A new stage of life looms; an era is ending—I am being forced into retirement. My last semester of homeschooling has just commenced. In 1984 I began this task. Twenty-eight years is a really long time to stay at home …
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Raised on the Oklahoma plains in a storytelling family, Melinda now spins tales from her writer's cave in the coastal South. Her faith-filled fiction illustrates our human story, wrestling with our brokenness and the storms that wreak havoc in our lives.
On top of the continental divide in the high desert, it requires extraordinary effort to grow a garden. In the arid climate, water must be delivered in subterranean ways. Every plant is mulched heavily—sometimes over black plastic around each plant. …
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I am a prairie girl. Currently, I live on a rainy, well-watered, thickly-treed peninsula of the north. Lack of water is not a problem here. On the prairie, it’s a different story. The Great American Desert, pioneers called it as …
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“Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service …
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While attending a fine choral presentation by a boychoir, I actually learned the words to what I had thought was a light-weight Christmas song about a party. I had assumed it was about a boy gathering the courage to ask …
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Another car accident. This one, deer vs. new car–the one that replaced the smashed van. My third accident of the year. A year filled with physical therapy, chiropractic visits, and a slow and painful recovery. Torn muscles now knitting. Pelvis …
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One of the hardest things about writing and seeking publication is rejection. Everyone agrees. You work so hard–your blood, sweat, and tears are given for your work. You float it out there to your critical, carefully-chosen first-readers. They critique. You adjust and …
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“But the slave may declare, ‘…I don’t want to go free. If he does this, his master must present him before God. Then his master must take him to the door or doorpost and publicly pierce his ear with an …
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“The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don’t cheat, I don’t sin, and I don’t commit adultery. I’m certainly not like that tax …
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“You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do” (Psalm 139:3 NLT). My ten-year-old granddaughter sobbed into the phone, “But, Daddy, I’m worried.” Departing on a humanitarian mission, her father (my son) …
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