by Jessica Elisabeth “Miss Jessica! Guess what?” My newest piano student bounced up to me at church last Sunday. “I can play 'Merrily We Roll Along' without the music! I can hardly wait till our lessons on Tuesday.”Her enthusiasm for learning the piano is both encouraging and inspiring. This is why I want to be a music teacher—to share my love for music in a contagious way.I’ve been playing the piano since I was six. Like any other ordinary ... Read More about musical passion
Passions
Identity Lost
Wrestling within herself, she turned away from my arms and the prayer on my lips. Her face now in shadow, she uttered a plea and prayer of her own that broke my heart. “God! Why am I worth fighting for?” At 16, Amy is a beautiful Christian girl who has already experienced enough of life’s ugliness to make her question her worth to the very God who gave it to her.Weeping, a homeschooling mom of young children tells me she can’t go on – she’s a ... Read More about Identity Lost
Purpose in Ordinary Days
I am an ordinary woman. I live a simple, ordinary life. I work hard, but sometimes it can be difficult to find real meaning in endless dusting and in the folding of laundry and the vacuuming of floors that fills my work days.It is easy to look around me at the accomplishments, and the seemingly great and beautiful purposes that my friends and those I meet are living out and wonder if I do anything at all that matters in light of eternity. I ... Read More about Purpose in Ordinary Days
When I write . . .
When I was in second grade, my mom would never have guessed that I’d grow up to be a writer. I cried more tears over my second grade A Beka Language Arts book than any other schoolbook except Saxon Math. Drawing lines and putting parts of sentences above, below, and beside was supposed to help me learn what? Architects drew diagrams—not second graders! Write a story about the octopus pictured on the page? That was silly. Who had anything to ... Read More about When I write . . .
Heirloom Crafts
As anyone who knows me can attest, I love old-fashioned things - from old houses, to antique furniture and old books. I've always enjoyed visiting "living history” museums, with costumed interpreters going about a typical day from the past. I’ll never forget a family trip to Old World Wisconsin (note: Go if you can! It’s amazing!), and watching soap making, blacksmithing, and butter making for the first time. I wish I knew how to do neat stuff ... Read More about Heirloom Crafts
A Passion to Help
You can almost say that I couldn't help having it!Before I was born, my grandparents built me a legacy of serving others. As a child, my parents involved me in their acts of service. And as the eldest of eight children, I was practicing the spiritual gift of service for years before I realized what it was. But when I was about sixteen, my uncle was taken seriously ill -- and my aunt called on me to help care for her two youngest children. ... Read More about A Passion to Help
My Passion: Food That Heals
My passion is real food -- meals made from ingredients that are as close to the way God created them as possible. I read about it, talk about it, live it, and dream about delicious meals made from whole ingredients. But why? Is it because real food tastes so good? Or because it’s so fulfilling to sit down to a meal where everything on the table came from my own kitchen instead of a box? Great reasons, but the truth that drives my passion is the ... Read More about My Passion: Food That Heals
Identifing Your Passions
Passions. The very word elicits strong emotion -- excitement, hesitation, or maybe even confusion. Where do passions come from? How do you find them or use them? And most importantly, do you have one? The exciting part of discovering your passions is that you grow into them and with them!A passion can be what gets you up in the morning, or makes you feel alive. It’s the one area of your life that you feel like you were created for the very ... Read More about Identifing Your Passions
Why I’m a photographer
by Jennifer Pinkerton I thought I had an idea of what life in Nairobi, Kenya would be. I’d read missionary letters, heard their stories, enjoyed the church presentations. But nothing prepared me for what I experienced when I landed in Nairobi during my sophomore year in college and saw the city, heard the language, witnessed the filth, smelled the diesel fumes, experienced the traffic jams.I am a photographer; a photographer to the very core of ... Read More about Why I’m a photographer
I’ll do it myself
Simply put, I'm cheap. I love to 'beat the system' and make things at home. I love re-purposing things and giving old furniture new life with a splash of paint. I love saving money.I grew up in a very self-sufficient home. We had a huge garden each year, we lived within our means, and my mom cooked from scratch. I can still smell Monday mornings with fresh bread just out of the oven.My mom spearheaded the do-it-yourself attitude in our ... Read More about I’ll do it myself
A Passion for Authenticity
When my sisters and I were in our mid to late teens, we suddenly and surprisingly found ourselves in prime role model territory. On paper, it probably looked beautifully ideal: we followed God, we had graduated or almost-graduated from highschool at home, we liked each other and our family, we published a magazine for Christian young women, and we helped our parents run a café and quilt store in a hundred-year-old schoolhouse right next door to ... Read More about A Passion for Authenticity
Interview with actress Marilyn Burns
"Two families. A large backyard. Nine cousins with a big dream. Four years ago, this was all they had. Today, the film 'Pendragon' is a testimony of God fulfilling their dream in ways that they never imagined." So YLCF reader Sarah Ferraro sums up the story of the Burns Family Studios' movie "Pendragon." I had a chance to get a bit more "behind the scenes" with Marilyn Burns, homeschool graduate and leading actress in the movie "Pendragon" in a ... Read More about Interview with actress Marilyn Burns
