Words incarnate ideas. I hope mine help you love Jesus more.
No Leisure Even to Eat
All you football moms out there can identify with having no leisure even to eat. You’ve carted them to practices and cheered them on in games. You’ve driven the length and width of the state of North Dakota (for example) with kids and crockpots in the trunk. Paper plates, pickle jars, and plastic forks are…
Keep readingSearching Before They’re Lost
My church hosted a 3 on 3 basketball tournament at our local recreation center over the weekend. There was a great turnout, and it was fun to see the young folks competing and laughing. Several people shared their testimonies. Jesus, the Good Shepherd who goes looking for lost sheep, was doing just that on Saturday…
Keep reading20 Chickens and the Good Samaritan
I put an ad on Tradio looking for giveaway chickens or roosters, and I was inundated with calls. The inflated price of chicks competed with the inflated price of eggs this Spring, so instead of buying chicks, I waited. Perhaps someone would have extra chickens in the Fall. They did. After our homeschool group on…
Keep readingColeridge’s Death in Life
*This article was written for the Oct. 23, 2025 edition of the Devils Lake Journal.
Keep readingOut of the Depths
The kitten’s piteous meowing sounded weak. It had fallen down an old well in our yard. My son carefully removed the sheets of corrugated metal and peered into the grimy blackness. “It’s so far down,” he said. “I’m not sure I can get it out.” As one of my daughters went for a long-handled net,…
Keep readingThe Lost Art of the Missionary Story
When Jesus sent His disciples out two by two, they cast out unclean spirits, and they called for people to repent of their sins. They were excited when they returned to Him with the world’s first Christian missionary stories. Missionary stories aren’t in vogue any more. My favorite one, written by Amy Carmichael, a missionary…
Keep readingOn Praying for Your Pastor
I prayed for my pastor today. He had crawled up into the church’s playground equipment and was scrubbing graffitied profanity with a magic eraser. As I watched him scrub, I thought of the many times people brought him their sins, cloaked as problems to be solved. Instead of offering magic erasers, my pastor gave the…
Keep readingThe Resurrection of Liturgy
This article first appeared in the Devils Lake Journal Sept. 25, 2025. liturgy: (n) a form or formulary according to which public religious worship is conducted; from the Greek “leitourgia,” meaning public service The mass might have been in Latin for all my classmates knew. I peeked to the right and to the left. It…
Keep readingConservatism’s Door to the Gospel
Charlie Kirk didn’t begin his political activism from a Christian point of view. He, like many others, thought that religion could be held separate from the political sphere, a self-imposed separation of church and state. But, the more he became involved in conservative politics and policies, the more he changed his views on the role…
Keep readingWhatness
On the reservation where I live, there is a little town called Tokio. It is funny when visitors ask, “Tokyo? Isn’t that in Japan?” Well, yes, and no. Tribal historian Louis Garcia once told me how Tokio got its name. The railroad was going to be coming through that area, but it was sparsely populated.…
Keep readingDisarmed
This article first appeared in the September 4, 2025 edition of the Devils Lake Journal. In 1798, President John Adams issued a proclamation that May 9th be “a day of solemn humiliation, fasting, and prayer” due to the danger the United States was facing. France threatened. Commerce halted. The fledgling nation had barely enough to…
Keep readingTimeless
This article first appeared in the Devils Lake Journal August 28, 2025. In a conversation with my favorite three-year-old, I said, “I will come pick you up at five o’clock.” She promptly reversed the camera on the phone she was holding so that I could see the digital clock in her mom’s car. “Look Grandma,”…
Keep readingMade Beautiful
“Hello? This is Dakota Baptist Church.” “Sarahcanyoubringmeapop??” One of my responsibilities the summer I was seventeen was to answer the church phone. The caller was a twelve year old girl. She spoke so quickly that all her words ran together, and we had the same conversation everyday. “Well, where are you?” “Atmyhouse.” “Where’s your house?”…
Keep readingUrgent Need
“Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead,” my husband was preaching from James. I happened to turn and glance over my shoulder at the kitchen where two ladies were making a potluck meal. A third lady stood toward the back of the entryway waving frantically. I wondered if she might be…
Keep readingHow Long, O Lord?
