Table of contents for Feb/Mar 2022 in Guideposts

I once saw a therapist who would weekly proclaim, “Anxiety is a killer!” Which of course only made me more anxious, as if being told I had a terminal disease. Indeed, sometimes it felt as if I did, as if my anxiety were so pervasive it could cast a shadow. I handle anxiety much better now, but it’s always lurking in the wings, ready to pounce when the opportunity arises. Recently I’ve written about my angst over short-term memory loss—imagined or real—as part of a book I’m writing on Alzheimer’s and my family. The responses I’ve gotten from you readers tell me I am not the only one worrying obsessively about this issue, which is reassuring, because nothing makes you feel more alone—or can obscure God’s love for us more—than…

Temptation. It’s tricky. I’m tempted by all sorts of things that are not in my best interest. Doritos? I’d eat them for lunch every day if I could. Netflix? Sometimes I just want to curl up and watch my favorites all day. At times I’ve even succumbed: With two bags of Doritos next to me, I’ve binge-watched away an entire weekend. As we enter the Lenten season, a time of repentance and forgiveness, I challenge you to think deeply about sacrifice and temptation. Doritos are dang delicious and make me feel great. For a few minutes. But they’re no way to lasting health. It’s the same with spiritual issues. We’re often tempted to turn from God, to focus on our immediate pleasure. But that’s no way to achieve lasting peace…

GOSPEL SINGER. WIFE. MOM. What you do for your spiritual well-being Prayer is like therapy for me. I know that even if God doesn’t answer right away, he’s working. He speaks to my heart through his Word, songs and even other people. Real-life hero My husband is my superman. David believes in me, encourages me, pushes me. He’s helped me become who I am today, with God’s help. A surprising detail about you Even though I dress up a lot, I’m an outdoorsy person. I like to fish, take walks and get muddy. And I love spending time with family outside in the peace and quiet. Q&A by Celeste McCauley. Find a longer version at guideposts.org/tamela-mann…

Lindy nibbled at the hay I held to her mouth, then laid her head weakly on the straw inside the tentlike shelter in the pasture. She still wasn’t getting up. For four days in the February cold, my three-year-old ewe had lain here, miserable, unable to give birth to the obviously huge baby (or was it twins?) straining against her swollen belly. Despite watching hours of lambing videos online, I doubted I could be the midwife she needed. The only large-animal veterinarian in the area was out of town. The on-call vet had advised, “Just watch her.” What did he think I’d been doing? Every two hours, round the clock, I’d sat with Lindy, coaxing her to eat and drink. Nothing had changed. Desperate, I’d messaged other shepherds online. “She’s…

* Get Boost your spiritual wellbeing! Visit guideposts.org for web-exclusive stories, life advice, prayer tips, recipes and more. * Watch Two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson (page 40) shares the Bible verses that help him cope with anxiety, plus the most important lessons his parents taught him. Check out our exclusive video at guideposts.org/bubba-watson. * Explore Welcome to Georgetown, a neighborhood in Madison, Indiana (page 28), and an important stop on the Underground Railroad. Step inside one of the country’s oldest AME churches, and hear locals share how their small town made a huge impact at guideposts.org/madison. * Learn You won’t want to miss internet sensation Brenda Gantt’s (page 88) top three cooking tips. Brenda tells how she connects her faith to her cooking in our exclusive video, straight from her…

NOT SO LONELY ANYMORE Every year on Valentine’s Day, my husband, Eugene, surprised me with a sentimental card and a special gift. I always felt so loved. Since Eugene’s passing in 2013, Valentine’s Day has been bittersweet. A few years ago in February, a woman I knew lost her husband to heart failure. Immediately, I empathized with the woman. I remembered how difficult the first holidays were without Eugene, and I wanted to comfort the new widow and remind her that she wasn’t alone. I wrote a poem about God’s love, printed it on a homemade Valentine’s Day card and mailed it to her. By the following February, I knew of two more women who’d lost their mates, so I made cards for all three of them. Since then, I’ve…

