When my parents died, my younger brother and I lived together. Our financial situation was difficult. He drove a bus, and I was a schoolteacher. Then I was diagnosed with a...

During my prayer time each day, I close my supplications to God with Jesus’ prayer: “Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” Were this powerful prayer to...

Every summer, the mango trees in my neighborhood produce an abundant harvest. Any fruit that falls over a tree-owner’s fence are free to the first taker. Hundreds of beautiful, sweet mangoes...

During a recent job interview, I was asked to draw an identity wheel — a pie chart depicting the importance I place on my social identities. After I completed the wheel,...

“Raise your hand when you can smell it,” I told my science students at the beginning of an activity to help them experience the concept of diffusion. I stood at the...

In today’s reading, God tells the prophet Isaiah to remove his clothes and his sandals and walk around naked for three years. It was a drastic and visual message to Israel...

Due to a decline in my health, I was forced to give up my career as a primary school teacher. The job had enabled me to support my husband and myself...

Years ago, in responding to God’s call to pastoral ministry, I had a choice: I could continue working at my full-time job and serve as a part-time pastor, or I could...

Every morning before school and work, our family spends time together reading from The Upper Room. We have done this since our son, now 10, started kindergarten. It gives us a...

Two years ago I visited a well-known pottery factory in Northern Ireland. The pottery made there — vases, figurines, bowls, and dinnerware — is crafted to very high standards. I took...