I have a Whisperer at Bible Club. She sidles up to me, cupped hands around her mouth, ready to whisper shocking details about any of the other little kids sitting nearby. This week, it was, “Sarah, did you know that [so and so] said he was going to steal [so and so’s] bike?!” “We won’t…
Keep readingCarrying the Banner
I love that movie from the nineties called, “Newsies.” Homeless, streetsmart boys find employment selling newspapers, and they often do it by embellishing the headlines. Their theme is that they are “carrying the banner.” I thought of the movie, and its catchy song, this week at backyard Bible club. The kids in my neighborhood were…
Keep readingSurvey Says…
I only see that old game show “Family Feud” now in doctors offices, but I watched a lot of it as a child. I remember the host saying in his dramatic voice, “Survey says…” while all eyes turned to the results on the screen. Every summer, I get a general survey of what is troubling…
Keep readingBig Sins, Little Sins
I cradled the little rubbery model of a 12 week old fetus in my hand. “You were only this big when your mother was three months pregnant,” I said to the little girl I was talking to. Her eyes grew wide. “I was so little!” she said. We talked about how God made her, planned…
Keep readingAcquainted with Grief
A married couple came to me after Sunday school. They had eaten supper with one of our students, and they were troubled. “This little girl shouldn’t even know about the things she was telling us,” the wife said. The husband agreed and asked the girl’s name again so that they could pray for her. Both…
Keep readingSafe Room
Impending thunderstorms prompted the Spirit Lake Nation to announce locations for taking shelter last week. Many people planned to shelter in the sturdy recreation centers, and some of our church family planned to use the basement of the parsonage house as their place of safety. Everyone in our community formed a plan before we heard…
Keep readingAn Earthenware Vessel
While we were at family camp last week, Israel bombed Iran, and I sprained my ankle. Forty-five people went with us to camp, and it was a wild and woolly week full of Jesus, fellowship, and fun. We were worshiping together around a campfire when a friend leaned over and showed me her phone screen.…
Keep readingHamstrung Horses
I recently visited the Hi-Line Railroad Bridge in Valley City, ND. In operation since 1908, the bridge is 3,860 feet long and 162 feet above the Sheynne river. It was amazing to watch a train cross it as I stood watching from far below. “Because the bridge was of vital importance in moving supplies and…
Keep readingAnother Chicken Parable
The weather has been warm enough to move my chickens out of the coop and into the chicken tractors. Chicken tractors are mobile coops that roll around the yard. After a whole winter cooped up in the coop, the chickens should have been very happy to graze green grass and feel the Spring breezes. But…
Keep readingA Prayer Listen
“Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil,” the Preacher wrote in his book of Ecclesiastes. This past Saturday, there were a lot of things I could have…
Keep readingDelusions
The prophet Jeremiah watched the young men of his generation trudge up into the hills to worship a delusion. Lots of young men traveled the paths up into the high places around Israel. They wanted to worship an idol that would guarantee their health, wealth, and well-being. They all lost their way. The idol consumed…
Keep readingApril Showers
By the time you read this, it will be May Day. We will have had our April showers, and I will be thinking about what and how and when to plant my garden. Watching the rain fall outside the window, I have alternately thought about the gloomy children in The Cat in the Hat and…
Keep readingTravel Weary Yet Full
When the disciples followed Jesus up on the mountainside, their baskets were empty. They’d already been on the road, ministering to others. They were weary, worn, and empty. My backpack was full as I wandered through the Denver airport this week. I had a three hour layover, and I was ready to participate in the…
Keep readingEaster Everyday
In Paul’s last letter, he wrote to Timothy, “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into His heavenly kingdom.” Tradition has it that Paul was beheaded by Nero because of his faith in Jesus. And it does seem kind of ludicrous, doesn’t it? Is being beheaded coming safely anywhere?…
Keep readingA Little Salty
Listen HERE There’s an old wooden case filled with salt spoons hanging on the wall of our dining room. A salt spoon is a tiny spoon that people used to scoop salt from a tiny dish called a salt cellar. Those were the days before salt shakers were a thing. When I was about eight…
Keep readingWhy Don’t They Fast?
