Innehållsförteckning för January 2017 från Guideposts

January means new things are in store, and I have two very exciting ones to share. So stop packing away those Christmas ornaments for a minute and let me tell you. Living Longer, Living Better What’s the difference between wellness and well-being? Wellness concerns the body. Well-being encompasses body, mind and soul. Well-being is the gravity that holds our lives together and centers us in purposeful, faith-filled living. Our editorial series for 2017, Living Longer, Living Better, features inspiring and informative stories by people who face challenges to their health—physical, mental, emotional and spiritual—and make changes in their lives to improve their long-term well-being. These challenges can happen at any phase of life and come in many guises, some so subtle we barely recognize them at first and others so…

DELIVERING WARMTH I’ve been an obstetrician for more than 20 years, and I love my job. I also have an artistic side; my own oil paintings are hanging in the office. On a trip to the art-supply store in 2010, I saw a book called Hat Heads. The author, Trond Anfinnsen, taught himself to knit and made beanies for his friends. I thought my teenaged kids might like it. I gave it to them for Christmas, and our whole family spent the day knitting. I made a small beanie to practice. It happened to be the perfect size for a newborn. I gave it to the next baby I delivered. The new mom was delighted. My own mother would paintangels on beach stones and give them away as a random…

PRAYER BUZZ I’m a world-class worrier. So it was only natural that I would be anxious about my daughter’s first doctor’s appointment since learning she was pregnant. “Kate ought to be at the doctor’s right now,” I said to my husband, Mike. We were getting ready to run some errands. I checked my phone. No texts from Kate. She might not even have been examined yet, I reminded myself as Mike put on his coat. She’ll call you when she’s finished. Kate had been pregnant once before, but it had ended in a miscarriage. That gave me even more reason to worry about this second pregnancy. There were so many things to fret about! Was the baby developing on schedule? Was Kate getting all the nutrients she needed? And, of…

I was relieved that the Laundromat in Temple, Oklahoma, was empty that sweltering day in July. With three young children at home who liked to get into all sorts of messes, I had a ton of laundry to do. It was my second trip that week! Not that I minded. I had always wanted a big family, something I didn’t have growing up. Neither of my parents were close to their relatives, and after my dad died, when I was 10 years old, it was just my mom, my sister and me. Then my family seemed to shrink again. Without Dad’s income as a farmer, we couldn’t support ourselves. At 14, I was put in foster care, and later sent to an orphanage. I lived there until I went off…

Praying With Dr. King To honor Martin Luther King, Jr., in the month of his birth, Bob Hostetler, a guideposts.org blogger, shares inspiring prayers composed by the Baptist preacher and civil-rights leader. guideposts.org/mlkprayers Inspiration 2017 Start the New Year on an up note. Check out these surefire motivational quotes at guideposts.org/nyquotes New Year’s Traditions Near and Far From the ball dropping in Times Square to a heaping helping of black-eyed peas, Americans have many traditions for ringing in the New Year. Find out how others greet the New Year around the world. guideposts.org/nytraditions A Dog Named Daisy Lori Raineri (page 10) introduces us to her dog, Daisy, whose intelligence and calm demeanor helped her become a comfort dog for crime victims. guideposts.org/daisydog…

There’s a jewish concept that Lori Raineri tries to live by: tikkun olam. It means repair the world, do what you can to make it a better place. Lori’s a doer. Type A squared. So even picking out a new puppy at the shelter that day in 2006, she was looking for more than a pet to keep her company. The Davis, California, resident is single. No kids. When her two senior dogs died, she couldn’t help but think of how their lives had touched only hers. “I want a dog that helps other people,” she told a friend who’d come with her. “Have you heard about the therapy dogs they use in hospitals?” her friend, who’s a nurse, said. “They comfort patients. Children especially love them.” Wonderful. Tikkun olam.…

He was the one kid i couldn’t seem to reach, no matter what strategy I tried. I was the varsity basketball coach at International Christian High School when I met him. Ten years after I’d left coaching, I still hadn’t forgotten him. He was one of those kids. Frank was 16 years old and a gifted athlete, one of the most talented players I ever coached. Maybe that was why I couldn’t reach him. He saw himself playing college hoops, then becoming a star in the NBA. It was all he ever talked about, the only future he could imagine. I had played Division I college basketball myself, for the Temple University Owls, and I knew how hard it was to make it at that level, let alone in the…

