In our culture, we celebrate the end of the year with a New Year’s Eve party with our friends. We always have an array of food and enjoy music, dancing, and...

I have always found astronomy fascinating. I can look up at the sky and see planets, stars, and galaxies. I have even been able to show my daughters a few constellations....

My family is high on my list of blessings. So these past few years have been painful for me both emotionally and spiritually. My family members and I have found ourselves...

I am Indian, but my grandson, Aryan, was born in Texas and later moved to Kansas. One day when he came back from his kindergarten class, he innocently said to his...

Our family has a small flock of chickens. One spring, we watched our mother hen hatch six eggs. When the chicks were small, she was always busy trying to keep her...

When I was young, I wondered why so many people would want such small, unexciting creatures as goldfish for pets. Then on a school trip to a botanical garden, I saw...

Every year I dread the task of putting up the Christmas tree. The decade-old fake tree is crooked — bushy on one side, bare on the other. The tinsel doesn’t quite...

My Christmas preparations had come to a grinding halt. Chemotherapy interrupted my annual sprint through holiday activities. Instead of sending family and friends my usual Christmas letter, brimming with cheerful stories...

One year, I offered to help my youth leader by directing the Christmas pageant readers for the Christmas Eve service. Between the ages of ten and twelve, the children felt nervous...

One thing that I discovered early in my ministry was to “learn to listen between the lines” — to pay attention to more than just what is said. This challenge was...