I was reading Paul’s “discipline” passage this morning, 1 Corinthians 9:24-27. I have disciplined my body, mind, typing fingers, and early-morning rises to finish (finally) a book I began two years ago. Here’s what Paul said: “Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away but we do it for an…..
Busyness is addictive., at least for me. As my mom used to say, I have too many ” irons in the fire.” I have no idea where that idiom came from, but I take it to mean she tried to concentrate on too many things at once, and when it was time to used the iron to get rid of the “wrinkles” in her…..
Well, the loud fireworks celebration is over (I hope), and we’ve done the American thing– expressed our thoughts, traveled without showing identification papers, overeaten, and talked politics. Our founders did the same. Not much has changed since 1776. But, there is much controversy, too much negativity, lots of character assassination, backbiting, and jealousy. I suspect that happened back in the day too.
This morning I’ve just read two scripture passages I’d like to concentrate on today. Let me share them……
The Fourth of July holds special meaning for me. In the past, with children in the home, we made a “flag cake” decorated painfully slowly with white icing, blueberries, strawberries, and tiny marshmallows Now it’s the grandchildren’s task.
This year’s a bit different. Our kids and grandkids and our daughter-in-law’s visiting sister’s family mean that Ev and I and Nancy will celebrate somewhat differently. Yes, we’ll do the hamburgers, etc. here in the dining room at Glenbrooke, and we’ll do…..
Once again we attended a festive band concert to honor our country’s July 4th celebration, and once more, one of the featured pieces played was a time to honor our veterans with the special tunes for the Marines, Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Merchant Marine, and now Space Force. The audience clapped for each veteran as he/she arose at the appropriate time. One veteran was ninety-four years old, and struggled to stand. The conductor, the awesome Aaron Collins of the Space…..
As you may or may not know, June 21 is the longest daylight day of the year. Although I rarely advocate Wikipedia as a source of all knowledge, you might want to read its information about summer solstice and its meaning to cultures from earliest times. It was especially sad to see desecration of Stonehenge yesterday by climate protestors. It is thought this remarkable circle of stones in England was used to…..
Today is the celebration of Flag Day, and, incidentally, my grandpa’s birthday. The American Flag was dedicated in 1777, 246 years ago today. My Grandpa always celebrated it with strawberry shortcake. In 1946 , President Woodrow Wilson marked the anniversary of that decree by officially establishing June 14 as Flag Day. Here’s a poem I memorized in school when schools taught history. Here’s a poem I memorized in grade school when teachers taught us to respect the flag. Yes, we pledged…..
Today we celebrate and remember the sacrifices made on D Day eighty years ago today. I ask today, what is the price of freedom? Are the battles we still face, of open warfare, of addiction, or poverty, of prejudice, of crime, of deprivation, of famine, of domestic violence, of oppression, of Communism, of Marxism, of evil in all its forms–worth fighting against and conquering?
Sin in all its form is evil. Whenever…..
Events the last few days for me have circled around the word Adversity. I am currently writing a short story for the Space Coast Writers’ Guild anthology with that title, have in the last month read two books involving World War 2 struggles, prejudice, and survival, have spent three days semi-sick, have interviewed a dear woman I’ve met here at Glenbrooke, and grieved at the manipulation of the justice system in this country. One of the last sentences in my…..