“Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?” Amos 3:3 When my first daughter turned two, she insisted on choosing her own clothes. I moved her pants and shirts into the two bottom dresser drawers, and she put a lot of time into her daily ensemble decisions. …
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” Colossians 3:23 Although I have lived an hour from Fort Worth, Texas for almost ten years, I had never thought to visit the famous Stockyards until looking for ways to entertain …
“Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story – those he redeemed from the hand of the foe.” Psalm 107:2 I was in third grade when C.S. Lewis died. At the time I was too young to realize that meeting him would have been on my bucket list, had …
“Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” Exodus 4:12 Beside the sports theme, what is the common thread running through this short photo essay? Answer: All the captions are written in passive voice (including this answer). In all my years of teaching writing, …
This month my Mom and Dad celebrated 66 years of marriage. That’s an amazing feat in today’s world. To honor them, I’ve decided to step aside from my Writers Workshop series momentarily and post the sonnet I wrote sixteen years ago for their 50th anniversary celebration. Anniversary Sonnet The years …
“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 1:9 I love middle school students, particularly 8th graders. They routinely dazzle their teachers with energetic creativity. But 8th grade girls can also be the worst at writing …
“Listen carefully to what I say; let my words ring in your ears.” Job 13:17 I couldn’t wait to hear from my middle son after his first day in boarding school. We had installed him in his dorm at Taejon Christian International School over the weekend, and I was anxious …
“…they think they will be heard because of their many words.” Matthew 6:7 My husband claims that his high school English teacher was an older woman who valued length over substance in written assignments. The more adjectives, the better the grade. She praised long, rambling sentences and equated high word count …
Recently I ran across one of my old high school yearbooks (the key word here being old). I flipped through the pages, recalling faces and names I’d forgotten long ago. As I read the various greetings penned inside the covers, I ran across a note from Richard: “Remember the straws!” …
