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Going Through Deep Waters
Quite a few years ago on a night that felt very dark indeed, I sat in our living room feeling every bit of the deep waters, floods, and fire that Isaiah 43:2-4 speaks: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you: and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze…For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior…Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you.” I had reached out to a friend to ask…
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A Light to My Path
Four years ago at a church service the pastor quoted a Lifeway Books survey that had been done with long time committed Christians about what they viewed as the key to living the Christian life. The answer was that consistently being in the Word of God was the number one factor to living through all the ups and downs of life with their faith in God strong and growing. I don’t know where things like church attendance or prayer or any other Christian discipline fell in the survey, but I was deeply impressed by what came first. The following verses speak to some of the claims Scripture makes for itself:…
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What Is Sasha’s Hope?
About ten years ago my husband and I established an organization underneath the non-profit Fixed Point Foundation called Sasha’s Hope. Those who know the story my husband wrote in his book The Grace Effect will understand why we named it that. It is for Sasha, our precious daughter, who was abandoned at birth in a hospital in Ukraine, which resulted in the first ten years of her life being lived in an Ukrainian orphanage. Sasha was adopted into our family in 2009. She has a remarkable story. The beginning is told in The Grace Effect, but as time continues there is much more to tell, especially as Sasha has gained…
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True meaning of Christmas-from Sasha’s Hope archive
I don’t know how many of y’all are looking forward to the holidays. I love Thanksgiving and Christmas! My favorite holiday is Christmas! I love spending time thinking about what I am going to give to my family and friends. I have so much joy giving gifts to my family and seeing them opening their presents. I love baking Christmas goodies (and eating them too!), being with family, playing games, hanging the Christmas lights and decorations, going to Christmas Eve service, reading the Christmas story and opening gifts and celebrating the birth of Jesus! Now I want to take you back in my childhood. Christmas was really sad for me because I did not have anyone to enjoy the most wonderful day of Jesus’ birth. I remember we were…
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The Lesson of the Lizard
Recently a small garden lizard got trapped between the window and the screen in our bedroom. We could see it at different times each day moving about in between. We commented about it and would watch it briefly and then move on. After several days it became clear the lizard wasn’t finding its way back out. There was a small bend in the screen and apparently Mr. Lizard couldn’t find his point of entry again. Larry mentioned he would try to remember to let the little guy go, after all, we like lizards around the place. They help decrease the insect population. But we would get busy and forget until…
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Health, Fitness, and Beauty
Health, fitness, and beauty are topics on which I have recently spent quite a bit of time thinking. It probably has to do with my current season of life more than anything. As a nurse, health has always been a focus for me. Fitness and beauty would have been more in my periphery. But changes in my health were a wake up call, and searching for some answers led me to discover some valuable ways of thinking and looking at health, fitness, and beauty as more of a group rather than separate topics. Actually, looking at our lives holistically, most things are intertwined. Our inside (inner) and our outside (external)…
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A Sasha’s Hope archive post
I haven’t written a post myself for a while. I thought I would share some thoughts that have been on my mind about overcoming hard things. I know many of you are going through hard things especially with COVID-19. Some have lost family, lost jobs, are feeling lonely and isolated, wondering if things will get better. I want you to know that God can help you overcome those things. He is our King and Ruler and He loves us so much He cares about the small things and big things. I have been thinking about the ways God has helped me get through hard times. The first may seem like…
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What Is A Family?
Many years ago I read Edith Schaeffer’s, “What Is A Family?” It had a profound effect. I had always had a strong view of family, but this enlarged my vision. Edith viewed family life as the crucial environment that encompassed everything from creativity, to security, to spiritual teaching of Truth, economics, education, memories, our most significant human relationships, and all the interplay of ages and changes through the years. It is the foundational place through which life is processed. Now, years later, I look back at my own experience of the richness of family life. My heart is full at the depth and beauty of it all. I wouldn’t trade…
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About Lauri and Sasha
Lauri was South Dakota born and raised, and then transplanted to the beautiful state of Alabama after marrying her high school sweetheart, Larry. Together they have raised four wonderful children and are enjoying the blessings of being grandparents. Lauri is a registered nurse who has devoted her nursing career primarily to Labor and Delivery and Mother/Baby nursing. She loves traveling, reading, health and fitness, artistic endeavors, and spending time with family. A longtime writer of journals that date all the way back to high school, she finds putting her thoughts and ideas into writing to be therapeutic and extremely helpful in processing the past, present, and future in the journey…
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Seasons of Life
As I sit on my porch this morning taking in the sounds and view of the lake, I am thankful to be in this season of life. It is a fairly new season. I’ve always enjoyed time spent at a lake. It has a certain relaxed feel to it and combines things I’ve always loved: nature, water, water sports, good food, good company. But now a particular spot on a lake is our own; and my husband and I are thoroughly enjoying it, and watching others enjoy it too. We frequently say to each other how thankful to God we are for all of the good things with which we…
