In the Wee, Small Hours of the Morning

Do you ever wake up in the wee, small hours of the morning, and find thoughts running through your head that wouldn’t be there any other time of the day? It’s as if in the busyness of daylight hours, my mind is full of the activities or worries or demands of the day, but in […]

Etta Bend Devotional–Tep Willis

Etta Bend Devotional–Tep Willis

Etta Bend Devotional January 18–“Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store” (Deuteronomy 28:5). My great-grandmother, Catherine Serepta (Tep) Barker Willis, was an outdoors person as was my grandmother and my mother. I can picture her now, wearing a long-sleeved blouse (she would have called it “waist”) and long skirts that reached the tops of […]

Etta Bend Devotional

One of the writing projects I’m working on is a daily devotional book with the Etta Bend of the early twentieth century as the background. The format is to have a Bible verse at the top, short sketch in the middle, and a take away Thought at the bottom. Here is a sample: January 8–“I […]

‘Twas the Day After Christmas..

‘Twas the Day After Christmas..

And now, mail resumes, banks re-open, some people go back to work, and I heave a sigh of contentment for another wonder-filled Christmas, come and gone. Matt and his family, my brother Richard and sister-in-law Linda were here. It was a happy time of visiting and eating, and reflecting on God’s Word. Each year, Matt […]

Getting Older Has Its Charms

Rain is falling steadily on my little corner of Arkansas but that’s OK. So far, the temperature is above freezing although we do have a freezing rain/ice warning going. Believe it or not, thunder woke me last night, echoing around the heavens and bouncing off the clouds. That must have been the arriving cold air […]

Precious and Priceless Peace

Precious and Priceless Peace

The older I get, the more I enjoy the blessing of peace; not just peace, mind you, but peace that comes of being free and contented and pursuing my own dreams. In school, we learned about “pax romana” or the peace that Rome imposed upon conquered nations. That is not peace at all but a seething […]