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When you just aren’t the person for the job

  • January 9, 2021
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It’s a brand-new fresh year. A new beginning! And when have we all felt weneeded hope, dreams, and plans more than now? We’ve all learned to cope with plans falling through, events being canceled, loneliness, and unspeakable loss this year. At the turn of a fresh slate, we crave to hope against hope and step into this new year undaunted at what should come our way. Because the struggle has brought with it resilience. So we’ve sat down, poured our...

With JOY

  • December 7, 2020
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He knew that the culture and worship of pagan gods were not right.  It did not provide peace or joy.  It did not “reach” or stir up others for a zeal that could be stirred for a lifetime and beyond.   So, he took it upon himself to draw as near as he could to God.  He traveled a far distance and sat outside of the temple thinking that was as close as he could get.   He loaded up in his...

The Vine Project

I called it “The Vine Project.” It sounds like a cool, new program at church or a new group on Christian radio, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, it was just me, traipsing through our woods in rubber rain boots with a pair of borrowed gardening shears, trying to free my trees from thorny vines that had grown around them. After six years of unintentional neglect, these vines weren’t going down without a fight. It started when my neighbor knocked on my door...

The Courage to Pour

  • November 2, 2020
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In 2 Kings 4: 1-7, we are told of a widow who comes to Elisha with a desperate situation. She had faced a health crisis resulting in the death of husband, and now faced an economic crisis which would send her sons into slavery. She was living her own version of 2020. For some, the story of the widow feels familiar. We have buried friends and family and we have prayed with families wondering how long the savings account can...

Be the thing you loved most about the people who are gone…

  • October 26, 2020
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“Be the thing you loved most about the people who are gone” by an anonymous wise person was one of the most popular shares I have ever done on Facebook. I just saw it, loved it, and shared it on my account. It resonated with so many of my friends too. So many commented. I searched the internet for the author. I wanted to give credit to the person that spoke such universal truth to my soul but my search...

Be the light! What would your review say about you?

  • October 20, 2020
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Your life is not an ordinary life.  You may think it is, but it is not.  You have been called to be different.  You have been called to be transformed.  You have been called to be the light. Matthew 5:14-16 says:  You are the light of the world.  A city is set on the hill cannot be hidden.  Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all...

The Speaker of the House and our President

  • October 13, 2020
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Some time ago our President gave a speech. A man and a woman were sitting behind him. It was painful to watch. The man sat there stoically and never flinched. The woman was a bit more uncomfortable. It was obvious, she DID…NOT…WANT to be there. She fidgeted, looked away, looked up and looked down. Sitting there watching it unfold I had a thought. “How awful it must be to be her.” If she acts respectful – 1/2 the country will...

My Mixer for the Master

  • September 22, 2020
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I come from a long line of excellent cooks. Women who have signature recipes that always seem to be the first to disappear at a church potluck.  Women who know just the perfect meal to drop by for a new mother and are the first to make sure a funeral luncheon is properly presented.  They make picture perfect pie crusts. Perhaps you come from women like this too.  They preach their sermons of love as they prepare a good, hearty...

For all the daughters

To my granddaughters: Ana, Sullivan, Andersyn, Spencer-Kate, and Hattie; to my strong daughters: Lindsey, Kate, Erin and Julia, and all the beautiful daughters in my life that I have taught and loved in my sixty years… Cardi B, Beyonce, and Cuties do not define you. It is not empowering to become an object for people to discard. Objects are discarded; people have eternal souls. For the last hundred years or so, women have sacrificed their souls on the altar of...

Back Up with Confidence!

  • September 8, 2020
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Census taking in rural America is quite an adventure. For the past couple of weeks I’ve been one of those pesky people knocking on your door to ask for information you would prefer not to share. Some responses have been interesting, some pretty normal, some insulting and others quite bizarre. I’ve driven approximately 60-80 miles a day looking for “grey house on CR-4140” or “RR 1 – no mailbox – brick home” or my personal favorite “FM-1550 house in pasture”....