For Reflection
Devotionals and writings for personal reflection.
Related topics: Christian Music, Creativity and Art, Life of Worship, Spiritual Practice
LATEST POSTS
Jesus is like topsoil [4 thoughts about our relationship with Christ]
I'm a sucker for a good simile. Especially ones that help me understand my faith. Statements like, "Jesus is like a [blank]," help us to understand various characteristics of his nature. In fact, the Scriptures are full of names for God which all tell us a great...
carrying christmas
My husband and I will celebrate our 42nd wedding anniversary on Wednesday. On Friday, I'll remove my diamond rings. Not to worry, though. It's only temporary. I've had my flu shot, popped my first malaria pills, and packed last year's Cipro just in case. I'm making...
the testing of boundaries
You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16.11 (ESV) Five weeks after total knee replacement and my therapist thinks I'm doing great, but it's hard work, and I sometimes...
power of the Blood
On Monday, we take communion around our worn dining table after missing it on Sunday, share the hand blown goblet from Mexico filled with grape juice poured from small boxes. "This is His blood shed for you," my husband says, and the five of us remember the drink...
about school shopping and santa
Neither Abby nor I feel good, but summer’s winding down, and we’ve set this day aside for shopping. Time to hit the “cool” stores and try on some “cool” clothes in order to be “cool” during that first week of school. Time to watch mother and daughter do...
dear heavy heart, from yours truly
Dear Heavy Heart, I know you. I know your dark dread that rests heavy like a black cauldron full of the stew of worry, troubles, and bad news. Listen, I know of medicine for a heart like yours. I know relief from that anxious dread, those clouds of gray skies and...
feeling guilty about being saved: my 19-year-old self
Dear God, There is a way in which I sometimes I felt a sense of belonging. Belonging to a family. But I never felt I belonged to you. It was like I was walking alone, next to a ghost who had died centuries ago, drifting silently at my feet, as my shadow cast over...
lee daniels’ the butler: some reflections
My parents moved from the Detroit area to buy four small rustic cabins on a lake in northern lower Michigan and later built a six-room motel. Our little house's screened-in porch (that I painted chartreuse when my folks were away) served as the office. I can still...
reflections on beauty and lessons learned too late
Every year for Christmas, she'd give us roughly the same thing. My sister and I would sneer and groan at the oversize art books on "how to draw faces" like the ones you'd see in a Michelangelo painting. One time, my giant book came tucked inside a black...
when you have no idea where you are going
It's been one of those weeks. You've had them, right? Times of hard decision-making and what-ifs that lead to more waiting and second-guessing and flip-flopped fear and trust, and you just want a final decision to be made and hope you can live with it. Except each...
to be deceived by beauty
They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. Mark 4:18-19 (ESV) I'm aware of the deception, but I make no effort to resist....
more lessons from basketball camp
She was a rising third grader back then when she signed up for her first basketball camp at school. Back when she considered giving up. Now Grace is a rising sixth grader with three years of practice and games under her belt. She's signed up for a week of...
how to be happy: declare yourself bankrupt
Our pastor tells a story about how France’s King Louis XIV planned his own farewell extravaganza. He left instructions that at his funeral service, the Notre Dame cathedral would remain dark except for a single candle above his golden coffin, the candle...