No Perfect Homes Here

Posted on June 7, 2026 by Barbara Harper

Some years ago while in the hospital, I took advantage of their cable system to watch HGTV. There were several popular makeover shows on HGTV at the time, but we didn’t get that station in our cable plan. This was before almost every network had a streaming service.

Unfortunately, the day that I watched, none of the popular shows were on. The station was showing a marathon of a series about people who had won the lottery and were looking to upgrade their housing.

As I watched these families tour several houses worth hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars, one thing stood out to me. Even at that level, with amenities most of us could only dream about, none of the home buyers found a perfect house with everything they were looking for. Sometimes the couple had different opinions about what they wanted in a house. Other times, two different houses had some, but not all, of the features they wanted, and they had to decide which was closest to their ideal.

I think most of us who have ever bought, or even rented a house have found the same thing. No one house has all we want. One house might have a beautiful, roomy kitchen, but the roof is going to need replacing soon. Another might have a nice garage and workspace, but only one bathroom for a large family.

We’ve lived in five homes over our 46 years of marriage. We rented a small mobile home from a professor at our college when we first married and lived there six years. We had not thought we’d stay in that area after graduation, but it seemed the Lord was leading that way. So we bought our first home there, a fixer-upper that needed much more than we had to give.

We’ve lived in three more homes since, each necessitated by my husband’s workplace moving him to a new area. Each had plusses and minuses. But our previous home in SC was the one I had the most trouble with. We had looked at many houses that were much nicer and prettier. But this one had the room we needed at a price we could afford.

The family room had red and black checked carpeting–and our furniture was a pink and blue plaid. It was years before we could replace either the furniture or the carpet.

I had gotten used to a carport and not having to carry groceries through the rain. This house had no carport. Plus the previous house’s driveway was right next to the kitchen door. At our new house, we had to go through two rooms and up seven steps to get to the kitchen.

I don’t like peach at all, or orange except in fall decorations, but the kitchen had peach and blue flowered wallpaper. And pink and blue floral linoleum.

The living room had wallpaper on one wall that looked like a mural of a Mediterranean scene. My kids loved it, but I couldn’t stand it.

We just one and a half bathrooms here (and no master bathroom). We had to do showers and breakfast in shifts–whoever wasn’t in the shower was eating.

Our previous houses had wooded areas behind them. This one had the back yard of another house right behind us. When the trees were bare, I could see the recliner and its occupant in their family room from my kitchen window.

Our previous house had a fence, and we got our first and only puppy while there. It was nice to not worry about the kids wandering off. Our new house didn’t have a fence.

The kitchen area was cramped. There was so little storage in it, my husband put shelves in the coat closet in the living room for the bigger kitchen items. Our dining room table, which seated six, barely fit in the space for it.

Over time, one project at a time, we replaced wallpaper, painted, replaced carpet, and eventually replaced family room furniture. We never could figure out what to do about the kitchen. We talked about removing a wall or adding on to the outside. But our finances, time, and energy levels were never up for that big of a project.

I had to continually battle discontentment with that house. But, after we moved, it occurred to me that most of our sons’ growing-up years took place there. Most of their family memories were developed there. I imagine they’ll remember having friends over for pizza and video games, crowding around the table for meals or birthdays, riding some mattresses we were getting rid of down the stairs, playing in the nearby “bamboo forest,” jumping on the trampoline, helping with house projects, the bulk of their school years, the first serious girlfriend and wedding of one of them.

They’ll remember the home more than the house.

I don’t think it’s wrong to want to make our homes comfortable, pleasing, and attractive. I’ve appreciated Edith Schaeffer’s emphasis in her book, The Hidden Art of Homemaking, that God didn’t make the world just functional: He made it beautiful as well. She says, “If you have been afraid that your love of beautiful flowers and the flickering flame of the candle is somehow less spiritual than living in starkness and ugliness, remember that He who created you to be creative gave you the things with which to make beauty and the sensitivity to appreciate and respond to His creation” (p. 109).

We have to balance those desires for creativity, beauty, and functionality with the time, finances, and energy we have. And we need to remember that even some of the humblest homes here will look luxurious to others.

But we usually have to be content with a less than perfect house to some degree. Probably no house will ever have every little feature we might like. One reason for that might be that if we had a perfect house, we’d be too tempted to nestle down into it, too content in this world and not looking forward to the next.

C. S. Lewis has written, “Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.”

The Bible reminds us, as the old hymn says, that this world is not our final home.

