline L’Engle books. In this middle grade and young adult Newbery Honor book, the Austin family has returned to Seven Bay Island. Their grandfather is dying, and they’ve come to help. Vicky Austin is almost sixteen and is facing confusion over boys, her own role and purpose in the world, her artistic personality in a family of scientists, and questions about death and what it means to live. Her grandfather is a minister, but also a lover of poetry. The Austin’s are a intelligent, loving family, and how they deal … Continue reading

Young Women: Faith Activities

At times it is good to plan an entire month of activities based around the value that you are covering for the month. This month I am going to give suggestions that can help the girls focus on their faith goals, as well as building faith. This is a topic that requires reverence. You may want to discuss some of the activities with the girls and let them choose the ones they want to do. One activity you could do as a class or an entire young women’s group is to plant and care for a garden. This would be … Continue reading

What is Faithbooking?

Enter into a whole new world of scrapbooking. It gives you hope, it helps you have faith and it gives you a new perspective on life and how you choose to live it. It’s called Faithbooking and it has brought people who have never scrapbooked before into the world of cute embellishments and papers. What is Faithbooking? Faithbooking is a method of scrapbooking that provides you a visible reminder of your faith, why God loves you, what blessings your family holds because of Him and a whole new perspective and reminder of His love and grace. There have been dozens … Continue reading

Scripture Study – 1 Nephi 16:33-36

Nephi’s strong steel bow broke and the other bows in the company had lost their spring, and the family began to perish for lack of food. Nephi made another bow out of wood and inquired of his father where he should go to find food. Having success in his hunt, Nephi returned to the camp and all were fed. 33. And it came to pass that we did again take our journey, traveling nearly the same course as in the beginning; and after we had traveled for the space of many days we did pitch our tents again, that we … Continue reading