Janet Benlien Reeves

Don’t tell me the plan you make. Show me the plan you complete. For a plan without feet is paralyzed. Make your plan. Build your plan. Then give it calloused feet. * * * Jesus told a parable about two sons whose father asked each to go work in the family vineyard ( Matthew 21:28-32 ). The first son said, “No.” But then he changed his mind and went. The second son said, “Yes.” But he did not follow through. Jesus asked the crowd, “Which of the two did what his father wanted?” (v. 31). The crowd identified the first son. Jesus then told the religious leaders of the day that tax collectors and prostitutes, the outcasts of the day, would enter God's Kingdom before they would. Why? The Father told the people to repent and believe. The religious leaders made a show of being spiritual, yet they did not do what God told them to do. They had no faith in Jesus. On the other hand, the tax collectors and prostitutes that Jesus was talking about did not appear to be candidates for G...

  “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.’” –Matthew 25:34 NIV   The Initial Blessing When I read this verse this morning, the word bless jumped right out at me. I prayed, “Bless me, Father. I can’t wait for the day when you call me to come to You!” Then I added, as I always do when reminded of the last days, “But I will wait because so many more need to come to You.” I started praying for God to bless everyone I know who hasn’t come to know Jesus as Savior yet. When God says, “Come,” I want them all to hear that call. My prayer was like that of a young child at bedtime: “Please bless this person and that person and this other person and don’t forget this person.” I named one after another, asking God to bless them with knowledge of Himself.   The Greater Blessing Next, remembering Jabez ( 1 Chronicles 4:10 ), I asked God to ...

I am trusting God to provide the money, the time, the health— every resource I find so necessary, but if He does not, He is enough. He will always be enough because He is the reason for my being. He created me for Him, to worship Him through all eternity which begins right now, which began when I first knew Him back then at six. But for now, I am here, asking for needs to be met— trusting, waiting, trying, working— all in His presence. If nothing comes of it, He is here. He is there. He is God, and I’m His child. All is well.

From fourth grade until our high school graduation, my best friend, Anne, and I walked the mile home from school together just about every day. Along the way, we chatted about all the things teenage girls talk about—the specifics of which I won’t go into because the content of such teenage girl conversations is sacred, sacrosanct, inviolable, and nobody else’s business. That said, it’s amazing to think about how much and how little two teenagers can say to each other on one twenty-minute walk multiplied by nine years of twenty-minute walks, twice on most school days. Anne and I knew each other—and our families—pretty well. Surprisingly, our one-mile walk only took us across one major street. Although it was larger than a residential street, it was not large enough to require a traffic light. We crossed at a crosswalk with a stop sign. Traffic was so light that many kids cut across before they reached the crosswalk, but Anne and I were adamant rule followers. In fact, once when Anne...

Clutter is noise to the eye A cacophony of chaos That distracts Forces lids shut Like hands over ears Desperate for focus nowhere Yet everywhere to be found Too many choices Eyes need a place to land Clean up clutter Clear view Clear mind Find peace Breathe deep See clear

Sometimes I talk to fictional characters. Sometimes they are my fictional characters. I talk to them to figure out why they are behaving the way they are and how they might respond to different circumstances I may choose to place them in. Most of these conversations take place after I’ve stepped away from my work-in-progress for the day and while I’m considering possibilities for what comes next or trying to figure out why what I thought was going to happen didn’t work out the way I had planned. Believe it or not, authors don’t always get their way. Sometimes their characters surprise them. That’s when authors must rewrite, revise, or let their characters lead. Sometimes I talk to my characters to figure out which I want to do. Sometimes, though, other people’s characters prompt me to talk things over with them, too. Most recently, I responded to a prayer spoken by Dawn Dixon, the main character in Suzanne Woods Fisher’s book, The Sweet Life . [ Spoiler alert : If you haven’t yet r...