Table of contents for March 2015 in Guideposts

The first time I wrote an Editor’s Note encouraging you to visit the new Guideposts website was around the turn of the century, which sounds rather historical but was only 15 years ago. Yet in terms of the digital world it feels like 15 light-years. That’s how fast technology is moving and evolving. I’m writing this note two months before you actually see it. The blog I write for guideposts.org goes up in two hours. Technology has made it easier for people to connect, not just more immediately but more frequently. I remember listening to a reader once say that she wished Guideposts could be delivered to her home every day. Neither of us could have imagined at the time how near that reality was. It was just over the…

If you can learn to love yourself and all the flaws, you can love other people so much better.” singer KRISTIN CHENOWETH “Happiness isn’t on the road to anything…happiness is the road.” BOB DYLAN, quoting his grandmother “The most important lesson of friendship is also the most basic: In order to have a friend, you must be a friend.” RUTH SOUKUP, from her book Living Well, Spending Less: 12 Secrets of the Good Life “This, I think, is what love is: taking it all in, hoping for the best. Admiring the lake’s shimmering surface and unknown depths. Building a bank of memories, and cherishing them all equally.” novelist JANE SMILEY “What if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday?” submitted by Guideposts reader BRAD…

A DETOUR FOR GRANDMA Wisconsin was going all out for its hundred-fiftieth anniversary. It had organized a whole series of historical reenactments, including a two-week wagon train that would pass right by my house. My kids had been studying the history for weeks to be ready for it. They couldn’t wait. I’d gotten up early to get my errands done, but I’d have to hurry to be home in time. The parking lot at Walmart was crowded. It took forever to get out. Then, just as I reached the exit, I had a sudden thought: Go visit Grandma. Impossible. My grandmother lived in a nursing home on the other side of town, totally out of my way. I’d never have time to drive over, see her and get home before…

SOMETIMES PEOPLE ASK ME, “Carrie Ann, you’re always smiling that big smile on TV. Where does all that positivity come from?” I’ll let you in on a little secret. I pray before work. Backstage, getting ready to be a judge on the TV show Dancing With the Stars, while I get my makeup on and make final adjustments to my gown, I always say the same prayer: God, thank you for all that is, was and will be. There’s a reason my prayer never changes. It sums up what life is about. It’s my spiritual template, my foundation. And it has never let me down, especially these last few difficult years. The way I look at it, you learn from everything that comes into your life— the good and the…

fOR ME, CANCER WAS A JOURNEY. A lot of people say that, but I learned things about myself that I never would have guessed and grew in ways I couldn’t have imagined. It was a journey I resisted, but not for the reasons you might think. In some ways I was less afraid of cancer itself than of all the attention that would be drawn to me. If anything, I was determined to be the perfect patient, cooperative, dutiful, undemanding. Almost under the radar. You see, I was a middle child— number 7 of 10 kids, easily overlooked. My older brother and sisters could tell stories that would leave us howling. I was happy to listen and laugh and follow along, as long as nobody paid much mind to me.…

IN THE ABSENCE OF ORDERS, ACT.” That’s something I’d told the men under my command countless times in the 30 years I’d served in the Army. It’s the essence of duty. During our tours in Germany, Korea and Iraq, we had each other’s backs. Still, I wasn’t with them 24/7 to give direction. Under enemy fire, every single one of us had to make life-or-death decisions in an instant. You couldn’t always wait for orders. You had to act. But I never imagined I’d rely on that same tactic last year, far from the combat zone. It was a Sunday, August 31. I woke up with a jolt. The clock read 4:45 p.m. My wife, Linda, and I had taken a nap after church and she was still asleep. I…

TEACHING KINDNESS I was a teacher for 22 years, and know that sometimes kids need a reminder to be kind to each other. So I was inspired to act on a Pass It On in the August 2014 issue. A little boy had his school install a “buddy bench.” Shy or lonely students sit there to show they’d like someone to play with. I live a block from a school, and went that day to make a donation toward a bench. It’s such a delight to walk by it now and see kids talking to each other. It even inspired our pastor to give a children’s sermon on reaching out to others. Every school should have a buddy bench! If we can teach kids kindness and inclusion while they’re young,…

