Yesterday one of my daughters and I were talking about Christmas, and she made the statement that she felt I was a remarkable woman to have kept the meager state of our finances from them, to the point that they did not realize they were poor when they were growing up. This immediately brought my mind to a season when I was very glad to get care boxes of food from Operation Blessing. During that season I made chicken soup every week, and rice pudding, and she reminded me, peanut butter cookies from the large cans of peanut butter that came in the boxes! read more...

This morning I read of a tragic automobile accident where there was lost of life . I was out in our Chicago winter weather on yesterday, where the potential for anyone to slip and slide into an accident was there. Accidents happen every day, but why does it seem to hurt even the more when it’s Christmas? read more...

This morning as I prepared to post – I looked for a devotional that I read every day.  It was not there! As I cleared out the junk mail, just to be sure, I noticed a letter from another devotional that I get every day and I took the time to read it. It was an appeal for both prayer and finances to be able to continue the tremendous load of maintaining the technology to reach over 190,000 readers every day. By the way, when I went to the website of the first devotional, thinking perhaps there was a message, I noticed that theyhad 70 million hits on their website! read more...

I had a song ringing in my head all night – a song i love so much and so far have not heard this season: read more...

I’m reading through the New Testament during this Advent season. The other day I particularly took note of the parable of the weeds: read more...

As a lifelong weight watcher – I have to weigh myself nearly every day because if I don’t – one or two good meals that I did not count the calories can cause the scale to rise significantly! Weeks of work can be destroyed by not thinking about what I ate in just one day. And now to add to it, I discover if I don’t drink a certain amount of water each day, I also have weight gain – the trauma mounts – is there a way to keep the weight going down. Of course there is, but it is work, hard work, and requires thinking and planning and moving – by the way I didn’t mention that if I become a couch potato for a couple of days, I also see increase! I can say woe is me as I have for so many years, but I now know that what the doctor was telling me for years is right – every five pounds off the knee, and the weak ankvle is significant ! And so we have to keep trudging along – when I gain, I have to fight to lose! read more...

Every day we are faced with decisions – most of them won’t drastically affect our life. However, there comes those times when we are faced with life-changing decisions – and we know for a surety that it is important that we make the right one – but the question is often how? How do you determine what is the “Godly” pathway? How do you know when it is the Holy Spirit that is at work, or when it is just another test? read more...

Recent legislative decisions in our state have I am sure caused some to wonder, why pray? It seems as if there is an agenda in this country to come against the dictates of the Word of God that cannot be stopped! In fact you hear so many Christians say, “these are the end-times, it has been written that wickedness will abound.” The temptation to believe that there are more against us, than there are with us is great. read more...

Tis the season ! Signs of Christmas are everywhere, we hear the music, we siee the lights – we hear the Christmas ads! All the appeals to save money – lure you in to spend it! If we’re not careful, we can lose sight of the joy of this time of the year. And there is joy! Even as we witnessed the first snow on yesterday, the white dust reminds us of the earth cleansing itself. All of us feel refreshed and invigorated when we take a hot bath and linger long enough to get wrinkled toes. I believe that this is one of the greatest gifts of this time of year . Despite the commercialization of the season, when we linger long enough to  admire the beautiful lights and the tinsel and glitz of ornaments we feel a sense of comfort and joy! read more...

It has been many years since I went through the struggles I described over the past couple of days. Yet, there are still times when I  am tempted to return to a life of works – thinking somehow if I “do good enough” – I will reap the results I desire. None of us want to live through needless trials – and I confess I am chief in acknowledging that. However, tests and trials are a part of life – they are the tools God uses to help us grow in Him. Trials cease to be trials when we recognize : read more...