Joe McKeever

2 weeks ago | afa.net | Stephanie Simmons |Rick Robertson |Hannah Meador |Joe McKeever

Have you ever been stuck in a house with family members who were ill? Once upon a time, all five of my siblings, my dad, and I contracted the flu. To this day, I still remember us all lying around on couches, snoring, watching movies, and trying to recover as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, my mom (who amazingly never gets sick with common illnesses) managed the medicine dosages, ensured we were fed, and accomplished the thousand other things I knew she was also doing.

2 weeks ago | afa.net | Rick Robertson |Hannah Meador |Joe McKeever |Joy Lucius

I have recently been reading through the Gospel of John. It’s taking me longer than I imagined because I keep finding little “nuggets” of new truths. But when I got to John 5:2-8, something I had never considered was brought to my attention. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids – blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.

3 weeks ago | afa.net | Hannah Meador |Joe McKeever |Joy Lucius

If you travel north on Interstate 29 near Rock Port, Missouri, you may notice the remnants of an old farm place. There are gray wooden structures, a pair of grain silos, a rusty flatbed truck, and several trees. Nothing is unusual, except for that one tree. The tree stands out, not because of its beauty, but because of its location. Strangely, the tree lives inside one of the silos. Over time, the tree has grown to an elevation several feet above the rim of the silo.

3 weeks ago | afa.net | Rick Robertson |Joe McKeever |Joy Lucius |Hannah Meador

Beep, beep, beep!Most mornings, the familiar sound of my husband’s alarm clock starts our days off bright and early. He doesn’t typically get up following that first alarm sound. Instead, he sets multiple clocks to ensure he is awake and then keeps hitting snooze. One morning, our then-3-month-old wasn’t too fond of the first blaring morning siren that woke him up. “Ahh!” he yelled loudly as the alarm rang through our bedroom. Following his scream, the two of us couldn’t help but giggle.

3 weeks ago | afa.net | Joe McKeever |Hannah Meador |Alex McFarland |Stacy Singh

“Sigh!”Sunday afternoon, when I felt myself drawing in a deep breath and slowly releasing it for the umpteenth time, I realized that sighs truly have become my go-to expression of grief. I am not sure when I became such an expert at sighing quietly and simply moving on, but the past 23 months since our son’s death have definitely helped hone my sighing skills. I literally find myself committing this breathing tactic several times daily. And Mother’s Day was evidently a high-sigh day for me.