Proof The Bible Is True

Spring in Texas inevitably means storms. So when my wife, Dolly, heard bad weather was coming I hurried to finish the yard work.   Truth is, I was grateful for the chance to do something physical. It got my mind off things I had no control over—like unexpected illness and prescription costs. God, I know you’ve always provided for us in the past, I thought as I got the mower out of the garage, but the older I get the more vulnerable I feel.   I pushed the mower around the yard. Gray clouds rolled in. I turned the mower back around. When [More]

It happened on a trip to Italy a few years ago, an experience so extraordinary I’ve hesitated to write about it—but so full of encouragement that I have to try. Consulting the map that came in the smart gray Peugeot we’d rented, my husband, John, noticed a large lake halfway between Venice and Milan.   “Lago di Garda,” he read. “Wouldn’t it be great if we could find a place to spend the night there!”   Read More: Divine Guidance in the Italian Countryside – Guideposts

When your wife is pregnant, you try to take every precaution possible. Which is why I drove my wife Katherine’s Toyota to drop her off at work one rainy February morning, instead of my pickup truck. San Diego doesn’t get many chilly days, but this was one of them. “My truck has no heat,” I reminded her, as I pulled out the driveway, “and besides, the roof leaks. The last thing you need is to get sopping wet.”   I dropped Katherine off downtown, found the freeway and headed toward home. Man, there were a lot of accidents. Every few [More]

Everything was big in Alaska—the mountains, the glaciers…even the raindrops! My husband, Gary, and I ran through the streets of Ketchikan, where our cruise ship had docked, trying to find shelter from the deluge.   We had so much to see on the eight-day cruise we’d booked for our fortieth wedding anniversary: calving glaciers, fjords, whales, historic churches and, today, a lumberjack show. But how were we supposed to enjoy anything in this weather? The rain was coming down so hard we could barely see.   “There!” Gary pointed. The open doors of the Nazarene church. We ducked inside. Sunday [More]

Normally my favorite local thrift store was packed with treasures, but today it was practically bare. The only thing I’d found was a children’s winter coat. It looked brand-new and was a beautiful shade of sky blue. The problem was the size—a 10/12. Much too small for my oldest child and too big for my youngest two. It wouldn’t even fit my nieces or nephews. Too bad, I thought, and started to walk away when the pastor in charge came over.   “Just so you know,” he said. “We’re moving to another location soon. All remaining items are fifty cents and what doesn’t [More]

I had never been more homesick or stressed than that Christmas in 1981, the year my husband, Charles, and I pulled up stakes and moved to the Texas badlands to work in the vast oil fields of the Panhandle.   We were thousands of miles away from home for the first time. Our relationship was young, so we didn’t have the comfort of long years of habit to smooth over the bumps in life. Money was tight.   If I hadn’t been madly in love with the man with the turquoise-blue eyes, I would have run home to Mama. As [More]

His name was Mitku. The orphan we’d ultimately decided not to adopt. Though my husband, Michael, and I’d prayed for guidance and believed we’d had no choice, I often found myself thinking about the sick baby who’d been found in the African bush.   Had we done the right thing? Who will care for him?   Read More: Mysterious Ways: The Other Orphan – Guideposts

Brrr, it was cold. So cold it took an act of supreme will for me to crawl out of bed. I shivered as I made my way down to the basement, though why I was bothering to try and get the furnace going again I couldn’t tell you. I already knew it was hopeless.   My wife and I had finally bought our first home, a 1905 farmhouse just outside of Mansfield, Illinois. It needed work, for sure, but it beat the shoebox we’d been renting from a relative. We moved in the summer of 1970 and started fixing the [More]

Oh, no, I thought, massaging the back of my neck. The tingling sensation I felt was the all-too-familiar sign of an impending migraine, my nemesis for two decades. It robbed me of several days each month, causing pain and nausea severe enough I often had to head to bed. But there’d be no going to bed right now. I was all alone on a Sunday afternoon at the offices of a local council on alcoholism where I worked as a public relations coordinator. Today I was also cleaning the offices, something I did once a month to augment my meager income [More]

