Edith Schaffer stated that a Christian, above all people, should live artistically, aesthetically, and creatively. We who are in fellowship with our Creator should seek to reflect Him. God loves beauty and placed it in the first home. “God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food” (Genesis 2:9). It evidently mattered to God that the place in which He placed Adam and Eve would be beautiful.

One year Karen’s husband traveled a great deal and she was often lonely. Loneliness can bring emotional pain that invites self-pity. But Karen learned to watch. When self-pity began to seep in, she used her pain to understand the pain of those who were truly alone. She thanked God for the privilege, this rare gift of being able to empathize with others’ agony, so that her prayers were not superficial. She prayed fervently for the widowed, the abandoned, the alienated.

Dr. Paul A. Rader, retired general of The Salvation Army, said that his father used to travel on the train with Commissioner Samuel Brengle. One time while they were riding the subway in New York, he said, "Commissioner, you've been a teacher of holiness for many, many years. Tell me, what kind of temptations do you have?"

When God announced, “I am God almighty; walk before me, and be blameless” (Genesis 17:1), it seems that He is saying that for Abraham to be blameless, he has only to walk before God.

One day when my mother was staying with us, she said, "The Lord really helped me in my Scripture reading this morning. I had prayed about a need before and believed the Lord had heard, but then I began doubting. I felt my doubting displeased the Lord. But this morning I read where John the Baptist sent word asking Jesus, 'Are you really the Christ?'

Barbara said she tried in vain to control her tongue when speaking with her children. She wanted to convince herself that the problem was their fault. If only they would do what she said, perhaps she wouldn’t have to get angry. She prayed about it repeatedly.

In a retreat themed, “Clean Hands, Pure Heart,” a lady turned to me during the song service and handed me a piece of paper on which she had written: “My hands are dirty. The blood of my child is on my hands. I need to wash my hands so I can have a pure heart and can lift my hands without shame honoring God.”

One day the secretary called from our daughter’s school saying, “Arla is sick.” When I arrived to pick up my eight-year-old, I found I was not the only mother there to pick up a sick child.