Proof The Bible Is True

I lived with ugly for a long time and it had become invisible. Trash is normal. Unwashed dishes are something I should take care of, and I would. Later. The laundry piled in corners didn’t matter because those clothes were out of season anyway. We bought our sofa at a garage sale, and it was a little shabby then. Why should I bother dusting tables or removing the blankets from the floor? There can be many reasons for a young family to live in filth. None of them are good. For me, it was a combination of depression and revenge [More]

Should I chance it? The puddle blocking the entrance of the doctor’s office parking lot had to be at least a foot deep. It practically made waves. The cars in front of me didn’t share my hesitation; they drove straight through. I pressed down on the gas and followed. The engine died. The dashboard lit up. My car wouldn’t budge. Sudden tropical downpours are a danger in South Florida, especially for someone in their seventies. The whole drive here, I could scarcely see more than a few feet in front of me through the rain. Now, half of my car [More]

“Wow!” was all I could say about the large silver salmon my husband had just caught. The fishing trip was going great–so why was Darryl packing up his equipment? “Don’t you want to keep fishing?” I asked. We were out on The Queen Charlotte Strait, off the coast of Vancouver Island, in an aluminum boat just big enough for two. My company had rented a lodge and sponsored a fishing trip for employees, and my husband and I were thrilled to get a weekend away from the house and the kids. A group of us had spent the morning fishing [More]

The sun was just beginning to come up as I pulled into the ER parking lot. The morning started smoothly enough, with only a handful of routine cases. I was coming out of room 4 when Virginia, the head nurse, walked over, glanced at the empty major trauma room, and motioned for me to follow her. “Dr. Lesslie,” she began. Her voice was somehow different, and it surprised me. She was speaking quietly, but with a definite seriousness, and there was something else there. It was a gentleness, something I couldn’t remember hearing before. “Do you believe in angels?” Read [More]

Jim Snyder would consider himself an ordinary man living an ordinary life, surely not one that involves angel sightings. But when his young wife died of pancreatic cancer, Jim was devastated by her loss. He tried to hold everything together and deal with his grief. But as months passed and Jim’s heartache continued, “I began asking God for a sign that everything would be okay, and that I would eventually get through this,” Jim says. Read More  Vision of God’s Love – Guideposts.

During a book signing in Lexington, Kentucky, a group of women gathered around my table to tell about their neighbor, Barbara, who had not been able to come and tell me this story herself. Barbara was driving her six-year-old son, Benjamin, to his piano lesson. They were late, and Barbara was beginning to think she should have canceled it. There was always so much to do, and Barbara, a night-duty nurse at the local hospital, had recently worked extra shifts. She was tired. The sleet storm and icy roads added to her tension. Maybe she should turn the car around. [More]

Daisies are my favorite flower. Anything with daisies gets my attention–even the word on my computer screen. “Please help save Daisy the Dog!” my friend Judy had posted on Facebook. The message included a picture of a pit bull mix. She looks a lot like Allie, I thought. Our beloved Staffordshire Terrier had died a year and a half before. I couldn’t imagine replacing her. But I also couldn’t stop myself from reading the post. The picture had come from a Facebook app called Pet Pardons, which helped people find homes for shelter animals scheduled to be put to sleep. [More]

Bedtime was miserable for me when I was seven. The attic door just outside my bedroom had an unfriendly habit of creaking open by itself in the night, and I was sure that it was because of some bone-chilling monster on its way out to get me. “It’s an old house, Lois,” my mother explained as she tucked me in one night. “The hinges on that door are all rusted, and you know how drafty it can get.” But her soothing words were no match for my wild imagination. “Can you read to me to help me go to sleep?” [More]

What a racket! Were they never going to quiet down? Some of us are trying to get some sleep! I thought, pressing my pillow around my head. I’d come to college, tiny Lee University in eastern Tennessee, to get serious about my studies–I couldn’t say the same for some of the other guys in my dorm. I rolled over in my bed on the second floor of Ellis Hall, and stared wide-eyed at the clock on the end table: 2:00 a.m. Unbelievable. In the darkness, I could see my roommate, Aaron, tossing and turning as well. Outside the door people [More]

