Ruby Hayes is a retired schoolteacher and widow from Lexington, Virginia. Most mornings she is up before the house, writing at her kitchen table with her Bible open and Earl's old mug full of coffee.
devotional
"Do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand." — Isaiah 41:10 Dear Daddy, It is Father's Day this weekend and
devotional
"Far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you." — 1 Samuel 12:23 I was thinking this morning about something one of the boys in my class said back in the spring, before school let out for the summer.
devotional
"Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it. Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy." — Psalm 96:11-12 The garden has reached the part
devotional
"But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you." — Matthew 6:6 The mornings are getting longer and I have started getting up before I need
devotional
"Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up the other." — Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 There was a time before the children when it was just the two of us and neither of us knew
Sunday Letter
"I will both lie down and sleep in peace; for you alone, O LORD, make me lie down in safety." — Psalm 4:8 It is Sunday evening and the week is done and it was a good week, which is a thing I do not say lightly because
devotional
"Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs." — Mark 10:14 I walked past the fellowship hall this morning after church and the door was open and the room was empty and
devotional
"God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good." — Genesis 1:31 Saturday evening and I am on the back porch in the dark and the fireflies have come. They were not here last week. They are here tonight. They came the way everything
devotional
"So teach us to number our days." — Psalm 90:12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. I have been sitting with this verse the way you sit with a visitor who has come to stay and will not be
devotional
"She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue." — Proverbs 31:26 My mother used to say that you can tell what a woman is carrying by the way she hangs laundry. I did not understand this when I was young. I
devotional
"As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease." — Genesis 8:22 The garden has entered the part of June where it needs me every day and I have accepted this. I was out there before
devotional
"For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation." — Psalm 62:1 There are mornings after something that feel like the first page of a new week, and this is one. The anniversary was yesterday and it was what it was and this morning