Table of contents for March 2018 in Guideposts

No Train, No Gain Lisa Swan found the courage to take charge of her health, working with an accomplished runner to get in shape. Now she’s competing in marathons. She reveals how she did it: guideposts.org/lswan In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb March means spring. Or at least the hint of it. Catch the spirit of the season with our collection of uplifting spring quotes. guideposts.org/springquotes Why Do We Call It Lent? Executive Editor Rick Hamlin shares his spiritual insights on this holy time— and the precious gift God is lending us. guideposts.org/meaningoflent The Power of Positive Thinking Guideposts founder Dr. Norman Vincent Peale shares eight timeless tips to help you change your thinking and your life. guideposts.org/positivetips…

HEY, MR. POSTMAN I am a mail carrier in Twin Falls, Idaho. We have great snowy winters. I love snow, but it can make my job difficult. After our first snowfall last year, I was disappointed that some of my customers did not shovel their sidewalks. It added time to my route, not to mention the safety issues. But then I realized that most of those customers were elderly or ill. Next snowfall, I had a different attitude. I gave my son a list of addresses and had him shovel their walks on his day off of work. I included military veterans since I served in the Army. I joined my son when I could. Sometimes we would go after work if it snowed during the day. It was a…

In her work as cofounder of Home Instead Senior Care, Lori Hogan has seen what Jeff Bjorck saw: Faith is crucial in helping you meet the daily challenges of caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s or another dementia. Here are some of Lori’s favorite Bible verses for family caregivers: • If you feel overwhelmed: The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. —Psalm 23:1–4 • If you’re struggling with how…

LEAVING AN IMPRINT Maybe this time, I thought, slicing open another cardboard box. But when I got to the bottom, I was disappointed. “Not a single paw print,” I said to my husband, Chris. “We’ve got a lot more boxes to go,” he said. “We’ll find one.” We were renovating several rooms in our house in Arizona. The floors would be Saltillo tile. We’d fallen in love with the style in our old house in California. Saltillo tiles are made by hand in Mexico from local clay. The color ranges from a light yellow to dark red. Once the tiles are shaped, they’re laid out to dry on riverbeds. Sometimes animals—lizards, dogs or even coyotes—step on them on their way to the river. After the tiles dry, they retain some…

“Bless this house, bless this food— Come on, Lord, and sit with us. May our hearts grow in peace. Come with your love and surround us.” GEORGINA BREWINGTON, Tacoma, Washington Sensational Asparagus Celebrate spring with this simple recipe ¼ cup vegetable oil 1½ tablespoons concentrated lemon juice, or the juice of one lemon 3 teaspoons crushed garlic Pinch of salt and pepper 1 pound asparagus, woody ends removed 1 cup grated Romano cheese Preheat oven to 450°. Whisk vegetable oil with lemon juice. Stir in crushed garlic. Salt and pepper to taste. Place asparagus in a single layer on a baking sheet, and sprinkle with Romano cheese. Drizzle with dressing. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Serve warm. Serves 4 to 6. From Devotions for the Hungry Heart by Shellie Rushing…

My mother always wore green on St. Patrick’s Day. Of course she wore the color fairly often to complement her grass-green eyes, not that she would ever confess to such vanity. Not a Rossiter! My father didn’t always wear green, even though his forebears came from County Offaly. He took a slightly dim view of the holiday for what he saw as its pernicious attitude toward overindulgence. The green beer and ostentatious parades and leprechaun hats offended his pious sensibilities. He believed celebrating the life of a saint should be the solemn center of the feast day, which indeed it is in Ireland, where the observance is more subdued. Dad was a stubborn traditionalist about his faith, as stubborn as only an Irishman can be, I suppose. After Vatican II,…

I slowly got ready in front of my bedroom mirror, smoothing my hair and putting in my earrings. I had plans to meet friends for dinner. Truth was, I didn’t feel up to going out. I didn’t feel up to much of anything, and I hadn’t since my husband, Clancy, passed away three months earlier. It felt as if all the joy had gone out of life. Clancy and I had known each other our whole lives. In our later years, we found ourselves falling in love. He was my soulmate, and he knew just how to make me laugh. One day, two years into our marriage, I walked into our bedroom to see something peering down at me from the chandelier. “Clancy, what on earth is that?” I asked.…