Listen HERE Inquiring minds wanted to know: why were the disciples of Jesus not fasting when everyone else was? This month, my Muslim friends have been fasting for Ramadan, and my Catholic friends are fasting for Lent. Some years, I have fasted from some foods during the Lenten season. This year, I have not. Some…
Keep readingWhen God Made Fruit
Listen HERE A ministry called “On Eagle’s Wings” sends us interns every March. Each young man who has come has been saved by Jesus and OEW helps them learn to share their “hope story.” They spend the summer months traveling to different reservations across North America sharing the story of how Jesus saved them. Though…
Keep reading60 Poems Lost
Listen HERE In a recent prisoner exchange, Afghanistan surrendered an American Christian for an Afghani convicted of selling drugs and terrorizing. The Christian had spent the past two years in jail in Afghanistan even though he had all the proper documentation, had initially been welcomed by governing authorities, and was in the country to help…
Keep readingThe Old Cane Pole
My dad has a long cane pole hanging in his garage. When we visited for Christmas, I asked him to tell my sons about it. “Well, it was Papa’s,” he said, meaning his dad, “and he called it a Calcutta cane pole.” Dad went on to describe the way Papa held the pole, the way…
Keep readingLadies and Gentlemen
Listen HERE Since my family is studying Medieval History this year, our car trips have been full of The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Men of Iron, and Ivanhoe. Chivalry is not dead in these stories! Perhaps the courtesy and manners in these stories only ever lived in myth, but I still raise my daughters…
Keep readingSpit on. Struck. Slapped.
Listen HERE There’s an awkward part of Handel’s Messiah where the alto sings, “Despised. Rejected,” over and over. In that section, she also repeats, “He gave His back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair…” It is always a little uncomfortable to think about Jesus having hair on his…
Keep readingJust the Right Time
As a home educator, I have one of those closets in my house. You know the one I mean. It’s the closet that won’t shut and is the black hole of everything homeschooling. Puzzle pieces, math manipulatives, parts of speech sorting activities, and dice all go to the closet to die. (Pun intended.) When I…
Keep readingPrayer in the Present Tense
Listen HERE We drove 2,088 miles to be with my parents for Christmas and 1,662 miles to come back home again from my in-laws’ house. Driving from the top of the country to the bottom and back again gives my family the opportunity to see varied landscapes, animals, architecture, and people. It also expands my…
Keep readingThe Burden of Advent
Did you get it right this year? Advent, I mean. Did you do it right? Did your perfectly clean house smell like gingerbread? Were all of your gifts purchased and wrapped before December began? Have you had angelic family devotions every night where your children gathered around the piano and sang Silent Night perfectly on…
Keep reading“Letters from Father Christmas” : A Review for the Advent Season
In 1920, a small boy asked his father a simple question: “What is Father Christmas like and where does he live?” In answer, the father began the tradition of writing a newsy letter from Father Christmas to his children, detailing the preparations for the holiday, the past year’s events, and other fun tidbits from the…
Keep readingThe Blindness of Advent
Listen HERE Fourteen years ago, my grandmother gifted us an ornate advent calendar. It is shaped like a house, and each door is numbered. She also sent little ceramic animals that I remember from my own childhood. “Put one in each door,” she wrote in her letter, “and then, each day you can see who…
Keep readingThe Battle of Advent
Listen HERE I live on a reservation where I see many battles. Even while I watch my little boy fight imaginary foes with a wooden sword, I am praying for my brothers and sisters in Christ who are fighting the battles of addiction, grief, loneliness, rejection, generational trauma, and hopelessness. Those foes rise up with…
Keep readingGrowing Popcorn
Listen HERE It takes 100 days for popcorn to grow. I planted the seeds in May. I watched the stalks grow throughout June and July. By August 25th, the yellow ears were ready to harvest. My kids helped me take the kernels off about fifty of the cobs, and I couldn’t wait to fry them…
Keep readingWord of the Year
Listen HERE I am a word person, and my word for 2024 was “Rise.” I had in mind Jesus’s resurrection from the dead, getting up earlier (an unreached goal of mine every year), and overcoming obstacles. I hadn’t thought of rising dough or the kneading it takes to ensure the rising works right. I haven’t…
Keep readingToday’s Babel
Listen HERE What havoc the original Babel incident caused! God confused peoples’ languages, forcing them to disperse, teaching them that uniting behind evil is not uniting at all. What if it happened again? But this time, God determined the point at which the world was full of language. The last word would be the proverbial…
Keep readingPickleball Lessons
When I play pickleball with my son, we both go all out. Pickleball is America’s fastest growing sport according to USA Pickleball, and it is easy enough to learn that our whole family can play together. It is fun to watch our children play with full effort, and I am thankful that our local pickleball…
Keep readingOn the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness: A Book Review and a Memory
When I first read Andrew Peterson’s title, “On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness,” I remembered being there myself. My father was a fisherman, and it was nighttime on the Atlantic in January. The slap of gentle waves against the ship made me sleepy as we sat silently side by side, staring out…
Keep readingRoom for Rent?
