Teach Your Children

By Dorothy Ward-Winters

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. (Proverbs 22:6  NIV)

Our duty as parents is to train our child to be a responsible adult, just as our parents trained us. Why did we think they could only be happy if we gave them their heart’s desires?

I had it rough when I was small, and I wanted my children to have an easier life. Easier and happier. Happier meant stuffed animals, tricycles, bicycles, (I balked at motorcycles), designer clothes, cell phones, computers, I-Pods, and so on, things I did not have. No matter how hard I tried to satisfy her, there was always something new she craved. I never could make her understand that money does not grow on trees.

Read more

Every Step You Take

By Dorothy Ward-Winters –

Gal 5:25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. (NIV)  Job 31:4 Does he not see my ways and count my every step? (NIV)

Read more

They’re Tearing Down Mother’s House

By Dorothy Ward-Winters

I am deeply saddened.

The city pasted a red sign on the door: This house is in dangerous condition. It is condemned.”

It’s true the electrical system is outdated, but it still worked. The plumbing was eroded and water constantly seeped out of holes in the lines under the yard. But it still worked. Paint is peeling from the wooden siding, but there’s enough left to show the color–green. Entering the house through the back door is tricky–the porch is sinking on one side. But it’s usable. No one lives there now, but I still treasure the house. It’s the only house Mother and Father owned.
Read more

The Perfect Christmas Gift

By Dorothy Ward-Winters

Many men are challenged when it comes to selecting a gift for their wife, especially during the Christmas season. My husband is gift-selection-for-the-wife challenged in the extreme. TV commercials have no effect on him. A pretty girl wearing a mink stole extolling its virtues for the wife would not occur to him to think she was talking about his wife. A mink stole in Texas? A plastic raincoat perhaps.

I once hinted for a vial of Chanel No. 5, a much advertised perfume during the 1950s and still popular today. Innocent that I was, I had no idea what it cost, but I wanted a bottle. Once I discovered the cost, I lost my desire for it. I knew we could use that money to purchase pajamas for a family of ten. I did not get the perfume.

Jewelry? Clothes? Each selection presented more obstacles. Poor husband, getting more and more frustrated would finally give up, meet me in the coffee shop, and confess, “Failed again”.

Read more