“We do not have an enduring city here; instead, we seek the one to come” (Hebrews 13:14).
“But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20).
“In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” (John 14:2).
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).

Like all of God’s tangible gifts in this world, we appreciate them, but we hold them loosely. It’s not wrong to ask for a better or bigger house, but if God says no, we seek His grace to be content where He has us. We can effectively serve Him and minister to others in whatever kind of home He allows us to have. And we can let that longing for a perfect home remind us we’ll never find it here and fuel our desire for the heavenly one to come.

Prayer for the Home

Peace, unto this house, I pray,
Keep terror and despair away;
Shield it from evil and let sin
Never find lodging room within.
May never in these walls be heard
The hateful or accusing word.

Grant that its warm and mellow light
May be to all a beacon bright,
A flaming symbol that shall stir
The beating pulse of him or her
Who finds this door and seems to say,
“Here end the trials of the day.”

Hold us together, gentle Lord,
Who sit about this humble board;
May we be spared the cruel fate
Of those whom hatreds separate;
Here let love bind us fast, that we
May know the joys of unity.

Lord, this humble house we’d keep
Sweet with play and calm with sleep.
Help us so that we may give
Beauty to the lives we live.
Let Thy love and let Thy grace
Shine upon our dwelling place.

Edgar Guest

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Laudable Linkage

Posted on June 6, 2026 by Barbara Harper

Some of the good reads found this week:

Steve McQueen, born again, set free, HT to Challies. “Steve McQueen made The Great Escape. But he was sprung by Jesus Christ who made the greatest escape. The actor just pretended to escape from a Nazi POW camp; the Savior conquered hell and death for real. And he saved Steve and me and many other sinners from the hell to come.”

What Does It Mean to Walk by the Spirit? “Walking by the Spirit sounded somewhat vague and unclear. There isn’t a clearly laid out list in Scripture, not “Step 1, do this. Step 2, do that.” Over the past fifteen years I have learned and grown a lot in this area. I think I have a better idea of what walking by the Spirit means, and while it doesn’t mean that stopping sinning is easy, it does mean that it’s possible.”

The Commodification of Christianity. “All of this, the commodification and the gamification and the online communities, ultimately leaves us with a shallow faith. If you teach a generation Christianity through TikToks and Instagram Reels, don’t be surprised if their version of belief has nothing to do with virtue, with how they actually live their lives, and everything to do with what they post, how they label themselves online, what’s on their Story. Don’t be surprised if Christianity becomes nothing but a weapon in the culture war, a cross emoji in a bio.”

What Jesus Does Not Pray. “Jesus does not ask that we will be kept from all trials, all suffering, all sorrows. He prays simply that as we remain here, we will be held firm in the grip of God to carry out his will.”

How to Break a Hurting Heart: Lessons from Job’s Friends. “Job’s friends didn’t set out to wound him; they came to comfort a man who had lost nearly everything. Yet somewhere between his suffering and their explanations, they ended up doing more harm than good.”

Should Christians Flip Tables Like Jesus? HT to Challies. “Scripture tells us to be like Jesus. Does that mean we should call hypocritical leaders “blind fools” and a “brood of vipers” like Jesus does in Matthew 23? Does imitating Jesus mean we should make a whip of cords, curse a fig tree, and flip a table in a temple? Should we make it our goal to do the same? And if not, why not?”

When Discipleship Is Difficult, Start With Delight. “This was my problem: I was looking at discipleship from the wrong perspective. It hadn’t yet clicked that discipleship is more than education and obedience to biblical commands. Discipleship is a matter of the heart. It is about helping others love Who and what we love; learning to delight in the God who delights in us (Zeph. 3:17) as we become like Jesus from one degree of glory to another (2 Cor. 3:18).”

God’s Many Mercies for Our Many Miseries. “Years ago, a dear friend from church was murdered at her home. I will never forget the wise encouragement our pastor shared at her funeral. He acknowledged our longing to know the answer to the question of ‘why’ this tragedy had occurred. And yet, he insisted, deeper comfort would come through knowing the answer to the question ‘who?’ Who is the God who enters our most horrific tragedies?”

Stop Believing Your Best Years Are Behind You, HT to Challies. “I wonder if we’ve badly misjudged the later years. We frame them as a time to ease up, slow down, and coast toward the finish. I think we have it exactly wrong. What if a man’s later years are meant to be his strongest? What if they’re not for winding down, but for our greatest contribution? If we’ve prepared well, the second half should be when we run our best race.”

