uptomytoes

Category: Friendship

  • When Your Questions are as Deep as Your Faith

    I enjoyed a lovely lunch with a dear friend who epitomizes grace, although she probably wouldn’t agree. She is one of those people who has suffered so deeply it’s hard to understand how she is still standing upright, much less smiling and serving others with compassion. She is deep. Deep in faith. Deep in grief.…

  • Life on the Stump

    There once was a glorious old oak tree that, for years, we affectionately called “Grandpa’s Tree”. It stood on a bit of a hill overlooking the river. In its prime, this mighty oak provided peaceful shade and a quiet place to read a great mystery, ponder life and love, and offer heartfelt prayers to God. …

  • Not Exactly What I Was Looking For

    One morning recently, my oldest daughter and I were having our weekend morning coffee together time. We talk, share, and lament the lack of sleep one or both of us had the previous night. This particular morning we decided to get on the ferry and head to a beach where you can find shark teeth.…

  • Modeling Lovable

  • Inside-Out and Backwards

    Last Sunday, as I sat next to a dear friend at church, something felt off. During announcements, I leaned over to her and whispered, “My shirt feels odd. I think something’s wrong.”  She smiled kindly and rather indulgently, “You put it on inside out.” I leaned back and stared at her. She smiled again and…

  • Waiting with Peaceful Expectation

    I’m a picture person.  A visual learner. I understand things better if I can get a picture of it in my head. Today God gave me quite a profound picture. I was reading Matthew 4:18-22.  It’s the passage where Jesus invites Peter and Andrew to join Him.  The whole scene played out so vividly in…

  • Are you ready to stop wrestling and start resting?

    This was eye-opening for me. In the throes of a deep conversation with a dear friend, I was asked by him to stop and be thankful.  To spend the rest of the conversation thinking about things that we could be grateful for…instead of things that we struggle with… Can I tell you…it wasn’t easy.  …

  • Let Him Have It!

    Recently someone asked me what God is doing in my life.  What big things has God done? And I had to think… Sometimes it feels like I’m in a perpetual state of weary and I can’t see beyond the next moment…and other times I’m so desperate for a change that I look ahead with either…

  • Love-Longing

    It’s a gloriously slow, snowy morning…quiet and peaceful. All my sweethearts are warm, cozy, and asleep.  Me….warm and cozy in my comfy chair, pondering the truth of God’s love. Recently a friend challenged me to consider what love really is.  What does it mean to be loved by God?  What does it mean to be…

  • What’s Wrong with Happy?

    Last week I had the most wonderful time sitting at a picnic table studying God’s word, journaling, and writing some.  It was quiet and peaceful. I felt inspired. I had such a blessed time writing more than I have in months, and guess what?  Not one document was saved…not one.  Technology and me….ugh. I was…