tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84144846909538108142024-03-13T00:36:18.126-04:00Michele Huey's God, Me, and a Cup of Tea. . . a cup of inspiration, a spoonful of encouragement, and a generous outpouring of the milk of God's love.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger393125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8414484690953810814.post-60947022690496305142015-12-03T17:19:00.000-05:002015-12-03T17:19:54.240-05:00New book to be released<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">
<img alt="GMPM1 bookcover front" class="size-medium wp-image-166 aligncenter" data-mce-src="https://godmetea.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/gmpm1-bookcover-front.jpeg?w=198" height="300" src="https://godmetea.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/gmpm1-bookcover-front.jpeg?w=198" style="display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="198" /></div>
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<strong> Book 1 of the PENNWOODS MYSTERY series </strong></h2>
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<strong> <em>Getaway Mountain</em></strong></h2>
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<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">
Reclusive romance novelist Melody Harmon, her career on the skids, flees to her writing retreat in the Pennsylvania mountains rather than team up with Don Bridges, an ex-cop turned suspense writer. When she discovers caches of cash—to the tune of a million dollars—she assumes it’s her late husband’s gambling winnings. Then dead bodies start popping up. Don wants to help her solve the mystery, but she doesn’t know if she should trust him. Can Melody overcome the pain of betrayal and learn to trust before the killer strikes again?</div>
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<strong>To be released mid-January both in Kindle and print editions.</strong></div>
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Kindle edition $2.99</div>
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Paperback edition $14.99</div>
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You can order both on Amazon when the book is released.</div>
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<strong>PRE-ORDER your PERSONALLY AUTOGRAPHED print copy and save on shipping and handling. All paid pre-orders will be sent by Priority Mail at no extra cost. Email me at <a data-mce-href="mailto:michelehueybooks@gmail.com" href="mailto:michelehueybooks@gmail.com" target="_blank">michelehueybooks@gmail.com</a> to order your copy. </strong></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8414484690953810814.post-35448113974499556002015-07-17T15:46:00.000-04:002015-07-17T15:46:06.016-04:00Don't forget...<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx5iGFOvvT4DcHHVIDJS64vjP0SASMGNSCpXReuhff8OSkJFcR-s0snTaIA0Jct8JNTikYC9ZVmXTIOsyqol3GeFGpf9EfzidPpYCLewPq_LmPXcxAY6BTNggoCu4vPgb7ckW8iehEfSk/s1600/ID-10053832.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx5iGFOvvT4DcHHVIDJS64vjP0SASMGNSCpXReuhff8OSkJFcR-s0snTaIA0Jct8JNTikYC9ZVmXTIOsyqol3GeFGpf9EfzidPpYCLewPq_LmPXcxAY6BTNggoCu4vPgb7ckW8iehEfSk/s200/ID-10053832.jpg" width="198" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image courtesy of Stuart Miles <br />at FreeDigitalPhotos.net</td></tr>
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Beginning Sunday, July 19, your weekly cup of inspiration will be served on my new blog site on WordPress, <i>God, Me & a Cup of Tea</i>. <a href="https://godmetea.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Click here to go to the new blog site.</a><br />
<br />
For your convenience, you can sign up to have your weekly cup of inspiration served directly to your email inbox. Click on the "Follow Blog via Email" in the top right sidebar.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8414484690953810814.post-75028321146067248912015-07-13T23:17:00.000-04:002015-07-13T23:17:18.450-04:00We're moving!<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">I apologize to those who signed up to receive these blog posts and haven't been getting them. I haven't been able to correct the problem, so I'm moving the blog to the site below. You can still access all past posts on this blogspot site, as I'm leaving it up. However, <b><a href="https://godmetea.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">all new posts will be posted on the WordPress site. </a></b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">You can sign up to have the posts delivered directly to your email inbox when they are published. Just click on the FOLLOW button in Follow Blog via Email box in the sidebar. Thank you for your patience.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Here's the link to the new site: </span><a href="https://godmetea.wordpress.com/">https://godmetea.wordpress.com</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8414484690953810814.post-44127733967439000672015-07-12T00:00:00.000-04:002015-07-12T00:00:05.964-04:00Finding the thanks<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMMN6f_sfRWzvI3jIGsuWFeZOhncbRu1ieeVo7rgAKiW702zLbMMxUPDnEcktVtqE2fAD3vrKqhz7yvVhyn1oj2HAbffP9CNKTlWfp0TS_eWkTyWjY-9JOA0n1FoV5gYaFDd7BsrANJ6w/s1600/ID-100153288.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMMN6f_sfRWzvI3jIGsuWFeZOhncbRu1ieeVo7rgAKiW702zLbMMxUPDnEcktVtqE2fAD3vrKqhz7yvVhyn1oj2HAbffP9CNKTlWfp0TS_eWkTyWjY-9JOA0n1FoV5gYaFDd7BsrANJ6w/s320/ID-100153288.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image courtesy of patpitchaya at DigitalPhotos.net</td></tr>
