Weekly Reflections

I try to start each day with personal devotions and quiet time, journaling my prayers and asking God to guide my day before allowing myself to look at social media, email, or any news other than approaching bad weather. I enjoy using the First5 devotional app from Proverbs 31 Ministries and highly recommend it if you don’t already have one you prefer. Not only are the guided book studies relevant to my daily walk with God, but I’ve found the community so helpful as I’ve navigated leaving work for elderly parent care, moving to a new community and finding a church, and becoming an empty nester.

A big part of my morning devotions is simply reflecting on the suggested scripture readings for that day, or my weekend reading in Psalms and Proverbs, asking God to speak to me and help me incorporate scriptural principles into my day and my life.

Upon moving to the Branson, Missouri, area, I casually picked up a Branson Globe paper one day. The Globe is a free, independent newspaper serving Taney and Stone counties and offering local news, coupons and ads for local businesses including the area’s entertainment and tourism attractions. I noticed a few things about the paper: For one thing, there were several churches advertising; in addition, it seemed to have an uplifting aspect about it, as if the publisher were a person of faith. I also noticed they were asking for freelance writers to join the team.

I reached out to the publisher and joined the writing staff. Early on, I thought it would be nice to start a weekly devotional column, asking pastors of advertising churches to contribute posts. I offered to write the column myself on the weeks we didn’t get anything submitted.

Well, surprise, pastors are a busy bunch; and after a couple of guest posts, there was a dry spell. What I didn’t expect, though, was that my fill-in columns were actually popular, possibly because they came from an average person without theological training but with a love for the Bible. The rest, as they say, is history; I now write probably 80 to 90 percent of the columns and they are well-received. I share some here occasionally, particularly those that people say they find most helpful, and if you’d like to read more, just sign up at www.bransonglobe.com for an email reminder of each weekly issue.