Strife and frustration describe my state of mind the year we tried to move to Lindale. We lived in Chandler. I taught in Lindale and had after school commitments in Tyler. This meant 30 minutes to work, 30 to activities, and 30 back home. My heart’s desire was for more family time in the evenings.
My daughter pulled a tangled mass of necklaces from her jewelry box. The intertwined chains resisted her attempts to untangle them. Not to be defeated, my daughter retrieved some wire cutters and began snipping some of the chains. She chose the necklaces she really wanted and cut away the ones that were less important to her. As she cut and extracted, the valued chains remained intact.
An idea - that’s how it all began.
A friend wanted to bring a little cheer into the lives of girls at a local temporary shelter. She took them to the park, played games and just had fun hanging out with them. Some of her friends joined her and a weekly Bible study began with the girls. A church class jumped on board and an activity night was added. Fast forward to today. In a few months a more permanent home for girls like these will open, providing much needed stability and love.
I am a wannabe gardener. I love all kinds of plants, flowers and trees. However, gardening doesn’t come naturally to me. I am so excited when something grows that I can’t stand the thought of cutting it back.
Yesterday, a sweet friend presented me with a lovely figurine of a little hummingbird drinking from the throat of a tiny orange trumpet flower. I was transported back to a time several years before.
I gazed at the magnificent creature before me. Huge talons, sharp, curved beak, the characteristic white head. I have seen bald eagles in the zoo but not out in the open and certainly not a few feet away.
Eme had outgrown her dance shoes. But it was just two weeks before her recital and the end of the season.
And really, Eme only needed one shoe. She has one foot larger than the other. They buy shoes to fit the larger foot. Unfortunately, the larger foot was growing quickly.
I remember getting some parenting advice as a newlywed — four years before we would have children.
We talked with a Christian family raising five kids. After praying and reading many parenting books, they decided to do church differently from their friends.
As my friend got ready for her garage sale, she found one lonely ski glove.
Who needs one ski glove? She thought and almost threw it away. After all, it’s highly unlikely that someone with one arm would ski.
As the mom of two boys, I’ve learned to love Major League Baseball games.
But not for the reason you might think.
I love going to games to hear the walk-up music. I call it batting music because a short clip of the song plays as the batter walks up to the plate.
We teach third-grade Sunday School each week, and we’ve been studying Joseph’s life. These Bible stories aren’t new. Yet I’m amazed at how practical they are for us today — no matter our location or stage of life.
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.
While driving out of my neighborhood recently, a fire truck passed me in emergency mode--sirens and lights pulsing. I quickly realized a three alarm fire was occurring when two more trucks zoomed by me.
How unattainable this verse seems now as we have walked through the first month of a new decade. We have already watched unkindness and uncertainty continue to flourish in the political situation in our country. Homeland disasters occur so often that it doesn’t phase us as much when our flags are flown at half-staff. Cultural demise continues to grow while people are grasping for avenues of inner peace from a variety of sources.
Just when I needed it most, I read this verse today in my Bible with markings from years past. So many ups and downs in life make us strong and sometimes war-torn, but God just does not tell us what comes next. We might be wiser by living through the experience, but the valuable truth is that through his grace and mercy, our Lord God has equipped us with an instruction book—or an athlete might better describe it as a “playbook.”
At the moment of realization that I had left my wallet in a busy interstate highway gas station two hours earlier, my heart began racing while my brain began rehearsing the rapid steps of what to do next. Call the bank card company. Call the credit card company. Call the station where I left it. Tomorrow, go to the driver’s license office to reorder my license.
