For several years, I’ve led a prayer group for mothers in my home. We meet in the morning, Monday through Friday. One day, a friend asked me to accompany her to...

I often recall our eldest daughter’s deep emotional pain and disappointment when a group of adolescent girls rejected her. I suspect if one girl in the group had supported her, she...

Checking items off my daily to-do list used to give me a sense of accomplishment and control over my life. But when my 28-year marriage ended, I began to realize I...

I am the youngest of four children. In the rural part of Puerto Rico where we grew up, all types of fruit abounded in the fields of the country estates. We...

When my daughter, Summer, was four, I took her to a fine arts museum. We came to a multimedia landscape depicting a meadow of wildflowers on a windy day. Puffs of...

I was recently out of town with my family, and since it was Sunday, we visited a church in the area. Before the sermon began, there were a few moments of...

I grew up in a society where people are often skeptical about entertaining strangers. Often, strangers inspire feelings of suspicion and fear. But God wants us to be kind to strangers,...

When I was in the seventh grade, my mom was diagnosed with a rare disease called fibrosing mediastinitis. A mass in her lung made it hard for her to breathe. She...

My birthday was coming up, and I really wanted to celebrate it with cake. The problem was that we did not have enough money to buy one. My sister knew I...

I was sharing early-morning coffee and donuts with our daughter, the mother of two wonderful, energetic children. We were both going through rough patches in our lives. She had been through...