40 Years a Year Ago
Last year my wife and I celebrated our 40th anniversary. (I thought it was only 30, but she insisted it was 40, and so I looked into it and found out she was right. Where has the time gone?)
Opinion
Ex-Vee-Eye
It’s VII:XXIII at night, and I’m going to finish this by X, because I have to go to bed by XI and get up at VI:XV in order to get ready to take my grandkids to school by VIII:LV so they can be in class by IX.
Catch any of that? I remember having to suffer through Roman Numerals in elementary school, a whole chapter in my math textbook, but not in high school. And little by little over the years (it was actually probably pretty quick) I forgot all but the basics; long numbers are now a mystery to me.
Allowing God to change our perspective
Decisions are a part of life that we face every day. With everything from what we will wear to purchasing a new washing machine, our choices contribute as key components of our success and failures which are also directly connected to our peace and joy. Sometimes we are strongly influenced with the mesmerizing sparkle and emotional excitement that pulls us into a hypnosis and this crossroad can be a dangerous place to make a long-term commitment.
Psychic Interference (part two of two)
One night I loaded a cart with plant starter trays, but I kept thinking to myself, “I am loading solar lights,” and I was going down that aisle to stock. I held the idea firmly in mind, and actually went to that aisle. And sure enough, there was a customer looking at solar lights. Wow, it worked! I made that person go down an aisle I wasn’t stocking! I smiled a smug smile and strolled to the trays aisle. There stood a customer, looking at the trays.
Every person chooses their own path
I had a serious conversation the other day with a middle aged man and we talked for a couple of hours about God. I’ve known him for years and we’ve had these discussions before but I noticed he has become stronger in his opinions which by the way are based on atheism. He is a likeable person, hard worker, great husband and popular. He is also a very talented artist and sculptor and concentrates much of his artwork on the dark world of the supernatural.
Nothing can keep us from God’s love
Memories can be a wonderful place to visit when they are pleasant and filled with peace and joy. On the other hand, not all of our experiences have been good and can be more like a haunted house on a dark and stormy night. We all have our collections of thoughts and our own task of trying to figure out a way to deal with them. As most of us know, there are positive ways and negative ways to handle our past experiences. We can look around and see that many people are not doing such a good job when it comes to emotional management.
Following God’s plans instead of our own
The more we venture out of our comfort zone and look around in this great big world, the more we will run into people that are hurting. Yes, many of us are blessed and some of us have led sheltered lives, but if we desire to become more sensitive to those around us we will notice there are individuals that have not had it so easy. There are so many places to serve and so much desperate need that sometimes it seems overwhelming.
Rough Politics Nothing New
The incivility and almost vicious atmosphere of this primary and special elections season might make it hard to believe that our political system and our form of government had their beginnings in church.
But to be honest about it, things haven’t really changed that much in more than two centuries.
Goofy Stuff: ‘WWW’
When my granddaughter, Sneaks, was little—walking and talking but not yet in school—she handed me a note from her grandmother, Grammy (my wife). The note read: “Get the turkey platter from the garage.” It was Thanksgiving and a few years before cell phones. I don’t know where Grammy was, but I was outside with some of our guests. I finally found it right where I’d put it the year before, but not where I’d put it for years before that, and so it took me a while to find it.
