My Fall Favorites

~ Barbara ~ Leave a comment

I know. I post about fall every year. I doubt I will say anything new about autumn 2026, but there’s so much to love!

  • Colorful leaves, dancing, twirling, falling.
  • Pumpkins—punctuating the landscape or baked into breads and muffins.
  • Crisp air, cool nights, fall sweaters and comfy hoodies.
  • Apple anything—cider, pie, donuts. Apple picking, apple saucing, apples candied.
  • Mums along walkways and perched on porches.
  • The coziness of earlier dusk, cords of firewood, and fragranced candles.
  • Fall cabbages with highlights of purple or white.
  • Gourds boasting unique shapes and textures.
  • Pops of orange and red, rust and gold, outside and in our homes.
  • The sound of swishing leaves and crackling fires.
  • The unfailing change of seasons to remind us of life’s ebb and flow.
  • Gratitude for harvest time and God’s supply, demonstrating His faithfulness.

“As long as the earth remains, there will be planting and harvest,
cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night.”
Genesis 8:22

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The Flow of God’s Faithfulness

~ Barbara ~ 2 Comments

Waterfalls always inspire me, whether it’s the simple tumbles at Ramapo Reservation, the stunning roar of the Paterson Falls, or the double delight at Dingmans Falls in Pennsylvania. You can imagine my rapt wonder last week when my husband and I visited the mother of all falls—the mighty Niagara.

We stood on the Canadian shore, awed by the power and majesty of the cascades. I watched with the same rapt attention as when I crest dunes on the Jersey shore and behold the persistent presence of the roaring waves.

In both scenes, the Niagara and the Atlantic, I see a demonstration of God’s faithfulness. Like the relentless movement of the waves and cascades, He is always there, ever present, resiliently powerful, continually moving.

As in nature, even without witnesses to behold its majesty, God’s faithfulness still flows, constantly, never diminishing, never pausing, never diverting from its display of splendor.

Finding Hope

~ Barbara ~ 1 Comment

When I wrote I Was Broken, Too: Four Paths to Restore Hope, I was determined to keep the book brief. As a broken person, I remembered how challenging it was to read a full page, let alone a whole book. After it was published, I knew that wounded hearts needed more, so I wrote 65 short meditations. The book, Finding Hope, offers wounded readers small doses of hope, like one-a-day vitamins.

The following is an excerpt from “Day 15: Lord, I’m Frightened.”

My feelings clamored to take precedence, but I couldn’t trust them. My life had shifted, and I had no confidence in the shaky ground beneath me. As I looked at the uncertainty of my future, I knew I couldn’t figure this out—I had to rely on the Architect of my life. I was scared, but I determined to trust God’s heart. I chose to believe that all His ways are loving and faithful—always…

Many days I simply nestled into the Lord, helpless and hurting, but my heart was humble and He honored me. He soothed me and renewed me. He will do the same for you.

Friend, you don’t have to figure everything out. God will hold you until you’re stronger and then, in His faithfulness, He will instruct you in where to walk and what path to take. Day after day, He will walk alongside you with your hand safely in His.*

This is the last post from my books in celebration of their new covers. I hope these six weeks have encouraged your hearts and reminded you of God’s amazing faithfulness.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him,
so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Romans 15:13

*Enjoy the full devotional in Finding Hope: 65 Meditations for a Broken Heart.

The “E” Path to Hope

~ Barbara ~ 2 Comments

Broken people who are tending to their injuries from loss, struggle to face the future; sometimes it’s an effort to take their next breath. It is difficult to press forward when memories of what they lost keep pulling them back. It is hard not to become cynical, believing Murphy’s Law—that if anything can go wrong, it will.

The E path challenges every negative attitude that has burrowed in our minds and persistently pushes us toward hope. I believe this was the prophet Jeremiah’s experience.  

Jeremiah wrote chapters about the hardships that befell him… We feel his pain and identify with the words he penned: “My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord. I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness… and my soul is downcast within me.”

Can you identify?

Read on because Jeremiah’s words don’t end there. He adds a “yet.”

“Yet…this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23).

The E of Hope is too full for me to share adequately in a short post, so I will jump to my book’s grand conclusion, a testimony formed when I was scrounging for hope. I learned to reject feelings and push against my emotions. Instead, I chose to Expect Grace. The pain of my losses remains, but I echo Jeremiah: “Yet… I have hope.” God’s grace is fresh every day, and His faithfulness is new every morning.*

* The full text is found in chapter nine of I Was Broken, Too: Four Paths to Restore Hope

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