Devotionals

A Word of Encouragement from Elizabeth Handford Did your mother warn you, “If it’s worth doing, do it well?” Then blame the fourth Earl of Chesterfield. He’s the man who said it first, trying to teach his son “the art of becoming a man of the world and a gentleman.”...

An Encouragement to Wait, from Elizabeth Rice Handford. Have you ever suddenly awakened in the night and remembered with shame something you’d done years before, something you’d forgotten all about? That happened to me the other night. To explain: I am a child of the...

I did not know the woman who knocked on the parsonage door one morning, but her face looked like a tragedy mask carved in granite. “I’ve come,” she said, “because I need to take back four words I said.” “Let’s have a cup of coffee, and you tell can me about it.” Her...

I didn’t want to join a handbell choir. I just wanted to see how good I’d be at it if I tried it. After all, I’d taken piano lessons for sixteen years, and I could “sight-read” a piece of music of moderate difficulty. So when a handbell choir came to our church, and...

Years ago I spent several days with my aging father and mother in Tennessee on their little farm. At breakfast, Daddy said, “Libby, come, take a ride with me. One of the cows didn’t come to the barn last night. I’m afraid she’s dropped her calf and is in trouble.” My...

So, how can I reconcile the wonderful and terrible things that happened this week? (“So?” you ask. “Is that a proper way to open a conversation?” Maybe so. My grandchildren always answer a question with “So— ,” as if they’re continuing a conversation already begun,...

“Celebrities separate parenthood and marriage,” our newspaper announced last week (as if we hadn’t already noticed!) It isn’t just celebrities who reject marriage while bringing children into the world. It’s a trend on every level of our society. And, oh, what a...

Our daughter Margi loved school most of the time. Music class was wonderful. Art class, too. She’d always loved books, so she enjoyed English. And recess was fun. But one night, sitting at the kitchen table trying to do her math homework on fractions, she was near...

The man sitting next to me on the plane saw me studying my Bible and asked with irritation. “Don’t you know that the Bible is full of mistakes?” We were on a Saturday afternoon flight from Pittsburg to Atlanta. I was coming home from a women’s conference, he from a...

The dictionary says, “A snipe hunt is a practical joke in which the victim is left in a remote spot holding a bag for a fictitious snipe to run into.” The entry adds, “It can be a wonderful bonding experience for a father and child.” Uh? Really? It was summer family...