The Things I Cried About Yesterday, HT to Challies. “The balm of time and the gift of hindsight show that God knew what He was doing all along. We are short-sighted creatures. We can’t see beyond the present, and we’re really bad judges of the future. How many are the things that are disappointing today that I will be worshipping Him for in a few years?”

The Beauty of the Unnamed, HT to Challies. “There is no story that is insignificant to God. There is no role or purpose that is outside of his profound influence. God is one who sees those who others forget. He sees them and though they are unnamed in the pages of history, they are known by name to him. History has been formed by the faithfulness of the unnamed.”

Whatever the Weather, We’ll Weather the Weather, Whether We Like It or Not. “Contented cheerfulness in hard circumstances is not a personality trait; it’s an intentional choice.”

When I cannot read, when I cannot think, when I cannot even pray, I can trust. James Hudson Taylor

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on June 5, 2026 by Barbara Harper

We’re almost a week into June already. I’m pausing with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, where she hosts an opportunity for folks to share some highlights or blessings of their week.

1. Winning an Amazon gift card from Susan for a drawing she was hosting. I used it to buy this mini sewing room kit. It doesn’t look as easy as the Lego bookish sets I did! We’ll see how it goes.

2. Lunch with Melanie. I enjoyed the conversation as well as the food at Cracker Barrel with the gift cards my family gave me.

3. An impromptu dinner date. Jim and I went out to Olive Garden one night this week. It’s a little further away than most of the places where we eat, so we don’t get there often. But we both love that this one was divided into smaller areas instead of being one big room. The noise level at some restaurants takes away from the enjoyment of them, but Olive Garden didn’t have that problem.

4. A “retirement” schedule. I joke that even though my husband is retired, I don’t get to retire. 🙂 Someone still has to cook and clean and do laundry. 🙂 Not that I mind. The load for that kind of thing is a little lighter now, though. And Jim does help with cleaning and dishes sometimes, and he does the grocery shopping now. . But what I most appreciate about our more relaxed schedule this week is that, most of the time, if I wake up in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep, I can take a nap as needed. I’d rather get all my sleeping done at the designated time and place. But when that doesn’t happen, I can make up for it.

5. VBS (Vacation Bible School) for our church is this week. We donated some supplies for the crafts and decorations, but we’re not able to be there every night to help. Mittu is helping, though, and Timothy is a helper this yea instead of attending as a kid. Our VBS director has more love and enthusiasm for this ministry than anyone I’ve ever known. It’s been fun to see the decorations going up, and we look forward to hearing how it all went. They’re using Answers in Genesis Emerald Crossing curriculum based on Psalm 23 this year.

That was our week. How was yours?

Review: The Lumber Baron’s Wife

Posted on June 3, 2026 by Barbara Harper

The Lumber Baron’s Wife by Lynn Austin is a dual-timeline novel set in Michigan.

In 1873, Hannah Wagner had lost three children to diphtheria. Her husband, John, was a doctor but was unable to save them. To keep from feeling the pain of her loss, Hannah has numbed herself and closed herself off to love and the risks that come with it. She’s civil, but distant.

An old friend of her husband’s, Henry Abernathy, comes to visit them in Brooklyn. He has started a lumber mill in the untamed area of Michigan, and the bustling new town there needs a doctor. He wants John to start a practice in Michigan and promises to build him a home. John welcomes the new start, but Hannah doesn’t want to leave her children’s graves and everything else familiar to her. But eventually she agrees to go.

Hannah finds Henry’s wife, Kate, to be much younger than her husband and quite uncouth. Kate claims Hannah’s friendship with puppy-dog eagerness that drains Hannah. Hannah has no choice but to socialize with the younger woman, who scandalizes her with stories from her past.

When Kate goes missing (not a spoiler, as we’re told this on the first page), multiple possibilities arise that may have led to her disappearance. Yet none of them satisfies Hannah. She knows something must be wrong.

In the present day, Ashley Gilbert comes to Michigan with her new husband, David. She didn’t wanted to come to Michigan, but David has found his dream job there. Trouble arises when they search for a home: David wants something sleek and modern, but Ashley is a historian who is intrigued by an old but beautiful home once owned by the town’s doctor and his wife in the 1800s.

