Inspire a Fire

Posted by Janet Morris Grimes on May 20, 2013

Claim Your Future

To My Graduating Niece: Dear Leah, Yours has been such an interesting life so far; constantly moving and changing without ever asking your permission. From your birth in a military hospital in Hawaii to Florida, Colorado, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, you have been forced to start over and relocate just when you were getting settled. You’ve never been in one place more than three consecutive years....

Posted by Lynn Huggins Blackburn on May 19, 2013

When You’re Tired of Cleaning Up the Mess

Motherhood has surprised me. I never imagined how much I would love to feel a tiny hand in mine, or how I would thrill when they want me—and only me. I never realized how each child would bring a whole array of new experiences—new favorites, new skills, new firsts. I never knew this level of dependence. How much their tiny selves require of me and how I can’t fathom my own life without them. Of...

Posted by Jennifer L Griffith on May 17, 2013

Living as Called

Lizwi walked with confidence into a hospital room in Manzini, Swaziland. At just 22, he’s lived enough life and experienced enough death to know his need for Jesus runs deeper than his African roots. He doesn’t want anyone to miss out on the freedom he’s found. He touched the shoulder of a young boy who lay motionless in the children’s ward, and then greeted the grandmother, or...

Posted by Ron on May 15, 2013

God Bought You As-is

If you admire an organization or person, I have a fix for that: get to know them better. No, I’m not being pessimistic. I’m being quite literal, even biblical. The truth of the matter is that all of us are not the same person we present to strangers. And since all organizations are made up of people, their internal workings are pretty scrwed up, too. I remember my first real engineering job...

Posted by Janet Morris Grimes on May 13, 2013

Look What You Just Did

Dear God, It happened again. You surprised me. Just when I thought you were too busy, preoccupied with your bazillion other requests on the other side of the globe, I see it now. I found Your fingerprints on some of the forgotten crevices of my life. The truth is, sometimes I seek the spotlight through the darkness, the blinding light that stops me in my tracks to reveal all your secret ways and obvious...

Posted by Alycia on May 10, 2013

The One Thing You Need to Know When Your Life Feels Small

by, Alicia Bruxvoort I spotted it the moment I stepped out of the shower: a small blue footprint on the crisp white tile. My stomach twisted at the sight. Because every mom knows where there is one footprint, there are more. I wrapped a towel around my dripping hair and followed the trail of blue smudges out of the master bath and into my bedroom. Blue blobs with poke-a-dot toes criss-crossed the cream...

Posted by Will Schmit on May 9, 2013

Bring to Glory

Next week I’m reading my poetry in public for the first time in fifteen years. My coffee house and campus glory days are way behind me. I’ve since been saved, sober, baptized, re-married, ordained as a prison minister, and become a grandparent. My daughters and their new husbands will come to the reading, and it may be my best all-time chance to witness and inspire them to Christian...

Posted by Alycia on May 8, 2013

Busyness is Not a Spiritual Gift

‘Wait’ is a tough word to deal with in today’s busy world. {Tweet This} by, Tammy Whitehurst I easily become overloaded, overburdened, and go overboard with busyness. I’ve often thought to myself that life would be perfect if bad times had fast-forward buttons and good times had pause buttons. I’d also like to clone myself to get more done and never have to sit back and wait...