The tree in the cemetery that
died a wintry death
will come back to life
with spring’s reviving breath.
Continue readinghope
The Worst Trial
A life is made
and when we look we see
valley and hill
times of blessing
times of adversity.
Continue readingMy prayer for you…
Every night during my prayer I mention your name. It’s true, I do. I always have. Not to be confused with the habit of mindless repetition, on the contrary, I pray for you so that I will remain mindful. I don’t want to forget about you or your troubles. So, when I say I pray for you, please know I think of you and your situation and I pray for your success. I used to think your success meant your health and well-being. But now I know better. My current prayer for you sounds a bit different.
Continue readingOne thing
I get it. Your life may look lousy right now. You feel like your talent is to fail. Everything you touch gets destroyed. Success is an illusion. What is the point? You ask. To be truthful, I don’t know. What I do know is if you see this in the sky
When the song comes back to me again
I’m not sure how it happened. But somehow, somewhere I became reacquainted with an old Garth Brooks’ song. Sometimes when I connect with a song I play it. A lot. I wouldn’t say in an obsessive way. Just a lot, a lot. That’s what happened with this song. It spoke to me and so I had to listen over and over. I think everyone should know about this song so I’m going to share my thoughts here. Because that’s how I roll. It’s a good song though so I’m sure you won’t mind reading my take on “When You Come Back to Me Again” (Yates & Brooks, 2000).
Continue readingBuried Testimony
My Faith Garden
I do not have a green thumb. I don’t even have a plastic one. Seriously, I have a vase with fake flowers that I have knocked over so many times one blossom now sits at a perpetual 90 degree angle. So, my expertise in gardening is lacking somewhat. But I do have what I call a faith garden that I’d like to tell you about.
Stick with me on this analogy and I hope it will all come together.
Continue readingBecoming Good
In the movie City Slickers (1991), Curly tells Mitch the secret of life. “One thing. Just one thing.” Mitch asks, “What is the one thing?” To which Curly replies “That’s what you have to find out.” Now, I’m not going to profess I know what that “one thing” is for everyone but I will give a suggestion on one thing that may be a lifetime pursuit. That is to be a good person.
Continue readingThe lesson of the sunflower
I recently read a cute little post about how sunflowers use each other for support on cloudy days. According to the post, when the sun isn’t out the flowers nod to each other for support. Of course, it was supposed to be a lesson about us needing each other. I thought it was cool but two seconds of checking on it led me to believe it is not true. Sunflowers do not tilt toward each other on cloudy days. What they do instead is still a lesson to us, just not the intended lesson the post suggested.
Continue readingLevels of obedience
We are all probably familiar with the 10 Commandments. Whether we believe that they are from God, guidelines to a better life, or a nuisance is up to each of us. As I thought about the commandments God has given us I realized none of us are on the same path. There are at least four different levels of obedience. Let’s use the example of taking cookies out of a cookie jar to demonstrate each level.
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ck's days 