WHO SHE IS Simone Gordon, 35, is the founder and CEO of The Black Fairy Godmother Foundation, a New Jersey–based nonprofit that connects families having emergency financial needs with people who want to help, through its website and social media. Since the beginning of the Covid pandemic in March 2020, she and 12 volunteers have enabled donors to provide more than $250,000 in direct aid to tens of thousands of people who need money for food, shelter, medicine, utilities and more. One hundred percent of money given goes to recipients. WHAT SHE DOES In 2017, Simone was touched by an e-mail she received from a disabled Maryland woman needing $1,000 in four hours to avoid eviction. Simone verified the request was legitimate and posted the woman’s plea on her Facebook…

My mother was hospitalized with cancer the summer of my fourteenth year. Day after day, I knelt at a crude altar at a church camp in Missouri, desperate, begging God to heal my mother. She died a few months later. Prayer doesn’t always “work”: As hard or as much as we may pray, we don’t always receive the answer we want, the result we’ve been hoping for. God always answers prayer but not always in the way we’d like. This may be because our heart wasn’t right when we prayed. Or because the timing wasn’t right. Or because we were seeking our own will and not his. Still, there are some prayers that always work. Simple prayers—one-word prayers, in fact. Prayers that can change how we pray and align our…

“You’ve tested positive for Covid-19.” I couldn’t process the caller’s words. “What?” “Your test came back positive,” the nurse said. “You need to come back to the clinic to confirm.” I should have been worried about my health, especially as I battled cancer. Instead, my only thought was I can’t miss Mom’s funeral…again! Mom had died in June 2020. My family had held a small memorial service in Ohio, where she’d lived. After being in and out of remission for many years, I was undergoing chemo again, which suppressed my immune system. It was too dangerous for me to travel during the pandemic. My siblings assured me that we’d wait until I could travel to lay Mom formally to rest. Our father, a Navy veteran, was buried at Arlington National…

I was 10 years old when I realized I couldn’t answer a simple question put to my fifth-grade class at The King’s Christian School, in Haddon Heights, New Jersey. It was 1984. My teacher gave us a special assignment: drawing a flag depicting our family’s origin. I was excited. I wasn’t great at drawing, but this project sounded fun. First, I had to find out the answer to my teacher’s question: “Where does your family come from?” At dinner that night, I told my parents about the project. “What flag should I make?” I asked them. “Which country does our family come from?” An uncomfortable look came over my mother’s face. “I have no idea,” she snapped. “Our family migrated from Georgia. That’s all I know.” Why did she sound…

“Mrs. Naman, we need you to come to the high school—immediately.” The phone call was from the secretary at my 15-year-old daughter Natalie’s school. I have three children, one older than Natalie, one younger. I had never been summoned to a school office before. And certainly not for anything like this. It just wasn’t possible! I called my husband, Peter, a surgeon at the hospital in our Pittsburgh suburb. “Meet me at Natalie’s school,” I said. “They said she was caught with substances. What does that mean?” “Not good,” said Peter. “I’ll be there.” Natalie was in the principal’s office, surrounded by school officials and three police officers. I couldn’t process everything they were saying. “Possession…heroin… backpack…zero tolerance…suspension… charges.” On the principal’s desk were small packets of white powder, a…

CAKE 1 box white cake mix 1 tablespoon White Lily self-rising flour1 small box strawberry gelatin¾ cup vegetable oil½ cup fresh or frozen strawberries (thawed until mushy)4 large eggs ICING 1 stick butter1 box powdered sugar¼ teaspoon vanilla extract½ cup frozen strawberries (thawed) 1. Preheat oven to 350°. 2. For cake, mix together cake mix, flour, gelatin, oil, ½ cup water and strawberries. 3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well with a mixer after each addition. Divide batter among 3 (8-inch) round cake pans that have been greased and floured. 4. Bake for about 25 minutes. Let cool completely. 5. For icing, beat butter with a mixer, gradually adding sugar, until smooth. Add vanilla and strawberries, and mix well. Avoid adding too much syrup from the strawberries or…

