Walking The Walk

This morning I stopped to fill up my gas tank and couldn't believe my eyes—gas was 30 cents cheaper than last week!   After I filled up, I went inside, and the coffee was on special for just $1. With Thanksgiving approaching, I felt that was a good example of something to be grateful for, so I shared it on Facebook. And do you know what the response was? A few people got upset about it, because of the politics of the fuel prices coming down.   And that’s sad to me.   We've become a society that complains about high prices AND also complains when the prices go down. We've trained ourselves to find fault with everything, even good news!   And we wonder why we’re so unhappy! Scripture reminds us in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 to "give thanks in all circumstances." Not just when everything's perfect, but in all circumstances, including when gas prices drop and coffee costs a dollar. I've made it my practice to actively notice and celebrate when things go righ...

"And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." ~Colossians 3:17 I don't know if it is your experience or not, but I have noted many times that if I start the day off on the wrong foot I'm usually out of step all day.  It's usually a small thing.  The lid comes off my coffee cup and I spill it all over my shirt. I forget something at home. It's always something small and insignificant that gets me rolling downhill and before very long I'm in a mood.   Once you get a mood, you ever notice you just can't see anything good.  Somebody brings in donuts and you're annoyed because you're not supposed to eat donuts.  Somebody says they like your shirt, and you think they either want something or they're being sarcastic. I finally figured out a way to to stop that once it gets started.  I just take a few minutes, I open up my bullet journal, turn to a clean page, and ...

Finally, America is getting back to normal it feels like after COVID. Like many Americans my family has been dying to get out of the house and do things again.  We've been going to our local ballpark every Sunday afternoon to watch our local baseball team play the last few weeks. It's great fun--and way more affordable than the Major League Parks. I hadn't been to that ballpark in years!  The first week we went, I was down under the stands buying hotdogs before the game.  It's a very busy and very noisy place under the stands in the 75 year old ballpark (they've filmed movies there because it's definitely old school era).  I'd just gotten to the counter and placed my order when suddenly everything went quiet.  I looked around and everyone was just standing there.  Even the people at the concession stand were just standing there.  Frozen.  I wondered what on earth had happened. And then I saw a guy take his hat off and I knew.  I listened, and...

"For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace." ~John 1:16 We were looking forward to getting back to a fairly routine Sunday schedule.  After church (we watched it instead of going of course), we got in the car and went to Champaign.  Finally, Illinois is beginning to loosen some of the COVID restrictions.  The restaurants are loosening up some, and our mall and local stores opened up on Friday--Valerie and Katie were anxious to go have a look and visit their favorite stores.  We expected a nice day out! We went through the drive thru at one of our favorite Sunday lunch spots, then parked and made use of their outside tables.  It was a beautiful day to eat outside!  Then we went to the mall.  There weren't many stores open, but enough to satisfy our need to be outside the house for awhile.  Valerie and Katie split off and hit all their favorite places--Old Navy, Kohl's, etc.  I hit my favorite place at the mall--F...

"Would they have enough if all the  fish in the sea were caught for them?" ~Numbers 11:22 It's suddenly become a very strange world to live in since the Corona Virus has arrived.  My family was sitting in the living room last Sunday morning, watching our church service on an iPad as so many have been doing for the last couple weeks.  Our pianist plays beautifully, but you can tell from the echo as she plays that there's nobody in the sanctuary, and the same with our pastor.  He gives a fine message every Sunday, but it's different.  Nobody there to laugh at his jokes. I look forward to getting back to church.  I think a lot of people are.  Sometimes we don't appreciate the things we have until they're gone.   In our world today, we tend to complain without thinking rather than show gratitude.  It's a world of instant gratification, and if things aren't as perfect as we expect them to be we have a tendency to express our ...