Table of contents for Aug/Sept 2024 in Guideposts

My friend peeked into my bedroom and frowned. “All those books stacked on your nightstand. That would stress me out,” he said. I smiled and quoted Cicero: “A room without books is like a body without a soul.” I’ve long made peace with the idea that I probably won’t finish half the books I have on my nightstand and throughout my house. I grew up in a family where someone always had a book in hand. Really, what is more hopeful than a book? Books show us life from different perspectives. They engender empathy and understanding. They ignite the imagination. They take us places far and wide, in space and time. Books give us the world. I spent a fair amount of time confined to bed as a kid—asthma, a…

BIG RIG BLESSINGS In August of 2021, my older brother Rocky Garza died from Covid-19. We had been so close. Losing him was heartbreaking. Rocky was an over-the-road truck driver, a job he loved. He always joked that I should join him in his cab. I never did, but I know that if I had, Rocky would’ve made it fun. He made everything fun. One day, I was out walking, thinking about Rocky. A semitruck drove by, and I had the impulse to wave. I waved at the next truck I saw. And the one after that. When one of the truckers waved back, it brought me such comfort. The trucker’s wave reminded me how happy Rocky had been behind the wheel of his big rig. I started waving at…

I pulled into the driveway that fall Friday at the end of a long but uplifting day. I worked for a nonprofit as a mentor and coach for women in crisis. I’d spent the afternoon speaking to women in a prison reentry program. I’d really connected with them, and I was still feeling the adrenaline rush of knowing I’d made a difference. I parked the car and sat back for a moment to savor my success. Then my phone rang. It was a friend who’d encouraged me in my decision five years ago to reenter the workforce despite being a married mother of four. I’d mentioned to her how excited I was for today. “How’d it go?” she asked. “It was incredible,” I said, sharing some highlights. “Sounds amazing. You’ve…

Thank you, Heavenly Father, for answering prayers for our daughter to make her high school team. May her God-given talents and spirit shine and make you proud!—BEKA My husband has been promoted. Thanks be to God.—VIVIAN I found my puzzle piece that I’d been looking for. It was right there, but I didn’t see it. I know it’s a small request, but God is good. He was there for me.—DEBBIE Thank you for praying for my pet, Samson. He pulled through with flying colors and is as good as new!—LEE From our readers and web-site visitors. Send your answered prayer to submissions@guideposts.org.…

League City, Texas It took everything in me not to slam the door behind the last seventh grader who slouched out of my classroom at the end of my first day as a teacher. I collapsed against the wall and did breathing exercises, trying to slow the pounding of my heart. The door opened. I was about to yell, “Classroom closed!” when I saw it was my friend Tabatha, who worked in the school office. “So how’d it go?” she asked, her eyes twinkling at my obvious state of defeat. “I can’t believe I have to do this all again tomorrow!” “The first day is always the hardest,” she said. “It gets better from here, I promise.” I wasn’t buying it. “Teaching is exhausting,” I said. “And this classroom feels…

Williamsburg, Virginia SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL Just out of grad school, I landed my first teaching assignment on the outskirts of Sacramento, California. The job was everything I dreamed of. The accommodations—well, not so much. Until recently, my apartment complex had been a cheap motel. I lived on the ground floor. Getting ready for bed one night, I peeked through the security bars on my window at the dismal parking lot out-side, where a lone figure tinkered with his car. I pulled the curtains closed and turned out the light, but neon signs from the nearby supermarket and movie theater continued to flicker on the walls. Sounds from the apartment above came through the ceiling, along with the smell of cigarette smoke and cooking grease. In the morning, feeling barely rested, I…

“Words [were] flowing through me, and I’m just taking dictation. That’s happened to me in the past, but not to this degree.”PAUL SIMON, 82, on the lyrics that came to him in dreams and led to his latest album, Seven Psalms “We often believe it’s our strengths that make us great leaders, but it is our weaknesses that push us to grow, to heal, to move out of the way and to let God be God…. We should embrace our weaknesses as an opportunity to learn and become what God intends for us to be.”AMY L. WILLIAMS, youth minister for some 30 years, who works with teens involved in gangs and the criminal justice system “I also tell myself that every season—whether it’s good or bad—has an expiration date. And…

It was cramped in the travel trailer where his family of six had been living since they lost their home, but the boy was young, seven years old, and he didn’t mind. All he had to do was step out the door and he was in a great wide-open world, the world of God the Creator, as his mother called it. Craggy mountains, rushing streams, sweet-smelling grass, blue sky that went on forever. One day came the most wondrous sight—a magnificent bird, dark wings outstretched, soaring high above. The white feathers on its head gleamed in the sun. The bird flew so freely, as if anything was possible. “Look! Up in the sky!” the boy said to his mother. “The eagle is a messenger,” she told him. “Maybe it has…

