I absolutely love singing music with harmony. There is a trend in praise music these days to have everyone sing the melody in unison, repeat, repeat, repeat... There’s nothing wrong with that. I just find it to be mindless singing by rote. I want a challenge. I love the fullness…

The In-Between There’s always been a strange uncomfortableness in this last few days of December between Christmas and the first day of a new year. Over the years when I was a child the week was spent enjoying my Christmas gifts and continuing to eat delicious treats that were in…

When hope hurts One of my favorite inspirational people is Katherine Wolf. At age 26 this lovely woman suffered a massive brain hemorrhage due to an unknown AVM (arterial venous malformation) in her brain. She almost died and the surgery to save her life severed a facial nerve that has…

Joy Dare, Day 29 Since I departed from the actual Joy Dare prompts on Sunday, I am choosing my own Three Gifts of Hope for Day 29. My favorite Scripture regarding hope is Romans 5:3-5 “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that…

Joy Dare, Day 27, A Gift Handmade I am mixing things up today. While it's been kind of fun rising to the challenge of three gifts per day, today's actual challenge of "a gift handmade, held and happy" feels too daunting. Probably because I'm still fatigued with the after effects…

Joy Dare, Day 24, Three Gifts Humble I confess, laying aside self is a quality that I wrestle with daily. So, humbleness must become a daily discipline of faith. In our humble state, we recognize we are grateful for everything that we have; everyone that we love and even…

Joy Dare, Day 23, Three Gifts Found Only in Christ. I chose to use a sequential order to the gifts I want to highlight. In the beginning, God created mankind in the image of God. Mankind was the crowning glory of creation. We enjoyed perfect relationship with God. He was…

Joy Dare, Day 22, A Gift Grateful What does it mean to be grateful? Without looking in a dictionary, how would you define the action of gratitude? To be grateful? …

Joy Dare, Day 20, Three Gifts of Tradition Tradition has existed among civilizations throughout the history of mankind. Established as a method of setting apart and observing specific dates, rituals and detailed ceremonies. In America some traditions that have been established are events to celebrate our Independence as a nation…