Sherrod Vaughn. Had there ever been a more melodious name? Not to my ears! I was reading the Newport News Daily Press over breakfast when I came across an article about a graduating senior at Ohio State University—a senior named Sherrod Vaughn. I had to know more!   According to the article, Sherrod was coming back home to Virginia for the summer to teach a life-saving course at one of our country clubs. A lifeguard! How brave!   I was a graduating senior too, but in high school. Sitting at my desk in math class that morning, I barely heard a word [More]

I was out running Saturday-morning errands when I saw it: a metal sign at the end of the road. “Trinity Church,” it read, with a long black arrow pointing to the left. Sure, I was looking for a new church, but part of me just wanted to keep on driving. What was the point?   Ten churches. That’s how many I’d visited since I’d moved here to Orange, Connecticut, two years earlier. And none of them seemed quite right. Either the congregation was too large, too small, or I didn’t feel welcomed. Why couldn’t I find a church like the one I’d [More]

The pendant watch was the most beautiful thing I’d ever owned. Silver, attached to a silver chain, with an intricately designed cover, it was a Sweet 16 gift from my mother. I wore it every day, as a constant reminder of her. The watch fit her to a T–stylish, yet practical.   For eighteen years the watch kept ticking, through marriage to my beloved Larry, children, a magical life. Not once did it need a repair. Then, abruptly, it stopped–on the day my mother died.   Read More: A Timely Present – Guideposts

“You like helping Mommy in the garden?” My 17-month-old son, Kennisen, tottered through the flower bed at the end of our property, pulling up weeds with his little hands.   Truth is, he was having more fun getting dirty than anything. Maybe it would burn off some energy before his morning nap. Kennisen walked at seven months. It was all my husband, Ken, and I could do to keep up with him. Kennisen was no ordinary kid.   I got stuck on one stubborn weed. The root was deep. Better use a spade, I thought. But I didn’t want to whale away [More]

“Race you to the water!” my cousin Emily yelled.   My cousins Emily, Meridel, Hannah and I were at the beach, having a blast on our family vacation. The four of us splashed into the ocean and started swimming, and pretty soon we were in water up to our chests.   Suddenly, Meridel and Hannah screamed, “Wave!”   Read More: Danger in the Water – Guideposts

I was desperate. My washing machine had quit right in the middle of a load of clothes I was planning to pack up and take on vacation, and I couldn’t get anyone to repair it before we left.   “Come out today?” asked the sixth repairman I called. “You’ve got to be kidding!”   If only Dad were here now. He could fix anything. But my father had passed away recently. Lord, help me get along without him, I prayed. I then tried one last number. “I’ll be right over,” the repairman said once I explained to him how dire my predicament [More]

I jerked awake, my body wracked by coughs. I peered at the clock. Only 4:00 a.m., I thought. What is going on? I wasn’t sick. Didn’t have a cold or anything. Just this weird cough.   I coughed and coughed unable to get the tickle out of my throat. Paul woke up beside me. “Honey, you okay?” he said, sitting up.   “I think so,” I managed to say. “I feel fine. I just can’t quit coughing.”   Read More: Mysterious Ways: 4 AM Alarm – Guideposts

The bank I frequent has a drive-through ATM, which is convenient because it saves me from having to get out and wait in a long teller line inside.   For years, I’ve followed the same routine: I pull up to the machine, make my deposits or withdrawals, then drive over and park in a spot about 50 feet away, underneath a big old stately shade tree, while I tuck my money in my wallet and put away my receipts. Quick and easy.   One windy summer morning I had a lot of errands to run and was low on cash. [More]

My younger sister, Jennifer, and I were born only 13 months apart. We shared everything growing up—clothes, toys, friends. We got married and moved into our own houses, but that didn’t keep our connection from growing even stronger. Our daughters were born two days apart. Jennifer is the first person I call whenever I need help. And she knows that she can always count on me.   One day last July, Jennifer and I were at our aunt’s house for a birthday party. No one noticed Jennifer’s two-year-old, Reagan, playing dangerously close to the swimming pool. Not until it was [More]

