Devotionals
2021
They Gave Me Grace
A Word of Encouragement from Elizabeth Rice Handford Ask my kids, and they’ll tell you I’m a competitor. I play to win. (Not that I always win, you understand; it’s just that I aim to win.) My competitive spirit is so strong, I find it hard, when I’m playing checkers...
Tomorow Will Come— Will You Be Glad or Sad?
A Word of Encouragement from Elizabeth Rice Handford Do you remember, when you were a child, how very long it took for your birthday to come again? Later on in life, I’ve discovered, birthdays seem to come too soon. But it is true: tomorrow will come.And the question...
St. Patrick: Interesting Myth or Heroic Reality?
A Word of Encouragement from Elizabeth Rice Handford St. Patrick’s grave at Downpatrick How exciting it is to find out that what you thought was just a pleasant fairy tale about a brave hero turns out to be genuine, satisfying historic truth. That’s what happens when...
God’s Never-Ending. Loving Care
A Word of Encouragement from Elizabeth Handford If you are a mathematician you already know what a mobius strip is. Since I’m not a mathematician, and have no hope of becoming one, the idea of a mobius strip facinates me. Take a strip of paper, hold one end of it,...
“Why doesn’t God do something?”
A Word of Encouragement from Elizabeth Rice Handford Years ago my husband and I were walking through the Ford Museum in Dearborn when he stopped me by a huge Farmall F-20 tractor. “There,” Walt said, “that’s the tractor I bought last week. They’ll deliver it next...
Olga the nanny goat is riding on the runing board—But where’s the Baby?
We agree. don’t we, that a boss doesn’t hire a salesman because he’s handsome, but because he’s an effective salesman. A mother doesn’t spend her time on making the house pretty so her neighbors will be impressed. Rather she creates a home, a refuge, for her husband...
God sends His Love
Your Valentine from the God who loves you dearly Too often our concept of God is that He is an angry, unloving despot leaning over the battlements of Heaven, watching us with an eagle eye, hoping to catch us doing something wrong so He can zap us in glee with a 2 X 4...
Remember Who You Belong To
A Word of Encouragement from Elizabeth Rice Handford I’ve been cleaning out my clothes closet this week and came across the Interim sweater I wore in the days when my husband Walt and I were chaplains for employees and patients at Interim Healthcare in Greenville, SC....
How My Daddy Taught Me to Respect Words
A Word of Encouragement from Elizabeth Rice Handford In Indiana, mustaches are illegal if the bearer has a tendency to kiss other humans. Why did Kansas pass a law, “If two trains meet on the same track, neither shall proceed until the other has passed”? Obviously,...
My Unimportant, Terribly Important Broken Thumb
A Lament from Elizabeth Rice Handford I remember my zoology professor at Wheaton, Dr. Russell Mixter, teaching us about God’s marvelous design of the human hand with its “opposing thumb.” Ever since I broke my right thumb in two places in a fall last month, oh, my...
