""These meditations have been written when the children were sleeping, while dinner was roasting in the oven, during convalescence in the hospital, between final examinations and the new semester -- during whatever chinks of time we could find in our days. We suspect that sometimes you will almost feel children having measles or mumps between one paragraph and another. . . . ""The twelve of us who have shared our inner lives with you in this book deeply feel the need for fellowship with one another in the Lord. We wish to break the bread of life with you in these pages, and we pray that the Lord Himself may use our words to His glory. --from the Preface Elaine Sommers Rich received her M.A. from Michigan State University. She has written for Mennonite publications and has authored, among other titles, Mennonite Women and the novel Hannah Elizabeth. Elaine and her husband, Ronald L. Rich, a retired professor of chemistry, have four grown children and four grandchildren. They live in Bluffton, Ohio. In addition to rearing her family and writing, Elaine has taught part-time at colleges and universities in Indiana, Kansas, Ohio, and Japan. Contributors: Helen Wade Alderfer, Helen Good Brenneman, Lois Gunden Clemens, Esther Eby Glass, Minnie Swartzendruber Graber, Miriam Sieber Lind, Dorothy Snapp McCannon, Ethel Yake Metzler, Elaine Sommers Rich, Barbara Claassen Smucker, Winifred Schlosser Waltner, and Grace Wenger.