As a young boy, my dad spent many a Friday evening in the auction barn at Green Dragon in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. His love of the place followed him into adulthood and when I entered the picture, I developed that same love. I would traipse along behind him to the sales arena where an auctioneer…
You remember what your mother said to you, don’t you, whenever you burped loudly at the table or displayed some other obvious sign of improper etiquette or behavior? With wide eyes and a horrified tone, the words were uttered with extreme reproach. “Where are your manners? Were you born in a barn?” The words were…
The porch light illuminated the faces of my brother and his family as they stood by the back door, waiting for me to grant them entrance. I hurried to open the door. “Come in, come in. It’s so good to see you!” I hugged them tightly, then moved aside to let them enter our…
“Carinda, come here. I have something for you.” Upon hearing those words, our youngest daughter came running to her daddy. She loved presents of any kind, and this sounded like one of those times. Grinning, Andrew held out a little pink bill cap with the words “Girls can’t catch what?” plastered across the front of…
The stories of Jesus and his conversations with people are so fascinating. I am eating them up one after another. I look on, wide-eyed, at his bravery in touching sick, germy people. I cry as I witness his compassion for sinful women who are so much like me. I giggle over his brilliant communication with…
As a child, I often sat spellbound, listening to my dad weave tales of adventure and intrigue from his many hours working in the morgue of the Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pennsylvania. Dad loved his job of assisting the Deener with autopsy procedures and running labs associated with them. The morgue, however, is not…
Have you ever had a day best described as a day of tears? I had one such day last week, and it wasn’t pleasant. It seemed no matter which way I turned I encountered obstacles. Every time I tried to accomplish something, I ran into one brick wall or another. It was frustrating. I had…
I wonder what the writer felt when he penned the activity and emotions taking place in Acts 3 and 4. I do know the story there is written in a way so compelling that my own heart is drawn into it, making me wish I had been there to experience it for myself. I feel…
I don’t know if you are like me, but it really gets my goat, so to speak, when I am around someone who acts like they are a step above everyone else. More virtuous. More spiritual. More worthy. Apparently, Jesus must have felt the same way because listen to this! Then Jesus told this story…
The air around me seemed thin, without sufficient oxygen for me to draw a deep breath. My heart began to flutter. I felt the awful panic rising and I struggled to remain calm. “Keep breathing,” I told myself. “Just act normal. Wait for it to pass.” I was so tired of fighting this monster inside…