Throughout the ages, there have been changes in people's lives. Most of these changes occur naturally as time goes by, while others have a sudden impact on our lives, as individuals as well as communities. The phrase "the new normal" has …( read more )

Praise God for the gift of music! Singing songs of praise can lift our spirits and fill us with His joy. I love to sing and give glory to God through praise songs and hymns. I play my favourite CDs when we are in the car. Lately, I have …( read more )

If ever there were a time when we need to approach the throne of grace, it's now! The whole world has been turned upside down. We need God. We need His peace. We need His strength. There is no one else to turn to. Prayer is a gift from …( read more )

My dad has dementia. He started to wander and get violent in mid-November 2019. There were two trips to the emergency room in three days, admission to the hospital for twelve days, and then admission into a nursing home. During this …( read more )

A member of our church called me one day in September to ask if I could help her. She was born in the Netherlands and followed her Canadian soldier fiancé to Canada shortly after the war. They married and had five children. Her husband …( read more )

One of my favourite experiences in church is praise and worship at the beginning of each service. Our church worship team plays contemporary songs with concert flair, complete with visual effects and loud beats, which enhances my worship …( read more )

The other night, my two-year-old son climbed up on the couch and said, "Read Bible." Then he reached over to the side table and took hold of my old, worn, brown Bible. Concerned that he might tear the thin pages, I handed him his …( read more )

Last summer, a good friend died after a very long illness. We had attended the same elementary school. I had forgotten about her until I met up with her some thirty years ago. We became good friends, and we visited back and forth a lot. …( read more )

In a busy world, Sabbath is something that we need to seek intentionally. People need to pursue Sabbath moments in life. People in the church and in society alike need concrete examples of how to create Sabbath — in their car, through …( read more )

I had just read the book, The Nun Story. As a teenager, I was so enamoured with the concept of being hidden away from the chaos of adolescence, a boyfriend, and trying to figure out my place in life, that I announced to my parents that …( read more )

Being still is not easy; in fact, it is more difficult now than ever before. We have become technology gluttons, bombarded with a cacophony of smart phones, computers, tablets, iPads, radio, and television. From sun-up to sun-down, the …( read more )

Excessive information has become a plague. That occurred to me one day after receiving a ticket for unintentionally violating a "No Parking 2 to 6 A.M." bylaw. If there was a sign somewhere, I missed it amidst the plethora of signs on the …( read more )

Growing up in the 1960s, I learned to love "The Sound of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel. And the sign said: "The words of the prophets Are written on the subway walls And tenement halls And whispered in the sound of silence." It was …( read more )

Stop the roller coaster! I want to get off. Since I don't like heights, I've never liked roller coasters. However, one summer at Canada's Wonderland, when our daughter was about six years old, I decided to go on one of the tamer roller …( read more )

I have lived in Canada for fifty years, and I still don't enjoy winter. It seems like a waste of time to me because I don't like going outside. I find snow not just dangerous but boring. There it is, every day for months — dismal and …( read more )

Lately, I have been spending more time than previously reading the Bible, doing devotionals, and going to Bible study classes. I've also been devoting more time to church activities, but I've felt that something is missing. In the past …( read more )

It's that time of year again: time to go through drawers and closets, sorting out, downsizing, and organizing. It's something that I like to do about this time each year, before the good weather comes when I would rather be outside …( read more )

On the morning of the 27th of January, I woke up early, and I was teary-eyed. I had been dreaming about the birth of our first child, stillborn on January 29th, 1957. I think about her quite often, and certainly around that time of the …( read more )

Have you ever been assigned a responsibility, and then others took over? They wanted to run the show, and you were pushed aside. You felt sad and frustrated because you could not do what you were assigned to do. You could not be who you …( read more )

In all the busyness of today, we can lose sight of what is important. For myself, I know that sometimes, it is the end of the day before I realize that I was so busy with things, I did not spend as much time with Jesus as I should have. …( read more )

A number of years ago, a distant cousin put together our family tree on my father's side. It revealed that my heritage is Welsh and English, although I am convinced that there is also a Russian branch missing from the tree as I am always …( read more )

Our grey tabby cat, Joey Been, was so called as it truly seemed that he had been everywhere — a born adventurer. We never knew where we might find him next. One day, however, Joey and his whereabouts really took me by surprise. It was …( read more )

Many of us are familiar with today's verses, or if not, then the sentiment that they convey, namely, that God looks after His own, who are in His kingdom. In times of trouble, we can spiritually and mentally run into His presence and …( read more )

The Holy Spirit impressed this verse upon my heart when I first asked Christ into my life. More recently, as I have been asking Him to reveal more of my inner self to me — the good, the bad and the ugly — He has brought this verse back …( read more )

Back in 1989 and 1990, our church was without a pastor, and I used to do a lot of visiting of church members and adherents. There was one couple's home in particular where I went quite often. The man especially enjoyed my visits and told …( read more )

Today, our firstborn would have been 60 years old. I wrote about that a few years ago in devotional called God's Comfort . In it, I explained in some detail the events of the day when our first child was born but did not live. Over the …( read more )

I was overwhelmed by the responses to my New Year's Eve devotional, Which Way To Go . Readers were very loving and understanding as I outlined my future needs while facing a move to residential care. I really appreciated the love and …( read more )

A praise team leader at church mentioned that he and his wife asked God for a word, specifically for them, each new year. It caught the attention of both my husband and me. We knew that it was for us. We were curious to know what word …( read more )

The world-wide, ever-increasing pace of life in general — encouraged by the onset of technical advances which allow for immediate access and interaction with others through a simple phone device — is drastically changing our lives. …( read more )

Two months ago, I injured my ankle when I tripped over a garden fence in my backyard. To my surprise, it was more serious than I'd first thought. An x-ray revealed that a bone was dislocated, so I needed surgery to repair it. Afterward, …( read more )

On a recent evening, rehearsing with our community church choir, our director had us sing "Help!" by the Beatles. All of us, being "of a certain age", knew the words pretty much by heart. After we had sung it through once, she commented …( read more )

This beautiful verse was written in calligraphy and appeared in a frame on the wall of an old Anglican church in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. For several years, I played the organ for Sunday evening services at that church. It was a small …( read more )

During the last month, we have seen a number of events of terrible carnage in various places: Ankara, Turkey, October 12th – 97 killed, 250 injured; Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, October 31st – a Russian airliner allegedly brought down by …( read more )