January 20, 2026

Remembering Stones: Reflections on a Life Being Lived

January 20, 2026/ jan

Dear Reader

Many of you have followed me here at “A Branch in the Vine,” since I began writing in February 2011. Thank you so much for your love, encouragement. and grace. During these years, I’ve shared my journey with the Lord in various posts and also in my two books.

Well, this past year I’ve had the opportunity to put my story into a “class,” not just blogposts. Right now a group of mature sisters in the Lord are exploring my “Stones of Remembrance” on ZOOM.

April 15, 2024

Remembering Stones: Reflections on a Life Being Lived

April 15, 2024/ jan

Live while you are alive. (Patch Adams)

Each of us has a life … the life we were given. We didn’t choose our life. But I guess the issue is, “Are we living while we are alive?” Or, are we waiting till “things settle down,” or, “we lose ____# pounds,” or, “the kids grow up,” or ????, or ????, or ????.

“Things settling down” was always my trap in my early years of adulthood. But things don’t ever settle down, do they? Not for long anyway. They just change. And then the cycle begins again, and so then we never really embrace the life that is ours. So this is what I eventually realized: I need to …

…live the life I have, not the one I wish I had.

May 24, 2020

A Project for This Pandemic and Beyond: Remembering Stones

May 24, 2020/ jan

By this time in our “sequester” of sorts, we may be getting a bit bored. Things are beginning to open up, but maybe you are still cautious or going slowly out into “the unknown.”

Why not consider using some of your time on a project which can prove valuable for yourself and even for your children and grandchildren in years to come. What I am suggesting is to begin writing about your faith journey.

When I started writing mine, I remember thinking, “Oh how I wish my godly grandmother (“Babci”) and my godly mother had kept a journal or had written of their journey with God through the trials of life.”

But alas, they had not. And it was most likely not possible for them in their situations. But it was possible for me, so I began.

June 23, 2019

Remembering Stone #6: The Dark Night of My Soul

June 23, 2019/ jan

You search the Scriptures … {they] point to me! Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.

… the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

You would think that after having had such amazing teachers and mentors at Moody Bible Institute and after receiving such a storehouse of Biblical and spiritual knowledge there (Remembering Stone #5), the Christian life would have been a breeze for me … joy-filled and exciting!

And it was exciting and joy-filled … for awhile. Let me tell you about it.

June 08, 2019

Remembering Stone #5: The Sovereign God

June 08, 2019/ jan

Beginnings and endings, starts and finishes, twists and turns and even turn-arounds. That’s life, isn’t it? And that was true for me in those two years at the University of Arizona. Lots of twists and turns:

East Coast to the desert Southwest
Roman Catholic to Evangelical Protestant ( the entire time a true believer; a Christian no matter the church)
Student nun (“novice”) to a single college student, and eventually engaged to be married

Each of these changes have produced multiple stories. But since these “stones” (as my brother Conrad calls them) are describing my spiritual journey, I will stay focused. Back to Tucson and the University of Arizona …

May 22, 2019

Remembering Stone #4: The Gospel of Grace

May 22, 2019/ jan

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. …

It is so amazing how the twists and turns of life are used by the Spirit of God to direct us according to His path. This is exactly what happened as I left the convent and went back home to Edison, New Jersey at the age of 21. And this is where I pick up my story …

May 14, 2019

Remembering Stone #3: The Holy Scriptures

May 14, 2019/ jan

Oh, how I love your instructions! I think about them all day long. Psalm 119:97 NIV

I had grown up with the belief that the best thing to do for God was to become a nun and dedicate my life to serving Him. In fact, my mom raised us kids believing we should all become nuns or priests. It wasn’t until later in life that I realized that some of her zeal in “encouraging” us in that direction was very likely a result of her difficult marriage to my dad who “abused” alcohol more and more as the years went by.

May 10, 2019

Remembering Stone #2: The Holy Spirit

May 10, 2019/ jan

… So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” Luke 11: 13 NLT

After our three and a half years in Tucson, another geographic move directed my story at the beginning of my fourth grade school year. Being so far from family had been difficult especially for my mom, so my parents packed up our family and moved back to New Jersey.

I remember the week-long trip on Route 66 in our green Plymouth sedan, now with 5 kids in tow – 3 girls and 2 boys. It had been a “fruitful time” in Arizona for our growing family. After a few months of staying with my paternal grandmother in inner city Newark, my parents bought a three bedroom house a few blocks from St. Matthew’s church and school out in the “suburbs.” (A few years later, we made a move to a new home right next to the church and school.)

May 01, 2019

Remembering Stone #1: The Will of God

May 01, 2019/ jan

… may he equip you with all you need for doing his will….
My story begins on the East Coast in the city of Newark, New Jersey. Janet Gale Renner (me) was born to Conrad Charles Renner and Jeanette Agnes Galuszka at St. Michael’s Hospital on June 16th, 1947.

Born just after the end of WWII, this firstborn girl of eventually seven spent the first five and a half years in Newark. There I attended a half -year of kindergarten before our family moved to Tucson, Arizona because of my dad’s health.

April 27, 2019

Remembering Stones: Reflections on a Life Being Lived

April 27, 2019/ jan

Live while you are alive. (Patch Adams)

…live the life I have, not the one I wish I had.

A Branch in the Vine

A Branch In the Vine