by Marie | Christmas, Devotionals, Faith, Hope, Joy, Life, Marie Wells Coutu, Mended Vessels, Such a Moment
Can you feel it? The anticipation, excitement, hope, and wonder in the air as Christmas approaches? Or have you gotten too focused on the shopping, baking, decorating, and list-making to notice? Christmas is the season of anticipation. The four weeks leading up to...
by Marie | Faith, Fathers, Gratitude, Joy, Life, Marie Wells Coutu, Memories, Names of God, security, Such a Moment
With Father’s Day less than two weeks away, my thoughts drift back to one of my favorite childhood memories of my daddy. I had fallen and cut my knee open on a gravel driveway. Today, the injury would probably warrant stitches but our family had no insurance and...
by Marie | Faith, Holidays, Joy, Life, Love, Marie Wells Coutu, Memorials, Mended Vessels, Mother's Day, Such a Moment, Traditions
At the beginning of the movie Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye proclaims, “Without our traditions, our lives would be as shaky as… as a fiddler on the roof!” We celebrated Mother’s Day yesterday, and I thought about a tradition we had when I was...
by Marie | Devotionals, Faith, Joy, Life, Marie Wells Coutu, Mended Vessels, security, Waiting
Like hundreds of thousands of others, we spent much of the weekend waiting for and watching the progress of Hurricane Irma. We’re safe in Iowa, but we have many friends in Fort Myers and other parts of Florida, and we’re concerned about our winter home...
by Marie | Faith, Joy, Marie Wells Coutu, Memories, Such a Moment, Thankfulness
Memories are funny things. Some are wonderful, while others are so horrid we’d rather forget them, but can’t. A smell, a tune, or a taste can trigger a memory. Sometimes we remember an incident so insignificant, we don’t even know why it came to...
by Marie | Beginnings, Christmas, Devotionals, Faith, Joy, Life, Marie Wells Coutu, Such a Moment
Hard to believe, but this past Sunday was the first week of Advent–the beginning of the beginning. “Advent” means “coming” in Latin, and for centuries Christians have observed the four weeks leading up to Christmas as a time of...
