Proof The Bible Is True

One of my favorite episodes in Scripture has Jesus telling his followers that the more they give, the more they will receive.  It cannot be otherwise, he explains, because God will never be outdone in generosity.  The concept of tithing is explained in a different part of Scripture. It’s the idea that the first fruits—perhaps 10 percent of one’s earnings—should be given to God as an act of faith. (The actual money can be given to charity or church.)   It sounds simple, but putting it into practice is very difficult.  We all have reasons for not giving money away, [More]

My least favorite thing in the world? Flying.   Before every trip I took I considered staying home just to avoid the misery it caused me. Yet here I was in an airport with my husband, Paul, waiting to board our connecting flight back home to Raleigh. The first leg of our journey had been so turbulent I’d even suggested we rent a car instead.   An airline attendant made an announcement from the check-in desk: Our plane had mechanical difficulties. “Oh, no,” I moaned. Just the thing to weaken my confidence. If a plane had technical problems I didn’t [More]

Dreams were not something I usually remembered in the morning, but recently I’d started having vivid ones about my son. One Saturday morning I woke from yet another, rubbing my eyes in confusion. What did the dreams mean?   It wasn’t surprising that my son Chad would be on my mind. He had recently undergone brain surgery to remove a tumor. Doctors were optimistic, but a mother can’t help but worry. Chad was married, with two beautiful children. They needed him. We all needed him.   The strange thing was, Chad wasn’t the son I was dreaming about. I was [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]

Our new house was at the end of the world. That’s what I thought the first day my family rolled up to our cabin in the Cahuilla Hills of Palm Desert, California. No more green trees, no more breezes off the sea like on the coast where we used to live. No more neighbors close by, corner store or mall. Nothing but brown sand. “Everything’s dirty and dead,” I announced to my parents and carload of siblings.   “Look carefully,” Dad said. “The desert is full of life. It’s just secret life.”   I didn’t see how anything could survive [More]

Dad always taught me to find joy in life wherever I could. He certainly did. He was as kind and playful as his favorite animal—the dolphin. He collected dolphin sculptures, pictures, anything he came across. For me the dolphin became the symbol of joy.   I was afraid Dad’s cheerfulness might fail him when his doctor scheduled him for a triple bypass. But as Dad prepared for the surgery he reminded me, “You have to enjoy every day God gives you!”   Read More: Dad’s Angel Friends – Guideposts

Elephants were my daughter Andrea’s favorite.   Wherever we traveled, we brought back a little elephant souvenir. She arranged them all in her room. One day they were joined by a big picture of a sunflower.   “I just love this picture,” Andrea said as she hung it over her bed. “It reminds me of the sun even when I’m indoors.” I didn’t need a flower to remind me. Andrea was my sunshine.   When she died at 19 in a boating accident, I felt like she took all the warmth in my life with her. On the five-year anniversary, [More]

As my friend Meg was driving to her niece’s wedding, she realized her mother would have been 80 years old on this day, had she lived. Meg was filled with loss and grief. My friend is deeply spiritual, sensitive, intuitive. She knew it was silly, but she wished for a sign that the spirit of her mother was at the wedding, watching her grandchild’s big day. I don’t know if she prayed for it, but the longing certainly was there.   Read More: A Gift of Love from Beyond – Guideposts

Going back to school for my accounting degree would be good for my five-year-old daughter in the long run, but for now it kept me from spending time with her.   So in the free minutes I did have I made sure Georgia came first. We played “Lion King,” her favorite game, with a play set of figurines from the movie. Timon, the funny meerkat, was her favorite.   One Saturday afternoon I studied in the yard while Georgia shuffled through the fall leaves with her figurines. The darkness snuck up on us.   “Mommy,” Georgia said, “Timon is missing!” [More]

There were two rules at the summer camp I attended in 1945: Don’t leave the Marwedel camp boundaries and don’t go off alone.   I was breaking both rules as I wandered through the redwood trees of Mendocino County, California, but getting in trouble was nothing new for me. With my bad grades, bad attitude and bad language, a lot of people considered me a lost cause.   “Watch out for Henry Petereit,” the principal of my grammar school had written to the junior high principal who would inherit me in the fall. “He’ll be in San Quentin by the [More]

