Overcoming Pride

by Karen Barnett “I do it MYSELF!” My toddler knocked away my hand and yanked her shoe onto the wrong foot. “We won’t need meals delivered after his surgery. It’ll be fine.” The woman’s smile did little to obscure the dark circles under her eyes. “I don’t need Jesus. I’m doing okay on my own.” My friend folded her arms across her chest. Pride often keeps us from accepting...

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My Writing Journey

by Melanie Dobson Howard Books, June 2015 Some people wake up one day with an idea and decide to write a book. They publish, sell thousands of copies, and then they’re done. They never feel compelled to write again. Some days I wish I could stop writing. Stroll through a museum or a park without etching every detail into my mind for reference. Enjoy a dinner out without...

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Surprised by God in Uganda

by Melanie Dobson Uganda Mission Trip Several years ago God put a burning desire in my nine-year-old daughter’s heart to love on orphans in Uganda. My husband Jon and I had been wanting to serve someplace as a family, but we didn’t think we could go to Africa until Karly was much older. God, however, had other plans. We met with the missions pastor at our church and...

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Devotional: The Shell

In honor of the first day of summer and visits to the beach that I wish I could make, an old favorite poem by Amy Carmichael, missionary to India. Enjoy. The ShellUpon the sandy shore an empty shell,Beyond the shell infinity of sea;O Savior, I am like that empty shell,Thou art the Sea to me.A sweeping wave rides up the shore, and lo,Each dim recess the coiled shell within,Is searched, is filled, is filled to overflow,By water crystalline.Not to...

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Devotional: He is God

It struck me one Sunday at church that so much of what annoys, irritates, and generally drives me nuts about my life (my husband would say that isn’t a drive, but a short putt), would be fixed by my forgiving them ... For simply not being God. There is only one God, and I am not Him. Remember last week—I am the Lord, and there is none other. This doesn’t stop with what I expect God to do for me. It extends to what I expect my fellow...

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Devotional: Humble Myself

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. (James 2:10) Humble myself? What in the world does that mean? I find myself being humbled all the time—good intentions gone awry, a snarky comment I regret the moment it leaves my lips, my children spilling some juicy piece of our life story to total strangers. There seems no end to the situations God provides for me to learn humility. Why do I need to go to the trouble of doing...

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Overcomers, Line Up Here!

by Cynthia Ruchti Abingdon Press, May 2015 Seven years ago, I didn’t know how to answer people who asked me, “Why aren’t you published yet?” “Nobody wants me” didn’t sound like a professional answer. Neither did, “I don’t have this figured out yet.” The truth was I’d been writing professionally for more than 25 years for a daily scripted radio broadcast. I’d had magazine...

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My Default Setting

Abingdon Press, May 2015 by Cynthia Ruchti A funny/not-so-funny moment occurred while I was writing As Waters Gone By. I needed a detail of information regarding a potential prison sentence for a person who accidentally injured someone significantly, someone without family. I also needed details about visiting the incarcerated in a specific state prison. My mind said,...

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