Be careful what you wish for and hope that your good deeds of the day do not come back to torment you in the night. Both of these sayings reflect what recently happened to me. more

Editor's note: OK, so I know last week I said I'd get back to regular column writing, but I'm going to take one more week-long hiatus. In my defense, I had been out of office for a few days to enjoy a family lake vacation, and I just ran out of time. But, here is a rerun of a light-hearted column I wrote last summer that apparently resonated with many of you. Although the destination is different, my boyfriend and I battled lake traffic again this week and we had all the same complaints, so this seems like a fitting fill-in column.  more

We live in a broken world made of broken systems filled with broken people. Since we have all sinned and come short of God’s glory, we all bring a certain amount of brokenness to the table. Broken people make broken marriages and broken families. Broken families make for broken communities and broken cultures. It wasn’t always this way. God’s original design was a world of peace and harmony without sin. Of course, to be perfect God had to give us a choice: to sin or not to sin. We all know the choice made. more

Meeting people where they are has its challenges. Each of us has different experiences in life that create a pattern of how we receive, process and react to certain situations. more

Hi! I’m back! Did you miss me? (Don’t answer that, it’s rhetorical.) more

For more than a century, wine aficionados around the world have argued, debated and pondered the question of whether the cabernet sauvignon and pinot noir wines were better before or after the “great wine blight.” more

I have often mentioned the “Great Wine Blight” of the late 1800s in my columns and I feel that some knowledge about the subject could enlighten the reader of a catastrophe, born in the state of Missouri, that might have resulted in the total demise of wine and wine grape growing as we know it today. more

This year is proving to be quite a challenge for gardening. Little rain, strong winds, and hot weather have all contributed to those challenges. Gardeners need a break or at least a few free plants. Free plants are possible if you choose wisely and welcome the volunteers. more

I like to think of myself as pretty eloquent, in print. I can write a good poem or a witty turn of phrase. I easily switch between humorous and charming, or stern and strident, or filled with pathos. God seems to have given me some small talent for the written word. more

Hello friends! How are you this week? Here in Warrensburg, it has been so dry! This relentless heat is hard on the plants. It is hard on us too. This week I pray for rain, and I look forward to time in my garden. I know where each thing is planted, and I am always eager to watch them grow. I enjoy tending my garden and so this season of dry heat has been a challenge. more

I hope you are all taking precautions concerning your health in this hot, dry weather. It’s hard to think that the upper Midwest is a likely area for fires, but that is the latest info about burning “hot spots” in the U.S. — northern Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan. more

As many in the Christian community are and have been praying for revival and in places have been seeing revival take place, I think this is great, but is it enough? The title of the column here is not about a conflict between “Revival and Revolution,” but about how we should be praying for them as both rather than either or scenarios. I say this because they are not the same, or at least how it seems. What is the difference, one might ask? more

For decades, the most forgettable red wine grape in France was the malbec. It was sparsely grown, mostly in the Bordeaux region, where its only claim to fame was that it was an excellent additive to “beef up” lightly colored or weak cabernet sauvignon and merlot wines. When made into a wine, the French-grown malbec produced one that was super tannic (astringent), black as ink and could take as long as 25 years of aging before it was drinkable. more

I made a momentous decision back in May. I had been thinking about it for a while, but something about change and the unknown kept me from jumping. Finally, though, I took the leap. I “retired” from playing or directing music at Broadway Presbyterian. more

Our air conditioner bit the dust the other day. It will need to be replaced. It was 33 years old, a grand old age, so while I’m frustrated about the upcoming purchase, we sort of saw this coming. I just wish it would have happened when it was a little cooler. We’re going to be pretty sweaty around here for a while. more

If you go hiking in a park, sometimes they have a map in the main office. If you go to a large mall, at the entrances, there’s a map too. On these maps, there is normally a star or a dot with an arrow pointing to it stating, “You are here.“ From that reference point, you can route your travel and plan for the distance and details along the way. Those traveling with you will need to know where you are presently too. more

Dear Editor: more

Our family had an amazing vacation staying with our oldest daughter just outside of Destin, Florida, last week. It was much needed. more

A short time ago, I wrote about the excellent and affordable chardonnay wines from more

God is eternally existent, which means He doesn’t have a beginning or an end. He was never created. Anything that has been created has come into being because He created it. And, of course, one of the things that He created was humanity. more