Barbara Smith

I have always loved the scripture in James 1:27, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”  In fact, the book of James in its entirety has been my go-to for practical Christian living. Notwithstanding […]

You’ve heard the adage, ‘Don’t put off for tomorrow what you can do today!’  This is something that resonates with me in my daily activities and haunts my children in their dreams because I have always stressed that procrastination is not your friend.  This holds true in our walk with God and our responsibility to

When the Musk Ox is faced with danger the herd of musk oxen form a circle with their heads and horns outward and their young and weak in the center. They gather for mutual protection rather than trying to go out on their own or running away. If this practice is innate within these beastly

Faith is a central component in our lives. For example, you go to a doctor whose name you cannot pronounce and whose degrees you have never verified. He gives you a prescription you cannot read. You take it to a pharmacist you have never seen before. He gives you a chemical compound you do not

Our whimsical ideas and self-made patterns often put us in a rut of humanistic achievement. As if our favorite shirt, or our lucky sweater will somehow change a course of events in our favor. Yet we continue day by day as if on a hamster’s wheel and seeing no progress or fulfillment. The bottom line

An item becomes magnified when held under a magnifying glass.  This is its purpose and what it was designed to do.  However, I have noticed that if you don’t hold it just right, at a precise angle or distance from the item, the image can become distorted; too close and there is practically no change

Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States often endured long receiving lines at the White House. He complained that no one really paid any attention to what was being said. One day, during a reception, he decided to try an experiment. To each person who passed down the line and shook his