They caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. Luke 5:6-7

To help pay my son’s college tuition, I started working for a realtor one day a week, doing some of her marketing and administrative work. She told another realtor about it and he hired me. Then his social media rep told another realtor about it and she hired me too.

Obviously, it’s great when word of mouth is positive and leads to more income. But it also led to more work than I anticipated, cutting into my writing time and pulling me away when my kids needed me.

No matter how much I tried to juggle it all, I just couldn’t keep all the balls in the air.

I was staying at my friend’s house on the water in Maine recently. One morning, my eye was caught by a seagull perched on a buoy. As the wind blew and the water rippled, the buoy bounced and swayed. To keep himself stable, the seagull raised and expanded his wings like a tight-rope walker using a pole for balance on a high wire. It was utterly fascinating to watch.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights. James 1:17

A small plane flew over my house yesterday, leaving a long, white tail of smoke in the sky. It reminded me of those airplanes that used to write messages in the sky: “Marry me, Susan” or “Happy Birthday Joe” Oh, how times have changed. Now those messages are conveyed on billboards and massive teletrons at sporting events.

As I stared up at the sky, longing to see one of those old-fashioned love notes spelled out in smoke, I began noticing other love notes written by God.

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“They will hardly hear with their ears, they have closed their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and be converted, and I heal them.” Matthew 13:15

Sorry for the late post. I was away on vacation with my family. Enjoy!

We have become a know-it-all society. Even if we don’t have an answer to something, we Google it within a nano-second so we do. We no longer sit with a question, admitting we don’t know.

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As I sat on the porch of my sister’s home in the mountains of Georgia recently, my gaze fell upon the grouping of trees in her horseshoe driveway. Although the cluster created a perfectly symmetrical fan of lime green leaves, looking closer, I realized none of the trees themselves had that same perfection. 

A botanist would have said it was because the trees didn’t have enough room. Each one had to vie for space and sunshine and grew in a shape that gave them both. I saw it differently. 

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I’m old-school and haven’t moved to online banking yet. There wasn’t a need before. I was always one of those people who balanced her checkbook to the penny.

The busier my life gets, however, the less attentive I’ve become. Now, I just keep a running tally of expenses and don’t add them up until I sit down to pay my bills once a month. There have been quite a few months when I’ve been shocked to find I’m in the red! It’s a good think I have overdraft insurance on my account.

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“Beware of the scribes, who like . . . seats of honor in synagogues, and places of honor at banquets.” Mark 12:38-39

I used to teach a mommy-and-me program at my church here in New Hampshire. Each week, my mom would drive up from Massachusetts to set up the crafts and snacks. Even though it was my program, she always arrived at the parish center before me in her dedication to the kids and moms.

Pay close attention to your life and to your teaching. Persevere in these things, for by so doing you will save both yourself and those who hear you. 1 Timothy 4:16

Dillon Reese, a seventh-grade boy in Michigan, was riding the school bus home recently. His parents hadn’t given him a cell phone yet. So, he spent his time on the bus looking around. That’s how he noticed that the bus driver had fainted and the bus was headed into oncoming traffic.

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I heard a fascinating story on the radio the other day. A college professor was giving an exam on logic. He told his students they could bring one 8 ½ x 11 paper with them. They were allowed to put anything on it they thought would help during the test.

One clever student arrived with his 8 ½ x 11 paper perfectly blank. He placed it on the floor and then had the graduate student he brought with him stand on it. That graduate student helped the undergraduate get an A!

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“The Kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.” Matthew 13:33

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My twelve-year-old daughter, Jocelyn, has been bitten by the baking bug. Unfortunately, she’s learned the hard way that when she omits baking powder, her cookies, cakes, or muffins come out flat. When she asked what baking powder does exactly, I turned to Google to help me explain that, like yeast, baking powder is a complete leavener. It has both sodium bicarbonate (the base agent) and the acidic ingredient that activates the sodium bicarbonate. It’s also a double-acting leavener with two separate reactions: one when it’s mixed with liquid at room temperature, the other when the mixture is heated in the oven.