One of my favorite Thanksgiving songs has a verse in it that always grabs my heart. I thank Thee, too, that all our joy is touched with pain. That shadows fall on brightest hours, that thorns remain. So that earth's bliss may be our guide, and not our chain. -From My God I Thank Thee …
Tag: joy
Those who sow in tears
On a Thursday morning about a year ago, I received one text after another saying a variation of the same message: "We won't be coming to small group tonight." The house was cleaned (no small feat with my little children), the shopping was done and the food was made, and Will had a lesson prepared. …
Choosing joy
At the beginning of October, I wrote that my goal for the next month was to practice blessing--to be thankful for the goodness God has given me and to spread the happiness to others. Exhaustion and heartbreak ran thickly through the month, and I am still struggling to emerge from a season that has tried …
Being Filled with the Holy Spirit: a personal testimony
I woke up one night last week to see the moonlight edging through the curtain in my bedroom. Unable to drift back to sleep, I decided to read for a while to get my sleepy brain to override again. So I read Simon Fry's article on Being Filled with the Holy Spirit. Guess what? My sleepy …
Continue reading Being Filled with the Holy Spirit: a personal testimony
Christmas 2016
Merry Christmas from the Schmucker family! Here is a picture of us on a rainy evening in October, trying to shield ourselves with an umbrella. I don't know what the boys think is so funny. Who knows! Elijah is our 9-year-old. And Stuart is seven. (Our trampoline and rope swing have provided hours of enjoyment for our …
When the Young Die
https://flic.kr/p/da62Wk We had in our yard a tree which lived through one season and then died, having no chance to spread its greenery upon the sky; (and its dying is both like and unlike the death of a child. She is an angel, they tell me, and happier now by far. Yes, oh yes, but--) …
Two years ago
Two years ago, my brother-in-law Sheldon drowned. How does a person begin to describe that kind of loss? Sheldon was quirky (remember the donkey mask?), funny, energetic, good with kids, and underneath all the energy was a gentle, serving, dreaming heart. That last year, Sheldon was becoming one of Will's best friends. He was intensely loyal, …
