Soul Carving

       I fall more in love with my husband each time I witness his loving interactions with our children. Seeing his obvious interest in and affection for them deepens my trust in his love and devotion towards me. It's truly a miraculous and beautiful thing to behold. While it may appear tragically rare in today's world, fatherly love is an inspiring source of strength, comfort and wisdom. My husband's selfless motives, his energetic patience with, and tender consideration for his children, really blow me away. I can't get over it. And I thank my Heavenly Father for it, as it serves as a heartening example of what Divine fatherly love looks like.        Every year for Father's day, the kids and I find a creative way to express our appreciation for this fabulous guy, through our traditional father's day photo-shoot. Remember my first attempt? Then there was the Superhero collage and the Sports-Star themed session . As I pondered what theme to us...

       In my last post I explained how my voice is my gift and how I desire to use it to bless and inspire. I've been overjoyed to find a community which has allowed me that privilege. A Voice of Gladness is a gathering place for women of faith. Today, you can read an article I've written on the topic of Grace & Truth for this gathering place. If you leave a comment on their site, I'll be able to see it and respond. I hope you have the time to read it and discover refreshment and enlightenment for your own journey. Please feel free to share it with any others who you think might benefit from it as well.

        Josiah was a prince. His father ruled the land but led his people to wander in dark paths, turning aside from the faith that had at one point been cherished by the kings and their people. For generations now, the kings and their subjects had been feeding the lusts of their insatiable idols with unspeakably vile rites of human sacrifice. When Josiah was only eight years old, his father was assassinated. His murderers were put to death, and Josiah then inherited the degenerate kingdom.        But then, something quite remarkable happened.        While the record is scanty, we can read a few lines which mark an extraordinary shift in events. Whereas Josiah's father and grandfather are said to have forsaken the God of their father's and done evil in His sight, when Josiah begins his reign, he does that which was right in the sight of the Lord and turns "not aside to the right hand or to the left." ( 2 Kings 22:2 ) This ...

What do you do when your husband is laid off from a job he's given his all to, and you realize that this means you will no longer be able to redeem the airline tickets he won from a work raffle? What options are left when the 2-week Italian getaway you were planning to celebrate your 15th anniversary is no longer a possibility? How do you cope? You get thrifty, of course! Yes, it's true, Richard was one of the unfortunate ones to be let go from the company a month before Christmas. And yes, we had to come to terms with the fact that not only would this deprive us of our source of income, it would mean saying "arrivederci" to our plans to go abroad. We'd been researching places to stay, we'd arranged a caretaker for all seven kids, and we'd been dreaming of a Roman holiday for just the two of us. But regulations stipulated that the recipient of the airline tickets must be employed with the company at the time of travel. Our plans were scheduled for the e...