As the children finished lunch on our field trip, a few younger ones drifted over and started building with the large blocks. They worked together to build small walls and towers,...

I love my father. He is an ordinary man. He did not have great wealth, but he did not waver in his efforts to make sure his children could be successful....

I struggled for a long time with whether I should become an ordained minister. I often heard other people talk about hearing the voice of God; but though I felt a...

As a teenager in the 1980s, I got swept up in the punk and new-wave-music craze. Even though punk was supposed to be anti-fashion, there really was a certain “look” that...

My dad was surefooted as a mountain goat. I never saw him stumble. As a boy, I would try to step in his steps when we walked, though it was difficult...

In 2010, four of us from Nigeria were accepted to do doctoral work in Washington, DC. The paperwork was complete, and all we needed were our visas. I was the last...

As I turn on the barn lights and gather the cows for their early morning milking, a few sparrows begin a soft chatter in the milking-parlor rafters. They remind me of...

My friend Virginia was overwhelmed and exhausted, having to go to work each day and also care for her husband, who was confined at home with terminal cancer. Tearfully, she would...

My husband, Jim, and I enjoy a well-cared-for vegetable garden. We like nothing better than fresh vegetables, and looking at those straight rows of plants gives us a sense of accomplishment....

I sat in disbelief as I read the message. Hundreds of miles away, my mom was nearing the end of her battle with cancer. Just two weeks earlier she had been...