A mansion built by the area’s lumber baron in the same time period has fallen into disrepair. It has been used as multiple businesses through the years, including a daycare, an antique shop, and a Red Cross headquarters the second floor was even chopped up into apartments. A local group is volunteering to try to restore it to some of its former glory. When Ashley learns of the restoration and offers her services, she is viewed as a godsend. That strikes her as odd. She has never given God much thought.

Ashley becomes fascinated with the unsolved mystery of the lumber’s baron’s wife from all those years ago.

The point of view switches between Hannah, Kate, and Ashley. There are many layers to this story: overcoming difficulties and learning to work together in marriage, the power of friendship, the power of the gospel lived out and gently shared. The past affects and influences us but can be overcome.

The story drew me in from the first page. I don’t know when I have identified with a character as much as I did with Hannah. Though our circumstances were different, our personalities are similar.

When I finally found out what happened to Kate, I was totally surprised and did not see it coming.

I had never thought of Michigan as a nearly wilderness area, but I guess much of America was early on.

The audiobook, wonderfully narrated by Sarah Zimmerman, didn’t include the author’s notes, in the narration. But it did have PDFs of her notes and discussion questions. I also found interviews with Lynn here and here where she gives some background into the story. She’s from Michigan, which really was a hub of the lumber industry. Short-sighted lumber barons didn’t think about the long-term results of their industry, which devastated the area for many years. The Abernathy mansion in the book is based on a couple of similar mansions in MI that were turned into museums.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.

Review: Blueprint for a Nonfiction Book

Posted on June 2, 2026 by Barbara Harper

Jennie Nash started out as an author, but then switched to become a book coach, helping authors shape their ideas into readable and saleable books. She shares some of her coaching tips in Blueprint for a Nonfiction Book: Plan and Pitch Your Big Idea.

She doesn’t talk so much about how to write here. She says “Writing a book is a complex intellectual, creative, and entrepreneurial undertaking and to write a good one, you have to put in the work—and I don’t just mean cranking out words. The work that is going to have the most impact is the work you do before you write a single word of the book itself” (p. 9, Kindle version).

The book is divided into five parts: Book Fundamentals (reasons for writing, why you’re qualified, title, genre, main point), Get to Know Your Ideal Reader (who is your ideal reader, what are you promising him or her), Design a Structure, Developing a Book Proposal, and How to Pitch Your Proposal.

The days are gone when a writer pounded out her manuscript and sent it off to a publisher. These days, one first sends a query to a literary agent (though there are a few exceptions, especially with smaller publishing houses, you can’t get to a traditional publisher except through an agent). If the agent wants to know more, he’ll ask for your book proposal, which contains specific information, like an overview, sample chapters, comparable titles, marketing plan, and more.

Even if an author wants to self-publish, it’s helpful to think through these issues.

Jennie includes examples of each of her points that come from her own clients and clients of those she has trained through her Author Accelerator, where she trains other book coaches. These examples were valuable in seeing her tips fleshed out.

I read this book mainly because I know what elements I want my book to contain, but struggled with the best way to arrange them. The section about design structure helped a great deal. But I benefited from reading the other material as well.

Helps to Remember What You Read from the Bible

Posted on May 31, 2026 by Barbara Harper

Helps tom remember what you read in the Bible

If you’re like me, you can often draw a blank if you try to remember what you read in your quiet time with the Lord a few hours before.

On one hand, we’ll never remember everything we read (that’s one reason to keep rereading it). But we can still trust that God’s Word nourished us. In a similar vein, I might not remember what I had for lunch yesterday, but it still did its job.

Still, the Bible tells us to meditate, to think on, to turn over in our minds what God has said to us. We can’t do that if we don’t remember it.

Here are some tips that I’ve found helpful.

Read in context. I’m thankful that my first pastors emphasized reading a book of the Bible at a time rather than reading randomly. I usually average a chapter a day on weekdays, depending on the chapter length and subject matter. It’s easy to read a few chapters of a Bible narrative, but I like to slow down in the densely-packed epistles. If we take a moment at the beginning of our reading time to look at what we read the day before, then we get back into the flow.

Pray as you read. We often think of prayer and Bible reading as two separate components of devotions, and do one after the other. But we can pray as we read. If we read about a particular sin we’re struggling with, we can pray about it right then. If we’re reading praise to the Lord, we can read those passages to Him. If we come across something we want to incorporate into our children’s lives, we can ask God for wisdom and for receptive hearts.

