A year after I graduated from high school I left everything I knew and traveled to Texas, far from my home in Washington State, to work as a live-in nanny for a family that I had never met before.

I have something I need to confess today. 

I absolutely love to eat!  

In fact, it’s part of our family tree—to love good food, love eating, and talk about eating. We are food people. Foodies. 

There’s no other message that holds greater importance in this life than the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I’m a water-skier.  

At the age of 6, I started skiing on two skis behind a pontoon boat. Then, in middle school, I began my love affair with the slalom ski. One ski, both feet, smooth sailing. 

Her voice was so loud that I almost dropped the phone. 

She was crying and extremely upset. 

Her marriage was in trouble, and she called me to talk about it. 

The mortgage was due on 1st.  It was the 3rd- and there sat the envelope on the front table, waiting to go in the mail.  My heart sank.  As a rule-following kind of girl, it really bothers me when I mess up like this.  I expected a late payment would be incurred and that there would be a ding on my credit rating.  I was upset with myself for forgetting to get the check in the mail before I left on vacation. 

Over the course of the year, my friend Melanie Redd and I have been writing articles about doctrine, theology, and significant Bible topics. 

These articles have been carefully researched, prayed over, and shared with the hope that many people will want to dig in and learn more. 

The time and place was Germany after WWII.  The church was divided and the hurt ran deep.  In the year’s prior, Hitler had commanded all religious groups within the country to unite. It wasn’t a unity of the Spirit, however, that brought them together.  Rather, the unity was forced upon them so Hitler could better control the churches.

She gave them to us almost every Sunday in church. 

They were the coolest little pencil puzzle books. If you would turn your pencil to the side and brush it back and forth across the page, an image would “magically” appear.  

My brother and I would enjoy page after page of these magic puzzle books, anticipating what images might be revealed. 

I’ve sent up more than a few frantic, “help!” prayers in my lifetime.  There have been times when I just didn’t know what to say how to pray.  There have also been times when I’ve prayed those quick prayers and experienced what I can only describe as a supernatural power shortly afterwards.  My faith has been strengthened from these events and I want to give full credit to where that power came from: the Holy Spirit.

It took me awhile to catch on. 

For years, I worked for a challenging boss. She was difficult, demanding, and impossible to please. 

Her words regularly came out in a critical, almost vicious, manner. Most of the staff would hold their breath, as she would walk into our work areas. She was a tough person to work for, to say the least. 

Think about the last team you were a part of maybe it was a sports team.  You shared a common goal or purpose with other people.   If you had an effective team then you, undoubtedly, also had good leadership.

My high school dance team had a goal: win state.  It was as simple as that. 

The work that went towards accomplishing that goal was anything but simple. Thousands of smaller goals had to be met first.  It was a journey that spanned the course of a year and there were many distractions and hurdles along the way. 

Do you remember the first mobile phone you ever saw or used? 

My dad had a huge box that sat under the dash in the front of his car. In this box was the most wonderful contraption. It was a gigantic mobile phone.  

I closed my eyes throughout most of the movie.  Is it over yet?  I kept thinking.  Why?  This is too awful!  Why did he have to suffer so much?  

Jesus’s death, as portrayed in The Passion of the Christ, had my mind going to uncomfortable places, confronting me with a reality that hurt.  It was only a movie, but what Christ did for me, and for you, was illustrated so vividly, that even from the comfort of dark theater, it was almost more than I could handle.   

I remember it like it was yesterday.  

Our phone conversation was brief but poignant. I shared the horrific details of my situation through tears.  

All she said was, “I’ll be over soon.” 

In my moment of deepest need and greatest hurt, my friend came to me. She left what she was doing and made her way to my house to comfort and encourage me. I had nothing to offer her, nothing to give, and little to say. 

But, she showed up – just when I needed her the most. (And, she brought flowers!) 

Similarly, when we were in our place of greatest need, Jesus stepped out of heaven and came down to earth for us. We had nothing to offer, nothing to give, and little to say.  

But Jesus showed up – just when we needed Him the most. (And, He brought hope!) 

