Author Ava Pennington
Author Ava Pennington

Punctuality and the Tyranny of the Clock

I have a love-hate relationship with clocks. When I was a child, my parents always set our clocks five minutes fast, supposedly to help prevent us from being late to appointments. It never worked. We were always late…to everything. Despite the ineffectiveness of the...

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Fall Colors in Nature and in Us

Fall…the time when (in places other than Florida!) nature dons flamboyant garb as God paints His world with vibrant colors. Lush, supple leaves in shades of green gradually change color until the green is just a memory, replaced by vivid red, yellow, and orange. But...

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Oaks From Acorns Grow

Remember the song, “Tall Oaks from Acorns Grow”? It’s a cute children’s song—one I hadn’t thought of in decades…until I began catching up on long overdue yardwork. For the past 2 years, circumstances have caused me to neglect our yard. Shrubs grew wild and leggy....

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Aging Gracefully . . . and Biblically

Is it possible to age gracefully? What does that even mean? Been thinking recently about aging. It may have something to do with the fact that I’ve reached another milestone birthday. In a culture that worships youth, I wonder how long it will be before I become a...

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How Are You Spending the Week Between Years?

This is an odd week. No business meetings. No school. No medical appointments. No expectancy. Christmas is past, the new year not yet arrived. A week of suspended activity. But it’s just another week, isn’t it? Another seven days like any other seven days? Yet it’s...

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Two Types of Hope – Which One Is Yours?

If there’s one thing in short supply these days, it’s hope. Politicians promise, but fail to deliver on their promises. Family members make commitments, but disappoint us. Terrorists strike with seeming impunity. Jobs are scarce, money is tight, and the more we wish...

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Stealth Consequences

I did it again. Sigh. You’d think I would be more careful. But for several weeks, clean up from Hurricane Irma has required us to step into overgrown areas to clear downed trees. Those overgrown spaces were also full of Brazilian pepper vines. For those who are not...

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Waiting in Hope…Even If

Are you in God’s waiting room? Have you been praying for something, on hold for an answer, hoping for your circumstances to change? I confess, waiting is not my favorite activity. And right now, I’m waiting for something especially critical…test results of a loved...

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A New Way to Express Kindness

Kindness is a virtue most of us appreciate and many of us aspire to. You may have heard about the practice of random acts of kindness. It supposedly began in 1982 when Anne Herbert scrawled the words "practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty" on a...

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Prisoner of Hope

What makes one person a prisoner of hope, while another is mired in hopelessness? My “one word” for 2017 is hope, so I’m especially attuned to this word this year. And the subject came up again during a recent lunch with a friend. She asked me how to become a...

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