I love this action verb “walk.” In fact, I love a good walk…..one that awakens my senses and gets my blood pumping. I love a walk in the early morning hours when darkness becomes light and I can think through the day ahead. But the best kind of walks are those sweet evening walks with my beloved better half….how I love him and enjoy every moment in his presence.
I play a little game with my son where I ask him how much I love him. He replies in numbers. The joke is that he usually says, “zero” or “one.” Then I correct him with the craziest number I can make up, which is undoubtedly unscientific, followed by tickles and laughter. There is no number that can express quantitatively how much I love my children. Though we play silly games, my son knows that I love him. He believes it. He trusts me, he trusts in my unfailing love.
Have you seen all the hype about the releases of new phones, video games, etc.? People guess about release dates, and news is made when information about the product is leaked. People line up, maybe even camp out for days, to get the latest and greatest.
I live in the Piney Woods of East Texas. Yep, you guessed it, surrounded by pine trees. The school district I attended from Kindergarten through graduation is even named Pine Tree Independent School District. I have to admit, I love the pine trees. I love walking in the woods, and I love the smell of these evergreens.
I watched my husband and our daughter paddle out into the surf in a kayak. They moved through the water to look at the array of fish under them. At times they stopped paddling, but they did not stop moving. Sometimes they drifted further away from where they wanted to go. It required intentional effort to move in the right direction. To go where they wanted to go, they had to pursue it. Just drifting was not going to be enough.
Doesn’t everyone have it all together? My house is clean. I’ve accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish at work. My attitude with my husband has been perfect. I have excelled in parenting and disciplining my children.
I don’t understand how giraffes are able to raise their heads to eat leaves from tall trees, and then bend down to drink water without their hearts exploding. The giraffe is amazingly designed by God, the perfect Creator.
Do you know what an Everything Bagel is? It’s a bagel topped with a variety of seeds, garlic, onions, and a salt mixture. It’s unlike other bagels that typically are plain, or have one topping. I enjoy Everything Bagels, yet sometimes I relish a one-topping bagel with satisfaction.
Sugar. Butter. A little water. These are the basic ingredients for making scrumptious English Toffee. I’ve been making toffee for about thirty five years. The recipe is simple, yet it doesn’t always work consistently.
Does the thought of living today, right now, seem too hard? Maybe. Living in “today” may mean facing health issues, relationship struggles, or financial hardships, according to God’s leading. The suffering and pain that trials bring may feel unbearable and unthinkable.
We draw inner strength from words of encouragement, but how can we be effective encouragers?
Ladies, one more clue to follow this week as we unravel divine mystery. We are on our way to experiencing the full riches of complete understanding that Paul wishes for us. Knowing Christ is the essential element—Christ the divine, the reality; Christ in you, the hope of glory. It’s in Christ that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden. Let’s do a little digging.
Ah, and so the riches of the mystery unfolds ladies: Christ in you, the hope of glory! God can be God, Jesus divine; but if you don’t personally unwrap the clues of the incarnation, a perfect life, brutal suffering, death on the cross, the resurrection, think of what richness you will miss out on.
Hang ups—we all have them. Not only was the early church at Colosse hung up on the divinity of Christ. Enter the Judaizers who were doing their best to reinstitute the need for circumcision and the ritual traditions of the Old Testament as criteria for salvation.
Before the apostle Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus, he was a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the Law a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church (Philippians 3:5-6). Meeting Jesus head-on provided the clues to complete understanding. If Paul could be converted, if he could know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, there was hope for any Jew. It would take revelation, mixed with brain power, based on facts, to unravel this perplexing question.
It all began before the beginning, before the heavens and the earth, before time. God was. God was before all things—God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit. What a puzzle for the mind of finite man. The apostle Paul had searched the secrets of the faith and he was determined to provide the clues to his friends in Colosse. Truth revealed would diminish the creeping heresy of the age.
He insisted on creating a garden beside his new country home, but the iron ore boulders stood in the way! Daddy persevered. He’d already sold off the largest ones for the iron, but he had to heave the mid-sized ones over the fence one-by-one.
Have you ever been wronged or betrayed? Of course you have. It’s a devastating part of being human. One particular betrayal comes to my mind from the workplace, and I remember wondering if I would ever get beyond the hurt.
We collapsed, sweaty and aching. We’d just relocated the entire office and classrooms of a non-profit organization to its new location—a vacant building on the campus of a downtown church. The organization loved their new space but not all the details of the move.
I love a good love story. Most women do! I do not, though, like to work-things-out when there’s been a conflict. That’s a relationship skill I’ve continue to work on. Years have passed, but I’ll never forget the six weeks of long silence from my fiancé.
