Life by Grace Alone

During my years growing up, one table was always at the center of our family life. My father's parents had a round oak table in their kitchen. When my grandmother died, my parents with their three children moved into the farmhouse with my grandfather and the round oak became ours. By the time I turned 12, I had not just two older brothers but also two younger sisters. That was the year my grandfather died. Our family along with the round oak table moved to the other side of town. As the years went by, many of us sought round oak tables for our homes. Perhaps it was a way of taking a little bit of our childhood home with us. We bought our table while in California. It was there that our family of  four shared meals at our antique oak table. A third child joined us when we moved back to Maryland. A fourth child completed our circle of six shortly after moving to Nebraska. Our last move with all of our children occurred when we left Nebraska for Vermont where we had the challenge of...

Recently we had our 40th anniversary. Wow! We don't feel old enough to be married that long. The calender does not lie. We wonder if with the months and years we have accumulated more wisdom and maturity than we have wrinkles and gray hair.  Although we may feel like we have not grown very much, an understanding of the character of God shows us that because of his love for us and his faithfulness we have made significant strides as individual believers and as a couple. No matter how often people may ooh and ah over the seemingly magical word 40 there is no room for back patting. God is the source of all growth and wisdom. When couples no matter how many times they get off course remember that it's Jesus who provides their center of gravity, it doesn't make life easier but it does make life stable. Each couple knows where they are grounded and they aren't free floating. There have been many excellent books written on marriage in the past few years. All of us who have b...

 Over 9 years ago we moved to our  house in Virginia. The family room had a fireplace with a wood burning insert complete with a fan. After my sensitivity to wood smoke increased, we only used it a few times. Since the insert took up so much space, Steve decided to get rid of it. The easiest thing to do was to send out an e-mail on freecycle. The hard thing was whoever wanted it had to take it out themselves. We needed to be sure that what the person wanted  was what we had to offer. We also had to be sure they had the manpower to take out the heavy cast iron insert. I e-mailed back the woman who wanted it, sending her more information and hoping she actually read it. Over the years I have seen time after time when things like this become more and more complicated. I expected that to happen this time. Two men showed up at the appointed hour. They had the right equipment and in a reasonable amount of time they removed the insert and loaded it on their truck. ...