Read actively. If we’re following a Bible-reading plan, it’s easy to fall into a passive “get the assignment done” mentality. But if we ask ourselves questions as we read, or look for particular things, we’re more engaged, and the information stays with us.

Some years ago, I heard someone say that Jesus never claimed to be God. I knew He didn’t declare Himself as openly and plainly as some wished He would. But He did proclaim His deity. So the next time I read the gospels, I put a “C” by every place where Jesus made a claim about Himself and a “P” by every verse which indicated a fulfillment of OT prophecy. Actively looking for that emphasis revitalized my reading.

We can also look for the writer’s main point or ask ourselves questions like, “What does this passage teach me about God? About myself? About how to live for Him?” Another good question is “Why is this here?” The Bible says that God’s thoughts are more than can be numbered. One pastor used to say the Bible is divinely brief: out of all the things God could have shared with us, the Bible contains what He wants us to know. 2 Timothy 3:16a tells us, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable.” So God has every part of Scripture there for a reason.

Mark your reading. Some people don’t like to write in their Bibles. That’s understandable. But many of us get more out of them when we underline passages that stand out to us, underline repeated words, draw arrows from the word “therefore” back to what it refers to, etc. One solution might be to have a study Bible you use for devotions and a different, unmarked Bible you use at church.

Make notes. I used to journal what I studied in my devotional time, but I found I was spending more time writing than reading. So I abandoned the practice for a while. Yet writing does help us process what we read and make it more permanent.

Journaling for the Soul: A Handbook of Journaling Methods by Deborah Haddix shares a plethora of journaling styles that would appeal to a variety of personalities. I ended up with something similar to a bullet journal. I look for one main takeaway from my Daily Light on the Daily Path reading as well as whatever Bible passage I’ve read that day and jot them down in a simple, cheap spiral notebook. Sometimes I’ll write a little more if I feel I need to, but I try to keep it brief.

Review. When I finish my Bible reading for the day, I quickly review what I’ve read. But that review doesn’t always stay with me through the day. In Overcoming Your Devotional Obstacles: 25 Keys to Having Memorable Devotions, John O’Malley recommends writing down a few key points from your Bible reading on a 3×5 note card and then putting it where you’ll see it throughout the day. You could do the same with a Post-It note or the notes app on your phone. Some might want to set a reminder on their phones to go off a few times a day with the main points they read. That would bug me, personally. I keep my phone notifications to a minimum because I get irritated at my phone dinging through the day.

What works for me is this: I keep my Daily Light, ESV Study Bible, and whatever commentary or Bible study book I’m using, along with my little spiral notebook, stacked on my desk. When I go to my desk throughout the day and see those books, I’ll take a moment to remind myself what the main points were that I wrote down. If I can’t remember, I’ll look in my notebook.

Share with others. When I was in a Christian college, the dorm students had assigned tables for dinner which switched every few weeks so we could get to know more people. Each table had a host and hostess who were supposed to try to keep conversations going. Some were better at this than others. My very first host and hostess were the best. The host would bring up that day’s chapel message and invite everyone else’s comments. I probably remembered the chapel messages more during those weeks than at any other time during my college years.

When I talk about what I’ve read, whether with my family or with a Bible study group, I remember more of it. I don’t know if a formal family “What did everyone learn in their devotions today” conversation would work. That might become too mechanical. But it’s natural for what we’re thinking about to come out in our talk.

Memorize. Of course, most of us can’t memorize a Bible verse every day. But we might mark a key verse in our reading, or one that especially spoke to our hearts, and try to commit it to memory over the next few days.

Have you tried any of these helps to remember what you read from the Bible? Or have you tried something else? What works best for you?

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Laudable Linkage

Posted on May 30, 2026 by Barbara Harper

Here are some thought-provoking reads found this week:

What Does It Mean to Be Discerning? “Spiritual discernment is the skill of distinguishing what is true from what is false, what is right from what is wrong, and what is wise from what is foolish. In its fullest form, it is the skill of distinguishing what is true from what is almost true, what is wise from what is wiser still, and what is a matter of absolute right and wrong from what is a matter of conscience or legitimate disagreement.”

Harness the Power of Failure. “You are going to fail at some point in your life. You will probably fail at many things at many points in your life. The question is not whether you will fail, but what you fail at and how you will handle your failure. Believe it or not, failure can be valuable if we think about it and respond to it rightly.”