A Reason to Rescue In our exclusive video, Dancing With the Stars judge Carrie Ann Inaba (page 32) talks about how her rescued pets have helped her get through difficult times. guideposts.org/inaba. Praying Through Lent Executive Editor Rick Hamlin, the author of 10 Prayers You Can’t Live Without, offers tips and guidance for praying more effectively during this contemplative season. Watch his video series at guideposts.org/lentenprayers. Spring Has Sprung (Almost) March 20 is the first day of spring. Can’t wait till then to see nature blooming? Neither can we! That’s why we created our Spring Flower Meditation just for you. You can find it at guideposts.org/welcomespring. Wrap Yourself in Prayer Lou Zywicki Prudhomme (page 22) was frightened about her upcoming surgery until a friend presented her with a hand-knitted prayer…

Veterans are sometimes reluctant to seek help for mental-health problems. They feel more comfortable approaching their clergyperson than a mental-health professional; in fact, a clergyperson and a congregation may be the first to learn of the problems. Here are some ways you and your congregation can reach out to our returning troops. • Adopt a military family. Take them out for breakfast. Go shopping with the spouse. Do yard work or home repairs. Offer to babysit the kids so the parents can go out; they need some time together. • Pay for a Marriage Encounter retreat. Give a couple who might have been separated for long periods a weekend without distractions to get closer and deepen their marriage. Learn more at wwme.org. • Start a Bible study. This could be…

IN KIND I work at the reception desk of a nursing home. One evening a woman came in with her arms full of flowers. She was a teacher and her students had given her the bouquets for her birthday. “I don’t have room at home for so many flowers,” she said. “Maybe your residents would like them?” I thanked her and called the night nurse, who took the bouquets to the long-term-care nursing stations. I couldn’t wait to get to work the next night to hear what happened. The nurses said they loved making the deliveries, telling the residents, “We don’t know who brought these flowers, but they’re for you.” That birthday girl started a chain reaction—the nurses got to share in the fun, and receiving flowers was a wonderful…

PAIN. THAT’S WHAT SCARED ME most about the surgery I was facing at the end of December. I’d never had an operation before and I had no idea what to expect. The doctor told me that some pain after a hysterectomy was normal and that it might take six weeks before I felt like myself again. He was trying to reassure me, but by the time I got home from the pre-op appointment, I was shaking. I headed straight for my bedroom, for the recliner where I prayed every morning. I sat down and, by reflex, reached behind me for my prayer shawl. It was one of a kind, handmade in a gorgeous range of pastel colors— mauve, pink, green, blue, gray, like the predawn sky. I needed to feel…

I didn’t want to open my eyes that morning, let alone get out of bed. It wasn’t just the winter cold. It was… everything. My breast cancer had returned. My two twenty-something children had moved back home, and every day brought another argument over who was going to do what around the house. Most of the time, the answer was me, and I just couldn’t do it all anymore. Even my job teaching ESL at an elementary school, normally a joy, was stressing me out, because I was prepping my students for high-stakes testing. I had to get up and go to work. I opened my eyes a crack. My gaze fell on the basket across the bedroom, piled with my late grandmother’s embroidery. Grandma Sadie—now there was someone who…

Cheap was all we could afford at the time…and even that was a stretch,” says Erin Mulcahy Janoso (True North, page 18) of the Montana fixer-upper she and her husband, Jim, bought in 2002. “I remember mixing concrete when the temperature dropped to nineteen degrees, and we desperately tried to finish part of the wall. We didn’t dare pause because either we’d freeze or the concrete would!” Once Jim’s microscope-repair business took off, they hired a contractor to finish the renovation. “When it was done, our house was beautiful!” Erin says. Faith is so basic and profound—it’s the ground I walk on,” says Carrie Ann Inaba (The Power of a Prayer, page 32). Prayer is as instinctual to Carrie Ann as taking care of animals. Though she always supported animal-rescue…