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<i>Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. – 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 (NIV)</i><br />
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I stared at the numbers. The “out” figure was significantly higher than the “in.” Paying only a portion was not an option. The bills were to be paid in full, the due dates firm.<br />
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“Show me how to do this, Lord,” I whispered, pushing back the worry nudging at my heart.<br />
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And He did. It wasn’t the way I’d wanted—taking the money from a meager investment account we have for emergencies. But when God gives the answer, I’ve learned to follow His advice.<br />
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It looks as though I’m going to be asking His advice more, because this year our budget is being hit hard.<br />
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We’ve had to replace our 35-year-old water pressure tank, the washer (although it was only 16 years old), and my husband’s eyeglasses, all within two months after we breathed a sigh of relief for paying the taxes on time.<br />
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Looming just ahead are a deposit on a new hearing aid for me (I won’t even tell you how old the one I have is), the bi-annual car insurance payment, and a doubled property tax bill. Add to the list higher copays and health insurance deductibles.<br />
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But it is what it is.<br />
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So I’m back to praying, “Lord, show me how to do this.”<br />
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There was a time when I prayed for God to send the money. I expected Him to drop it in our laps.<br />
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It didn’t happen. Not that He doesn’t keep His word to provide for all our needs (Philippians 4:19), to hear us when we call on Him (Jeremiah 33:3), to answer when we ask, seek, and knock (Matthew 7:7–11).<br />
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He just knew I had greater needs than instant money.<br />
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I needed to learn to live within our means. I needed to apply the words “frugal,” “resourceful,” and “wise.” I needed to learn the difference between “needs” and “wants.” It took me a while, but I needed to learn how to pray—not “Send me the money (like, NOW)” but “Show me how to do this.”<br />
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And I needed to learn to find the thanks.<br />
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When we’re getting slammed with the unexpected, the unwanted, it’s human nature to cry, “Unfair!” or “Why me?” and to complain, argue, and wrestle with (and sometimes feed) a bad attitude.<br />
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Changing our attitude involves a change in our thinking from “poor me” to “rich me.” Because we have a Father who provides for all of our needs out of His riches—His glorious riches.<br />
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What am I thankful for during this time when the month is longer than the money?<br />
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I’m thankful the water tank lasted as long as it did, the washer needed only one repair during those 16 years, and when they did need replaced, we had the money to pay for them—hubby’s first Social Security check.<br />
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Now that the gratitude floodgates are open, I can spend all day listing the many, many things for which I'm thankful.<br />
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But most important, I’m thankful for a Father in Heaven who will show me how to meet the upcoming bills, who provides for all my needs, and who’s teaching me to find the thanks.<br />
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<i>When the stuff of life starts to be overwhelming, Lord, help me to find the thanks. Amen.</i><br />
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More tea: Philippians 4:4–9</div>
