He leads me beside quiet waters… he restores my soul. —Psalm 23:2 I am sitting by still waters today, but there is a party on the lake. People having fun; diving in and dive-bombing into the water. Someone is tubing on the lake as well, and jets skis too. It is not exactly quiet, but it does restore my soul. Just when I was going to write that it is calmed down now, there is another whoop from the party boat. It is so peaceful here by the water, despite the party. I took my shoes off and dangled my feet in the lake. I love the sound of water lapping up on the shore. It is so soothing. It reminds me of the Allegheny river when I was young. My Grandpa Simey would take us out on the rowboat. We would pack a lunch and I remember the waves lapping on the shore of the river as we parked our boat...

We Heart Matters gals are taking the month of July off as a writing hiatus. We'll be back in August!!! Emilie, LuAnn, Julie and Sally

As many of you know from my previous writing, I love discovering and digging into the meanings of names and since my brother and his wife included my grandads name in their first sons, I was intrigued by what it means. In this season and time it also feels like a real gift to be lead down this path as my grandads name is Raymond (Ray), which means, "Wise Strength." Last week my Grandad passed away just a few days after his 95th birthday, his stature, kind and strong but by the end his bones were ready not to be here anymore. Ever since the birth of my first nephew and watching the deterioration of my grandad I have been pondering my grandads name. What does it mean to be strong? What does "wise strength" mean? Just a couple of the questions that have ruminated inside me.Biblical Scripture ...

Consider how parched wasteland can become a blossoming meadow after a good rain. The challenge, of course, is to live mindfully so that we do not miss the lessons hidden in the seasons. Hold each season up against your life. Consider the little flowers growing up through the deadwood. The deadwood is a source of life for them. It is their mulch. What can this teach you about the apparent deadwood in your own life? What is your mulch? What helps you grow? What can the seasons teach you? —Marcrina Wiederkehr I have been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. It effects my speech. I want to LEARN from my struggles, my questions, and my unrest. The first thing that the seasons teach me is that it is always changing. Spring blossoms in crocus, daffodils, and tulips. Late spring produces the lo...

"You are supposed to destroy the works of the devil and stomp on hell for a living. The cross is the revealing of your value. If you get who you are because of what he did, it doesn't matter what people have done to you." Todd White Our world is in chaos. And many of us feel defenseless. So many voices are shouting to be heard. Often their messages are different, outright contradictory, depending on their experiences. How do I respond as a believer? I honestly don't have all the answers. There are a few words that keep landing in my brain though, like the cotton from the trees that keep landing on my porch, clinging: listen, pray, serve. Fight for righteousness and the innocent. In other words, be more like Christ. As these thoughts were circling in my head, I ran into a friend as I was dr...

I won't stand by watching a sister fight against a brother, a friend hurl insults against another friend, a Christian slander another child of God + let Satan kick back laughing in TOTAL GLEE. Smiling from ear to ear. So happy we played right into his hand.Don't be mistaken—whatever you see with your own 2 eyes? Not it. Our struggle is NOT against flesh and blood. So all the hate, injustice + division?We know the truth. Paul makes it very clear: We're fighting against the evil rulers, authorities + mighty powers of this dark world + against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Eph. 6:12)So rise up, friends. There's a war going on + it didn't just start last week. Don't let yourself be deceived, don't turn on each other like Satan hopes + remember from where you fight: God for ...

"Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness. " Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  We are lamenting with our brown and black brothers and sisters.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Look! God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 'He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." Revelation 21: 2-4

 Love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. —Mark 6:30-31 Who is your neighbor? Is it the people living next to you? Is it your fellow man? Or is it the strangers you might never meet? Rey and I recently served at Second Harvest Heartland. We were at the tail end of the boxes. Rey put in Instant Potatoes and Dried Milk Powder in each package. I put a flyer in, date-stamped it and then sent it through the taper. The guy on the end loaded it onto a pallet. A week's worth of food goes into each box. Feeding the most vulnerable around us. It was such a gift to us to be able to serve. We were so blessed by the experience that we'll be back serving the first week of June. All of us, at some time ...

We remember all those who served our country... and those who still serve. THANK YOU!  

