My Meme, along with Inspiration

  Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

(Romans 12:12 NIV)

I’ve gotten my inspiration from the same place in the past, and though I feel somewhat guilty about it, I will admit to it. Yes, I saw this Bible verse on a picture on Facebook. I guess it would really be called a meme. But to be sure I had to look up the definition of “meme” on the internet, and well, that almost led me down another rabbit hole.

Time to focus.

Be joyful in hope, because when there seems as if there is nothing else, there is always hope. In this life you will have trouble, so be patient with that. What’s that saying? It will be all right in the end and if it’s not all right, it’s not the end. And finally pray without ceasing.

That’s probably as many Bible passages, inspirational sayings or clichés that I’m allowed to write at one time.

Oh, and even if the words aren’t mine, the picture is, taken last summer of the Mansfield Pioneer Church. Mansfield, Michigan, was the site of one of the worst mining accident in Michigan history. I thought I blogged more about it after I was there last July. But, well, when I found that blog post, it led me down yet another rabbit hole. (You might want to click here to read it.) It's funny how, when I was looking for a picture to post, that this one kept coming back to me. After I read that blog post from last year, I guess I figured out why. 

At the end of the day, though, I still have joy, hope, patience, faith, along with a few afflictions and lots of prayers. 

Flashback Friday - Spring Break

Hard to believe that since the first of this month, I’ve been posting to this blog for nine years. It’s impossible to know where time goes. Here it is the end of March, spring is here, even though the snowbanks are still five feet high. The temperatures at night hover around freezing, but the highs during the day are in the forties and close to fifty.

Looking back, March and April have always been busy months, a time for travel, it seems. I never thought of myself as one to do the “Spring Break” trip, but perhaps I have.

 March 2018, Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri 

 April 2017, Rift Valley, Kenya 

April 2016, Masa Mara, Kenya (I didn't go on that trip, it was only my kids, but I was there in my heart the whole time).

April 2016, I was in Illinois instead. 

April 2014, Mississippi River, Missiouri 

 March 2008, Virginia Beach, Virginia

March 2013, Apache Junction, Arizona

Hard telling where I’ll go next. 

Seeing the Gift, Being the Gift

One of the many gifts I receive each day.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NIV)

Lent began two and a half weeks ago. For years I would give something up for Lent – you know, chocolate or alcohol or swearing (because I do those last two so much, no, not at all). This year I instead had decided that since my word of the year is “gift”, that I would find the gift in each day as well as provide a gift to someone else.

Be thankful for a simple act of kindness by a stranger. Find joy in leaving work early one day. Praise God for the melting snow after such a horrendous winter.

And in return, send a thinking-of-you card to a patient. Leave a large tip for a kind waitress. Buy a small gift for a co-worker going through a bad time.

And how had that been going for me? Not so well. Being the selfish, lazy sinner that I am, I’ve continued walking through my days as I have been. Helping out a stranger when it doesn’t inconvenience me, spending money on someone else when I have extra to spend, taking time to do something for someone only when I have the time. And thanking God for the obvious gifts and forgetting to find the joy in the tiniest, most insignificant things.

But that’s why we have this season called Lent. Not to beat ourselves up over what a failure we are in God’s eyes, but to realize He loves us so much that the only time we disappoint Him is when we don’t love Him in return.

In the weeks to come, I’ll continue to try to find the gifts and be the gifts. But I’ll more importantly remember that Jesus is the greatest Gift.

(Wow! Just wow. I wrote this and then went to BibleGateway website to try to find an appropriate verse to open with. I was going to search for words like “sinner” and “gift”. Instead, because God is so amazing, when I opened the website, the verse above was the verse for the day. No need to search, instead, God has got me covered.) 

Flashback Friday - Tidbits from the Newspaper

I was going to blog about something else today, but then I lost the thing I needed – okay, I lost the recipe of the dish I made for supper last Friday and I had wanted to tell you how good it was.

So, instead, it’s time for another Flashback Friday.

