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Julie Long

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Some mountains are climbed. Some are tunneled through. Some are conquered one shovel at a time. And some can only be moved by faith. A Chinese proverb, Yu gong yi shan, carries a meaning similar to the familiar phrase, “Faith can move mountains.” The proverb comes from an ancient fable…

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We all have a way of deciding what matters most. Sometimes our priorities are revealed by what we say. More often, they are revealed by what receives our time, our attention, our resources, and our best. A farmer once learned this lesson in an amusing—and somewhat uncomfortable—way. One day, he…

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Devotions

There are moments when life leaves us standing still—not because we have nowhere to go, but because we aren’t sure which way to turn. The path ahead may be unfamiliar, the answers may seem out of reach, and the silence can make us wonder if we’ve somehow lost our way.…

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Mountains envelop more than 80 percent of China’s Hunan province, leaving many villages isolated from one another. Among these jagged peaks, Nüshu was formed. Experts believe Nüshu is the only writing system in the world created and used exclusively by women. Meaning “women’s writing,” Nüshu was a way for women…

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A story is told about an old mariner’s chart on display in the British Museum in London. The map, drawn in 1525, shows the North American coastline. The cartographer wrote several intriguing notations on areas of the map representing unexplored regions. He wrote: “Here be giants,” “Here be fiery scorpions,”…

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For most of her life, Maud Lewis lived in a pint-sized, one-room house near Digby, Nova Scotia, with no running water or electricity. The 10-by-9-foot cottage became her canvas, and she painted almost everything. Birds and butterflies fluttered across the door. Vibrant flowers covered the windows, the walls, cupboards, the…

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Martin Luther wrote, “Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in spring-time.” At the end of every winter, we witness a miracle—life coming from death. Bare branches form green leaves, brown grass turns into a lovely meadow as spring blooms…

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