[…]that everyone was all right. The houses on both sides of us had direct hits, and the house that we were in was damaged. But there were letters to be finished, so back upstairs we went and discovered to our joy that the enemy bombs had missed our writing room. I pulled the candle out of my shirt and lighted it. We were ready to begin where we had left off, but I had one resolve to act on before I wrote another line. Crouched in that clothes locker, I was brought up short with the thought that I had […]
[…]was barely nine months old when he left. Her sister was almost three. They were just getting to know each other when duty called him away to the hellish chaos of Vietnam. No one could say for sure if he’d live to return to his beloved wife and two little daughters. Committing him to the Lord’s keeping, they waved teary good-byes as his plane disappeared into the clouds. Now it was time to get on with the business of living, at least for awhile. It reads like something out of a saga. Only I happened to be the heroine, and […]
[…]it was properly suited for a nonviolent use. Man forms instruments for war. God changes them into tools of peace. That is at the heart of this promise in the Book of Isaiah. “Many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD– He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths…’ They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore” (Isaiah 2:3-4). Today the world finds itself in […]
[…]and an old set of Vietnamese jump wings. And pictures of young men. Hal Moore said it best, “We were soldiers once–and young.” We were soldiers for a lot of reasons. One of them was the “bully syndrome.” Many years ago, as a young boy in a cozy little neighborhood in central Washington state, I learned a valuable lesson. Our neighborhood bully, Jimmy C., would never stop throwing dirt clods and using strong-arm tactics to terrorize smaller children. Yes, we complained. In fact, we begged. But time after time “negotiation” failed. Nothing seemed to work. Until one day one of […]
[…]with my hobbies, family, and interests the fact that I am a Christian. I said I wanted them to know what shapes my values and behavior. I told them that, although I prayed that each of them would be a Christian because I believed that would be the best thing for them, that my judgment of them would be based on their performance and conduct alone. Their spiritual interests would have no weight in any decisions or fitness reports. Soon after, one of the drill sergeants put me to the test. He identified himself to me as a Christian, and […]
[…]sitting in the mess hall where General Douglas MacArthur was to receive the Thayer Award. We knew we were in the presence of history. We were seeing and hearing one of the greatest soldiers of all time in what was his last visit to the alma mater he loved. You have most likely heard or read the speech, or at least this part of it: “Duty, honor, country. These three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be.” Duty, honor, country. These are indeed words to live by. It is my […]