Bless my momma’s heart. She saved a whole box of obituary clippings. In 2019, you can find anybody’s obituary on-line, but for those souls who left us before the internet, you might not dig up their information so easily. And not only their obituaries, but other tidbits which the newspaper ran.

My maternal grandmother, Paulina “Lena” Steinbach was born in 1893, married Richard Jahn in 1912 and died in 1964. What stories she could tell. Or maybe I’ll have to tell those stories another time. 

Beautiful, amazing lady. 

When memories knock the wind out of me

(From Star bright angels Facebook page )

“Some days the memories still knock the wind out of me.”

I was feeling melancholy all day yesterday. I know why and it's not a big deal. Then when I sat down at the computer to write this post, checking Facebook first, someone had posted this picture. Another God moment. It doesn’t help the feeling of sadness, doesn’t lift the cloud from my soul. But I know the depression will dissipate, that it will catch the wind and blow off in another direction.

In the meantime, we have our memories. And the Bible too. Here’s the passage that came up when I did a search for “memories”.    

Timothy’s Encouraging Report

But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you. Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith. For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord. How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you? Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith.

Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones. 1 Thessalonians 3:6-13 (New International Version)

God is good. 

Done with Winter and much more

I think everyone across the country is done with winter. Watching video of the “bomb cyclone” out west yesterday, I feel guilty that I ever complained about the weather here in Wisconsin. With our snowpack starting to melt, it is possible to believe that we will get through this winter and that spring will come.

And then another problem came my way. But first here is the progress of winter on my deck. 

 February 7

 February 12

 February 24

 March 4

 March 10

 March 14 - And here is where the latest problem shows up. You probably wouldn't notice that shadow just above the end of the deck, but . . .

. . . this is what that shadow turns into when I zoom in. Some hair or amoeba got inside the lens of my camera. (Actually, it just dawned on me exactly what that looks like, but I rather not say.)

I did some research on the internet. The on-line Nikon experts estimated it could cost up to $137 to get that hair out of the lens. I could buy a whole new similar camera for just under $400. My other two options? Admit that I am not a professional photographer, so I shouldn’t care about that hair in the middle of my pictures, and plus, if I think I’m a writer, I should be painting pictures with words anyway.

Or I learn to take pictures with my phone, like the rest of the modern world. Any suggestions?  

The Smallest Things

“Aren't five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one sparrow is forgotten by God. Even the hairs of your head have all been counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth much more than many sparrows!” (Luke 12:6-7, Good News Translation)

A few weeks ago, a friend spent the night at our house and left behind an article of clothing. It’s been sitting here these few weeks, and finally Monday night, I threw it in with a load clothes and washed it. I thought I would surprise her by mailing it to her. (Not to speak ill of this piece of clothing, but the postage would cost more than a replacement.)

Out of the blue, she messaged me Thursday, saying she could come to town Friday to go out for Fish Fry if I was available. I laughed when she said that then she could pick up her clothes.

Friday morning, I had to run to the next town to pick up some stuff. One of the things I was looking for was cake pans for church; they never seem to have enough. I stopped at the second-hand store and bought a nearly-new 9 x 13 pan for $1.20. Next, I stopped at Walmart and they had the same size for $1.50! Figures. So I bought one there as well.

I got home, washed them, pulled out my beat-up cake pans, and decided that the worst one had to go. (You know, the 40-day Lenten challenge of getting rid of something every day. Score.) If I knew I could pick up one at Walmart for a buck and a half, I would have done it forever ago.

A few hours later, my friend showed up to go out to eat. She has her house up for sale and hopes to move in the spring, so has been downsizing. She brought me a few things she thought I might use. You guessed it, one of them was a stoneware baking dish, the size for baking a cake (or bars, which is what I did last night).

I know, all of it is silliness, but I just don’t believe in coincidence. I know God has got bigger things to do, but He always takes time to remind me that the small things matter too.

Thank You, Lord, for all the big things and all the small things that you do in my life. Amen

Flowers from a co-worker this week. A small, but beautiful thing.