Sitting around a dinner table the other night with friends, the conversation was relaxed.  At some point, one person asked a simple question, 

“What’s your story?”

That question, when asked in the right context (of trust, love, and good listeners) is one of my favorites.  I believe each person has an amazing story to tell.

Is the Bible the only book we REALLY need?

It’s a question worth thinking about.  I love to read and I love books!  I have piles of books stacked throughout my house. I’m usually reading 2-3 at a time.  I wrote a book- and I want to write more!  I’m not saying other books are without value and I don’t appreciate them.  But what if we could only choose one?

God answers prayer!

In fact, God hears and answers all of our prayers.  

Often, He answers us immediately with a resounding, “YES!” And, don’t we like it when He does? 

However, “YES!” is not the only way our Fathers will respond to our prayers. 

When my college senior was only 14 years old, we had the most amazing conversation about prayer

Honestly, Emily has always been a very curious girl, and her questions about prayer were no different.  Here's what she asked:

Does God really hear me when I pray?

How does God answer my prayers?

“Telephone” is childhood game that you’re probably familiar with.  I remember sitting in a circle with other kids as we each took turns listening to a neighbor on one side of us whisper some silly message into our ear, then we passed along that information by whispering into the other neighbor’s ear.  Around the circle went the message until it got back to the original person who started it.  The bigger the circle, the more potential there was for the message to morph into something very different from what it was when it started.  Sometimes, a kid would intentionally change the message, just to be silly.  The game vividly illustrated how easily stories change over time as they’re passed along, particularly in verbal exchanges. 

It was a strange site to see… really. 

Two women walking in the neighborhood who seemed so very different from each other. 

I would walk in short, a t-shirt, and tennis shoes. Some of the days were extremely warm with temperatures soaring into the 90’s. The other woman, my neighbor, had much darker skin and was covered from head to toe. She even wore an hijab (scarf covering her head and neck) even on the hottest days. 

In the elementary years, my daughter and I had an evening ritual. After her little brother went to bed, we’d snuggle together under warm blankets and I’d read aloud to her.  Most of the books we read together were great, but there was one particular standout that neither of us liked.  It was called,

From the time they were very small, we taught our children to pray. 

We prayed at meals, at bedtime, and when a fire truck or an ambulance would go by.  

As far as our kids were concerned, prayer was as normal as eating, sleeping, and taking a bath. It was part of our lives – an essential activity in our daily routines. 

So, it shouldn’t surprise me that our children took prayer seriously. 

According to 2010 report from Pew Research Center, nearly 80% of Americans believe in miracles.  I believe this is because it’s what they’ve observed- either directly or because they’ve heard about miracles from people they trust.  I know this is true for me.  I can’t deny what I’ve seen and experienced.

It happened on a regular basis at our house. 

In fact, it was the norm to hear this comment almost daily as we were growing up. 

Long before the days of cell phones, video games, 500 TV channels, and X-Box; our parents sent us to the ultimate destination to play. 

It was called, “OUTSIDE.” 

The Delight in Doctrine series that Melanie have been publishing on Wednesdays is on hiatus for one week. In the meantime, I'm excited to share a resource that's closely related, something I've been working on for you!  I have a new printable journal called, 31 Days of Scripture:  The Character of God.  It's a free gift for you, my way of letting you know how much I love and appreciate you. 

She wasn’t going to yield.  That much was abundantly clear.  Her fists were clenched tightly as she loudly objected, straining to free herself from the dentist’s chair.

“Though she be but little, she is fierce!”

It was such a memorable moment. 

 A group of 12 of us were seated around a large table in a conference room where we were spending the week in an intensive class on “Systematic Theology.” 

 I was the only woman in our little group. And, the topic this particular morning was, “The Trinity.” 

My first day of high school World History, I nervously took my seat in the back of the classroom.  I’d heard the rumors.  Mr. L was the hardest teacher in the school.  My expectation was that I would work harder in this class than I had ever worked before.

That expectation was met.

“Honey, if you will do just one thing, I think you can be good at this.” 

 These were the words that came out of my husband’s mouth as we begin playing the fourth hole that day.