Star-fish

      Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! We are blessed with wonderful family and friends. We made a yummy meal today, but had to survive our "toxic turkey" first! After my husband washed and dried the turkey, I slathered it with olive oil and then began sprinkling cajun salt all over it. At first I was just slightly coughing, but then I was coughing, sneezing and choking apparently due to the red chili peppers in the salt. So my brave husband stepped up to take over the dangerous job of seasoning our turkey and was soon coughing as well.      We began making jokes about our "toxic turkey" and if in the future we have anyone try to break in, we'll shake cajun salt at them:) But in all seriousness, God calls us to be "the salt of the earth." Salt is an essential mineral to the workings of the body. Too much is harmful and not enough can lead to death. Salt also ads flavor to life and enjoyment to food. Salt without saltiness would be like money in a ban...

      When Adam and Eve were wandering about the Garden of Eden and the serpent talked Eve into eating the forbidden fruit, I noticed two things the other day that I hadn't noticed before about this section of scripture. First, Eve saw that the fruit was good for food. Second, after she and Adam ate of it, they had to start sewing clothes to cover their nakedness. Do you see any correlation with problems women have today with both food and clothing???      Now, of course, I'm just speculating as the Bible says nothing about these two issues, but I'm willing to guess that Eve started something with her problem with submission to authority, first God's and then her husband's. Notice the scripture says she gave some of the fruit to Adam to eat, so he must have been close by. Had he reminded her that she shouldn't eat of the tree and it wasn't noted in scripture? We don't know, but we do know she disobeyed God's directive regarding the tree in the middl...

     I took a two hour communication class at work last week. There was a communication breakdown between myself and my boss as to whether I could get into the class. I sent him an email, after I got confirmation that there was space available, that said, "Sorry for the confusion about this class. I will be much better at communicating when I return at 3:30." He replied, "Clever!"      Actually, the next day I caused a terrible uproar in the office, unintentionally by an honest mistake I made, and it was interesting how God worked in all my created chaos. He was able to show me and others that He is ultimately in control and can make good come out of not-so-good. He reminded me that if I humble myself, He will be glorified. Thank you Lord! I had the day off today due to Veteran's Day. I made soup, salad, and salsa with all these vegetables.  Thank you to all the Vets for their courage and sacrifice!!! May God bless you and keep you safe!!! John ...

      You know it's the season for shopping when you hear the Christmas music. I can't imagine working in a retail store for two months hearing the same seasonal music day after day. It reminds me of all the ads we've endured due to the election the other day. I may not be celebrating all the election outcomes, but I'm ecstatic about the ads being over! I over heard a retail worker say one year, "I am so glad Christmas is over!" That is sad that we have made things that are meant to be monumental, annoying and burdensome.      I liked what Joanie Yoder wrote in her book, God Alone , on pages 98-99 about how God sees our daily lives and what He can do with whatever we give over to Him. First, she shares Luke 5:1-11 where Jesus gets into Simon's boat and asks him to push out from shore. Simon does and Jesus preaches to a crowd on the shore from the boat. When Jesus finishes speaking he tells Simon to push out into deeper water and "let down the nets fo...

     I've been dieting most of my life. Being a tall girl for my age, I got teased about my weight when they lined us up in the school gymnasium and took our height and weight. All these little short kids weighed 45 pounds and here I was 5 foot tall and weighing 100 pounds. They thought I was a giant!      It's all in our perspective. I remember returning to my elementary school and walking the halls as an adult and they were so small! When I was younger they seemed so big. It seems to me the longer I walk with God and grow up in Him, the smaller my problems look to me. All things next to God are insignificant, but " if you have faith  as small as a mustard seed,  you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move.  Nothing will be impossible for you. " (Matthew 17:20)      So I must have faith that I can overcome this issue of constant dieting and insurmountable temptations that come my way through eat...

     I'm tired. I'm sure you are too. Studies today say that most people are getting fewer hours of sleep due to tight work schedules and deadlines, plus technology is interfering with going to bed as well. So last night I started to bed around 8:30pm, fell asleep around 9:00pm and the alarm went off at 5:00am. Notice I didn't say I woke up at 5:00am. There's something refreshing about being able to sleep until you just wake up on your own.      This is a three day weekend for me, so guess what I plan on doing on two of those days? I'm going to start by not setting my alarm! I'm also going to get outside, as I spend two hours a day in my car to and from work and nine hours on the sixth floor of an office building sitting at a computer. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining since I do like my work. I just miss sleep and fresh air too.      Thank you Lord for my job. For my car that takes me to my job. For the sleep I do get. For my support...

     A dear friend relayed a story about her recent encounter with rule breaking in her school parking lot. I had an opportunity for humility this past week as well while not following the rules of decorum for chain-of-command in my new job. Quite frankly neither of us cherished these growing experiences. In reality, the richness of the situations we put ourselves in, are lessons we can use to move up the mountain of Christian maturity.       I joked this week that I learn best and remember longer with "2 X 4" experiences. If your dad wasn't in construction like mine was, you may not know what a 2 X 4 is. It's a piece of wood two inches by four inches wide and varies in length. If you drop a 2 X 4 on your finger or accidentally get whacked in the head by one passing by, you'll remember the experience due to the pain it entails.       I know people who are smarter than me and can learn from other people's painful experiences. Whe...

      Words flow pretty easily from my lips, which is unfortunate, because often the words haven't had time to register with my brain. I used a word today, about a friend's husband, that I wish had never left my lips. The Lord convicted me later, that I had no business making any judgmental comments about this man, or any of God's servants for that matter. Where I get off thinking it's okay for me to speak negatively about others, I truly don't know?      The other day a woman I had met briefly called and told me how much my words had encouraged her. Another woman at work said that everyone was saying how nice I was and how much she had spent time over the years trying to be more like me. Although these are nice words from these ladies, the truth is I don't want anyone to try to be like me, I want them to strive to be like Christ!      My words are not always "nice" and I have much room to grow in my walk with God, so I give glory to God fo...

     Halloween is a growing holiday in the United States. Adults and children put on all manner of costumes and go either door-to-door "trick-or-treating" or to parties with lots of scary decorations and sugary sweet food. I remember as a child trying to figure out who or what I wanted to be for Halloween. I loved sitting on the floor after going out trick-or-treating and sifting through all my candy. (By the way, Christians generally to not celebrate Halloween as it has pagan roots. At our church, they offer an alternative event called a Fall Festival where kids can dress up, but there are no witches, ghosts or monsters for decorations.)      I find it amusing that grown adults will dress up as fools, parade around in silly hats and corny makeup, but be embarrassed to be seen carrying around a Bible. They'll celebrate with decorations of skulls, demons, and bloody looking plastic body parts, but will feel uncomfortable putting a cross up in their home. Th...