Guideposts May 2020

My mom loved The Waltons. She didn’t otherwise care much for television—except for the news—but she rarely missed an episode of her favorite show, about a tight-knit family living through the Depression and World War II in small-town Virginia. The Waltons exemplified homespun, traditional American values. Mom wasn’t a crier. She came from a strong-willed Irish-Catholic clan in Philadelphia, but something about the Walton family and their bygone world brought out her latent sentimentality…and an occasional tear. I never quite understood it. It was a generational thing, I concluded. Mom and her family had lived through those twin cataclysms. The world of the Waltons was long gone, if it had ever existed at all—except in the idealized portrayal of that weekly TV drama. It was Mom’s battle with Alzheimer’s that…

Remember the Fallen Memorial Day honors the women and men who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. Learn the history behind this solemn holiday. guideposts.org/memorialday Home Sweet Home In our exclusive video, home-improvement expert Amy Matthews (page 28) talks about how volunteering with her church inspired her career. guideposts.org/amymatthews Never Alone Diana Aydin (page 56) shares her best advice for confronting loneliness in this exclusive video. guideposts.org/dianaaydin Celebrate Your Mom Check out what the Bible has to say about mothers in this uplifting slideshow. guideposts.org/mothersdayverses Keep Your GUIDEPOSTS Coming We make it easy to renew your magazine, check on the length of your subscription or manage book series shipments. guideposts.org/ecares…

“She taught me the importance of following rules, finishing what I start, never giving up, leadership skills, teamwork, staying positive and motivated, and how to pack the military way when I’m traveling.”LAURIE HERNANDEZ, Olympic gold medalist gymnast on lessons her mom, an Army reservist, taught her “Being positive won’t guarantee you’ll succeed. But being negative will guarantee you won’t.”JON GORDON, author and motivational speaker “When I stop to pray, I realize God is already 10 steps ahead of me, waiting for me to catch up.”submitted by Guideposts reader ELGIN JOHNSON, of Blaine County, Montana “The more beauty we find in someone else’s journey, the less we’ll want to compare it to our own.”BOB GOFF, author of Everybody, Always “Knowing something doesn’t change your life. Doing something does.”MARIE FORLEO, author of…

SOUL SNACKS My mother ended up in the hospital several years ago. My family camped for hours in the intensive care waiting room. We didn’t want to leave in case the doctor came to speak to us or allowed us to visit her, even for just 10 minutes. And we weren’t alone—the room was full of worried people. Then my cousin Barbara walked in. In her hands was a giant basket filled with fresh fruit, granola bars, peanut butter crackers and other snacks—enough for everyone in the room. What a blessing she was! We shared the basket of goodies with the other folks and got to talking. We learned about their sick loved ones, which enabled us to pray for each other, rejoice together at good news and show compassion…

HAVE YOU ALWAYS DREAMED OF becoming a writer? Do you have a great story to tell? Do you want to inspire millions of people? Now’s your chance! Send your story to our Writers Workshop Contest. Don’t forget to tell us about yourself and your life and writing experience. If you have a blog, vlog or social media following, let us know. The workshop class of 2018 (shown at left) is already contributing to our publications and website. Make this the year you join them! The Writers Workshop is sponsored by best-selling author Debbie Macomber. “I’ve kept journals all my life,” she says. “Not long ago, I found a spiral notebook from 1977. On the first page, it said, ‘Since the greatest desire of my life is to become a writer,…

FOUR YEARS AGO, MY son, Ryan White, died. Ryan, a hemophiliac, contracted a fatal illness from a type of blood product critical to people with hemophilia. But at the time no one realized that a new and deadly virus was then lurking in the nation’s blood supply. Ryan had just turned 13 when he was diagnosed in December 1984. I was a single mother. We lived in Kokomo, Indiana. Ryan had been born there, as had his younger sister, Andrea. So had I and my ex-husband and my parents. My mom’s big worry when I was growing up was that I might marry someone who would take me away from Kokomo. You weren’t ever supposed to leave Kokomo. Kokomo took care of you. It was home. Then Ryan was diagnosed…