My wife, Laurie, and I had just settled down to watch a movie in the living room when my phone buzzed. A text message. Spam probably. I reached over to silence the phone. “Hi,” said the text. That was all. Weird, I thought. Was it someone I knew? I clicked the message and a new screen popped up—the message must have contained a link. The screen showed an image of a tree, like a family tree. At the end of one branch was a name: Michael. Under the name were four words: “This is your son.” My son? Laurie and I didn’t have kids. That was our decision when we got married more than two decades earlier. Laurie wanted to focus on her career, and I…well, let’s just say I…

Ilean on my faith. I want that for my son, Zach, too. When he was little, it was easy. I sent him to Vacation Bible School every summer. I took him to youth group weekly. I even joined the handbell choir with him. But as he grew into adulthood and left home, I had less say over his life. I knew that not every child will follow the path their parents have set before them. Had I given Zach enough of a foundation to find his own faith? At age 30, he lives and works in Port-land, Oregon, more than 600 miles away from his dad and me in San Rafael, California. Zach is not a churchgoer, though he happily joins us when he comes home for Christmas and Easter.…

Like so many mornings lately, I wanted to slow down time so I could catch up. As I stepped off the front porch and toward the car, I noticed a porcelain angel figurine lying in the grass. At first I couldn’t figure out where it had come from. Then I realized it must have fallen off the corner shelf just under the porch roof. Years ago, my nephew had added a shelf where the corner column of the porch meets the roof’s edge. He said it would be the perfect place to put a special statuette to face the house and bring good energy and keep us safe. I’d set the angel on the high shelf and completely forgotten about it. The figurine had never fallen before, and I wondered…

What’s taking him so long? I waited in the hallway outside the fourth-grade classroom where my husband, Kevin, was reading to the class. I’d already finished reading to a class of third graders. Read Across America, a week of encouraging reading and literacy, was something Kevin, who was our city’s mayor, and I both were excited to be a part of. I’d picked a story that gave me the chance to share about my Norwegian heritage. My class had seemed quietly interested. Now I wondered. Was my husband upstaging me again? His book couldn’t have been more than 25 pages, mostly pictures about the ocean. I felt a familiar twinge of insecurity. Kevin is a crowd-pleasing dynamo, a big personality. I’m anything but—in keeping with my reserved Norwegian heritage, I…

Michelle Stiffler (An Answer in the Stillness, page 32) caught the writing bug after spending 20 months journaling her thoughts and impressions of the entire Bible for each of her four children, filtered through moments in her children’s lives during that time. “It was a commitment—no question!” she says. Since then, she has been sharing spiritual reflections with readers of more than 20 national publications, including GUIDEPOSTS, Common Good magazine, (in)courage, The Upper Room Disciplines 2025 and The Women’s Devotional Bible in The Message 2025. Michelle is a cohost of the podcast “Weave and Cleave” and an educator for Arizona’s Trauma-Informed Faith Coalition, as well as the owner and creator of Sincerity Method, an approach to wellness that blends trauma-informed strength training, mind-body practices and somatic coaching. (Trauma-informed care takes…

LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS The May/June 2022 issue of GUIDEPOSTS arrived not long after I received an upsetting health report. I’d gained weight since my husband’s passing, and the report was a wake-up call that I needed to take better care of myself. I asked God for guidance on cutting down on sweets. I flipped through the issue and found Jeanette Levellie’s story, Sugar Free, about how she curbed her sugar addiction and developed healthier habits. Her story inspired me to place my own sugar addiction in God’s hands. I take my weight loss and health journey one day at a time, the same way I’ve found peace in my grief. Patience is not something that comes naturally, but I know I can do all things when I let God…

Nine years ago, I was at the end of my 40-year marriage and the beginning of my recovery journey. I started attending AA meetings at a recovery center where I lived in Virginia Beach. A group of us would go out for coffee afterward, and that’s how I got to know Sam P. After 24 years of service in the Navy as a meteorologist, he had just retired. He too was going through a divorce after a long marriage. I was moved by the honest way Sam shared in meetings. It was clear he was passionate about helping others in their sobriety. We became good friends but didn’t start dating for two years. We had both been hurt in our marriages and didn’t want to ever go through that pain…

I’d just pushed the button on the coffee maker when my wife walked into the kitchen. “Want a cup?” I asked her. “I could use a pick-me-up,” Diane said and plopped down in a chair. “Susan is upset with me. She texted me a few days ago. I read the message while I was walking the dogs, but when I got back inside, I forgot to respond. It hurt her feelings. Now she says I’m not as good of a friend to her as she is to me.” She sighed. “I’m sure we’ll work it out, but I just feel rotten.” “Did you tell her you were out with the dogs when her text came in?” “Of course.” I handed her the coffee. “You just need to tell her that…