Morning Thoughts

It’s Thursday and I cannot get off my mind the New York decisión to allow babies to be slaughtered up to 1 minute before birth. It is so barbaric it reminds me of the ancient civilizations who sacrificed infants. Society is moving as far away as possible from the standards set by God. Nothing good can come of that. Our core values matter—they make a difference.  Remember Daniel? When he was taken to Babylon as a teenager, he was completely immersed in that culture: food, religion, dress, language, politics, education...he was saturated and brainwashed according to the king’s decree. Yet Daniel chose to live by the values that had been established by God. When his enemies had the king make prayer illegal, Daniel did not waiver nor did he hide. He continued to pray three times each day before an open window and it cost him—he was thrown into the lions’ den. Since Daniel had honored the Lord his God, the mouths of the lions were shut and he was unharmed. The king was so over taken tha...

Happy Wednesday to you! I hope your week is going well and it’s not terrible cold where you are. I had such a good day yesterday. I had lunch with my grandson Braden, who is stationed at the Navel base in Connecticut. He’s had a little time off and I was so glad to be able to put my arms around him. Then, I had dinner with two wonderful friends from high school. We talked half the night.  It’s sometimes amazing how connected we are to other people especially our family and friends. We make time to see them and spend time together when we have an attachment to them. I realized (while I was talking to after 1:00) when ever to I spend hours talking to God? I want share the same connection with God, to feel I am so attached that I make lots of time to talk to Him and make sure I have enough quiet to let Him talk to me.  “For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So...

Happy Tuesday. I hope you had a good Monday and to start the week off right, spent some time with God and His Word.  Yesterday I had partners for my mall walk. I had picked up kids after school and we went to eat before the mile. The food court has several choices but we usually pick Chick-fil-A. Ozzie however was wanting pepperoni pizza. He saw a pizza sign at the bar-b-cue place and was all about that. When it came, he just kept looking at it. Then he looked at me and said “This is not what I expected.”  As he was explaining to me what he thought it should have been, I heard the small still voice of God whispering in my ear “He sounds like you.” And isn’t that exactly how it is? We pray and pray for answers and when they come, we might not even realize it’s the answer because it wasn’t what we expected. We have a mental picture of how we want God to answer (of how our pizza should be) and when it’s different, we think “That can’t be the answer!” But God is God and He does ...

Happy Monday. I’m writing to you this morning on a brand new phone. One that is neither water damaged nor broken. My other phone just couldn’t make a full recovery after it’s bathtub fiasco, so I had to bite the bullet and get a new one. It took most of Saturday and two trips to the phone store, but yes...it works!  Isn’t it great that we don’t have to be traded in every time something happens to us? When we fall short of what God would want from us or we just physically fall. Generally get up, dust ourselves off and keep going. I have friends who have worn out their knees, so they get a new one put in. When you consider all your body has to do to accommodate that piece of metal it seems like there is no way that could work. But amazingly, after a few weeks, they’re walking pretty well.  We are an engineering marvel. From the way our cells reproduce, to repairing, to sensing; to feeding every tiny part; to the intricacies of our blood; to our physical brains making spiritual d...

Happy Friday! Last night I dropped my phone in the bathtub so I’m praying it’s not going to have any lasting side effects. Today is also the anniversary of Bob’s passing-it’s a tough day for me and my family. Mercy...nothing like a little stress to start the day.  What happens when we get stressed, when we feel like we are pushed from all sides? When you put pressure on an orange, orange juice comes out because that was what was inside the orange. When we are under pressure, slammed if you will, by outside forces, what is squeezed out of us? Is it Jesus or is it us and our old hateful selves? I’d have to say for me, it might depend on the day or the amount of stress I’m under but I try really hard to show Christ more when I’m stressed or angry or under pressure. If people can see us respond in bad situations differently than they are expecting, they can start to believe this Jesus is real and that we are genuine.  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old t...

Happy Thursday. I just read an article about positive and negative thoughts and how those affect our DNA. There is evidence to support that hearing and thinking negative reduces our overall wellness. Conversely? Thinking and hearing positive contributes to our wellness. It seems as if we think or hear lots of things that are negative or cause increased stress, we are much more likely to weaken parts of our chromosomes and make ourselves less healthy. Likewise, if we hear and think positive things, it strengthens our chromosomes. I immediately thought of Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.”  ‭‭ We’ve all known that cancer patients with a positive attitude have a much greater chance of beating cancer. But I think there is a bigger a...

Happy Wednesday. It’s a good day to have a good day, right? Sometimes, it’s all about how we approach the day and sometimes, the day just takes us over. We can begin one task and all of a sudden there are three more things that demand our attention. Before you know it, our minds are filled with the things of the day rather than the things of God. We might go through a whole day and never think about listening for God’s voice or asking Him for guidance.  How incredible is it though, that our God never forgets about us? No matter where we are, what we are doing, or who we are with, our God never forgets us.  “I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night— ...