Spring onions, radish, marigold and zinnia seeds, plastic trays with soil to start growing plants. The perfect items to help jump start my garden this year! I thought. I dropped them all in my shopping cart. At least I found something here at the garden store, even if it wasn’t what I’d come for. I still felt disappointed. What in the world was I going to get for my cousin Kathryn? Lord, I prayed, help me find the perfect gift to lift her spirits.   What could anyone possibly get to cheer up someone who had just received the most terrible news? Kathryn had been [More]

Pit bulls get a bad rap. They’re often viewed as violent, unpredicatble and poorly behaved, even though there is nothing to indicate they’re different from any other dog breed. Call it dog prejudice, if you will. One bad apple, and all the rest get called rotten.   But at least one pit bull can genuinely be called a hero this week.   On Monday night, Danna Smith of Huntington, West Virginia, was getting some much-needed sleep. The single mother had recently spent time in the hospital, and was responsible for raising her three children, who each have varying degrees of [More]

Passengers milled around the platform at Chicago’s Dearborn Train Station. My mother pressed a few dollar bills into my hand.   “Your aunt and uncle will meet you at the train station in Los Angeles,” she said. She handed the conductor another bill. “Look after my little girl.”   It was 1932, and even at seven years old I knew enough about the Depression to sense the weight of the few dollars my mother had somehow managed to scrape together. Dad had died two years before, and Mom worked long hours as a secretary to support my sister and me. [More]

I was leaving the restaurant where I work when a glimmer caught my eye. The sunlight reflecting off the face of a shiny penny lying in the doorway.  Just a penny, I thought, stepping over it, leaving it for someone else to pick up. I used to believe that “pennies from heaven” were a sign that someone was watching over me. But with all the stress in my life lately, I’d stopped believing in such silly things.   Read More: Mysterious Ways: Pennies from Heaven – Guideposts

We were only 48 hours into our family’s three-week road trip when the car broke down.   White smoke billowed from the engine. The dashboard warning lights went on. “Where did all this come from?” my husband, Gareth, said. He pulled off at the next exit. I glanced at our sons in the back seat. Colin, seven, and Aidan, five, looked disappointed. We were in Michigan, in the middle of nowhere, on our way to Mackinaw Island. From there we planned to visit the Badlands of South Dakota and Mount Rushmore, then Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Glacier National Parks. It would be a [More]

Did you ever have a strange encounter you couldn’t quite explain, only to realize much later what it really meant? I had one of those experiences last night, and only this morning did I find out why. And it moved me to the core.   It was well after midnight, but I was still awake, finishing up some work. I was sitting on the couch in the living room, my eyelids feeling heavy as I stared at my laptop screen.   Just then, I heard a sound. A high-pitched squeal or cry. I stopped typing and listened. I heard it [More]

It had been one year since I had escaped my abusive marriage with my three young children, all 12 years old and under. We had just moved to the farmhouse that had once belonged to my grandparents, and I hoped I could put down some roots again.   But the fear and doubt that my ex-husband had instilled in me for 14 years lingered. Will I ever feel confident and secure again? I wondered.   Our century-old farmhouse needed some work, especially on the front deck, which was sagging and splintered and going to rot. I had very little to spend on [More]

The sun was beginning to set over Cairo. The once bustling streets were clear of tourists, and the shops selling colorful pashminas, staid black burquas, pungent Middle Eastern spices and gleaming hookah pipes were shuttered. The Muslim call to prayer echoed throughout the city.   For hours, I’d marveled at the treasures of the pharaohs on display at the Egyptian Museum and then wandered, taking in the exotic sights, smells and sounds. But now I was worried. I needed to find the bus back to my hotel…and I was hopelessly lost.   Read More: Mysterious Ways: Lost In Cairo – [More]

A wonderful and handsome couple who lived in my neighborhood had been happily married for 52 years. Together they lived the good life, entering into everything they enjoyed with zest and spirit. They were well thought of by everyone who knew them.   Cancer reared its ugly head and the lovely wife struggled with it for years. The compassion and caring between them was a beautiful thing to see. She died about a month ago and moved into the heavenly home she knew was waiting for her.   Read More: A Love Letter from Heaven – Guideposts