Table of contents for May 2015 in Guideposts

I paid a visit to my mother’s grave this morning. Inadvertently, I might add. With Mother’s Day nearly at hand it occurred to me that of all the people I’ve Googled, including myself many times, I’d never Googled my mom. Maybe it was because she was already in the early stages of Alzheimer’s when the internet came of age that I never really thought of her digitally (though she would have loved e-mail and she was curious about everything). So I typed in Estelle Rossiter Grinnan and up popped a picture of her gravestone at Holy Cross Cemetery in Philadelphia that my cousin Carol had posted. It startled me, I have to admit. Yet I also felt a connection with that name inscribed in both stone and pixels. Which led…

“We’re up to our ears in dirt, bugs and superheroes. No mother should go through such things alone” CHANGE IS HARD, EVEN WHEN IT’S GOOD. TAKE the time I was eight months pregnant with my first child, living in a new town. My old college roommate had just moved out of state. I was about to leave my job to be a stay-at-home mom. I was scared. And I was lonely. So I asked God for a friend. I met Marti at our husbands’ company picnic. “Do you know what you’re having?” she asked. It was hard to miss my beach-ball belly. “A boy,” I said. We discovered we both loved historical fiction and the Iowa State Cyclones. And we both had a strong faith. I thanked God for answering…

GETTING DOWN TO SPECIFICS For months my husband, Mark, and I had been saving up to get a third family car so that our daughter Anne would have something to drive when she turned 16. With four children, another car—and another driver—in the family would be a godsend. Then came the bad news: Our well had dried up, and so did our savings when we drilled a new one. “I guess I’ll just have to pray for a car,” Anne said when we told her. Anne wasn’t just being a good sport. She really prayed for that car. “I’m praying specifically, just like you taught me,” she explained to me one evening while we were doing the dishes. “I asked God for automatic transmission because I don’t drive stick, four…

Caring for aging parents can bring families together, lead to sibling conflict, or both. Even when siblings are close, as Rebecca DeMarino and hers are, they might disagree on what’s best for Mom and Dad. Home Instead Senior Care, working with Ingrid Connidis, Ph.D., a sibling relationships expert, has developed a program to help siblings overcome conflict and better share the care of their parents. Some tips: • Have a family meeting, ideally before you’re in a caregiving crisis. Use a video calling app like Skype for siblings who don’t live nearby. Discuss your parents’ needs and what each person can contribute in time and money. Talk regularly. • Be flexible. Parents’ needs change, as do your and your siblings’ lives. Don’t insist on splitting tasks equally. Work toward a…

TIMELESS ADVICE When I heard that my grandson was having problems with relationships in a new job, I knew right where to send him— the Guideposts website, where he’d be able to read the work of Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, Guideposts’ cofounder. I met Dr. Peale in 1955, when I was a flight attendant and he was on my plane. Somehow he could tell that there was something weighing on me. I told him my father wanted help from me to find another job— he wasn’t getting along with his superiors. Dr. Peale suggested I tell my dad to read The Power of Positive Thinking first, and to pray for his managers each day. What a difference it made! My father stayed with his company for another 10 fulfilling years…

The Race Set Before Her Hey, all you armchair jocks out there, have you ever dreamed of getting onto the field and competing? Baseball blogger Lisa Swan did (page 64). She discusses how her faith motivated her at guideposts.org/lisaswan. The Rewards of Giving It started with Hollywood producer Shelene Bryan (page 48) writing a check to sponsor a little Ugandan girl named Omega. It ended with her doing more than just writing a check. Much more. See a slide show of Shelene’s work around the world at guideposts.org/shelenebryan. Online Inspiration Have you visited our new website? It’s filled with stories, inspiring quotes, blogs, devotions, videos, slide shows, Bible studies, web-exclusive articles and more— and it’s mobile-friendly too! Check it out at guideposts.org. Customer Care 24/7 Take care of all your…

Good job! Continue to make movies of inspiration and humor! And always remember to help others. It is true with age comes wisdom. Love, Mom.” text REESE WITHERSPOON received from her mom (left) the day after the Golden Globe Awards ceremony; she had been nominated for best actress, but didn’t win “Resistance is not necessarily a sign you are going in the wrong direction; it is often a sign that you are moving forward.” from What Keeps You Up at Night: How to Find Peace While Chasing Your Dreams, by PETE WILSON “Courtesy counts. Others will thank you.” sign seen in New York City “Luck is luck…and hard work.” BARBARA WALTERS, broadcast journalist “Stop talking to God about how big your mountains are, and start talking to your mountains about…