Only when you create space for your dark parts to speak, and you listen to what they have to say, will they truly begin to lower the volume of their screams. They need to trust that you will listen to them rather than attempting to shut them up. Attempting to shut them up will, in the end, only make their screams louder; begging to be heard. Even in your shame, even in your fear or your darkness, God is bending down, trying to gently lift your head so He can look into your eyes. This is what I believe he may say… "Even in your shame or darkest moments, I still love you, no matter what. Nothing about you is too much to handle. You are beloved. Your shame will be drowned out by my love if only you let me in. I will shine light in those dark places, and you can break free from the chains that...

A grenade exploded. COVID-19. And through the embers and debris, our world became almost unrecognizable. Like I had entered an episode of The Twilight Zone. In this new world, people's stories swirl in my brain in a never-ending cycle. A friend whose pain is growing almost intolerable because she no longer has access to her physical therapy. A young farmer dressed in a soft blue flannel and cowboy hat in tears as he loses the farm that has been in his family for generations. Nurses and doctors in New York in their scrubs, exhausted and overwhelmed. Just when they think they have the treatment for this new virus figured out, another precious life slips away. A dad sits outside crying, pain in his eyes, as he shares with the world how his son just took his life from the isolation and despair...

With an international phenomenon of social distancing in pandemic proportions taking over our daily lives, I am amazed at the human spirit and creativity that has the potential to ooze out of us all. It seems that in tough times our power to choose the good is highlighted as our only road map to hope. That God tenderly whispers ideas to us, to encourage our neighbors and maybe even love them a little better than we were before and to me this is very humbling and full of life. In my little corner of the world, the UK, it all started with my dad asking me whether I wanted to sing Somewhere Over the Rainbow out on the street a couple of weeks into lockdown. I said I would be happy to and since then we have been out on the street every week. The idea emerged as the nation announced a weekly mo...

I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. The waves beside them danced; but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company: I gazed- and gazed- but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought: For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the...

Suicide rates are climbing. Uncertainty fills the air like a bonfire on lighter fluid. The air swirls heavy and dark around us, smothering at times. We breathe deeply to steady ourselves. Then fear comes at us again, like a wasp that won't leave us alone. Or like an evil character in a nightmare we try so hard to escape from. For some, it is fear of the virus itself. Of losing our health. Or fear of losing a dear loved one whose systems are already compromised. And for some, this fear becomes a reality and their world will never be the same. Others watch as their business they had been dreaming about building since their young days, pouring their aspiring ideas and overflowing energy into, evaporates away like dew on grass. Others find themselves trying to work their job fro...

Passover and Easter are with us again this week and boy does the world look different to last year. These two biblical accounts are profound markers on our walk as believers and their interwoven presence in the life of Yeshua (the Hebrew name for Jesus) as He lived and walked towards the cross and resurrection. The story of the first Passover can be found in Exodus 12. It speaks of unleavened bread, the tenth and final plague of the death of the first born, and a communal instruction and response in the most difficult and gut wrenching situations. It also speaks of being home with your household and a light being in the midst of that home as you do as the Lord instructs. The story speaks of redemption, salvation and the freedom that comes with the path of God redeeming His people and the c...

​This is written by my precious kid-sister growing up... Sally Blick Page. The Amen of nature is always a flower. —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Well over a year ago, a friend gave me an African Violet. She was going to throw it away because it was getting crowded in the pot it was in, as it had 3 different plants, and it wasn't blooming anymore. I told her I wanted to take it home to see if I could salvage it. I separated the 3 individual stems and repotted them into 3 different pots. I used special African Violet potting soil; I bought a special African violet pot for the biggest of the 3 plants. It's a porous smaller pot that fits into the larger pot that is filled with water, so it continually gets water to its roots. I even bought African violet food to add to the water! I put the p...

Don't be anxious about anything... —Philippians 4:6 I don't know if you've ever experienced this or not, but I have found that sometimes after I have said yes to serving the Lord in one capacity or another, I begin to second-guess myself. I think of all the other qualified folks out there who could do a much better job than me, and I grow a little weak in the knees. But then, just about the time I have convinced myself that I really ought to bow out of my obligation, God encourages my quivering heart by reminding me of the type of people He used in the past. Take Amos, for instance. When God needed a preacher to talk some sense into His people Israel, He didn't go to the nearest synagogue or seminary to find His candidate; he chose an ordinary man who tended fig trees for a living. When he...

