Scribble or scrap?

I’ll be celebrating an anniversary soon though I don’t remember the exact date. I’ll rejoice the season anyway, because it’s when I bought my first big girl Bible.
   For someone that has a bookshelf filled with God’s Word in different versions and maybe even languages, it may not be a big deal. But for me, it's huge.
   My neighbor gave me a little white Bible for my eighth birthday (which still sits on my bookshelf) and if memory serves, it’s only been opened a few times to  Psalm 23. I also remember my church handing out Bibles for confirmation though honestly I’m not sure what happened to that copy.
   So, a few years ago I bought my lavender covered, Women of Faith NKJV with purpose!

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Biblical Bug Spray

Last month somewhere in my backyard, a mosquito died a happy little bugger after gorging on a 13-course breakfast of A- blood he extracted from my legs. I was probably his last meal—I can hope, can’t I?
   For several days, pink dots of calamine lotion dotted my legs from ankle to thigh. I looked like Madame Mim during her duel with Merlin in “Sword in the Stone.” Go ahead, laugh; it is funny. I had the power to refuse this bug his breakfast, so why didn’t I?

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A matter of the heart

I have a heart condition.

I love the Lord with all my heart. I seek the Lord with all my heart. I trust the Lord with all my heart. I have hidden and treasured God’s word in my heart. I invited Jesus to take up residence in my heart. (Deuteronomy 4:29, 6:5, Proverbs 3:5, Psalm 119:11, Romans 10:8-10)

When my life is in tune with these conditions, the peace which surpasses all understanding keeps my heart beating at a steady pace. However, when I love myself more than the Lord, when I seek my own way and trust my own rationale, anxiety rises within me.

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Encourage...yourself.

“And David was greatly distressed: for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters; but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.” -  I Samuel 30:6

King David is perhaps one of the most colorful, vibrant characters in the Old Testament. While keeping sheep he had killed a lion and a bear, and eventually the giant Goliath who was feared by all the fighting men of Israel.
   Choosing words and phrases to describe him would conjure up: fearless, brave, full of faith in God, loved, lauded, hated, hunted, man after God’s heart, anointed, adulterer, murderer, and repentant. Yes, David was a man of godly character and determination, unafraid when he knew God was with him…yet very human and subject to giving in to temptation.

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Can you hear me now?

When I was in the Navy, I worked in satellite communications. It was in the days before satellite cell phones, wireless laptops or even the internet. It was a very exciting field to be in, and it ushered in the many luxuries (some might say 'necessities') that we enjoy today.
   But I was taught a very valuable lesson through my training in the fantastic job of literally speaking to the sky - there is a difference between a transmission and communication.

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Strawberries and Sundays

Every July, the hills of northern Oakland County, Michigan come alive. The village of Leonard, where one blinking light at Rochester Road and Elmwood Street keeps you from missing this hundred year old town, starts to look more like a city. After more than 40 years of living here, I've never seen a traffic jam on Elmwood — except on that third Saturday in July.
   On that one day, it seems as if a traveling circus came to town. Overnight the street fill with tents, ponies, horses, fire trucks, inflatables and neighbors you haven’t seen since the last festival. There are all kinds of things to see, including my favorites - Spezia’s little bald piglets and the horses in the parade.

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The summer of thankfulness

I remember being excited to start first grade. I filled my school box with chunky pencils; made sure every crayon had a sharp tip and wrote my name on the top right corner of my Big Chief tablet.
   Eager to use scissors with a point for the first time I knew I was hot stuff. That is until I was given a note from the school nurse to take home. It said I needed to go to the eye doctor.
   My mother made an appointment and before you knew it; my little body sunk into the huge leather chair in the optometrist office. Fascinated by the funny looking machine that hung from the ceiling I scooted to the edge of the big chair to look through the silly apparatus. It made me dizzy as lenses flipped back and forth. Six-year-old wisdom knew the alphabet was out of order; the doctor chuckled when I told him but he didn’t fix it.

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