The Shield of Faith

If you say that someone is casting pearls before swine, you mean that they are wasting their time by offering something that is helpful...

How big is your faith? If you could measure it in a 1-gallon glass jug, where would your faith-line land? All the way to the top? Halfway full? Somewhere closer to the bottom? Depends on the situation. In the last year or so I have come to have a whole new appreciation for what we call the faith chapter, Hebrews 11. I love how I am reminded of so many people that had deep-rooted faith; some from the Old Testament, some from the new. Each name representing a tremendous story o

I was sharing with my coworkers that I could not sleep Wednesday night, stating that “I fought with the Sandman all night!”. It was awful. Perhaps you have been there; done that. I was exhausted. It had been one of the hottest days of the year. When I got home that day it was about 4pm and I had 101 at my place; it was just too hot to water. I hunkered down inside with the air conditioner and an iced tea and a comedy show and waited. Finally, at 8pm the temp had dropped to ab

The 1991 movie Oscar revolves around one central story line: Angelo “Snaps” Provolone, a mob boss who made his fortune during prohibition, promises his dad on his deathbed that he will go straight and become an honest man. In order to go straight, Snaps decides to buy into a bank and become a member of the Board of Directors. Despite his sincere intentions to actually go straight, no one in the movie believes him. And because of this, everyone’s choices in the movie are based

I had a lovely day yesterday and it was totally unplanned. Monday night my son Larry sent me a 4-word text asking, “What’s your plan tomorrow?” I replied that I had none; he suggested a BBQ in the evening for a 4th of July celebration and before it was all said and done, I had 9 family members in my backyard playing cornhole, (pictured) laughing and enjoying good company and good food, in fact so much so there was no room for dessert, for anyone 🙂 And, although it was hot, v

Have you ever been up against a deadline and made it, but just barely? You may have said, or heard said, “we made it, but just by the skin of our teeth.” Gross when you think about it, but where does this idiom come from? For this one, once again, we must go back thousands of years. If I was forced to choose one book of the Bible as my favorite, it would be tough, but I would lean toward Job. I have said it before, I’ll say it again, the story of Job shows me that nothing hap

In the last couple of years that I was raising my granddaughter, she and her friends found a new trend. Shopping thrift stores and buying all the ‘mom jeans’ they could find. You are familiar with mom jeans, right? Those high-waisted jeans were all the fashion in the late ‘80’s and early 1990’s but that style had gone the way of shoulder pads, embroidered jeans, and velour tracksuits. And I found myself saying to her, “What’s old is new again.” My son called me a couple of we

To “fall by the wayside” is to drop out, give up, throw in the towel, quit. It can mean to stumble in your life’s walk, or to have a project side-lined in favor of some other endeavor. The earliest use of this phrase in English comes from William Tyndale’s translation of the Bible in 1526, and in particular his version of the Parable of the Sower. Let’s take a look. The story begins by telling us that a “great multitude had gathered, and they had come from every city. There w

For the rest of this month and a good portion of July, I want to look more closely at sayings and expressions and their origins. Yesterday was “At the eleventh hour”. I smile when I think about today’s phrase because it was truest when I was a young mother. Once upon a time, a long time ago, I was a stay-at-home mother of 4. I ran a tight ship and every child had chores and responsibilities. Every Friday my house was cleaned from top to bottom; beds stripped of their linens,

My nose itches so badly this morning. It is really driving me crazy. I think I have narrowed the cause to a lotion I used this morning that I have not used in many months. I typically use my mom’s homemade lotion, but today, the tube of Peach scented body lotion caught my eye. I noticed about a half hour later, the nose-itch. Have you ever had an itch so bad, that the sensation of burning felt better? I think of a time I had a severe case of poison oak. I was miserable. Some

People and plants are a lot alike. I was thinking about my yard this morning and a plant that recently decided it no longer wanted to live. I take a somewhat organic approach to gardening. Yes, I plant with purpose, but I also allow nature to do some planting. Perhaps a seed dropped by a bird, or the wind and suddenly I see new, unexpected life springing up in places I had nothing to do with. I love that. On the flip side, if I plant something and it dies, I’m okay with it. I

I was stuck this morning. Not stuck in traffic. Not stuck in mud. Not stuck in bed. Not stuck in a rut. Just stuck mentally. On any given day I have half a dozen ideas racing through my head; not today. I breathed an “Ok Lord. What are we going to write about today?” as I turned the page on my desk-calendar hoping for inspiration; nope. I pulled up BibleGateway dot com, it opened to John chapter 4. I am more familiar with this story as we just filmed two episodes of the woman

Is it just me? Do you break out in song when you hear the word ‘tomorrow’? I do. “Tomorrow. Tomorrow. I love you tomorrow. You’re only a day away.” It’s from the musical “Annie” and I have never seen an entire production. You would think since I love music and I love to sing, that I would love musicals. I don’t. I mean, I don’t hate them like my friend Denise, but I will pick something else before a musical. Today, I want to talk about tomorrow. We are not promised it. We ha

Have you ever heard the expression “I’m sick and tired of feeling sick and tired”? If you have ever battled years of illness or fatigue, you certainly can relate to this statement. If you have anxiety or feelings of pressure, if you feel like you are having to do too much with too little time, you might also relate to this saying. “I’m sick and tired of feeling sick and tired.” “ "Sick and tired" is a hyperbolic expression of exasperation that implies one is weary to the poin

Christ brings division. Do you know this statement to be true in your own life? Years ago, a very dear friend, after learning of a recent heart-conversion, asked me in a loud, jokingly way, “OH! Are you a Jesus-freak now?” I smiled as I stated, “Yes! Yes I am. I love Jesus with all my heart.” He backed down, but soon after, I would notice a slowly growing gap in our friendship. I no longer wanted to do the things we used to do together as friends. I had a new way of thinking.

Yesterday I touched on the benefits of forest fire to some seedlings. Some seeds need forest fire to germinate. It is simply amazing the...

I want to share, what I believe to be, an amazing story that happened to me last Saturday morning. To go back, my sister had been...

“That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.” Genesis 2:24 ESV I wrote last...

I have a new daughter-in-law. Her name is Sarah and she and my son Jeremy were married last month. Two years ago, I could not have...

It was 1939 and Edith Pretty had hired a local self-taught “excavator” to tackle the large burial mounds at her rural estate in Sutton...