Sarah's Words of Wit(sdom)

Vacuuming is like a dance. Precise, constant movement to reach every inch of the floor. Consistent motion is a thing of beauty. Push…pull, push…pull . The carpet tickled the bottom of Meg’s feet and the whir of vacuum cleaner encased her eardrums. She pushed the bumper of the vacuum cleaner into the last corner and tapped the button to turn off the motor with her toe. Ever since she’d taken up the job of a housekeeper, she’d been to some pretty interesting houses. But this house, by far, was most interesting. If houses could talk, this one would. It would tell Meg its stories of old: how it withheld rain, wind, thieves, and ornery children. Its Victorian style gave the house a certain old mystique. Pictures lined the wooden shelf on the clean white wall beside her. Most were black and white photos, some were sepia. Though the photos were framed, the edges were jagged and the corners looked sticky, as if they sat in a photo album for decades. She wondered what prompted Ms. Tyers

Click here to see what others are thankful for today. Dear God, Thank You. Thank you for being You; my great and awesome God. You’re amazing. Thank You for my family. Before I was born, You knew me. You knew just what I needed in a family. You knew I needed supportive parents, a sister I can always talk to, and a brother who is always around when I want to hang out. You knew what annoys me about my family now will help me deal with people in the future. Thank You. Thank You for supplying me with my needs: a house, a bed, food, a car; even the little things I so often take for granted, like my computer or TV. Thank You for safety, thank You for health. Thank You for life. Thank You for rain, for sunshine. Thank You for the good times in life and thank You for the times I think are bad. Help me see that the outcome is always for the better. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You for allowing me to be homeschooled. Before I even knew I liked to write, You knew that being homeschooled would allow me

This is a piece of writing from a story I wrote: The door flung open before Blake could even reach it. His mother stood there, apron tied around her short, stocky figure, flour dusting her graying head of hair. “Blake!” She called to her son. A smile almost bigger than she was spread across her face. “I’m so glad you came!” “You know I wouldn’t miss my sister’s college homecoming for the world.” Blake smiled at his mom, towering over her. Despite the fact Blake was now taller than his mother, he knew that to her, he would always be her little boy. Mom drew Blake into a quick hug, then pulled away. “Well come inside out of this blazing heat!” She scolded him as if it were his fault he was standing outside. Blake stepped inside and scanned the room. Balloons and streamers covered foyer’s ceiling and over the entryway to the kitchen/dining room, a big banner read Welcome Home Lexi! “Wow, look at this place,” Blake sniffed the air like a prairie dog. “Something smells really good, mom,” he

There’s something with a Rupp family vacation that always turns into a quite interesting story. I wrote this in January of ’08 for a Christian Writer’s Guild assignment. “Was that a bat?” My mom asked with terror in her voice and eyes. “Yes, as a matter of fact it was.” the tour guide at Ohio Caverns in West Liberty Ohio answered. “You’re very lucky to see a bat in the Caverns. Not everyone gets to see one flying down here.” My family and I stopped here on our way to Logan, Ohio to rent a cabin in the Hocking Hills area of Southern Ohio for our family vacation in November. Just as Mom’s heart rate was starting to slow to a normal beat, she caught sight of another bat flying around the corner of the intersecting tunnels in the cavern. She shrieked and grabbed onto my sister. “Sorry,” Mom apologized to the tour guide, “I’m scared of bats.” “That’s alright,” He replied. “You did well compared to some of the other people who’ve come into the cavern scared of bats.” Chuckling, he continued,

Raindrops tap-danced on the roof to the rumbling music played by the clouds that released them. Soft rain fell straight down, misting the blades of bright green grass. Some birds waited out the rain in the still dryness of a tree, chirping a bit to entertain themselves. Water gathered in low spots on the street, some drops finding their way to join, causing several centrifugal ripples. Zoe leaned on the window frame and gazed outside. Though the sun peeked its rays from behind a plump, white cloud to the east, more storm clouds slid across the sky to the west. The brightness of the sun caused the storm clouds to look all the more malicious. Like the sun’s evil smirk on Zoe’s neighborhood. Like everyone, even the sun has a bad side. Zoe wouldn’t trust anyone who seems like they don’t. She learned that lesson the hard way. Men like Garrett cannot be trusted. Zoe would never make that mistake again. Click here for an older post I wrote about Zoe.

As you may already know, I have been praying for my future husband for years. I have even made up a list of characteristics he must have – or should have. Some of the things on that list are going to be hard for the poor guy to live up to. That got me thinking: what am I doing to prepare myself for this amazing man of my future? Shouldn’t I be practicing character that’s hard to live up to as well? I read Proverbs 31:10-31 this week and it talks about being a “wife of noble character”. Now this is a difficult list to live up to. We don’t necessarily have to get up before dawn every morning to make breakfast and search near and far to find wool and flax, busily spinning and twisting the fibers. Unless you really want to, it’s a little outdated. Now we buy our clothes and blankets from a store and have pastries you can pop in the toaster oven for 5 minutes and voila! they’re done. But we can learn a lesson from this Proverbs 31 woman. The lesson is hard work and discipline . Th

Writing is hard. Anyone who says it’s easy must have never tried it. I’m the kind of girl who is constantly crafting plots in her head and creating new characters. But as soon as I open up that new Word Document and see the blank white piece of virtual paper, I suddenly have a writer’s blackout. Sometimes, we writers need a little encouragement. According to the Webster’s Dictionary, to encourage is to inspire with courage or hope. There are two specific people in my life who have done just that for me. 1. My mom. She has been so supportive of me from the very beginning. She’s never too busy to read anything I write and always takes the time to edit it. Sometimes I wonder if that’s a good or bad thing.☺ I remember the first time I wrote a book. It was about talking animals who lived in a little kingdom. Understandable for an eight-year-old to write about. But my mom encouraged me to write what turned into a three (ten-paged) book series. As I matured, so did what I wanted to write abou

Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m still not fully unpacked from a weekend at the She Speaks Conference in North Carolina. Sometimes it’s a real pain. I did unpack my clothes to wash them and put my bags of toiletries in the bathroom. But it’s the little things that litter the bottom; pencils notebooks, band-aids and chapstick. Even in my toiletry bags, cotton rounds, dental floss, and toothpaste still lay inside. That made me wonder…are there little things in my “suitcase” I don’t want to get rid of that God wants me to give up to Him? I get rid of all the big stuff that everyone can see, but it’s the little stuff no one knows about that I don’t want to unpack. I zip up my suitcase and drag it behind me so no one can see the shameful little things I’m carrying with me. In Luke 14:33, Jesus tells us, “Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” Everything . For me, it’s my dreams that are so hard to give up to God. I feel like if I give them up, I’ll never accomplis

First of all, I’d like to thank everyone who prayed for me while I was at She Speaks . I could feel all the prayers as I glowed with a confidence that usually stays hidden in atmospheres such as conferences. It’s going to be hard to squeeze this amazing experience into a brief blog entry, but I’ll try! Here it goes… On Thursday at 3:00 in the morning, we hopped in the mini van and, after traveling 13 hours with my family from Ohio to North Carolina, we finally arrived at the hotel where my family would stay. The next day, I headed over to Embassy Suites Concord Convention Center, where I stayed with my awesome roommates, Kaley, Emma, Eden , Rachael, and Rachel, and the coolest chaperone ever, Vern . My first Breakout Session was “Top Tips from a Veteran Publisher” with Sandy Vander Zicht. It was very informative. I learned that I need to eliminate the unnecessary words that I tend to put in to my writing. Then I joined the RadRevolution for a pajama party and watch A Walk To Rememb