The Best Way to Resist Temptation, HT to Challies. “People talk about resisting temptation. How exactly does that work? Not very well, in my experience—at least, not if you try to face it head on and just say ‘no’ and ‘no’ and ‘no’ over and over again until you’re worn ragged and hoarse and half-mad from the relentless effort. There is, of course, no way around the fact that resisting temptation requires effort. But I believe there is a better way to focus and expend that effort than to simply lock eyes with your temptation and see who blinks first.”

Rushing Our Quiet Times, HT to Challies. “How long should quiet times take? . . . Lately my answer to this question has become simple: the right length for a quiet time is long enough to be unhurried. An unhurried quiet time means there is enough time to soak in God’s word. Time to savour and meditate on it. Time to explore, to follow a cross-reference. Time to read slowly, to reflect and perhaps memorise some verses. Not rushing allows enough time for God’s word to change us.”

The Most Awkward, Important Part of Prayer, HT to Challies. “If you find yourself skipping a certain element of prayer—Adoration/praise, Confession, Thanksgiving, or Supplication/asking—which one of these is it likely to be? Which one is the most awkward for you? Which one might you find yourself thinking, ‘I’m not sure exactly what to say here,’ and shortening or eliminating that part? I’m going to wager that it’s the first part: Adoration.”

The Lord of the Traffic Jam, HT to Challies. “But none of these statistics are as big a challenge in my daily commute than my own sinful heart. I find that my commute is the most difficult environment in which to remember that I am in fact a Christian. Even in gridlock, I am an ambassador for Christ, called to shine the light of Christ to my half a million neighbours.”

The Genuine Beauty of a Fruitful Life. “Appearances can be copied, but true fruitfulness cannot be manufactured. As Christian women, we can become so deeply dazzled by counterfeit fruit that we lose sight of what God’s kingdom actually values. The beauty of a truly fruitful life is found in faithfulness to the King, whose work in us produces a legacy that endures long after every imitation fades.”

Are You Willing to Show Up? HT to Challies. “Friend, in a world that is disconnected and distant, let’s be the people who show up. Not just once or twice. Not to check off a box for good deed of the day. But to be present. Imperfectly, awkwardly, perhaps even wordlessly, present.”

Actually, Having a Baby Has Slowed Me Down, HT to Challies. “When I was nine months pregnant, a colleague of mine informed me that pregnancy didn’t slow his wife down. Good for her. To be fair, pregnancy barely slowed me down either. I worked out the entire time, kept up with my too-many jobs, submitted my doctoral dissertation, and even recorded the audiobook for Spirit-Filled Singing while dealing with the worst of my first trimester nausea. But having a baby? Having a baby has slowed me down.”

You Can’t Give Your Children What You Don’t Have, HT to Challies. “Look carefully at how the passage is structured: God doesn’t start by saying, ‘Teach your children My words.’ Rather, He starts with the father: ‘These words that I command you today shall be on your heart.’ What a significant and often overlooked foundation. The command to teach your children comes second.”

Does a Promiscuous Past Affect a Christian Marriage? HT to Challies. “There are earthly consequences to sexual sin that can affect a marriage. If I said there weren’t, I’d be a liar. So, let’s look at the claims and understand the true dangers. But if you’re someone who walked a path similar to mine, stick around because there is so much hope. I promise.”

The Dangerous Days Past Middle Age. “I have an image in my mind of the godly old lady I want to be someday: soft-spoken, kind to all, full of wisdom. Having logged half a century under God’s sanctifying sandpaper, I should be well on my way by now. And, taking stock, I can see that I don’t have to rein in my temper as much as I used to, and there’s precious little out there that tempts me to covet. What I am learning, however, is that as I age, I sin differently. Sin is still ‘crouching at the door.’ It just comes in a different form.”

If you’re not hungry for God, what’s ruining your appetite?

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on May 29, 2026 by Barbara Harper

Welcome to the final FFF of May. I’m not really ready to go from spring to summer. I know it’s not officially summer for a few weeks yet, but I’ve always felt that summer was June, July, and August. And whether I am ready or not, summer is coming! So I’d better gear up for it.

Susanne at Living to Tell the Story invites us to share what blessings the Lord has graced us with each week.

1. Memorial Day. Though I am sorry for the cost of life, I am thankful for those who gave their all that we might have the freedoms we enjoy today. I always like to watch the National Memorial Day concert on PBS the Sunday night before and hear stories of people from various wars.

Then we enjoyed having the family over for Jim’s grilled burgers and playing games.