<i> </i><br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8414484690953810814.post-75689616592710285482015-07-04T00:00:00.000-04:002015-07-04T00:00:05.693-04:00My Country, 'Tis of Thee<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AFederal_Hall_George_Washington_in_Prayer.JPG" title="By OptimumPx (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons"><img alt="Federal Hall George Washington in Prayer" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/Federal_Hall_George_Washington_in_Prayer.JPG/512px-Federal_Hall_George_Washington_in_Prayer.JPG" width="512" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #252525; line-height: 21px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A brass relief of George Washington kneeling in prayer at Federal Hall in New York City</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">By OptimumPx (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons</span></div>
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<i>“Hear the supplications of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.” – King Solomon, 2 Chronicles 6:21 (NIV)</i></div>
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<br />
Over the 18 years I’ve written my weekly column and then this blog, I’ve avoided controversial topics. I figure you all get enough—more than enough, perhaps—of that elsewhere. My purpose has always been to give hope, to show that faith and life go hand in hand, that God cares intimately for each of us and is with us every moment of every day.<br />
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But I’ve had a heavy heart for my country—and it’s getting heavier.<br />
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No, I still will not address the hot button topics here, but I will address what I believe our response, as Christians, should be.<br />
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First, <i>read, meditate, know, and obey the Word. L</i>et it permeate every fiber of your being. Allow God to use His Word to transform you from the inside out—heart, mind, and soul. “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2).<br />
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Next<i>, pray</i>! For revival to sweep the nation, one soul at a time. For the Holy Spirit to ignite the faith of believers and fill our places of worship—and us. For eyes to be opened to the truth, for hearts to be softened to receive the seed of the Word, for strength and courage to be Psalm 1 men and women.<br />
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Finally, <i>be salt and light.</i> “You are the salt of the earth,” Jesus said. “But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? . . . You are the light of the world. . . . Let your light shine before men” (Matthew 5:13–16).<br />
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How can you be salt and light? Simple: <i>Live the Word</i>.<br />
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And while we must stand up for that which we know is right, we must be careful not to judge other folks.<br />
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“Do not judge,” Jesus said, “or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you too will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Matthew 7:1–2).<br />
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“For I did not come to judge the world,” Jesus said, “but to save it” (John 12:47). “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him” (John 3:17).<br />
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Judgment Day <i>is </i>coming, be sure of that. But until then, remember the words of Billy Graham: “It is the Holy Spirit’s job to convict, God’s job to judge, and my job to love.”<br />
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I just keep asking myself, “What would Jesus do?”<br />
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May we continue to pray as George Washington did on the inauguration of this country (April 30, 1789):<br />
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<i>“Almighty God, we make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy Holy protection; and Thou wilt incline the hearts of the Citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to Government; and entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another and for their fellow Citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the Field.</i><br />
<i> </i><br />
<i>“And finally that Thou wilt most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that Charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind which were the Characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed Religion, and without a humble imitation of whose example in these things we can never hope to be a happy nation. Grant our supplication, we beseech Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”</i><br />