Why run a marathon? For a spiritual journey as well as an athletic one, Lisa Swan would say. Chad Brower, strategic partnerships director for the Good Samaritan Society and an ultramarathon runner (an ultra is any race longer than 26.2 miles), would agree. Here he shares some life lessons of long-distance running: Confidence After his first marathon, in 2011, Brower got into running longer races. “Your confidence builds with each race, each distance you complete,” he says. “Ultrarunning has made me see myself in a different light as far as what I’m capable of. That applies to everything in my life. At work, for example, there’s no challenge that’s too great.” Mental strength “Beyond the marathon distance, it’s much more mental than physical,” Brower notes. “Your mind says your body…

EVER TRUE IN LOVING BE. I RAN MY finger over the engraving on my late husband’s wedding band. It was the first anniversary of John’s death. I’d put together some special things to honor the day: my favorite photo of him, our wedding bands, two rose quartz hearts, his watch, some books, a love letter he’d given me and a white candle to burn. Earlier that morning, I’d gone to a Mass that had been said in John’s memory. Still, the day seemed empty. I just couldn’t find any peace. After a year of widowhood, I was feeling worse, not better. I was going to grief support groups, talking about my experience and listening to other people share their struggles, but nothing seemed to help. I still cried every day.…

I FIRST MET DELLA REESE ON THE set where we were filming the pilot for the TV series Touched by an Angel. I had already gone through hair and makeup and taped a few scenes. But I was eager to meet the woman who would be my counterpart on the show. I heard that Miss Della Reese had arrived. I went back to the makeup trailer, and there she was. I reached out my hand and said, “I wanted to introduce myself.” Della stood and said, “Oh, baby, I don’t shake hands. I hug.” And she wrapped me in the biggest embrace. We were an unlikely duo—an earthy jazz and gospel singer from Detroit, Michigan, and a soft-spoken actress from Ireland. Still, we hit it off immediately, talking about our…

“How many success stories do you need to read before writing your own?” RYAN SEACREST, radio and TV host “I like flying kites because it is such a wild, freeing thing. I think God works within lifted spirits.” SISTER JOSE HOBDAY, from the book Stories of Awe and Abundance “Be a yea-sayer.” from Habit Changers, by M. J. RYAN “Simply put, we can stop waiting for a plan and just go love everybody. There’s no school to learn how to love your neighbor, just the house next door. No one expects us to love them flawlessly, but we can love them fearlessly, furiously and unreasonably.”BOB GOFF, in his book Everybody, Always “I ask not for a lighter burden but for broader shoulders.” Jewish proverb “Hope is a daring seed that you plant…

“ I’M HAPPY.” ANYONE WHO HAS ever existed tries to not only say these two words but actually mean them. We all have the same basic goal: to live a happy life. I always thought that my happiness depended solely on fulfilling my dreams… “Then I’ll be happy.” Which is true—as long as you allow your dreams to change. When I was growing up on Long Island, my childhood wasn’t perfect, but it was filled with happy memories. Of course, church on Sunday was mandatory—St. James in Setauket. I remember Little League, ice cream trucks and Sunday dinners with family. Not just the immediate family—the entire family. And the thing I remember most about those dinners was how much we laughed. Whether my brother and I were doing impressions of…

I LOVE MY JOB. I’M THE ADVOCACY and education outreach coordinator for the Missouri Recovery Network, a state-funded nonprofit that aims to increase awareness of the realities of drug and alcohol addiction and advocates for quality treatment programs. I travel all over the state, helping communities establish recovery programs and provide other services that addicts need. I train people to revive overdose victims, and I spread the word about what it takes to get people into recovery and committed to sobriety. I bring a special experience to my work with addicts. I used to be one. A decade ago, I was the last guy you’d hire for my job. I was in my thirties. I’d been using drugs and alcohol since I was a teenager. I smoked dope, shot up…

MYSTERY SOLVED The most unusual thing happened after Hearts for History, my Someone Cares story about the little cakes I make to raise money for a local cemetery, was published in the October 2017 issue. I got a letter from a woman named Patsy in Oregon. For many years, she had been trying to find where her great-grandparents were laid to rest. A website said that they were buried in a cemetery in March Rapids, Wisconsin, next to Emmanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church. That’s where my daughter-in-law Ashlee’s parents worship! Ashlee’s dad asked the pastor if the church had a record of all the people buried in that cemetery; Patsy’s greatgrandparents were listed. Ashlee’s dad went to the cemetery and confirmed that Patsy’s great-grand-parents’ names are on the gravestone. It excites…