2. A new camellia bush. Jim had gotten it for me for Mother’s Day, but it arrived late. He planted it this week. It’s not supposed to bloom til later in the summer, so I hope it will be established by then.

3. New flowers. Jim cut back the spent daffodil foliage and planted some annuals by our front sidewalk.

4. Mild weather. The weather apps have been showing rain every day for almost two weeks. We’ve not gotten nearly as much as predicted. And, thankfully, we haven’t had any storms. The rain that we have received has been pleasant and gentle.

5. More impromptu times with the kids. Mittu brought dinner over when they came to do laundry, then they stopped in later this week as well. We went out for lunch Sunday after church, too.

How was your last week of May?

May Reflections

Posted on May 28, 2026 by Barbara Harper

Another month has sped by. We enjoyed Mother’s Day and Memorial Day as a family as well as other times together. I don’t think we had any major excursions except for dinner with friends one night and Jim and Timothy going to a couple of science museums.

We’ve enjoyed the spring-like weather and new blooms and plants. But we can feel summer edging in with a few days near 90 degrees.

Creating

I just made one card this month, for Mittu for Mother’s Day.

The Cricut did the heavy lifting this time, with the drawing, writing, and cutting. I thought about coloring the flowers in–but talked myself out of it. If I messed it up or didn’t like it, I’d have to start all over. So I left it well enough alone.

I’ve also started to play around with some informal lettering. My handwriting has not been good ever since I first learned to write, so I usually use the computer or stickers to do the wording on cards. I’d like to be able to dash off something on my own that looks decent. I got some free practice sheets here and paid for some here.

I love the look of informal lettering, but have to fight against my tendency to want to make all the letters the same height as in formal lettering. The differences are part of the charm, but I struggle with wanting to do it “right” rather than just feeling free with it.

Watching

We found quite a few good movies and mini-series this month.

Beyond the Blackboard is based on a true story about a new teacher whose first assignment is a classroom in a homeless shelter. The previous teacher viewed her assignment as a glorified babysitter, not trying to teach much since the kids came and went. But this teacher fights to make a difference.

Race is about the life of Jesse Owens from his time in college through his record-setting wins in the 1936 Olympics in Germany. There are a few instances of the Lord’s name taken in vain.

The English Game is a mini-series also based on a true story of how English football–or soccer, as we know it in the US–started out as a “gentleman’s game.” When some of the working-class men wanted to play, they received a lot of resistance at first.

Harriet is a biographical film about Harriet Tubman, who escaped slavery and then went back to help hundreds of other slaves escape through the Underground Railroad.

Seeking Persephone is a Regency-era mini-series with kind of a Beauty and the Beast feel. A scarred, reclusive young duke needs to marry, so he has his steward find a needy family with a daughter of marriageable age. He’ll take care of the family’s needs if their daughter will marry him. She’s hesitant but feels she can’t refuse the benefit this will be to her family. So they marry, and she tries to feel at home in his big, lonely castle. Much reference is made to the Greek myth of Persephone and Hades, which I knew nothing about. But the film tells enough of the story that the viewer can get the references.

Temple Grandin was yet another movie based on a real person. Temple was diagnosed with autism at age four, back in the sixties, when parents were advised to institutionalize such children. Through her mother’s persistent work with her and the encouragement of a few good teachers who saw her intelligence, she overcame bullying and learned to cope and express herself. By working at her aunt’s cattle ranch in the summers, she became interested in animal behavior and became a legend in that industry. After seeing the film, we watched a documentary of her life titled An Open Door.

Reading

Since last time, I have finished:

God Moments in my Publishing Life: The Making of a Writer and Publisher by Leslie H. Stobbe
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, audiobook. My second-favorite of Dickens, a comforting, cozy read. Excellent.
Jose’s Zulo by Lou Ann Keiser, set in the Basque Region of Spain, where Lou Ann and her husband ministered for decades. A sleeper terrorist begins to question his life choices. Good.
Angel Sister by Ann. H. Gabhart, audiobook. In Depression-era KY, a little girl is left on the steps of a church, where her parents said an angel would come and care for her. She’s found by the middle sister of a local family who takes her in, but the community disagrees that she should stay there. Longstanding issues with grandparents on both sides and the husband’s alcoholism threaten to tear the family apart. Good.