Listen HERE “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in Him and He in God.” Memorizing this verse for AWANA gave my seven year old and I alot to talk about. He wondered: “Where exactly is God living in me? Right here?” (Pointing at his chest). “Well, is Jesus the Son…
Keep readingAutumnal Hope
Listen HERE “The seasons are a sort of disease all young poets have, it seems,” the teacher says to Emily in L.M. Montgomery’s “Emily of New Moon.” This makes two weeks in a row that I am referencing nature, but it is hard not to during such a beautiful Fall. Why did the Lord make…
Keep readingOn the Hunt for Adventure
My eleven year old burst into tears while sitting on the couch. As I rushed over to investigate, I noticed a worn copy of Howard Pyle’s The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood in her hand. “What’s the matter?” I asked. “All the adventures happen in books and never to meeeeee…” she cried. Her tears and…
Keep readingWonder of Worship
Listen HERE Wonder attracts our attention to detail. My youngest son and I made leaf tracings this week with red, yellow, and golden leaves. His wonder at the beauty of color made him concentrate on the shape of the leaves, their edges, their veins. Because he studied the details, he then could identify and name…
Keep readingSolution for Disaster
Listen HERE When there are dirty dishes on the counter, it’s surprising how quickly my children remember what everyone else ate. Accusations fly faster than mashed potatoes from a spoon. Eventually, the guilty party stops throwing accusations and begins flinging excuses. It’s rare for someone to confess immediately, and even rarer for someone to voluntarily…
Keep readingDear Josephine
Find this article in its entirety right HERE at Story Warren. I am honored to be an ally in imagination. In Beatrix Potter’s imagination, Josephine Bunny was the hard-working single mother of Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-Tail, and Peter and was licensed to sell tea and tobacco. With a business to run and four little ones to…
Keep readingWashed Away
Listen HERE My grandmother led us stalwartly up the mountain road. She had on her walking hat and made sure that we each had our walking sticks, either intricately carved or lobbed off a nearby tree. Each walk had a different story: There’s a secret message tree just ahead with a knothole where explorers put…
Keep readingThe Well-Worn Path
Listen HERE As my husband and I walked recently, I looked down in the grass and wondered what could have made the two-track trail there. It didn’t seem wide enough to have been the wheels of our golf cart, and just as I started suspecting someone of trespassing on a four-wheeler, it occurred to me…
Keep readingWhite for Harvest
Listen HERE My son has been watching everyday for the harvester to come gather in the wheat that has been growing next to our house. He got to ride on the seeder when they planted the field, and he has been watching it grow all summer. Today, the field was white as the sun shone…
Keep readingHow to Vote
Listen HERE I’ve been contemplating who to vote for. I’ve been praying about it. I’ve been reading (a little) about it. I’m kind of sick of hearing about it. Two elections ago, I wrote in a name. Last election, I almost didn’t vote, but then, I remembered my grandfather’s Purple Heart and voted how I…
Keep readingHorrible Made Good
I don’t go to Sunday School intending to break up fist fights, but it’s happened a time or two. After the most recent altercation, one of the offending parties flung himself down on his face in the grass and sobbed, “My life is so horrible!” He detailed the reasons why, and I couldn’t disagree. This…
