​Mary Pat Johns

My empty-nester husband and I are living through yet another sweet season. Last March, we sold our home of twelve years so fast we had no place to go. We’re currently living in an apartment while he remodels a home we’ll move into this coming January. While he fixes up...

Writing is one thing. Becoming published? Well, that’s a whole different deal, and my heart’s desire has never varied—to be published by a traditional publishing house in Christian fiction. It’s frustrated me at times, but the dream has never died. It just bounced back...

My five-year-old granddaughter was thrilled to spend the night with Mamaw and Papa. For the very first time, Annabelle got to decide if she wanted to come. Quite the important event. And since we recently moved to a townhouse with not one, but two staircases, she was a...

Super Bowl evening, I snapped this photo of my husband holding his fifth grandchild. Previously ill, he had stayed away from our precious Ellie. But he yearned for her and was delighted to hold her and have their picture taken. I smiled. He adores each of his grandchil...

          "...how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!" Romans 5:17 (NIV)

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"Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me get the speck out of your eye,’ when there is a log in your own eye?" Matthew 7:4 (Amp)

Neither of us in the best of moods, my husband and I drove to the grocery st...

"My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry..." James 1:19 (NIV)

 At a restaurant, my husband and I watched a large circula...

"He (God) has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts,..." Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NKJB)

        Two little ladies sat at a table. The four year-old was teaching the eighty-one year old how to play a game. They placed small blue and wh...

            Our five-year-old grandson went through a fiercely competitive stage. No matter what we were playing or who really won, he would yell, "I win!" Naturally this grew a bit tiresome; his parents worked with him, grandparents worked with him. We all addressed t...

            Recently, I slipped into the restroom in between Sunday School and church, since wiggling in my seat the last fifteen minutes of the service is not a comfortable option. While washing my hands, a young boy about ten years old walked in. He looked familiar,...