One day my friend Bob, who has multiple sclerosis, mentioned how Angus had helped him retrieve something he couldn’t reach from his wheelchair. I knew his wife, Rita, and his cat, Patches, but Angus? “Oh, Angus is what I’ve named my guardian angel,” he explained. I’d always been a skeptic but Bob was a pretty smart guy, so I decided maybe there was something to this guardian angel business after all. Still, even if I did have my own angel, the idea of naming it seemed presumptuous. About a week later I was putting pans away after baking a batch [More]

How had my life gotten to be such a mess? I sat alone in my apartment asking myself that question. I’d stayed out late the night before at a bar, slept the morning away, and I still felt exhausted. I had no job to go to; I couldn’t hold one. It was too hard to get out of bed most days. I pulled myself to my feet and went to the mirror, hardly recognizing the gaunt face that stared back at me. I was 27 and weighed 85 pounds. It was no wonder I got sick so often, but I [More]

Dann Stadler remembers the horrific car crash that almost claimed his life, and the life of his wife, Tracey. Stadler says, “There was so much wreckage pushed in on us that we just couldn’t move. Tracey was literally trapped by the engine and everything else had collapsed in on her.” “I looked at my husband and he reached over to try to unbuckle my seatbelt,” says Tracey, “and then whoosh, he started on fire. I tried getting to him but I couldn’t move. I was trapped.” On the night of their fourth anniversary, Dann and Tracey Stadler were fighting for [More]

Oh, God, why must I continue to suffer in this dark valley? Why couldn’t this birth be easy? For the second time in my pregnancy, I battled premature labor. After 22 weeks, I endured surgery to close my cervix. Then I was confined to bed for three months. Spiritual battles intensified as the months progressed. My body was being pumped full of ineffective sedatives and contraction-ending drugs. My unborn baby was unresponsive, and my mental stamina eroded along with my physical state. Now, in my seventh month, I was alone in a dark hospital room. And terrified of the outcome. [More]

Something brushed my hand and I stirred awake. There was my beloved Grandpa Kegg beside me. He was holding my hand. “Honey, wake up,” he said. I glanced around. I was in a hospital bed. What was happening? I felt panic until I looked at my grandfather’s face. He always made me feel better, no matter what. Family meant everything to me. I learned that growing up in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. I had love and support from my parents, my three brothers, and especially my grandfather. I believed Grandpa Kegg knew everything, and he didn’t mind a bit that I thought [More]

Gravel crunched under the wheels of Mom’s car as we pulled into the stable driveway. I leaned out the window, searching the pasture for my best friend, Tialani. At school I was nobody. All the other kids had money and cool clothes. I wasn’t good enough to be their friend. But Tialani loved me. “Tia!” I called, climbing out of the car. Across the pasture, the little chocolate-brown Arabian whinnied and came running. “I wouldn’t have believed that if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes,” said Mom. “That horse came to you!” I pressed my cheek to her [More]

It seemed that everyone in Texas who owned a horse competed in Play Days, but I had never tried. In our 22 years together, my horse, Wrangler, and I had participated in plenty of trail rides and parades. We’d even ridden in the Grand Entry at the Fort Worth Stock Show. But we’d never competed in skill and speed competitions, which was what Play Days were all about. “Have you ever considered joining the Wagon Wheel Saddle Club?” the veterinarian’s assistant asked one day after giving Wrangler a checkup. “A club that competes,” I said, looking at the flyer up [More]

For the hundredth time I glanced over my shoulder on my way to work. The business quarter was full of men in suits carrying briefcases, women in tailored skirts and sensible shoes. It was the same crowd I moved among Monday through Friday, but this particular morning I sensed danger lurking at every turn. The night before I’d had a horrible dream, and I couldn’t seem to shrug it off. It wasn’t like me to be so fearful. I was in my 20s, doing administrative work in downtown New Orleans. The city had been experiencing a rise in violent crime, [More]

You’ll be inspired by this eight-year-old’s tale of being protected from a killer tornado by an angel. Read More  Sheltered from Storm by Angel – Guideposts.