They were embarrassed. So they looked at each other with an evil glint and a nod of their heads. Their pride had been slashed with a sword. A sword of truth. "None of them could stand against the wisdom and the Spirit with which Stephen spoke." So they went after him. Stephen, this wise truth-teller who was selected to help run the early church because he was "full of faith and the Holy Spirit." Their pride wounded, they persuaded men to lie about Stephen, saying he was speaking against the law of Moses, the Temple "and even God"; the people, including elders and teachers of religious law, became so angry they arrested him. They dragged Stephen before the high council, but all they could do was stare at him "because his face became as bright as an angel's." Fi...

The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one's 'own,' or 'real' life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one's real life — the life God is sending day by day.—C.S. Lewis Interruptions: to be stopped or hindered by others with remarks or questions. From the start of his ministry to his death, Jesus couldn't finish a sentence, attend a dinner, a Wedding or even find time away without being interrupted. When Jesus was teaching in a house, four friends couldn't get their paralyzed friend in, so they climbed up on the roof with him in tow. They decided to let him down from the roof. So, they tore a patch big enough to lift him down and because of their precious faith, Jesus healed him. Despi...

David means 'Beloved of God' and recently I have gained a deeper appreciation for what this could mean from an essence point of view. Who was this man, who was once a boy? How did it feel to be anointed so young? Did he know how much story he would have to write before he sat on a throne? How many miles did he walk with his men? How many nights did he stay in caves vs canvas? His life plays a melody with romantic ruddiness to show more than a fluffy romantic notion. Maybe he suffered melancholy in moments but so many times we also see him choose gutsy right-action and take another step. His essence as 'Beloved of God' was full of learning and leaning and I want to touch on some of this today. As I sit and write I slow my breathing down, deeply inhale and exhale and bring to my imagination ...

My friend Melody wrote this blog on her new beginning...  The beginning is always today. — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Thus begins a new column on a new day. I have not written a column on new beginnings before. Maybe because the phrase new beginnings is redundant! Can there be an old beginning? When you encounter a beginning a range of feelings can be felt: openness, excitement, fear, sadness, freedom, happiness…We get to choose what feeling we are going to hold on to. With each column I write I never know what the finished product is going to look like. It is an exciting adventure each time I sit down to write.I have a theme and goals for each column as well as an openness. Then I engage with the ideas and the column has begun. There are twists and turns in the process.Eventual...

When strangers walked through my front door along with a diverse mixture of people I knew, I wasn't sure how this would go. My daughter had organized this gathering, feeling strongly that those of us who are Christ-followers and also passionate about digging below the surface of what is really going on in our world, should meet. We gathered our tea and snacks and then I ushered them into a small sitting room with glass doors overlooking the lake. As we talked, the sky turned black as quickly as water going through my Keurig. At one point the man across from me got a funny look on his face as he looked past me. "It can't be that time." His wife's mouth shot open and her eyes became large buttons. I craned my neck around to look at the huge metal wall clock hanging behind me. No way it ...

 At least there is hope for a tree…if it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail. Its root may grow old in the ground and its stump die in the soil, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth shoots like a plant. —Job 14:7-9 Pine Trees Before straight-line winds tore through our neighborhood one summer, we used to have stately pine trees gracing the fence line of our backyard. Despite the trees determined effort to withstand the storm's fury that fateful day, several of them, looking more like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, had to be cut down. Three rather defiant pine trees managed to remain rooted in place, although they were snapped in two in the process. After all the debris was cleared away, those three broken pines stood as the only evidence of t...

I was asked to write on new beginnings for this weeks blog post and although I had a few ideas of the directions I could go I ended up wrestling with these two simple words. This left me wondering how I might best express these thoughts and a poem emerged. I hope the questions in this short poem and the overall prose will help you see the art of taking time within new beginning seasons, for what goes around comes around and Gods cycle is one of grace. New Beginning I wonder how I will read the past from this moment? Is it place or time or both? Something never lost but never again to be walked. Mine and yours and ours. I only have the past to look back on this day, this moment, new beginning. And now. And now. And now. But I do get to write it anew, from a new beginning point of view. We w...

The loud shrill of a toddler makes me scrunch my face as I resist the reflex to shoot my hands up to my ears. While my ears are being pierced, I can't help but smile, my heart melting. This is the sound of a voice being found, practicing and playing with different tones and volumes, and it is a beautiful thing. Language and vocals are one part in developing a voice, but it's not the whole. It is just the beginning. It seems to me that some are born with their voice fully formed and developed, able to express their needs and wants without any problem. While for others that expression is harder and takes much more work and time to develop. I'm among those who have had to work hard to find my voice. Often being a quiet observer rather than a vocal contributor in life. Part of that is the pers...