Glad and Golden Hours: an Advent book to bring rest to weary hearts
Glad and Golden Hours is a companion for Advent, but it’s also a companion for the seasons of grief and longing that occur all year long.
Glad and Golden Hours is a companion for Advent, but it’s also a companion for the seasons of grief and longing that occur all year long.
Until well into young adulthood, I would say, “I’m the happiest person I know.” Then – well, then life happened. Among my loved ones, I saw broken relationships, illness, and disappointment. My own dream of being a young mother faded into the rearview mirror, and singleness stretched on much longer than I had ever expected. The near-death of a sibling and the loss of my aunt – a close friend – led to a crisis of faith in which I cried out to God, “When will You say ‘Enough!’?”
I was in grade school that year, with pigtails and a crazy hunger for books to read. Once a week the youth pastor from the church would come in and read to us from Tales of the Kingdom, a trilogy of books that told of an enchanted city where everything was twisted up and dark,…
Once upon a time, I was a prone-to-dramatize teen who devoured many of Elisabeth Elliot’s books. I still need her forthright counsel to help rescue me from the swamp of self-pity, enabling me to diagnose even small disappointments as suffering — and thus something I can bring to Jesus. Once a starry-eyed twenty-something who sat…
This past year, I needed stories. With each new loss and struggle that my family faced, and with the depth of fear and pain in our communities around the world, I prayed for peace and comfort, but my heart felt worn and beaten. I wasn’t really sure we’d find a safe way through the losses as they piled up around us. What I longed for more than anything was the reassurance of the truth that no matter what, God knows and good wins.
I’m not sure how old I was when I picked up my first Elisabeth Elliot book. Twelve? Thirteen? I had read a children’s biography of Amy Carmichael, so when I saw Elisabeth Elliot’s A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael, I was intrigued. I’m not sure I understood much of the…
Spring is in the air here on our little plot of land. Black-eyed Susans are popping up, the yard is shaded by a fresh, green canopy and our first brood of bluebirds has already fledged! It makes me thankful to stop and take a breath of springtime air and realize Easter Sunday is still ahead…
I’m perpetually desperate for a good read and ridiculously horrible at finding new books. My typical system? Filter through Amazon.com’s free Kindle offerings, choose the prettiest covers, download to my tablet, read as little or as much as my attention span will allow, ultimately devouring (up to) a book an evening. My pickiness in five…
Before my son passed away, I spent almost every night hunched over his medical bed, checking to make sure his feeding tube was working correctly, adjusting his body in the darkness, rolling him on his side so he wouldn’t choke on his saliva.
This was my nightly medical drill as the parent of a child with a rare disease. My son was dying and the weight of that reality meant I did everything to keep him alive while praying for a miracle.
But what happens when there is no miracle? No immediate healing? No answer in the long darkness?
My husband, Devin, and I attended a marriage conference earlier this year with our church and left with an assignment: to read the book Cherish by Gary Thomas. Since we are both readers, we were not only excited to read a book together (something we’ve done sporadically since our dating days) but even more excited…
Anatomy and physiology was fascinating to me, until the day we walked into the lab and had to dissect a cat. I remember thinking, “Nope.” I sat shamefully and watched my lab team in horror, as they slowly peeled back the layers of that cat and pulled out its insides. My apologies to the friends…
I’m always on the hunt for excellent books to provide my voracious readers with new adventures that will point their hearts and minds to truth. So when two friends recommended the same series to me in one week, I bought the first book on Audible. My children were instantly intrigued with The King of the…
The End.
The End.