We enjoy visiting the churches our daughters are a part of when we get the chance to spend a Sunday or weekend in their community. Not only does it give us a taste of the spiritual nourishment they are getting and the people they see and pray with every week, but participating in their worship also offers us a chance to sample sermons from different pastors. It’s better than just being a straight-up cold-call visitor (so to speak) in a church you’ve never visited before and will likely never visit again—where the attachments and connections are nil. Pederson talked about […]

I’m sure most readers have seen the hilarious videos on YouTube of dogs being shamed by their owners for chewing up a pen, taking apart the new dog cushion they so lovingly provided, snacking on their slippers, and so on. While I would never shame a dog just to make a video, I’m always amused—even if angry—when I have to shame our one-year-old overgrown pup, Velvet. Will she never learn? So, afresh, I got to see her turn her head, put on the sad face, and suffer my glare. They know your wrath is coming even as they mischievously enjoy […]

As a college student I spent my junior year in Barcelona, Spain, in the early ’70s. One incident still stands out in my mind, offering a reminder for me even today. Between the three of us, we did not share a common language, except the language of human need and desire to help. On our Christmas break, I traveled with two other friends by bus to Germany and then to Austria. I ended up sitting by myself but landed a tall friendly Spanish guy, Juan, as a seatmate. Juan spoke his native Catalan (the birth language spoken by most natives […]

Editor’s note: Lauree Stroud Purcell is a freelance writer and mother of two teenagers in Harrisonburg, Virginia. This past fall, I was driving through town with my college freshman daughter beside me. She was with me for the afternoon, a rare visit, and we were enjoying a fun conversation as I passed by her middle school. Since being pulled over, I have been much more aware of my speed. Why had I not noticed the flashing yellow lights designed to remind drivers to slow down in a school zone? Unfortunately, I was so interested in what she had to say […]

My middle daughter works for a symphony in a mid-sized city, and frequently we get to take in concerts when we visit. “Did you ever imagine when you were growing up that you would someday perform all over the world?” Last fall my youngest daughter and I attended a piano concert there with a young artist, Behzod Abduraimov from Tashkent, Uzbekistan (located in central Asia). He blew me away. His playing style was to hunch—potter-like—over the piano keys, indeed, sometimes curving his back and neck down to where his eyes were level to the piano keys. He pulled amazing sound […]

When we in 2007 moved out of the house we had lived in for over 30 years, we didn’t feel truly “at home” until an unusual argument erupted in the new house. Do we devote at least as much time and energy in truly caring for each other as we do in caring for the house? It happened at Christmas that year when the kids were all back home in our new house. A noisy argument erupted from a bedroom where two of our girls were sharing space for the holiday (and before any of our daughters were married). Upon […]

“Once more the car drove by, but this time the police officers stopped and got out. They immediately arrested my brother for ‘fitting the description’ of someone who had recently committed a crime.” The responses to racialized arrests, beatings, and trials we’ve seen in the United States are so “predictable, as many people fall into their default defensive positions,” Drew Hart points out. Drew G. I. Hart was on a road trip with a carload of white college friends when his mother called and told him about his brother’s erroneous arrest. It was a critical wake-up call for Drew, who […]

Editor’s note: Michelle Sinclair is the daughter of columnist Melodie Davis and writes occasionally for Another Way. She works in the advertising department of a major daily newspaper, and she and her husband are parents of one son. No longer being an only child isn’t a bad thing, right? My husband and I aren’t ruining our son’s life by giving him a little brother, are we? Maybe he will be horribly jealous the way I was when my sister Tanya arrived on the scene about two weeks after my second birthday. These are the (somewhat facetious) questions I ponder now […]

A niece of mine works in upper management at a “members only” big box warehouse chain store. They are particularly known for their customer service and generous return policy. She says they are often told that when dealing with any customer’s problem or a return, they should “find a way to say yes” even when they don’t at first see a solution. I’m sure other businesses have “yes” as a policy, but it seems like some are the exact opposite: they try to find reasons to say no. She shared a story of how one woman—on the phone from another […]

Note from Melodie Davis: The writer of this week’s special story for Christmas is Elizabeth Raid, who lives in Newton, Kansas, with her husband, Lou Gomez Jr. They have five children and 13 grandchildren. This story (now slightly abridged) was included in a story anthology, Fifty Shades of Grace: Stories of Inspiration and Promise, published by Herald Press in 2013. Used by permission. Perhaps you can enjoy it while reflecting on your Christmas blessings as you sit by the Christmas tree or wherever your favorite meditation place is. ****** Touched by Grace by Elizabeth Raid A cup of hot chocolate and […]