Empty. No other word described how I felt. I’d lost the baby I’d carried for six months. Six months of planning for the daughter I’d named Angelica. The loss of the baby had been too much for my already rocky marriage, and my husband and I separated. Now there was just Jordan and me. My son was my pride and joy, but he was only three. How could he give me the comfort I needed so desperately? Jordan had looked forward to being a big brother, and I took him in my arms when I came home from the hospital. [More]

Barking dogs jolted me out of a sound sleep. The clock read 1:23 a.m. Must be a raccoon outside, I thought, rolling over. Too bad the dogs are inside! I’d had a full day at work downtown before coming back to Dogwood Sport Horses, the breeding farm that my sister owned. When I came home I’d gotten the horses their nighttime rations and moved them into the pasture with a windbreak to shield them from the predicted cold. My work day was over. What could be the problem at this time of night? The dogs kept it up. Much as [More]

I can get lost looking up at a starry sky; I once left dinner to burn on the stove when somebody said, “Have you seen the size of that moon out there tonight?” This very morning I was late for work because I got caught up in the astronomical ceiling at Grand Central Station. Astronomical in both senses of the word. If you ask me, it’s worth a trip to New York just to see this majestic mural of the stars painted in gold leaf on a shade of cerulean blue I don’t think there’s a name for. When I [More]

“Now, Bernie, don’t go outside alone–not even to get the mail,” my doctor warned over the phone. “These North Dakota winters are dangerous. If you slip, who will be there to help you?” I appreciated his concern, but… not even for the mail? At 61, I wasn’t as sure on my feet as I used to be, but I was no invalid. He was right about one thing though. I was often alone. My husband and I had a brood of 14, but they had all flown the nest–and the icy winters of our small town. While my husband was [More]

Free eBook available for immediate download from the editors of Angels on Earth Magazine includes inspirational stories about angel sightings, both heavenly angels from above and everyday angels on earth who help people in need. The presence of angels among us gives reassuring evidence of God’s love. Dear Reader, Do you believe in angels? Do you believe you have a guardian angel? Have you ever felt the presence of angels? Do you believe that angels act as God’s special messengers? In this free downloadable eBook from the editors of Angels on Earth Magazine, you’ll discover stories of angels on earth [More]

“Give and it shall be given unto you … Luke 6:38”  Admin Making ends meet on a new teacher’s salary isn’t easy–especially not when you’re the single mom of a two-year-old. Looking over my budget at the kitchen table, I could see things were about to get worse as Christmas approached. Zackary’s day care usually provided his breakfast and lunch, but we’d both be eating at home during winter break. “Looks like we’re going to have to get very creative with our meals,” I told Zackary in his high chair beside me. He popped another Cheerio into his mouth. I [More]

Two things are always in short supply when you are a college student: sleep and money with which to go home. Margarete was away at college, a hardworking, diligent college sophomore. The Christmas holidays were soon approaching, which meant a trip home was almost in sight. But as always, college professors haven’t much heart and usually schedule tests during the last three or four days preceding vacation, so sleep was hard to come by. Grandma Hendley had sent the funds for Margarete’s long bus ride home. As soon as the last class was over, Margarete made her way to the [More]

I met my cousin Eric out on Bald Eagle Lake for what we expected to be an uneventful day of ice fishing. The weather was cloudy and mild for early December, somewhere between mid to upper 30s, and while there were a few other fishermen out on the lake, they were a good 200 yards away. All signs seemed to point to a peaceful day ahead. Still, we were careful as we set up our gear. The ice had buckled in on itself while we were out the previous weekend, causing an overflow of water to spill across the surface. [More]

As harbormaster at a moorage on the Columbia River, even Christmas Day was a workday for me. Before heading to my son’s house to celebrate, I walked along the deserted dock, checking every boat and boathouse for frozen pipes. All good, I thought, and turned to head back. My left foot slid out from under me. An icy patch! I toppled over the side of the dock–into ice-cold water three feet below! I clutched a heavy chain for dear life. I’ll never get out of here on my own. Read More  An Angel Made Sure She Was Heard – Guideposts.