Not long ago, I heard a short snippet of a song that I had not heard in years. As I thought about it, I don’t think I had heard so much as a single note of the song in at least 20 years. But immediately, upon hearing those few seconds, I remembered a little more. Of course, I did a little online digging and found the full song. While I can’t tell you I remembered every word, it was remarkable how much of the song was still in my mind somewhere. And that was true despite the fact that the song had run up the charts and then quickly back…

It has been a long time since I was a full-time youth minister. Since then, though, one of the joys of my life has been that, at each of the three congregations for which I have preached–Lebanon Road, 9th Avenue, and Central–the elders have specifically told me that they would like me to have a part in helping with the youth program. What fascinates me a great deal of the time is how little has changed. Oh sure, there have been technological changes and other things like that, but people are people and, just like Solomon wrote, “There is nothing new under the sun.” Tragically, one of the things that…

When I was growing up as a little girl, we lived next door to my paternal grandparents. Those were much simpler times and life seemed easier. We lived within one block of a small ice cream stand that could actually be seen from my grandparent’s porch. A small ice cream cone cost 5 cents – one nickel! (I know some of you are thinking of just how old I am!) On one particularly hot summer day, my grandpa was sitting out on the front porch and I decided to ask him if I could have a nickel to get an ice cream cone. He reached into his pocket and held…

Some who read this will know (or at least know of) Lance Cordle. I became acquainted with him when Donna and I moved to western Kentucky almost thirty years ago. Lance had already been preaching for the church of Christ in Calvert City, Kentucky for about seven years then and continued to do so until about a year ago. My brother and very good friend is now preaching in Atwood, Tennessee. In the “you can’t make this stuff up department,” Atwood is where he moved from when he moved to Calvert City all those years ago. I look forward each week to getting the church bulletin “The Atwood Ambassador” online…

This coming Saturday, Leah and I will have a pretty major life change. Our daughter, Mary Carol, will be moving into a dorm at Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tennessee. While she’s still our daughter (and always will be!), we all realize that things just will not be like they have been for the last almost-19 years. We are entrusting our daughter to a university that we love. We know it is not a perfect place. We fully realize things could not go the way we (or she) might want. No place is perfect. But we are blessed to know so many people at FHU, and we know that they have…

As part of my birthday joy, my oldest son let me preview his bulletin article that will be printed this coming Sunday. In it, he shares some memories he has of interactions in our backyard.  This was precious to me as it let me know I did some things right as a young mother … definitely not everything, but some things. As special as his memories were to read, I couldn’t help but think of Mary and the verses in Luke 2, one of which reads, “But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart..” (v.19) That little boy, now a young man, has no idea how…