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The Value of Gratitude
For me, Thanksgiving has always announced the arrival of the Christmas Season. It’s like crossing a bridge from autumn into Christmas, and Thanksgiving is the grateful troll that guards the passage. On one side of the bridge everything is in a state of fading shades of orange and brown, but on the other side the world sparkles and glows with a little more glitz every year. Of course not everyone lives by my holiday timeline, so many have already had their trees up long enough for the ornaments to need dusting. Though even for those decorating well before my personal kick-off, Thanksgiving begins the anticipatory, month long celebration of the…
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The Villain and the Victim
One morning when Jesus sat teaching in the temple courts, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in the act of adultery. The scriptures don’t mention her name, where her partner was or how they discovered her sin. We’re told only this one detail, which according to the law of Moses, had the power to end her life at that moment. The crowd pressed Jesus emphatically for his response in the matter, though rather than fall into their web of deceit, Jesus does some mystery artwork on the floor and tells them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to…
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Straight Up and Over: navigating the faithful journey
In the movie Homeward Bound three family pets decide to make their way home after being left temporarily with a family friend. As they escape and set out for a mountain range in the distance, the old retriever, Shadow, tells his companions, home is straight up and over, assuring them they would be home by dark. How many of us can relate to their despair as they crested the ridge, and looked out over an expanse of mountains and wilderness, instead of their cozy, suburban neighborhood? Is it really so different when we believe God has called us to something and we set out on that adventure, expecting blue skies…
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Just a Taste
My little man is a big fruit eater and absolutely loves almost any kind of fruit, especially berries. As he’s getting older he now has the ability to invade the kitchen and search at will, frequently opening the refrigerator and climbing inside to find fruit. There may be blackberries from two weeks ago, with white fur growing on them, stuffed behind the bread and last night’s leftover meatloaf and mashed potatoes, yet he’ll see them from three feet below. It was during one of these recent raids, he discovered my fresh bag of cranberries in the produce drawer and asked about them. I explained they were cranberries, but they weren’t…
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The Cost of a Life Lived in Indulgence
In recent weeks I’ve been reading Laura Ingalls Wilder’s, Little House in the Big Woods with my five year old. Despite the hardships of living off the grid, before there even was a grid, Laura and her family felt content and secure in their snug little cabin with their dog, Jack, standing guard and Pa’s loaded gun over the door. When she tells of her aunt and uncle along with her cousins coming to stay with them for Christmas, there’s no hint of the frustrations endured by the Griswolds in Christmas Vacation, yet they all shared one modest space with no indoor plumbing. On Christmas morning when the children woke…
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Cheerfully Single?
It’s been several years since my last relationship ended and I mourned the death of yet another dream. Sure I cared for him, but the truth is I was grieving the loss of more than just a man. Much of my feeling for him was entangled with grand expectations of what I believed we could be. I wanted love, craved acceptance and hoped to be validated through his desire to commit to me, but after two and half years he chose to leave instead. I was devastated, not just because I got dumped, although that definitely had some punch, but rather because I finally saw I was the problem. I’m…
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Are you Living Like You’re in the Army?
There used to be an ad for the Army that suggested enlisted individuals do more before nine a.m. than most people do all day, with the tagline “Be all that you can be”. I suppose the ad was intended to inspire, but it just made me feel guilty, like I really needed to step up my game if I didn’t want to be like all those other slovenly Americans. It probably sounds a bit ridiculous, but the truth is I’ve always carried this oppressive feeling I had to prove myself, driving me to become this perfectionistic, over-achiever that rarely rested. In my mind, I was singing Ethel Mermen, “Anything you…
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The Spirit of Discouragement
It never ceases to surprise me how quickly I can shift from fully confident and at peace in a situation, to suddenly being buried alive in a plague of misgivings, sometimes in a matter of just moments. Most of us have probably been there, humming down the highway, making good time and carelessly pondering life and all of its quirky nuances with little concern over what lies ahead. The sun is sunny, the sky is radiant blue, and the birds all seem to chirp in unison as they flutter about. Then suddenly it happens. Yes “it” and we’re not talking horror flicks here, though “it” can be a little horrific…
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Three Things God Taught me Through Mowing the Grass
It’s officially summer and even more certain than summer sun, is the confidence we can have that the grass will grow and someone will have to cut it. Until just a few years ago that someone had never been me. It wasn’t until I bought my own home, that I purchased a flashy orange mower and set out on my first grass mowing experience. Those early workouts behind that roaring beast were intimidating, yet exciting. I felt tough and accomplished as I trimmed the steep embankments of my small section of Appalachia. Even in the heat, I didn’t complain. It needed done, and I was the one to do it.…
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It’s Worth Celebrating
Regardless of who you are or where your father is, we all have a Heavenly Father who loves us more than our human minds can comprehend and wants to share in a relationship with us. Have a very Happy Father’s Day!
