LIGHT·HOUSE: A structure with a powerful light to guide sailors.

PRAI·RIE: A broad tract of level or rolling grasslands.

PRAI·RIE LIGHT·HOUSE: A place on the prairie offering light and hope.

St. Ansgar’s Church in Dickey County, N.D. Can you see the guy riding the lawnmower? It reminds me of a passage in “By the Banks of Cottonwood Creek” where the pastor is mowing the lawn.

The Prairie Lighthouse is inspired by coastline lighthouses, beacons of light to all who travel the oceans. In much the same way, prairie churches stand like lighthouses in an ocean of prairie, pointing the way to God. The faith, hope and courage of the pioneers brought order to the untamed heartland.

The Prairie Lighthouse is a place to find faith, hope and courage for today. I am a prairie girl, inspired by rolling hills that stretch to the horizons, just as the waves of the ocean tilt and roll, offering endless shades of light and texture. My daily place of inspiration is my own backyard, where birds, squirrels, chukars, and an occasional wild turkey or mallard delight the soul. Blue spruce, bull pines, a red maple, a white birch and a Mountain ash are visible from my office window.

The trees in my website banner are ancient cottonwoods rooted along the Missouri River shores 40 miles north of Bismarck. It is likely Lewis and Clark walked beneath those very trees in 1804-05. This prairie girl loves to spend time near the Missouri, a powerful body of water that cuts through the prairie. There is nothing like feeling its sugar-fine sand between your toes.

Each morning I get an attitude adjustment from the comic section of the newspaper, where Sally Forth, Baby Blues, Pickles and Crankshaft mirror my own daily crises. Sometimes the simple things in life, like the comics, are the most profound.

Peanuts is my all-time favorite cartoon. Charles Schultz aspired to be an artist as a teenager, but the high school yearbook rejected his artwork. He didn’t give up. Being shy, he took art classes through a correspondence course and went on to produce Peanuts for 50 years. Schultz remained a common person in spite of his fame. He built an ice rink next to the Charles M. Schultz Museum in Santa Rosa, California. Sometimes he slipped in to watch the skaters or to take the Zamboni for a ride. Aren’t we lucky he didn’t give up his dream of becoming an artist because of the high school yearbook rejection?

I am a prairie girl at heart and I look forward to quiet times when God can speak to my heart. It is possible to sit on a prairie hilltop and hear no sound, but to see everything in a 50-mile radius. It is possible to hear the whispers of God in water that laps the river’s shore. The lazy hum of a bee on a flower on a hot summer day may encourage and nourish the soul.

Prairie grass and flowers snapped at Cross Ranch State Park in N.D.

At the end of the day, the Bible is my book of choice. My blue-covered copy is underlined, filled with scraps of paper and showing signs of hinge fatigue. Each underlined verse is an “a-ha” moment that makes me want to seize the nearest person and say, “Look at this!”

From Genesis through Revelation, the Bible tells the story of human failure and God’s plan for redemption. It’s the story of my redemption, too. That’s why the Prairie Lighthouse will always include scripture.

Various topics that are on my mind will find a place here. This prairie girl has been around a few years and I hope and believe items posted here will change your life for the better. I’m eager to talk about what it’s like to be a first-time author (thrilling, hard) and also why I’m excited about my upcoming book.

“And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” Romans 5: 5 (NIV)