Sometimes you must engage in a dozen or more casual conversations before you earn the right to speak into someone’s life. It is worth it! There is a proper order for leaders as well as lay people to offer a significant hand in bringing healing to the hurting and making disciples. There is so much…
Tag: writing
Healing
Healing The river of disappointment and sorrow—the one that catches in your throat and you swallow back, the one that stings your eyes hot with betraying tears—if you release that pain to stream freely, it will push out, out to empty itself into the vast deep of the salty ocean brine that scrubs clean the…
1000 Generations!
My maternal grandmother and mother have been the caretakers of an old Bible that belonged to my great grandparents, William and Grace Coston. It’s huge and heavy—almost too big and cumbersome to read from my lap. The tattered leather cover is bound by an old brass clasp, and it’s pages are yellowed and fragile. Both…
DAYSPRING
DAYSPRING, noun: The dawn; the beginning of the day, or first appearance of light. Webster’s 1828 I’m a huge fan of morning! My husband is too. Usually you marry the opposite; but in this case, we are alike—up early and sitting in the dark waiting for the dawn. I might add usually with joy! This is…
The Common and the Holy
I love the almost holy tranquility of this old photo. This morning while preparing my thoughts for a teaching on understanding the purpose and place of Sabbath rest as Gentiles tonight at Queen City Church in Cincinnati, I meditated on the differences between the common and holy things of life. Sabbath is the first thing…
You Always Knew
Little, lively Vivie ran passed the colorful and showy hibiscus blossoms—some as as big as plates—and passed the endearing cabbage faces of old perfumed roses, to hold and behold a small, common garden offering. This wasn’t a flower famous for fragrance or beauty or anything, and still it’s slender stalk with purple velvet petals, captured…
Shades of Violet
When I was in the seventh grade, a new girl checked into our homeroom class named Darla Star. She shone like a beacon in a dark sky with her curly raven hair, beaming brown eyes, and confident smile. To this day, I think those magenta suede go-go boots, that she glamorously paraded, gave her a…
Dilemma of Joy
My treasured keepsakes bulge in pockets of time—rather moments—that are tucked hard against the bones of my heart. They remain as fresh and life-giving as the first-offerings of spring rosesbuds, tight with fragrance and bleeding of crimson that smears across my fingers as I pull them out one petal at a time. The edges are…
Will’s Words
Every writer dreams of having a readership—better yet a group of fans—among her peers. It’s beyond belief that my thoughts and words might be read and valued in my own time and also remain for proceeding generations. This is the poet or author’s greatest achievement. I doubt if it ever crossed William Shakespeare’s wildest imagination,…
Winter as First
“His mercies are new every morning” (Lamentations 3:22-23). This scripture is life-giving and liberating. The heart knows all too well the constant need of continual renewal and fresh restoring. Each day brings the glorious light of morning and with that comes the precious promise of God’s blessed mercies. “All the paths of the Lord are…
Bonnie Saul Wilks 