Combat Contagion of Fear

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How are you spending this forced stay-cation? I’ve been baking, cleaning, and catching up on those “will-do-sometime” projects. Thumbing through a stack of magazines that I didn’t have time to read when they arrived over the past few months, I’m ready to discard a bunch and free up space. I appreciate having time to organize. Friends tell me they’re cleaning and organizing, too. In our normal, busy life, we handle the urgent and leave everything else until a day when our to-do list isn’t so jam-packed. That day has come. Meetings have been cancelled. Stadiums are empty. Churches are live-streaming…

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Got Electricity? Try the Room Key

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When Larry and I arrived in Jakarta, Indonesia, our missionary hosts directed us to our hotel room and left us to freshen up. Larry plugged in his shaver but it didn’t turn on even though we used the adaptor we brought. I tried to plug in the coffee maker provided in the room and still no electricity! “The room’s electricity must be broken,” I said and quickly dialed the front desk to tell them of the problem. They said a repairman would be right up and within minutes, we heard a knock on the door. The man looked into the…

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Lessons from Birdsong

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  “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Matthew 6:26). This morning I awoke to the sweet sound of birdsong. The feathered creatures seemed to be singing their praise for a new day, for sunshine just breaking through the darkness, for an ample food supply. I wonder…am I as grateful for these and a multitude of other blessings? The cheery chorus reminded me these little ones diligently pursue their sole responsibility—being the best winged-creatures…

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The Infamous Cereal Caper

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Greetings from Kathy Collard Miller from the Southern California desert near Palm Springs. For two-and-a-half years, my mother-in-law, Audrey, lived with Larry and I. God used that time to purify our motives and develop greater selflessness. Audrey suffered from Lewy-Body Dementia, which caused her to be paranoid and have delusions and hallucinations. It was a difficult time where we learned to slow down our reactions and work through what was really motivating us. I, Kathy, remember one morning Audrey was eating her bran cereal. Every morning I had to soak the cereal in milk for at least thirty minutes to make it…

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When It’s Time to Regroup

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Sometimes in our writing career, we get blindsided by an unexpected event that temporarily throws us off course. It could be a family situation, a medical diagnosis, or a job loss.  Whatever the situation, we suddenly find ourselves facing a circumstance that diverts our full attention from our writing.  What can we do?

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