Table of contents for June/July 2020 in Guideposts

We were right in the middle of putting this June/July issue together for you when our world—and yours too, I’m sure—was flipped upside down. Medical experts advised the state of New York to order all nonessential businesses to close in order to stem the spread of Covid-19 and save lives. And while we certainly feel that providing you with true stories of hope and inspiration is essential, we are committed to serving the common good. We closed both the New York and Connecticut offices. Fortunately, we have the technology to work remotely and continue to serve you. That mission to bring you relevant, uplifting and informative content across all our platforms is keeping Guideposts going through these challenging times. Amazingly, many of the stories in this issue speak to those…

CHRISTMAS IN JULY “What have you been up to?” I asked at lunch with some former colleagues. “Oh, I’ve been sending care packages to deployed troops,” said my friend Jean. “You know what surprised me? They ask for Christmas cards to send to their families.” Military exchanges, particularly in combat zones, didn’t sell cards. A few of us were paper crafters and decided to get together to make cards. The first year, 2016, we made 550, which Jean sent to troops in the Middle East through the Any Soldier program. Last year, we sent almost 7,000! Our cards reached military personnel in Kuwait, Afghanistan and Syria. Our original group not only still gathers to make cards; we also meet with churches, civic groups, sororities and other people who want to…

FOR SEVERAL WEEKS prior to the scheduled liftoff of Apollo 11 back in July 1969, the pastor of our church, Dean Woodruff, and I had been struggling to find the right symbol for the first lunar landing. We wanted to express our feeling that what man was doing in this mission transcended electronics and computers and rockets. Dean often speaks at our church, Webster Presbyterian, just outside Houston, about the many meanings of the communion service. “One of the principal symbols,” Dean says, “is that God reveals himself in the common elements of everyday life.” Traditionally, these elements are bread and wine—common foods in Bible days and typical products of man’s labor. One day while I was at Cape Kennedy, working with the sophisticated tools of the space effort, it…

AN END TO PAIN Jonathan Merritt’s story, My Time of Suffering (June/July 2019), changed my life. Like him, I’d had chronic pain for years. Jonathan mentioned Dr. John Sarno and his theory that back pain and other chronic pain can be partly caused by unresolved emotional issues. I looked up Dr. Sarno and bought his book Healing Back Pain. What he wrote—that my mind was creating pain as a distraction from painful emotions—made sense to me. “God, you and I have got this!” I prayed. “There is no emotion, no thought, no memory that you and I can’t handle!” I took three steps Dr. Sarno recommended. First, I did something I thought I wouldn’t be able to do: push-ups against a countertop. Then I pictured my spine, muscles and tendons…

who he is Michael Platt, a 14-year-old from Bowie, Maryland, is the founder of Michaels Desserts. Born with “an epic sweet tooth,” he fell in love with baking at age nine, helping his grandmother make a cake. Intrigued, he began watching baking videos. Michael was also learning from his parents about income inequality and childhood hunger, and he wanted to fight those injustices. Since his diagnosis with severe epilepsy at 10, Michael has been home-schooled by his mother, Danita. With his activities restricted, he threw himself into baking. After his parents gave him Toms shoes, he discovered that firm’s one-for-one model of giving—and inspiration struck. In 2017, with his parents’ help, he founded Michaels Desserts. For every dessert sold, the bakery donates one to the homeless or hungry. Michael deliberately…

Tapping on the steering wheel, I willed the red light to change. I glanced at the dashboard clock. 6:43. About 15 minutes ’til curtain. I had planned to leave for the concert—a selection of classic Broadway tunes—earlier but… Green light. I stepped on the gas. I always arrived at a show early. Maybe it’s because I have no one to go with, I thought. Not since my friend Joan passed away two weeks ago. We loved seeing shows together. We’d met while I was in college. I taught private singing lessons to make some extra money. Joan hired me to teach her 12-year-old son. Despite being at different stages in life, she and I totally clicked. Even after her son graduated high school and stopped our lessons, Joan and I…

I PULLED INTO THE GOLD’S GYM parking lot, but I didn’t get out of the car. Michelle, a mom from my daughter’s middle school, had invited me to spin class. “Come as my guest,” she said. “Grab a bike. See if you like it.” No big deal, right? Except I hadn’t been to a gym in more than 15 years and was terribly out of shape. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to exercise and take better care of my body. But every time I thought about it, something kept me from taking that first step. Something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. A perky gal in her thirties sashayed past my car, wearing fluorescent purple leggings with a matching print top. She looked as if she’d stepped off…

Even when siblings are close, as Rick Hamlin and his brother and sisters are, they might disagree on what’s best for Mom and Dad. Yet caring for aging parents can also bring families together. Home Instead Senior Care worked with Ingrid Connidis, Ph.D., an expert on family ties and aging at Western University, to develop tips to help siblings better share the care of their parents: Talk and listen. Sit down with your siblings—in person, by phone or on video chat—ideally before a caregiving crisis arises. Discuss your parents’ needs, everyone’s concerns and what each person can contribute in terms of time and money. Have these family meetings regularly. Research options. Learn what services your parents’ community offers. (Eldercare.acl.gov is a good resource.) Ask relatives, friends and church or synagogue…