Every mother expects flowers on Mother’s Day. I’d sent a bouquet to my mom and mother-in-law, but there would be no flowers for me.   For years my husband and I had tried to have a baby, but we had never been able to conceive. Mother’s Day was hard. Community Newsletter Get More Inspiration Delivered to Your Inbox   I grabbed my keys to run some errands. “Please, God, help me through this day. Help me feel loved in spite of…” I couldn’t finish the sentence.   Read More: My Mother’s Day Angel – Guideposts

I’m still convinced to this day that voice I heard was no stranger…   I’ve never been one to take a nap in the afternoon, especially because I have two very active sons. I was always too worried that if I didn’t keep a constant eye on them, they might get into trouble.   But one afternoon I was completely exhausted after finishing a long workout at the YMCA. I lay back on the couch, watching my two-year-old playing quietly next to me. I must have dozed off because moments later I was startled awake by a voice loudly saying, [More]

Just a few final touches and my paper was finished.  I glanced at the clock on the wall in the kitchen: 6 a.m. Just in time. I hit save and turned off the computer. “Kids!” I called. “Time to get dressed for school!”   Don’t yell, Kathryn! I reminded myself as I tiptoed past my bedroom door. You’ll wake up Bob. My husband was an accountant who’d just survived an especially hectic tax season. He needed his sleep.   Normally I didn’t mind keeping the house running and seeing to the children on my own this time of year, but [More]

Just a few more things to do on the computer before bed. I glanced down at my feet, expecting to see Mocha, our chocolate Lab. But the floor was empty. Mocha was gone.   For 12 years he’d been my constant companion. Although Mocha was “my dog,” Hazel, my wife, loved him just as much. Mocha and I played catch with a Frisbee and explored the woods near our rental house in Rockport, Massachusetts.   When I let Mocha off his lead in the woods he rushed around, sniffing everywhere, digging into the dirt and flinging himself into stinky vernal [More]

That Friday in 2009 started like any other. Over the past several months, I’d developed a routine. I’d stay in my darkened bedroom as long as possible. When I gathered up enough energy, I’d scan the classifieds for jobs. There were none. Then I’d sit immobile for hours, staring at the wall, consumed by anxiety. Most days, that’s as far as I got. Walking to the mailbox took all of my energy—when I could force myself to do it. The yard went unmowed. I rarely took out the trash.   The fog of depression had begun to descend in late 2008. When [More]

Money was tight, and the wind was biting.   Icy winds whipping down Chicago’s Michigan Avenue went straight through my old black coat.   I turned up the collar. I need something warmer, I thought, glancing in the store windows.   But money was tight. The contractor we’d hired to remodel our home had walked off the job, taking our money with him. I was tired of pinching pennies because of it.   Maybe a new scarf would help fight the cold. I turned into a department store. Scarves of every color lined the displays, soft fabrics draped over racks and [More]

Maria’s church offered a healing mass every year for ill parishioners. And she was pleased when the ministry’s director asked her to sing at the service. Although she was a little unsure of her voice, she knew there would be other singers. So she accepted the invitation.   However, when she arrived for the mass, the director said, it’s just you and me today. Maria crumpled inside. She flipped open the music book to the chosen hymn, “Blessed Be the Lord.” and realized that she’d never seen it before. She felt hot, couldn’t concentrate.   Read/Watch: Everyday Angels: Hymns in [More]

Hi. I’m Colleen Hughes, editor in chief of Angels on Earth. And here is a true story about an everyday angel from Carolyn Lake of Indianapolis, Indiana. Angels come to us every day, as a neighbor, an unexpected rescuer, a kind stranger, or a loyal pet. Listen now to a story of just such an everyday angel.   Carolyn’s daughter Vanessa had just graduated from Navy Nursing School when she got her orders for San Diego, 2,000 miles from home. Carolyn worried. Lord, she prayed, please send an angel to watch over Vanessa. Keep her safe. As soon as the [More]

