Laura, our beloved daughter-in-love, sets a “House Beautiful” worthy table.  Mother of five, she never ceases to amaze me in the way she transforms old wood and throw away objects into stunning pieces. What makes her…

Clay pots. That is what we are. We are not made of silver or gold or even brass. We are fragile and when pressures of life crash down we crack. Sounds depressing, doesn’t it?

This powerful passage in Today’s Treasure deserves “digging deeper” effort. We can’t unpack its beauty in a devotional, but this week, let’s pull back the curtain a bit on the supernatural grace and hope in this passage…

“There is so much conflict in my church, I hate going. I feel as though church people are meaner than people outside the church.” I feel the pain of this woman who approached me after I spoke on the priceless gift of community. Sadly, too…

“Sharon, your daughter is getting married in December. You don’t care about your house right now, but you will when wedding guests start arriving. Let’s start with your dining room.” Our son, Mark and his friend Kelly were in a fatal car accident…

Sometimes dark clouds hover over my heart every morning. Often I can not pinpoint why I feel blue. My typical response to such feelings is to make a to-do-list of every task facing me that day (including loading the dishwasher…

The Apostle Paul outlines a description of a biblical encourager! Be one whose motive is to share the message of Christ through teaching, admonishing one another, expressing gratitude to our God, and in everything…

Jesus never calls us to a place of serving without also equipping us. In John 14 we see Him preparing His motley crew of disciples for His absence.  Their marching orders terrify and anger some of them. He reassures them that when…

When we experience sudden loss or death, we feel violated and tend to be paranoid about the “next shoe dropping”. After Mark’s death, every nerve tingled with the reality that if our youngest child and his friend could be in a fatal car…

Mark Twain’s books Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn captured my imagination during the hot summers of growing up in Middletown, Delaware. Though I haven’t read them in years it doesn’t take long to pull…

The morning after surgery for breast cancer I looked out the hospital window at a gorgeous, hot summer day. The sunny day did not match my mood. I was afraid. Final biopsy results would take a few days. Today’s Treasure came to mind…

After our son Mark’s death, several friends stayed intimately involved in my grief journey. Grief broke me and I wasn’t easy to be around. Though I don’t remember a lot about those…

One of God’s priceless gifts to His people is community. When He called Abraham His child, God promised Abraham that not only would God bless Abraham with His presence, God would create a family that would be blessed…

You may have begun this journey of practicing life-giving encouragement with joy and anticipation of great blessings, but today you are starting to wonder if you are really cut out for this task. You see the encouragement command…

The word “arise” in Today’s Treasure is the same one the prophetess Deborah used when she declared, “Village life ceased, ceased in Israel, until I Deborah arose, arose a Mother in Israel…

The story in yesterday’s devotional is very relevant for so many of us. Our natural inclination is to run away from a toxic relationship. Yet, often the Lord wants us to learn how to engage that person or situation in a way that patiently and…

Remember the last time everything seemed to fall apart around you, and none of the chaos was your fault? Pick one that fits you – maybe all of them…

Did you know that when Jesus forgave you and came into your heart, He brought His DNA? That the Scripture actually uses the word “sperma” in…

The woman’s face twisted in agony and her sobbing moans made her words hard to understand. She had just learned that a man she considered a faithful friend was regularly molesting her daughter. What does life-giving encouragement for this woman look like…

Encouragement comes naturally to some people. Their personalities and gift mix uniquely equip them to walk into a broken person’s life and know just what to do…