I got out of the car and forced myself to stop beside the flower garden. A gentle breeze caressed my hair, while warm sunlight kissed my face. I took a deep breath and looked around as if seeing the green grass and bright blossoms for the first time. Goodness was all around me.

I had taken my feverish four year old daughter to the hospital the night before, and had made a quick trip home to snatch a few clothes before going right back.

Sometimes we think God only helps other people. He answers specific prayers and shows Himself strong to people we know—but not to us…

I can still see his face wrinkled in disdain as he mocked me—he used my last name to create an unkind rhyme, which he chanted over and over in front of our 2nd grade school mates. I still remember his name and I have forgiven him.

I wore eyeglasses at a time when few others wore them. Schoolmates called me ‘four-eyes’, but I couldn’t see without the glasses, so I chose clear vision and endured the taunting.

Everyone in town knew Karen because she was a sweet woman who would help anyone. She volunteered in our town’s fire department, belonged to several community causes, was a terrific single mom to two teenagers and worked full time. But we all knew she was dying, yet no one wanted to say it out loud.

I listened to a familiar old hymn today and noticed the phrase “In the Night Season.” I used to think those words meant night-time. You know, when the sun went down and it was night. But today I realized the author of that song meant hard times, dark valleys, or total heartbreak.

It’s easy to praise God during shady days and cool, quiet nights. Happy times put a spring in the step, and we can’t imagine life any other way. For sure, God is so good He will get us through anything. 

My first three children were each born during the summer, which meant I wasn’t very far along in the pregnancy at Christmas time. But with Benjamin I was 35 weeks along on Christmas Day. I had been in my twenty’s when I carried the first three, but was thirty-six years old while carrying Ben. Age made a big difference in the comfort of that pregnancy, because I carried him for thirty-nine weeks, and was sick thirty-four of them.

My father, Paul Griffin Sr, would have turned 89 today, if he hadn't gone to heaven three weeks ago.

When my husband died the children and I had no idea how we would make it through our first Christmas without him. He was killed on the twenty-fifth, a fact that hadn’t escaped any of us. How could we celebrate Christmas, or anything at all if he wasn’t there?

I wish I had known more about being a Mom before I became one, then I might not have made as many mistakes…

 "And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" John 11:26