Keep readingRusty Repentance
Listen HERE Snirt is an old plow truck. My husband bought it, and my children named it after the substance that results from the mixing of snow and dirt. Neither the truck nor the mixture is very pretty. Snirt is a 1984 Ford 350, and I don’t know what color it used to be, but…
Keep readingFood for Thought
Listen HERE My children started school this week. One thing I love about homeschooling is reading alongside my kids and setting aside time for reading myself. I’ve read some excellent books this year, and I am sharing them with you today in the hopes that it will spur us both on to God-exalting mindfulness and…
Keep readingBelonging
Listen HERE A friend of mine recently shared about attending a large cultural event in our community. She’d been many times before. She knew most of the people participating. But this year, it was different. As soon as she arrived, she thought, “I don’t belong here.” As a Christian, my friend recognized that a large…
Keep readingThe Value of One
Listen HERE I have spent most of the summers of my adult life teaching the good news of Jesus to hundreds of children. I usually take huge crates of snacks, chalk, bubbles, and crafts to neighborhoods nearby, and the children gather when they see me coming. This summer was different. This summer, I focused on…
Keep readingA Butterfly’s Path
Listen HERE Why don’t butterflies fly in a straight path? Today, I watched a yellow swallowtail butterfly dodge and flutter around the birds gathered at my birdfeeder. None were able to catch it, and it occurred to me that its haphazard flight path saves it from harm. As I watched, my teenage daughter was telling…
Keep readingGrass and Flowers
The wildflowers have overtaken both shoulders of the dirt road where I live. When I walk there, I watch bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds thriving on the pollen. It is a blessing to step out the front door into so much fragrant beauty. Whether the sun is shining on them or hail and wind batter them,…
Keep readingFor Dust You Are
Listen HERE “For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.” I’m sitting here at my writing desk, looking at the shelf I dusted yesterday. I had really let it accumulate, and all my knick-knacks are looking brand new without their layered coats of gray dust. Dust is insignificant unless it settles on…
Keep readingGolden Shields
Like every other angsty Christian teenager in the 90’s, I wanted faith strong enough to stand undaunted before a firing squad. We were listening to “Jesus Freak” and “Consuming Fire,” inviting our friends to “see you at the pole,” and our budding faith was ready to stand, to go, and to fight- for Jesus. My…
Keep readingBeautiful Little Fingers
Listen HERE Summer is the season of sidewalk chalk. Both at home and at church, I have crates of sidewalk chalk to keep little fingers busy and to share the Good News through color. Yellow. God is holy, and He made everything. Black. We sinned and disobeyed God, separating ourselves from him forever. Red. He…
Keep readingUnable
Listen HERE Last year, when my family and church traveled to camp in Medora, ND, I was too afraid to climb to the top of the butte nearby. I made it halfway up, and then my youngest son’s exuberance and aversion to caution met my fear of heights. I sat down right where I was…
Keep readingSpiritual Sacrifices
Listen HERE The little boy motioned to me to bend down closer so that he could speak into my ear. Before then, the only whole sentences I’d heard him utter were, “Have to go bathroom,” and “Is it time to eat yet?” He had a long tale to tell that brought waves of grief as…
Keep readingWhat’s a Buckler?