LATELY, ESPECIALLY IN THIS last election cycle, we’ve heard a lot about jobs and factories disappearing from our towns and cities. About businesses that supported generations of workers giving way to automation and globalization. These may be sweeping economic changes that politicians and economists debate, but every job lost, every business that closes, affects families most of all. My family was one of them. You might not think of socks in the same category as steel and automobiles, but sock manufacturers were to my town, Fort Payne, Alabama, what carmakers are to Detroit. And when the industry moved business overseas, we officially lost our claim to being “the Sock Capital of the World.” The name wasn’t an exaggeration. At one time there were 150 sock millsin the area, supporting thousands…

the morning after a showdown with my then three-year-old daughter, Marin, I couldn’t wait to get her off to school. I was weary from the tantrums and her difficulty communicating due to her slowed language development. I ushered her into the car, feeling desperate and dismayed. I needed protection from my hopelessness. I silently recited a familiar hymn: “Jesus, be a fence all around me every day.” That afternoon, I walked toward the school’s playground gate as disenchanted with the little girl I loved as when I’d left that morning. Then I spotted Doug, her preschool teacher, racing to greet me. “You should have seen her today!” he exclaimed. “See that climber?” He pointed excitedly to a piece of playgroundequipment that resembled a rock wall. I nodded. “Well, every day…

TEACHER’S CHOICE Shortly after signing up for Guideposts’ Time for God newsletter last year, I realized what a great complement it is to the print magazine. I love being able to access the stories and devotionals through my e-mail when I’m away from home. The web-exclusive story A Teacher Shares Lessons Her Students Have Taught Her (guideposts.org/lwt), by Louanne Ward Trueblood, was a favorite. She taught high school from 1964 to 1979, and now enjoys getting to know her students as adults. I was an educator for 23 years. Sometimes I feel like a celebrity, since I rarely get through a trip to the store without a smile and a hug from a former student. Over the years I’ve been invited to birthday parties and graduations. Some of my students…

“Of course it’s not possible to experience constant euphoria, but if you’re grateful you can find happiness in everything.” PHARRELL WILLIAMS, who produced and composed the music for the inspirational movie Hidden Figures “It is never right to do wrong, and never wrong to do right.” submitted by Guideposts reader RUBY MIKICH, of Memphis, Tennessee “Failure is part of the process. It’s an opportunity to start over again more wisely.” from the book The Power of Broke, by DAYMOND JOHN, Shark Tank cohost “Don’t be sad that it’s over. Smile because it happened. And that’s really the way I feel about this remarkable opportunity I was given.” VIN SCULLY, the legendary Los Angeles Dodgers’ radio announcer, in his final broadcast before retiring last fall, after 67 years “God writes straight with crooked…

Do you remember that marvelous night last summer when floodlights blazed in New York Bay and the Statue of Liberty emerged from the darkness, lovingly restored, golden torch held high, fireworks sparkling around her? I heard of one little boy, watching on TV, who said, “She’s trying to say something.” Perhaps she was. If the Lady Withthe Lamp could speak a single word, I think I know what that word would be: hope. Hope is what she offered to the millions of immigrants who came to these shores yearning for a better life. And hope is what she still symbolizes today. Hope. As a new year comes to all of us, what better companion could we have? Hope is a dynamic force, a concept full of power. It can bring…

A funeral for a dear friend. A sobering cardiology appointment. A painful procedure at the dermatologist. After the week she’d had, I thought Mom needed to have a little fun. Frankly, I needed it too, having gone with her to the funeral and to both doctors. And I guess I was still holding out hope that we might have some motherdaughter bonding time before it was too late. Which was why I’d suggested we go to the movies to see the new Cinderella. “It’s supposed to be really good,” I said to Mom. “And it stars Lily James— you know, from Downton Abbey?” “Well, I guess I could go,” she said. Not the most enthusiastic response, but then again, Mom wasn’t the effusive type. Not like me. Mom had been…

As Carol Kuykendall and her husband discovered, cancer and its treatment can sap not only your body but also your spirit. We asked Rev. Dr. Julie Berndt of the Good Samaritan Society to suggest Scripture verses that will bolster your spiritual health if you are living with cancer or caring for someone who is. • Practice acceptance. This doesn’t mean giving up. Instead of expending energy resisting your circumstances, just experience them, even if you can’t predict the outcome. As Paul notes in Romans, “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (8:28)—in all things, including suffering (8:18). • Believe that you are not alone in your journey. In the same chapter, Paul tells…

All my life i’d had dogs. but after my Shih Tzu had to be put down at age two because of genetic problems, I vowed, no more. I couldn’t go through the heartbreak. I live alone and I missed having the companionship of a pet. So much that after nine months of a dogless existence, I couldn’t take it anymore. “The house feels empty,” I told my brother. He and his wife live across the street. “I’m getting another dog.” “Carol,” he said, “you’ll be seventyeight soon. We don’t want you out in the rain or snow, walking a dog. If you must have an animal, get a cat!” A cat? Did I even like cats? I’d certainly never lived with one. I was a dog person! Still, to placate…