By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer I belong to a group of women who pray. Collectively, I see them as a river that surges out from our midst, coursing through our community, swirling around boulders of sickness, spreading through exposed tree roots, and washing over sun-drenched sandbars in praise. The
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer Several years ago in one of my digs through the past, courtesy of the Royal Gorge Regional Museum & History Center, I found an article about Texas Creek, Colorado. It wasn’t called Texas Creek in 1881, but rather, Ford Junction, a stage stop,
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer Most of us have heard someone say right before the disaster, “Don’t worry, I’ve got this …” How NOT to worry? Not doing something is often a non-event. Like dieting. NOT eating the wrong food leaves a vacuum that I want to fill with all the
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer This week marks the official turn of the seasonal clock to autumn, my favorite time of year. Crisp air, beyond-blue skies, migrating geese. Bugling elk (if you’re lucky enough to hear them) and outlandish aspen-gold draping the mountains. What a palette of sensory detail!
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer How valuable is a cup of cold water to someone who is hot, dry, and thirsty? Jesus told His disciples that when they gave so much as a cup of cold water to a child, their deed was worthy of reward (Matthew 10:42). Cold
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer This year, a national holiday celebrated in the United States and Canada, Labor Day, coincides with the Jewish New Year at sunset. Translated as the Head of the Year, Rosh Hashanah is the first of the high holy days, a day of considering the
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer I have often heard preachers and teachers describe our temporal existence as a blip on a radar screen compared to unending eternity. I believe they are correct, based on several scriptures that support their line of thinking. Psalm 103:15-16 is one: As for man,
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer Tuesday mornings I can hear the garbage truck as it makes the corner down the road from my house. I’m on an every-other-week pick-up schedule, and this last “other week” was a doozy. Every time I walked past the big blue roller bin behind
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer Today is National Book Lover’s Day! I hope you will find opportunity to turn off the television, silence your smartphone, and escape into a good book. You could read a biography, a how-to, a mystery, or an action-packed adventure. And if you enjoy Western
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer At my last annual checkup, I told the doctor I thought I had a spider bite. The doctor told me spiders don’t bite. Clearly, he’d never seen the movie Spiderman. I’d been working in the yard a few days earlier and bore what I
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer Do you believe God is the God of one? Some may say that’s a self-centered way of looking at things, focusing on what God has done for you or me alone. Maybe not. In a women’s Bible study I attend, we recently worked through
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer If you are a long-time reader of this blog, you may have guessed that I like to take pictures of the sunrise. Have you noticed that each one is unique? Most mornings when I walk, I strike out toward the east, so I’m greeted
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer I celebrate this Independence Day by honoring my husband, Mike Spencer, who won his freedom from a lengthy disability on June 28. He is now riding the grassy ranges of God’s High Country, where the streams run clear and the air is fresh as
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer Merriam-Webster: prepare verb pre·pare | \ pri-ˈper \ prepared; preparing Definition of prepare 1a: to make ready beforehand for some purpose, use, or activity – prepare food for dinner b: to put in a proper state of mind is prepared to listen 2: to work out the details of: plan in advance preparing a campaign strategy 3a: to put
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer More than a century ago, the Civil War uprooted dreams, decimated families, and divided the nation. Those who survived were determined to remember the price paid by decorating the graves of their fallen loved ones with flowers and flags on Decoration Day. Gradually, the