Listen HERE “And under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and buckler.” I’ve read it many times. I’ve quoted it many times. However, this week, I read it, looked up, and wondered, “What is a buckler?” Do you know? After googling it, I went around asking my kids. My teenage…
Keep readingRuts
Listen HERE The weather is just right for evening walks, and we’ve been making the most of it. My youngest son recently learned how to ride a bike, so he pedals alongside me as I pull the toddler in the wagon. We live on a dirt road, and the spring rain has left quite a…
Keep readingElect Exiles
Listen HERE Fireworks exploding in an over-stuffed garage caused a housefire one summer. Soon after the fire, I saw a sad procession as I was driving: a boy pushing a lawnmower, his younger brother wearing a garden hose wrapped around his shoulders, little sister with a black garbage bag slung over her back, and baby…
Keep readingSome Like it Hot
Listen HERE There’s a little one staying with us now who describes everything unpleasant as “hot!” Prickly pine needles, cold ice cubes, cat scratches, and the oven are all “hot.” At least when I say, “Hot!” about the electric fence, she gets the picture and stays away. I was thinking of her description of danger…
Keep readingFilled with Glory
Listen HERE Have you ever had a keylime bismarck at Devils Lake Doughnuts? If you thought perfectly puffed pastry rolled in powdered sugar couldn’t be improved on, then you haven’t gotten to the keylime pudding in the middle. When the Apostle Peter wrote to the believers in exile, he reminded them that they should “rejoice…
Keep readingLord of the Little While
Listen HERE When a child has been removed from her parents’ custody, a little while takes a long time. In a little while, you can have a visit with your mom. In a little while, you’ll be able to see your dad. In a little while, you’ll be restored to them and able to go…
Keep readingAccidental Lent, On Purpose Resurrection
Listen HERE Some years, I am very intentional about how I will grow closer to Jesus during the Lenten season. I make elaborate plans about what I will fast from and which devotionals I will read. Perhaps the memories of celebrating Lent during my Catholic school days impress me with the importance of being satisfied…
Keep readingPlanting Abiding Seeds
It is almost time to decide which seeds to buy for our garden. I want to take my time in choosing because I almost always make mistakes. One year, I bought round zucchini seeds (Round zucchini are the worst kind of squash and only fit for pigs), and last year, I bought pole beans instead…
Keep readingDeconstructed
Our pigs have torn one wall off of their only shelter. The chickens are just about as bad, having picked the insulation out of one side of the chicken house. The cow continually breaks the hay ring so she can lay on her food and peer witlessly at the unused bedding in the barn. North…
Keep readingTables in the Wilderness
This week, the Lord asked me to do something that I did not want to do. First, I tried the docile Moses approach of offering excuses: “I don’t feel well.” “What if bad stuff happens?” “What if it’s haaaaaard?” The Lord told me the same thing He told Moses. “My name is not the What-If.…
Keep readingReaching Out
Sitting beside the deathbed, I noticed that the last efforts of the woman were to reach out her hand. Was she reaching for water? prayer beads? a photograph? Her reach was unwearying. I took her hand. She squeezed mine and then was able to rest. It reminded me of my children when they were small.…
Keep readingCorrect Formula for Volume
It was a typical Tuesday. I was doing math with my fifth grader. When I am teaching my children, I try to give them my undivided attention. Church business, ministry things, laundry, and bills take a back seat. It was a good thing they did on Tuesday because math needed my full, focused attention. “A…
Keep readingHere Hovering
It’s 3:30am on Sunday, and I am awake. The phone has buzzed several times, and I know it is darkness calling. Saturday night is attack time for the enemy. The Father of lies saves his best ones for Saturday nights to try to pollute the chance of Sunday morning resurrection. Sickness, sin, death, and the…
Keep readingBack to the Ark
Since we were going to be driving across the country anyway, my children, my adventurous mom, and I decided to visit The Ark Encounter in Kentucky. We had visited several years ago, but we were excited to build on our knowledge. I have a particular interest in the pitch Noah used to cover the ark,…
Keep readingOne: A Poem to Worship By
The unity of One admits naught of two, yet strand of three is unbroken. True weaving is done by Proficient who made all that I see with words spoken.
Keep readingNot Invited
I was recently summoned for my first tour of jury duty. I would have been excited except I wasn’t at home to get the notice in time. You don’t just wiggle out of a summons. You are mandated to answer. I called the courthouse and was graciously allowed to serve at a different time. I…
Keep readingBecause He Trusted
I went to the cemetery alone because I thought it would be a difficult visit. I pulled up, noticing the live oaks contrasting with the dead tombstones. The trees’ branches were covered in green ferns that gave them a live, jungly look. I found the grave and stood looking down at the only earthly remains…
Keep readingThe Fine Wine
A woman darted out from the shoulder of the road. My husband slowed down to try to avoid hitting her. She still bumped into the side of the van. We rolled down the window. “Please,” she sobbed, “please. I need a ride.” We told her we would drop off our children at home and come…
Keep readingHang On
Though I love the icy North Dakota prairies I call home, my first home was the tropical Atlantic coast of south Florida. In the year before I was married, I rode out three hurricanes there with my family, standing in awe beside my brother at the stillness in the eye of the storm. The eye…
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Sarah Dixon Young 