Inhoudsopgave van March 2020 - Guideposts

People say they love Guideposts because they identify with the storytellers. It is that commonality of experience that so often overcomes our differences. Then there are stories that simply conjure up a memory and make us smile. Plenty of that for me in this issue. You too, I bet. Take our Close Calls feature (page 40), about a couple in Texas who barely survive a tornado. I was a kid when we moved from fairly tornado-free Pennsylvania to Michigan, and my father kept repeating that we were going to Tornado Alley. He mounted all sorts of weather-monitoring gadgets to the walls, tapping and peering at them while we rolled our eyes. It didn’t help when I came home and said we had tornado drills at school. Years passed without incident.…

YOU’VE GOT MAIL Since leaving Virginia for Texas, I have picked up a habit that brings happiness to my family and rewards me as well: sending snail mail. Most of my peers use smartphones to keep in touch with loved ones, but I take pleasure in picking out pretty cards—as well as gifts like temporary tattoos to send my nieces, who are 13 and 8. My cousin Angie gets postcards when I travel; she especially liked the ones from Hawaii and Taiwan. Now that my relatives have discovered how much they love getting mail, they’re writing to me too. It’s so nice to see familiar handwriting in the mailbox, knowing someone took the time to let me know I’m on their mind. CINDY MONTGOMERY College Station, Texas BEEP! BEEP! In…

For someone who has memory loss due to Alzheimer’s or other dementias, memories from long ago are usually more vivid than recent ones. As Mary Pembleton found with her grandfather, asking about earlier days can help you develop a closer relationship. Try these tips from Home Instead Senior Care to evoke and capture memories for your loved one: Ask open-ended questions. They can spark a meaningful conversation. Work up to the deeper questions. Some ideas: What was it like where you grew up? What did your parents and grandparents do for a living? What did you and your friends do for fun as teenagers? What are some valuable things you learned from your parents? What accomplishments are you most proud of? What are you most grateful for? Look through old…

Fear didn’t stop Shirley Uekert (Open Mind, Open Heart, page 34) from getting in a pool and learning to swim, and it didn’t stop her from taking her first trip overseas last year, either. Shirley’s son Ken lives in Germany, and she visited him in June. Her cousin Bonnie made all the arrangements and accompanied her. Ken lives in a centuries-old barn that has been converted into apartments in the historic municipality of Nussdorf, a place that thrilled Shirley. “It was nice to be in a lovely town with church bells ringing and roosters crowing to wake us up,” Shirley says. Her own church in Wisconsin, Zion Lutheran, recognized Shirley’s 60 years of service as organist in January of 2019. Zion Lutheran’s organ now has a CD drive, which Shirley…

Woolwich Township, New Jersey I GREW UP PLAYING SPORTS. BOTH my parents played multiple sports in high school, and my dad went to college on a football scholarship. I played softball as a child and excelled on my high school field hockey and track teams. My husband, Kenny, was playing professional basketball overseas when we met. He now works in education and coaches youth and high school basketball. Kenny and I weren’t surprised when our daughters, Kennedi and Kassadi, showed early athletic promise. Watching them outrun other kids on the playground, I knew they were destined for greatness on the track. Kennedi, our older daughter, was competing in the Junior Olympics track and field championships by age seven. Kassadi wasn’t far behind. By the time Kennedi started middle school, our…

I stepped into the furniture and carpet store and breathed in the familiar scent of leather and wood. I found it relaxing. I worked part-time at the post office nearby. I often spent my lunch hour here, browsing. My husband, our two young children and I were set to move into a home we’d built ourselves. We needed everything from furniture to light fixtures. But we’d put all the money we had into finishing the house. Still, that didn’t stop me from dreaming of what could be. What was really delaying our move was the lack of carpeting. Our floors were cement slabs; with the Ohio winter settling in, they were already icy cold. I’d kept an eye out for sales and discounts, but wall-to-wall carpet remained beyond our budget.…

NO PUSHING I sat down by a window with my prayer journal just as the sun was coming up and turned to my prayer requests. Lists of names filled at least 15 pages. Some names had been there for years. Friends, family, people from church, even strangers. Every day, I prayed for them all. God, this lady is looking for a new job. Please find her something with a good salary where she can do something creative. This man from church needs a lung transplant, but I’m asking for you to heal him completely. My son’s been looking for a new house for months. You need to either lead him to the right place or make him stop wanting it. Quickly! I always prayed as if God were standing there…

“Thanks to Spanish translations of Guideposts booklets such as A Prayer for Every Need and Spirit Lifters, I can provide our Spanish-speaking patients and their families comfort and reassurance. I often see eyes light up as I pull the booklets from my pocket.” CHAPLAIN FRED SELF St. Bernardine Medical Center and Community Hospital of San Bernardino, both in San Bernardino, California For more information on Guideposts’ outreach programs, visit guideposts.org/helping-others, write to GUIDEPOSTS FOUNDATION, 100 Reserve Road, Suite E200, Danbury, CT 06810 or e-mail us at outreach@guideposts.org.…

“The day you plant the seed is not the day you eat the fruit.”actress JENNIFER GARNER, as posted on her Instagram “Sometimes God will put a Goliath in your life for you to find a David within you.”via pocket.praise “The two most powerful forces in the world are love and prayer. Use them!”submitted by Guideposts reader FRANCIS TARDIFF, in East Tawas, Michigan “History is terrific; I love it. But the past doesn’t equal the future, and the minute you think it does, then you’re trapped—you can’t change.”MIKE ROWE, host of the TV show Dirty Jobs and author of The Way I Heard It “No matter how you feel. Get up, dress up, show up and never give up.”message on the Addiction Prevention Coalition’s Instagram SEND AN UPLIFTING QUOTE from a…

SHE IS MINE, AND I AM HERS, I TOLD myself, sitting in the waiting room of the geneticist my daughter’s pediatrician had recommended. I looked down at the tiny bundle in my arms, newly adopted Meredith, only one month old. I was here to learn her genetic history. Something her birth mother, Misty, who was white, couldn’t tell us in full. We knew Meredith was a baby of color, but was she Hispanic, African-American, Asian, Native American? I tried to push away the selfish feeling that I wanted Meredith’s history to be mine. She may not have come from my body, but she had been born of my heart after much prayer. I thought of my miscarriages. The many failed adoptions. My husband, William, and I had almost given up…

CLASSIC COMFORT Last summer, my son Andrew complained of a stomachache. But he didn’t have a fever, so I put off calling the doctor. When I finally did, I regretted procrastinating—his appendix needed to be removed! I didn’t have my phone or any company in the hospital waiting room. As I reached for the Bible, I spotted Guideposts. But it wasn’t just any Guideposts—it was the November 1999 issue, which included Marion Bond West’s story A Comfort Beyond Measure. In it, Marion wrote fondly of her Georgia congregation. My family had moved nearby around that same time, and we hadn’t been able to find a church. Then we went to hers and found community. I even sat next to Marion in Bible study recently! I turned to her story. Her…