One day when my daughter Penelope was a toddler, we were hosting a family gathering. Penelope was playing with her cousins in a noisy room, crowded with relatives. Penelope is a...

My mom was the only child born to a 13-year-old single mother in the 1930s. She grew up poor and feeling unloved. My mom was an angry woman who didn’t appear...

Twenty years ago, I had my first real encounter with God. I was 10 years old and in my final year of elementary school. When I took the middle school entrance...

In the springtime, I love to sit outside alone in the early morning chill to sip a mug of hot coffee, read and meditate on The Upper Room message for the...

One time in elementary school I said something mean to a kid in my class. Mike was a tough kid and much bigger than I so I expected that when we...

Two mornings a week I take the bus into town. I find that bus ride an uplifting experience. I am constantly struck by the presence of God in the lives of...

At age 26 and after years of graduate study, I was newly married and beginning my career. I was young, happy, and ambitious. Then after unexplained pain and months of uncertainty,...

When I was growing up, people always told me to trust God. I never really understood why or how. I mean, nobody can see God. So I wondered, What problems can...

God has given me the gift of writing. I receive responses from readers telling how they were blessed by the messages I’ve written. I am amazed at how God makes sure...

As my wife and I anticipate the upcoming wedding of our only child, we have begun to reminisce about “the good old days” when our daughter was a toddler, and about...