“I’ve always said I would coach only a team of orphans,” Mike said in his now famous manifesto, “because the biggest problem in youth sports today is the parents.” These words lit up the Twitterverse and led to a book. A sample of Mike’s wisdom: • Parents, step back. Baseball should be all about the kids. “It’s hard not to coach from the stands and yell things,” he wrote, “but trust me: Coaching and yelling works against their development and enjoyment.” Clapping is enough. • But be involved at home. Play catch, practice batting, hit ground balls in the backyard, like Mike’s dad did. Then entrust your kid to the coaches when you bring them to a game or practice. Get them there on time with their shirts tucked in…

THE THEME SONG FROM THE movie Rocky blasted from the sound system. “Gonna Fly Now”? Yeah, right. I’d never been more earthbound in my life. I was sprawled facedown in the center-field dirt at Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets, where professional baseball players slugged home runs and made SportsCenter Top 10 catches. Where amateur athletes were strutting their stuff for the day in the Spartan Sprint, a popular obstacle race. I’d signed up for the race, but that must have been in a fit of insanity. Or stupidity. I didn’t belong here. I was 47 and overweight, despite how hard I’d been working to get in shape. I wasn’t an athlete. I never had been, not since a childhood bout of encephalitis left me with impaired…

SPRING SURPRISE Spring is my favorite season—a time of promise and new life. But a few years ago some hardships kept me from getting excited about it. One day, I was on my back patio when I heard the doorbell. I ran through the house to get the door. No one was there. Then I noticed my friend Mary and her daughter driving away, waving. I looked down. There was an old-fashioned May Day basket on my doorstep. It was made of bright construction paper and contained a flower, candy and homemade cookies. I couldn’t help smiling. I remembered making and stealthily delivering May baskets in grade school. Still giggling, I called my friend Judy. “Do you remember May baskets?” I asked. “Want to make some?” We crafted our baskets…

I stood before the full-length mirror in the church’s bridal suite, looking past myself in my wedding gown, searching for a blessing. The secret blessing I’d prayed for. My soon-to-be mother-in-law fussed with the train on my gown, and the reflection got blurry as my eyes welled with tears. Not even my fiancé, Paul, knew the sadness that weighed on my heart, the longing I had for the presence of the five people missing from my special day. My mom, my aunt, Grandma and Grandpa, and my sister, Audrey. Five people I’d adored. My aunt and grandmother had passed away many years before; Grandpa, Mom and Audrey had all died within four years of each other. I didn’t know how the rules of heaven worked, but I’d asked God for…

MAYBE THE NURSES ARE RIGHT. Maybe he needs to go to a nursing home.” I knew my sister was only thinking of what was best for Dad. Still, what she said made me recoil. For the last three weeks—ever since our 86-year-old father had suffered a stroke following successful heart-valve-replacement surgery— my siblings and I had practically lived at the hospital. There was one of us with him at all times. We were committed to being advocates for him, even if we didn’t always agree on the specifics of his care. This was the first time all four of us had left Dad’s room, and it was only because we didn’t want to upset him by discussing this in front of him. The hospital was going to discharge him soon.…

“DOC, I’M TELLIN’ YA, IT WAS A MIRACLE!” Fresh out of my residency, when one of my ER patients would tell me this, I’d shrug. Not that I didn’t believe in miracles. But in the ER, with all its chaos? Not likely. We were all about intervention, not intercession. Today, after 30 years as an emergency room doctor, I know differently. I’ve seen healings that medical science can’t fully explain. Healings that can only be the work of a power beyond medical intervention. So many stories I’ve written several books. Here are three of my favorites from Miracles in the ER. Two techs rolled 14-year-old Ben Stevens into the ER’s trauma room with the results of the X-rays I’d ordered. A sprinter on his high school track team, he’d come…

Omega makes a powerful impression on everyone she meets,” says Shelene Bryan (The Gift of Giving, page 48) of the Ugandan girl she sponsored. Omega came to America to visit the Bryans in 2013. She spoke to a thousand high school students about the wonders she’d discovered on her trip: hot water coming from faucets, the washing machine automatically cleaning her clothes, even the plane ride itself. “You could see people think about everything they take for granted,” says Shelene. Omega and Alonis, the Bryan family’s other sponsored child, are both in school and flourishing. Shelene has created an easy way to improve the lives of children like Omega and Alonis: Through her Skip1 campaign (see Skip1.org), donors can “skip” a latte, a manicure or another indulgence and donate the…

“These last fourteen years of war will affect our military families for the next two generations at least. Guideposts Military Outreach will continue to be very needed and highly effective.” Navy Chaplain author of Guideposts’ Mission Ready booklet For more information on Guideposts’ outreach programs, visit guidepostsfoundation.org, write to GUIDEPOSTS FOUNDATION, 39 Old Ridgebury Road, Suite 2AB, Danbury, CT 06810, or e-mail us at outreach@guideposts.org.…