How do you connect with God?

How do you connect with God?

I’ve found three ways that reach into my soul and draw me closer.

The first is spending time at the beach. It’s where I hear Him loudest in the roar of the water and where I’m still enough to just sit and listen.

But before I share the beach pictures and commentary, I wanted to share about another powerful way I connected with God~ through a book.

And there’s a book we just finished reading as a family that's skyrocketed to the top of my all-time favorites list. That list still has The Restorer by Sharon Hinck at the very tip top. But this new book is a hair's breath away.

It's a children's book.

A Newbery Winner.

About family and love and...

Space travel.

It starts with one of my favorite lines in all literature, "It was a dark and stormy night." And no, it's not from Snoopy like my children guessed. ;-)

It's Madeleine L'Engle's book A Wrinkle in Time.

I've never fallen for a book quite like I did this one. Partly it's a pure love of the author's beautiful language, something that's never been big on my reading list. Madeleine L'Engle used words and the concept of communication in so many varied and fascinating ways that I often stopped reading or stopped my oldest reading and just marveled at the ideas.

I also experienced the quirky characters and the deep realities each grappled with. Some of those pictures of God, our world, and relationships are ideas I'm still dancing with and pondering.

All this in a children's book.

And now we're embarking on a summer adventure with Madeleine L'Engle as our tour guide through four other books in the Time Quintet series. I'm sooooo looking forward to the trip!

Now for some looking back at one of my favorite places in the world...

I love Destin, Florida. I love the waves, the sounds, the time with my girls, the ocean, the seashells, the food, the water.... ;-)

I could do without the sand and bathing suits. But I'll take those if it comes with all the other things I love. ;-)

This year, one of my closest friends and her family joined us in Destin. We went crabbing at night, played in the water, and had a blast playing spoons in the evening too.

Here's a photo tour of our trip...


These are our beach toes... special painted toes just for vacation and a painting party to boot!

Next picture is my hubby with a captured crab.... all I have to say is Wallaces rule. ;-)


I absolutely love this picture of my girls in their beach dresses.

We take a number of these photos each year and it's fun to capture who they are in a shot like this.

Look closely... one is a princess, one a warrior, and the other a tall and graceful scholar.

The next photo is my oldest and I hanging out in the surf. We had such a lovely time just talking and bobbing in the waves.

I have never before been to the beach when it was cold. On Monday, the water was soooo COLD it was hardly bearable.

The first picture is me before drinking my Starbucks. Notice the shivers?

The next is me happily in beach dreamland after warming up with a nice hot cuppa Starbucks!


Last is a photo my hubby snapped while I was otherwise occupied with watching dolphins and being blown away by the creativity and goodness of God.

The beach and books are two of the most powerful ways I connect with God. Music is a close third.

What about you all? How or where do you experience Him the most?