BOTH MY PARENTS HAD DIED IN the autumn, and every fall I felt melancholy. This day—one week after the anniversary of my mom’s death, 11 years earlier—I sat on the porch, missing her even more than usual. A widow for two decades, Mom devoted herself to her family—my younger brother, Bill, her three grandchildren and me. We saw each other every day and enjoyed going to flea markets together. “I’m praying for you,” she liked to say. “I’m asking God to watch over you.” One Christmas, my brother bought her a gold-tone locket. He had her initials engraved on the outside, HRS for Helen Ruth Summers. We tucked photos of the grandkids inside: Bill’s sons on the left, my daughter on the right. Mom loved that locket. But after she…

“There were days when I wondered if it was really worth fighting on. But I brushed that aside quickly because that would have been a massive betrayal… a betrayal of my faith in God and the millions of prayers that have been said on my behalf.”ALEX TREBEK, Jeopardy! host, who has stage IV pancreatic cancer “Faith does not make things easy—it makes them possible.”BIANCA OLTHOFF, inspirational author “Whatever you’re going through in life, you tend to gravitate toward people who are going through the same things. You can’t fix it, but you don’t have to go through it alone.”singer AMY GRANT, on being a caregiver for her parents, who both had dementia “Life going against your plan might be the answer to prayer you didn’t even know you needed.”CAITLIN CROSBY,…

SO MANY PEOPLE ARE LONELY these days. Thanks to technology, we live in an increasingly interconnected world, but it sure doesn’t feel that way. Forty percent of Americans report that their social relationships are “not meaningful.” One fifth of people say they’re “lonely or socially isolated.” Nearly a third of older adults live alone. Loneliness is a physical as well as a mental health problem. Research links prolonged social isolation to higher risks for high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, a weakened immune system, anxiety, depression, cognitive decline, Alzheimer’s disease and even death. I don’t mean to frighten you. But I think it’s important to recognize the costs of our individualistic, on-the-go, screen-hypnotized culture. I speak from personal experience. I’m married to a wonderful husband who works as a chaplain…

HOW DID SOMEONE LIKE ME, born in a cabin on the banks of the Little Pigeon River in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, end up where I have in life? The answer is both complicated and simple. I like the simple part. I dreamed big and I prayed big. Then I worked like the dickens at the opportunities the Lord put before me. We didn’t have much back then in that one-room cabin with the dirt floor, even less than that most times. Daddy was a sharecropper and later a farmer, a man who worked in the fields until his hands bled to provide for us, his 12 children. He couldn’t read, but he was still one of the smartest men I ever knew. I was the fourth child…

THAT WINTER NIGHT IN 2015, I’d just hung up from a chat with our daughter Elise in Savannah, Georgia, when I had an idea. I turned to my husband, Andy, and said, “What are we doing still living here in Pennsylvania when our daughters and grandchildren are all in Savannah?” “You’re right,” Andy said. “Social media and video chats just aren’t enough anymore.” We were in our fifties, far from retirement, but as a writer, I could work from anywhere, and Andy was amenable to changing jobs. We sold our house and moved to Savannah the following April. We arrived just as the dogwoods and azaleas came into bloom. Strolling along the cobblestone streets of the Historic District, we were enchanted by the elegant old houses and beautifully landscaped squares.…

SOMETHING YOU PROBABLY know about me, whether it’s from watching my HGTV series My Big Family Renovation or following me on Instagram, is that I like to speak my mind. The things I love—God, my family, my community—I love big-time. And when I see injustice in the world, so help me, Jesus, you will hear me roar, whatever the consequences. I wasn’t always so comfortable in my own skin. I am, by nature, a type A rule follower, thirsty for affirmation. When I was young, I was prepared to grow up and behave how the Men in Charge thought I should be: quiet and demure. But hiding, posing and pretending is exhausting. It didn’t take long for me to realize that in order to bring my full gifts to bear…

BLESSING FOR BABY Babysitting was not my strong point. But my college professor’s wife had just passed away. He needed someone to take care of his newborn daughter, so I volunteered. Baby Becca was positively darling. I wanted to give her the care she needed. Still, I was just a college student, certainly no substitute for the mother she’d lost. One afternoon, I hovered over her crib as she cried. I checked her diaper. Hummed a lullaby. Eventually Becca quieted down. As she napped, I thought about her future. All the milestones she’d pass without a mother by her side. All her firsts. I leaned down into her crib and kissed her soft cheek. “Be with her, God, through all her firsts,” I whispered. “First day of school. First date.…

It’s a big milestone anniversary for Dollywood! “I can’t believe it’s been 35 years,” says our cover star Dolly Parton (Dream Big, Pray Big! page 28). Dolly is celebrating the occasion with the theme park’s Flower & Food Festival. It features displays made of flowers such as a butterfly umbrella, animal scenes and an ode to one of Dolly’s hit songs. “There’s a beautiful statue of my mom sewing the coat of many colors,” Dolly says. “Her dress and the coat are made of flowers.” You can find out more, including updated schedules, at dollywood.com/themepark/festivals/flower-and-food. We’re glad to have Dolly back in the magazine to help celebrate our seventy-fifth anniversary. “Guideposts magazine has been in my family and on tabletops and on side tables and in the kitchens of most…