LIZARD LOVE Dusting the hutch in my kitchen, I noticed a tiny black pellet on the shelf beside it. Gecko dropping, I thought. There must be a baby gecko. There are lots of geckos here in the Desert Southwest. More than once, I’d spotted one of the small yellow lizards clinging to the outside of my windows. They also turned up inside the house. High up on a wall in the living room. Or in the shower. I’d gotten into the habit of checking the oven and dishwasher before I would turn them on. I didn’t want one of the little guys to get hurt. The biggest danger for a gecko inside a home wasn’t the oven or the dishwasher, though. It was starvation. A gecko trapped in a house…

After George, her husband of 50 years, died, internet cooking sensation Brenda Gantt (It Started With Biscuits, page 88) knew she needed to bring as much happiness into her home as possible. She transformed George’s sickroom, which once held his hospital bed, into a “happy room.” “It’s a sunny room that I spend a lot of time in,” Brenda says. “It’s got a long table where I do crafts as well as a closet with supplies.” Those crafts include making wood place settings, or “seating cards,” with dinner guests’ names painted on them. She also wrote her recent cookbook, It’s Gonna Be Good, Y’all, in the same happy space. The book features 100 of her favorite dishes, including tomato gravy, chocolate fudge pie and those famous buttermilk biscuits, plus personal…

With faith, you can move mountains. With doubt, you create them.posted on Twitter by MICKEY GUYTON, first Black female solo artist nominated in a country category at the Grammy Awards “You can do nothing today to make God love you an ounce more. And you can do nothing today to make God love you an iota less.”JONATHAN MERRITT, writer “Life keeps opening up. As long as that’s true, and as long as I’m developing new questions, then I’m going to go on living it.”BETTY REID SOSKIN, who, at age 100, is the oldest active ranger in the National Park Service “Your prayers are working. They’re either changing your situation, or they’re changing you. Don’t stop.”TAYLOR MADU, co-pastor of Social Dallas church, from her Instagram “One of the best parts of…

I lay in a hospital bed, a monitor attached to my chest counting every beat of my heart. Hours earlier, I’d awakened at home barely able to breathe. “Get to the ER immediately,” my doctor said. The ER was a din of voices and machines. The man in the next bed had his TV at top volume. The noise made prayer impossible. Not that I was much good for prayer right now. My only thought was a plaintive Why me? I’d had open-heart surgery years earlier to replace a defective valve. I did everything doctors tell you to do. Ate healthily. Exercised. It wasn’t fair. My younger son, Tim, was getting married in a month. My wife, Carol, and I had just returned from seeing family in California, and all…

The first rays of morning sun shone through my rental car window. It was the middle of August. I was in a small black Ford in a giant parking lot at JFK Airport in New York City. I had no idea what I was going to do next. It was 6 a.m. Five hours earlier, I’d been at the boarding gate for a transatlantic flight, on my way to Italy for a long-anticipated retreat at a monastery in the town of Assisi. Except I’d fallen asleep at the gate and missed the flight. I awoke with a start to an empty terminal. My airplane was taxiing. I rushed to the gate agent. “Can I book the next flight?” I asked in a panic. “The next flight is in 24 hours,…

I’ve been cooking my entire life, starting with helping my mother and grandmothers. I’ve loved watching my family, friends and my husband, George, enjoy good, homecooked meals. Gathering around our wooden table—bonding, laughing and, of course, eating—was such a huge part of our relationship. But when George got sick, I stopped much of my cooking. Then he passed away just a month after our fiftieth anniversary. What does the Lord have in mind for me now? I wondered. George and I had met in 1965 at a small Alabama college. I first saw him while looking out my dorm window. He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and cutoffs. I thought he was just darling! We married in 1968. I was so excited to cook my first meal as Mrs. George…

HOPE FOR THE HOPELESS Thirty years ago, I was homeless. And hopeless—or so I thought. Then someone gave me the November 1971 issue of Guideposts, with a story by singer and actor Clint Walker, star of the Western series Cheyenne. His story, When I Asked for Help—about how his life changed after a desperate prayer during a near-fatal ski accident—gave me hope that I could change my life. All I had to do was ask God for help. Clint’s story led me to seek Jesus Christ. I would not be a person of faith today without Guideposts and its stories. Reading about other people’s miracles has taught me that miracles are possible for me. I’ve learned to trust that God can help me through my problems, big or small, and…