All in Anxiety

From Drowning to Deliverance

While on a mission trip to California, our team spent one afternoon at the beach—an afternoon I’ll never forget. My best friend and I were swimming, when I suddenly realized I was caught in the current and unable to swim toward shore. No amount of effort on my part helped. My friend noticed my dilemma and began screaming for help. Immediately, a tall, strong guy on the mission team swam to me and began throwing me shoreward. He rescued me! Years later, we saw him and his family. The first thing he said to my girls was, “I saved your mother’s life!” He did, and I’m thankful!

Calm My Fear

As I write this devotion, I am praying the words of our scripture fervently. Our family is facing a situation about which I have many questions, but I am trusting God to calm my fears. 

Leap of Faith

I grew up in Miami, Florida in the 1950s and have some great memories of that time. Life was simple, safe, and carefree. I moved away from my hometown after college, but one of my friends stayed on and became a federal judge there. 

Light in a Jar

They’re back! There’s one. There’s another. Look over there. I see it too! The lightning bugs had returned to brighten the evening hours. The girls squealed with amazement at the sight, and my own mind went back to childhood days when we ran to catch them in Mason jars then marveled at the twinkling container. 

Birdies

“Where do birdies come from, Mama?”

Only God can make a birdie.

“But why, Mama?”

To teach us to sing in the morning.

“But why, Mama?”

Little Miss Worry

When I was a child, there was a “Mr. Men” and “Little Miss” book series written by Roger Hargreaves. The characters in the stories had dominant personality traits that either caused them problems or showed another character how to engage in the positive quality. Everyone learned something through the moral lesson of story.

Got Cares? Who Cares?

“I can do it, I can do it!”

Those were my exact words, directed to my dad as a child, while I stood clenching a fishing rod, on the bank of a lake in the Rocky Mountains. I’d watched my dad’s technique so many times I was sure I could cast into the lake and catch a big trout.

Just When You Need It

I was scheduled for an MRI one Monday morning. The nurse asked me two questions: “Do you have any metal parts inside you?” and, “Are you claustrophobic?” I answered “no” to both questions and confidently entered the room where the big drum of a machine was standing ominously in front of me.