The Grass Is Green Enough

A very sad thing happened to Rudolph on the way to Christmas dinner.  He lost one of his antlers on the freeway. "How can this be?" You ask. Well, it all started when my mother-in-law rolled down the window...well, actually, it started when I purchased a red nose and antlers for my KIA. Silly. Yes. But fun. And these days I'll take all the fun I can muster up. But my fun didn't last long, because when we picked up Don's mom on Christmas, she didn't know the rule about not rolling down the window. So, there I was, perched in the back seat balancing the scalloped potatoes and flowers and salad and such. In a split second - woosh! The antlers flew onto the freeway. Oops. Sorry about that.  I've been praying for the past couple weeks about what ONE word God wants me to focus on in the coming year. Last year my word was HOPE. I've been sensing that in 2016, He wants me to focus on the concept of RELEASE. Letting go. Setting free. Giving up. I think t

"Show hospitality to one another without grumbling" (1 Peter 4:9) I recently attended an amazing funeral for a dearly loved woman at our church.   Barbara touched so many lives during her 79 years on this earth that the sanctuary was packed!   In hearing the stories about her, the most evident thing was that she always took time for people.   She lived out hospitality in her day-to-day life everywhere she went.  She made others feel welcome, whether it was in her home, at Bible study, or in the church lobby.   I don’t doubt that she was intimately acquainted with the goings on of her mailman, hair dresser, and local grocery store checkers/courtesy clerks as well.  Barbara asked questions.  She was genuinely interested in others’ lives.   She listened.   Most of all, she was a devout woman of prayer.   Barbara truly lived out 1 Peter 4:9.   But how did she manage to balance the whole “Mary/Martha” thing so well?   I was thinking about the idea of hospitality today,

Okay. So I'm going to be brutally honest. My next door neighbor annoys me. Truly annoys me. It's not her fault, though. She has an intellectual disability. Lisa has been my next door neighbor for 17 years. She's basically a "child" living inside an adult's body. When we moved into our house in the summer of 1999, my daughter Valerie was just 7 years old. She used to bounce over to Lisa's and watch Disney movies or play with her dog. At that time, it seemed like they were at the same intellectual level. Val, now 23, is away at college. She's growing up, maturing and becoming a woman. Lisa, well, she hasn't changed or aged a bit. That's not the part that bothers me, though. After all, I've worked in special education. I've worked side-by-side with many kids with special needs, and I'm currently employed by the Disability Determination Service Division. I get that Lisa is impaired. At least I have the head knowledg

I just got back from our annual women's retreat in beautiful Lake Tahoe. The weekend was powerful, awesome and lovely as usual. One of the "nuggets" that I took home this year was the message in a new worship song we sang written by Pat Barrett and Tony Brown called "Good, Good Father". Oh my gosh! This song just slays me. Pass the Kleenex, please!  The chorus says: You’re a Good, Good Father It’s who You are, It’s who You are, It’s who You are and I’m loved by You It’s who I am, It’s who I am, It’s who I am What a beautiful picture of God's identity - and even more powerful is my identity in Him. I believe the song is especially sweet for those of us who had an Earthly father who was less than stellar. For someone whose father was harsh or abusive or critical or absent, it's often hard to unlearn that image of "Father" and to learn who our Heavenly Father truly is. The Bible tells us that God is loving, kind, compassionate, merciful, p

In 1854, Henry David Thoreau published his famous memoir, Walden Pond.   The theme centers on simple, self-sufficient living in the midst of nature. For over two years, Thoreau lived by himself in a cabin he'd built by Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts.  "I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life," says Thoreau,  "to live so sturdily and Spartan like as to put to route all that was not life..." I can relate. As I sit on our 36-foot Islander here on D-Dock at Marina May, I can't help but think about those words written two centuries ago. Deep down, I want to cut away everything that weighs me down and simplify my life, too. Here on the boat, that's not hard to do. After all, there is less than 200 square feet of living space. Just the necessities: inside the cabin is a bed, a table, two little couches, a tiny bathroom, stove, kitchen sink, storage for pots and pans, a space heater and an ice box. There are only a couple of extravag

I just love a good book! Especially when it offers encouragement and helps me draw closer to God. The first book I read this year was  My One Word: Change Your Life With Just One Word , by Mike Ashcraft and Rachel Olsen.   The "My One Word" project is something that Ashcraft has been doing at his church for several years. The concept is quite simple: do something for the year about just one thing  - instead of nothing about everything. So, my homework assignment was to choose just one word that represents what I want God to do in my life and in my heart, then focus on it for an entire year. So, to start 2015, I chose the word HOPE. (I figured it was the perfect choice, since 2014 ended in a puddle of hopelessness). I'm amazed at how many scriptures there are about hope. My key verse is Psalm 33:22: "Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord, for our hope is in you alone." Every time I pick up my Bible, I come across more and more words filled with

I just love opening up a brand spanking new notebook with blank white pages just waiting to be written in. That’s how I feel on New Year’s Day. For about a millisecond, my whole year is spread out before me, and I haven’t made any mistakes yet. I determine that I will do better. I will save money, lose weight, exercise, clean my room, say nice things, be helpful, and pray a lot. But then I get out of bed, and it all goes downhill from there! January 1, 2015 wasn’t any different. I got to reading and forgot that I’d started cooking an omelet. Let’s just say it was a bit crunchy. Then I said something irritating to my husband … (and that was all before 8:00 am). The only exercise I got was walking back and forth to the refrigerator. I don’t think I really helped anyone (though I did fold Don’s laundry). All in all, it was a pretty poor effort on the perfection scale. It got me thinking about a little accident that happened to my family room carpet a couple months ago. I’d finally go