I’m currently reading:

None Like Him: 10 Ways God Is Different From Us and Why That’s a Good Thing by Jen Wilkin with a friend.
Life Under the Sun: The Unexpectedly Good News of Ecclesiastes by Hannah Anderson.
Blueprint for a Nonfiction Book: Plan and Pitch Your Big Idea by Jennie Nash.
Theo of Golden by Allen Levi.
The Lumber Baron’s Wife by Lynn Austin.
Into a Golden Era by Gabrielle Meyer.

I also shared 12 Fun Bookish Questions and enjoyed seeing other people’s answers. Feel free to share yours if you haven’t yet.

Blogging

Besides the weekly Friday Fave Fives, Saturday Laudable Linkage, and book reviews, I’ve posted these since last time:

Are We Doing it for Him? It’s easy to fall into spiritual routines and forget why and for whom we’re doing them.
Brave Mothers of the Bible. We can draw inspiration from Biblical mothers and the difficulties they overcame with God’s help.
Weariness in Serving God. We all get weary sometimes. But there’s a certain type of weariness that’s a danger signal.
Sharing From Our Experiences with the Lord. When we have an opportunity to share spiritual truth with others, whether a crowd or an individual, we don’t have to give a sermon. We can share from our own walk with Him and our time in His Word.

Writing

My turn to submit a chapter to our critique group was a couple of weeks ago. I always appreciate the feedback and suggestions. I have not had a chance to work those edits in yet. But my schedule is much lighter the next few weeks, so I hope to work on it soon.

Looking ahead

Our church has VBS in June. Mittu and Timothy are involved directly (Timothy as a helper this year). The rest of us contributed supplies and prayer. I’m excited about Vintage Market Days in town. And we’ll be preparing for Father’s Day on the 21st. Otherwise, the month looks pretty quiet! I am hoping to get lots done.

How was your May? Looking forward to anything in June?

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Review: Angel Sister

Posted on May 26, 2026 by Barbara Harper

Angel Sister by Ann H. Gabhart takes place in the fictional town of Rosey Corner, Kentucky, in 1936.

Kate Merritt is the middle of three sisters. Evie, the oldest, is flighty and self-centered. Victoria is too young to be of much help. Kate is her mother’s main help around the house as well as with her father.

Flashbacks show us how Kate’s parents, Victor and Nadine, met and fell in love. They married right before Victor shipped out for WW1. Victor had never had a good relationship with his own father, who has never seen Victor as good enough. Plus his father blames Victor for the death of the cherished older son, Preston. With that baggage plus the horrors he experienced in the war, Victor becomes addicted to alcohol.

Nadine’s father, Preacher Reese, managed his home and church with an authoritarian hand. He never approved of her marrying Victor and continues to remind of of her poor choices.

Nadine still loves Victor but can’t understand why he won’t give up drinking for her and the girls. “Something wasn’t quite right between a man and his wife when that man had to get comfort from a bottle.”

One day when Kate went to the church to deliver something to Grandfather Reese, she finds a little girl on the steps outside. The girl, Lorena, said her parents left her at the church and told her an angel would take care of her. Her brother was sick and her parents didn’t have much money, so they left to find work and help. Lorena has a note with her name and birth date written on it. She thinks Kate is her angel, despite Kate’s assurance that she’s not an angel.

Kate brings Lorena home, where she fits right in with the family. But Grandfather Reese calls a meeting at the church to say that Lorena will be given to an older childless family in the church. (Apparently there was nothing along the lines of Family Services in that day). Despite the Merritt family’s protests that Lorena has bonded with them and is doing well, Preacher Reese doesn’t feel they can adequately care for her.

Kate had prayed with everything in her that Lorena would be able to stay with their family. When that doesn’t happen, her faith is shaken.

The story continues with how these various threads interact as well as those of other characters.

I felt the narrative moved a little slowly in parts. I wasn’t sure if it was meant to be that way since it was set in KY and would have a different pace than a story set in NYC, or if it was just the author’s style.

And the author kept repeating the phrase that someone “mashed” their mouth or lips together. I don’t know if that’s a Kentucky colloquialism or a pet phrase of the author’s. I had never heard it before, and it was jarring and distracting.

But I liked how the story arc ended up, with themes of love and forgiveness. I thought the way Nadine and Victor were initially attracted to each other was especially sweet.

The author shares in her end notes that the story grew out of her mother and aunts’ discussions of their family stories and the small town they grew up in with some of its quirky characters.

I didn’t know until I finished the book that it is the first in a trilogy about the Merritt sisters and Rosey Corner. I’ll probably read the next two at some point, but not right away.