As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I would have given anything to take them back.   I looked at that youngster beside me in the car, pixie face eager beneath her baseball cap. Knowing just how much 10-year-old Erin missed her dad, wanting to do something special for her, I’d invited her to go with me that afternoon to watch the Giants play the Chicago Cubs at Candlestick Park. I’d never seen a kid so excited. We’d been driving across the Bay Bridge when she suddenly piped up, “Maybe we’ll catch a foul ball!” And like [More]

Saturday, October 30, 2004. The half-mile crescent of Whangarei’s Ocean Beach glowed white in the early morning light. January and February—the high months of summer in New Zealand—were still far away, and the water was cold on my feet from the winter just past.   With me were my fellow lifeguards Karina and Matt, my daughter Nicky—also a lifeguard—and her friend Helen, a novice. This was to be Helen’s first official summer lifeguarding at Ocean Beach. That morning, we were going to show her one of the beach’s most challenging features: the jagged lines of rocks that jut far out [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.   Read More: Duly Warned by a Dream – Guideposts

Just for me, a special solo. That’s what Miss Van D surprised me with at the end of junior choir practice one late-autumn day. She had chosen me over the seven other girls I sang with.   “Your hymn will close a service with Reverend Wilson next Saturday,” she said. “You’ll do a beautiful job, Virginia, I’m sure of it.”   My best friend, Alice, raised her hand. “Where will the service be?”   “At the People’s Rescue Mission,” said Miss Van D. “On Water Street.”   A couple of girls gasped. Water Street was in a bad part of [More]

“Here, boy!” I called out again. I walked down the cement steps behind the Army barracks and listened, hoping to hear an answering meow or to see a flash of black and white streaking toward me. But there was still no sign of the cat. Now I was starting to panic. While I had yet to name him, I had been feeding him for months. Seeing him had become the highlight of my day.   I could clearly remember when we first met. Sitting on these same cold cement steps that night, I’d been staring out into the darkness. Rain soaked [More]

Books, knickknacks and memorabilia crowded Grandpa’s cellar. Old newspapers and magazines stacked waist high. My father and I worked in the thick of it. We’d come from Grandpa’s funeral that morning, as good a time as any, we thought, to sort through his things.   I’d hoped the job would make me feel close to him. But instead Grandpa had never felt so far away. Dad sifted through a pile of papers. I couldn’t focus. “Is everything all right, David?” Dad asked.   “I guess it’s just hitting me that we’ll never see him again.”   Dad didn’t respond. He was staring [More]

My husband, Wally, and I had been sitting in the Pittsburgh airport for the last few hours, sad and overwhelmed. Wally’s dad had died unexpectedly of heart failure. We were trying to get from our home in Richmond to Los Angeles as quickly as possible.   Wally’s sister, his only sibling, was waiting for us, and Wally, as the executor of the estate, needed to take care of some legal matters right away. “I hope our flight leaves on time,” Wally said now, running his hands through his hair.   Read More: A Heavenly Travel Agent – Guideposts

The Boston Red Sox and our grandson, Justin. Two of my husband’s greatest pleasures. Justin spent countless hours with Grandpa Gabe, laughing and talking while they worked in the yard and around the house. Gabe taught him how to use tools and even to repair our riding lawn mower.   Their happiest times together were in baseball season, cheering for the Red Sox on television, munching handfuls of peanuts, Gabe’s favorite snack. “He’s my best friend,” Justin always said.   My husband battled gastrointestinal cancer for most of Justin’s young life. He never gave in to the disease, and our [More]

One late spring day I worked in my garden. I called it my “salad” because it produced a bumper crop of lettuce, onions, radishes and tomatoes. Along with patches of blueberries and strawberries, this was an important food source for a 70-year-old widow like me living on Social Security.   As usual I looked up at the big old maple tree looming over me. It was dead, but I couldn’t afford to have it taken down. I worried constantly that the tree would fall and ruin my garden. Worse, the tree’s two main limbs leaned over the electric lines into [More]