by vfcadmin | Aug 27, 2025 | Year of Reflection
For This We Have Been Set Free Ruth Ann Stites, Staff Writer Last month, the United States celebrated the nation’s birthday on the 4th of July. Fireworks, cookouts, and band concerts are some favorite ways to enjoy the anniversary of our nation’s beginning....
by vfcadmin | Aug 20, 2025 | Year of Reflection
No TV from the White House for FDR Ruth Ann Stites, Staff Writer The new season of Masterpiece began to air on public television in June, including “Atlantic Crossing,” a new to me miniseries. It is a fictional account based on the true-to-life friendship between...
by vfcadmin | Aug 13, 2025 | Year of Reflection
An Invitation to Inefficiency Rosa Floyd, Guest Writer I’m in a season of life where caregiving is my daily reality – yet again. The Lord seems to find caregiving a good place to plant me to learn deep lessons. Not surprising, given Paul’s words to children and...
by vfcadmin | Aug 6, 2025 | Year of Reflection
Hard-wired Eternity in Our Minds Ruth Ann Stites, Staff Writer One of my recent book finds was Wray Herbert’s On Second Thought. In it, the author posits two types of thinking Heuristic and Logical. Heuristic thinking can be thought of as “the hard-wired mental...
by vfcadmin | Jul 30, 2025 | Year of Reflection
Voyaging Beyond the Storm: Grief and the Power of Grace Ruth Ann Stites, Staff Writer, with Rosa Floyd, Guest Writer In the summer of 2013, my mother passed away. My sisters and I shared responsibilities that summer, but one thing I had to relinquish was taking part...
by vfcadmin | Jul 23, 2025 | Year of Reflection
Summer’s Abundance Ruth Ann Stites, Staff Writer One of the pleasures of the season of the summer solstice is a drive through the verdant countryside with the light of early evening making the newly cut hay golden. If you drive down a country road with your windows...
by vfcadmin | Jul 16, 2025 | Year of Reflection
Longing for the Heart’s True Home Ruth Ann Stites, Staff Writer The Wind in the Willows provided us with the imagery for a longing for home last week. Mole finds his old home and leaves it again for adventures in the “upper world.” This week I want to look at that...
by vfcadmin | Jul 9, 2025 | Year of Reflection
Leaving Home for the Wider World Ruth Ann Stites, Staff Writer As you have no doubt guessed, I like unusual words. Here’s a good one anthropomorphism defined as “the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities.” In literature this...
by vfcadmin | Jul 2, 2025 | Year of Reflection
How We Will Be Measured Ruth Ann Stites, Staff Writer In our Reflection for Week Twenty-One, I told the stories of two people who lived about 3000 years apart in time, Julia Child and King David. Not only did they live millennia apart, but their deeds were also vastly...
by vfcadmin | Jun 25, 2025 | Year of Reflection
Who We Used to Be Shapes Who We Become Ruth Ann Stites, Staff Writer When I mention the name Julia Child the first image that probably comes to mind would be Julia in her kitchen teaching us how to make something very French ending with the dish beautifully plated and...
