My pastor tells the following story about Mabel Jean, an elderly woman in his congregation, who requested a visit regarding her upcoming surgery. “I prayed, asking God to bless the doctors, comfort Mabel Jean and help her return to full health. But afterward, Mable Jean still looked afraid. She grabbed my hand and said, ‘Pastor, I have a sin I need to confess. I don’t want this on my conscience going into surgery.’” He adds, “Even though I don’t normally hear confessions, a

Welcome to my little slice of heaven smack dab in southwest Michigan…also known as my front porch. It is my happy place but I haven’t always had such affection for it. You see, we decided to downsize and move to the house we are now living in while we had all four (almost grown) kids still living at home, knowing that they would soon be leaving the nest. While it seemed we were tripping over each other at every turn, my husband tried to convince me that small houses brough

We had been in our new house about six months now and it was finally beginning to take shape. It was a beautiful Saturday morning in spring and there were no urgent projects on the radar of our 80-year-old house. I think we could have given Chip and Joanna Gaines a run for their money back in the day – but on a much smaller budget of course. The sun was shining, birds were chirping and the flowers were blooming – it was going to be a wonderful day. We had moved to Greenvi

I tapped the blue icon and opened the weather app on my phone. The upcoming five-day forecast showed all sunshine and no rain. Perfect! Perfect conditions for me to dig in my garden, sweep out the garage, wash my car, get the lawn furniture out of storage and, not to mention, keep my spirits bright! Sunshine just makes everything better. It even makes for good hair days and that alone is a reason to love it! In my perfect world, it would be sunny and 75 all year round (

On this particular day, there were more of them than usual. In fact, I had never seen so many! Maybe it was the sudden and unexpected burst of warm weather that brought them out of the woodwork but at every turn, I spotted another one! As I weaved my cart up and down the aisles of the grocery store, I passed what appeared to be one miserable couple after another. The forlorn men looked as if their “man-card” had just been revoked and, while it seemed the women had won the