A Michigan football game, a New York fashion show, a walk with my dog Gracie, a turtle named George, my mother, 12-step recovery, a bum hip, a collection of shoes. These are a few of my favorite things? Well, almost.
Actually they’re the subject matter of some of my devotions in Daily Guideposts 2018, our popular annual devotional book, which I’ve been contributing to for more than 20 years. In the beginning, I figured I’d write for only a couple of editions of Daily Guideposts, because I assumed I’d run out of interesting things to write about. Daily Guideposts is different from other devotional books because it is filled with short, personal stories and events straight from the writers’ everyday lives. Each little story is accompanied by a prayer and a piece of Scripture. There are about 50 writers from all over the country who make up our family of contributors.
And we are much like a family, our readers have long told us. They draw strength and inspiration, they say, from reading about the challenge of facing each new day with faith and optimism. We writers share some of our most intimate struggles and joys—with our families, our work, our communities, our faith—along with our quietest, most satisfying spiritual moments. (Mine often come with Gracie, hiking the woods and hills of western Massachusetts.)
Serving the Daily Guideposts audience has given me the gift of putting daily events in sharp spiritual focus. I can honestly say that, like the hundreds of thousands of our readers, Daily Guideposts has helped me grow in my faith and see the role God plays in every moment of my life, from a butterfly that once rode on my shoulder for an hour to the lonely bent steak knife my mother always insisted on setting by her plate as a gesture of humility. These are the daily lessons I continue to learn.
It was foolish of me to think I’d run out of devotional subjects. Year after year, life gives me all the material I need. I’d love to be able to share some of it with you.
