Joyful Refuge

  • Conversing with God in My Garden

    I am harvesting the last of our summer garden on a brisk fall day as I dig our carrots. The azure blue skies and sunshine are deceiving from inside but out here my summer warm weather body is shivering even in my lightweight jacket feeling every bit of that 41 degrees. My dirt clad hands…

  • Three Ways I Live with Chronic Illness

    I was wondering how faith helps others to deal with chronic disease. My counselor recently shared a letter with me from an older woman who has dealt with health issues all her life. While very encouraging, I realized many of my things that helped me are different than hers. My top three are: 1. Practicing…

  • Imperfectly Beautiful

    When you have chronic illnesses life is not predictive or perfect but I am choosing to make it be imperfectly beautiful. Once again I wake with a pounding head, cloudy brain, swollen face and aching bones. I sigh with disappointment as I realize I have once again ruined our plans for swimming and canoeing with…

  • Finding God’s Path for Me in this Crazy World

    Recently I was pondering what is God’s path for my life in the midst of all this craziness of life with pandemic, divisions, racial tensions and shortages. What I ended up doing was compiling a list of verses that dealt with His directing me and helping me navigate through this life until I join Him…

  • Keep my Soul Happy & Nourished

    I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not, how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I…

  • Who Am I?

    It took me way to many years to overcome feelings of being ugly, unlovable, unwanted and insecure. My worth was based on the approval of others and their acceptance of me rather than on the unchanging truth of God’s Word. What transformed me is studying and memorizing scripture passages that tell me who I am…

  • Simple Joys and Living to Glorify God

    “Have nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” William Morris 1880 We recently downsized and I am evaluating what are the things in my life that detract from the passions, gifts and purposes God has for my life. I am considering quotes like this but…

  • Goodbyes, Hellos and Physical Limitations

    The last couple months has been a mix of MCAS, EDS and arthritis flares, loss of my faithful companion Dexter and getting a new companion. Spring is the season of weather always in flux, lots of rain showers and high pollen counts. In addition I began going into the world in late March after 13…

  • Loving Like Jesus

    I recently viewed a post on social media where a woman was asking for prayer for her and husband who are counseling a couple with a deviant lifestyle that ran counter to Biblical principles. What was interesting is how many people suggested blasting them with how wrong were and how few expressed offering love and…

  • Living by Faith in a Tumultuous World

    Our world is full of so many tumultuous things. There is rampant anger, division, ethnic tension, partiality, political differences and upheaval, economic woes and physical losses associated with a pandemic. How do we as people of faith live in this world today? Lord, how should we approach life at the beginning of 2021? I recently…