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Source for prayer: <a href="http://www.propheticroundtable.org/ForeFathers/GeorgeWashington/A%20Prayer.htm">http://www.propheticroundtable.org/ForeFathers/GeorgeWashington/A%20Prayer.htm</a><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="text-align: start;">More tea: 2 Chronicles 6:12–42</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;">I've just finished reading <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Harbinger-Ancient-Mystery-Secret-Americas-ebook/dp/B005IYEQKI/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1&qid=1435786610" target="_blank"><i>The Harbinger</i> </a>and <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Harbinger-Companion-With-Study-Guide-ebook/dp/B00AH355FU/ref=pd_sim_351_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1YX47PAW2PZZ2KHNH9H6" target="_blank">The Harbinger Companion</a></i> by Jonathan Cahn. </span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;">I highly recommend both of them. </span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8414484690953810814.post-13046454666831115042015-06-28T00:00:00.000-04:002015-06-28T00:00:00.459-04:00Getting into the game<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjndTqdXhnkrFB8a-rDY7Milt3s1mKp7gUePn6OvhixXQcqzAebNDGK2DIV5F6qmQs9VJjDIwJ870hjsrPQqtfPqjUOhClSStNAwNcEnK9TZ-JjvufgYMG4-fIeAhcoermeyuRZ_7oLxAQ/s1600/PNC+Front+Gate.JPG.opt434x326o0%252C0s434x326.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjndTqdXhnkrFB8a-rDY7Milt3s1mKp7gUePn6OvhixXQcqzAebNDGK2DIV5F6qmQs9VJjDIwJ870hjsrPQqtfPqjUOhClSStNAwNcEnK9TZ-JjvufgYMG4-fIeAhcoermeyuRZ_7oLxAQ/s320/PNC+Front+Gate.JPG.opt434x326o0%252C0s434x326.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>“I am the gate; whoever enters through Me will be saved.” – Jesus, as quoted in John 10:9 (NIV)</i><br />
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When our son gave us tickets for a Pittsburgh Pirates home game, I got online to see what we could and could not take in. It’s been several years since Dean and I have been to PNC Park, and I wanted to review the rules.<br />
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Hubby and I aren’t big spenders, so we rarely purchase concession stand food. Oh, I know it’s part of the ballpark experience, but our wallets can stretch only so far. We usually pack a cooler with a picnic lunch. One time we munched on sandwiches on a grassy, shady spot not far from the ballpark.<br />
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A few days before the game, I googled “PNC PARK” and clicked on the information page for food and beverage/gate policy.<br />
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A hard-sided cooler is out, but we’re allowed one soft-sided bag each, no larger than 16x16x8 inches. No ice packs or cooler inserts. Sealed, clear water bottles no larger than 24-ounces are allowed, but not carbonated beverages, sports drinks, cans or thermoses. Bags are subject to be checked. No surprises there.<br />
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But there is a new policy that semi-surprised me: Every person must go through a metal detector before being allowed in the ballpark. It’s similar to going through the security checkpoint at the airport, except you don’t have to take your jacket, belt and shoes off. And you can keep your wallet, keys and watch. But your cell phone, tablet, laptop and camera must go in a tray as you walk through the detector.<br />
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In light of today’s world, this is for the safety and protection of everyone who attends the game.<br />
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Someday we’ll all stand at the gate of heaven. We won’t have to worry about taking food in—indeed, all who enter will enjoy a banquet of unimaginable proportions. And we won’t need any of our electronic gadgets. Everything we need for our eternal life will be waiting for us in the dwelling place (some versions use the word “mansion”) Jesus said He’d prepare for us (John 14:2).<br />
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Although we won’t have to pass through a device that detects things that aren’t allowed in (see Revelation 21:8; 22:15—in short, sin), we do have to pass through the one and only gate that will allow us in: Jesus Himself.<br />
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“I am the gate,” He said. “Whoever enters through Me will be saved” (John 10:9).<br />
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“I am the way, the truth, and the life,” He said. “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).<br />
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And again: “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:11–12).<br />
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Walking though the gate of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all the sin that would keep us out of heaven.<br />
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Have you passed through the gate? Have you gotten into the game?<br />
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<i> </i><br />
<i>Thank you, God, for providing the way into Your home. Amen.</i><br />
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<span style="text-align: start;">More tea: Read John 10:7–11</span></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8414484690953810814.post-36794206323077080732015-06-21T00:00:00.000-04:002015-06-21T00:00:02.738-04:00A Psalm 1 Man<div style="text-align: left;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLb0E6JFezw__809q5tAqmqe5cTnvId75AqIOnuHv2hgys8W9YynF_kjQHH03hjXb0iW3TUdMzZhbQTLvU6VK9CRa2PSxFIPruAt8y-wuO2JXW9oe61FXQc2tJaGiuyqt_tPW37p9tZTA/s1600/walking+image+for+blog.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLb0E6JFezw__809q5tAqmqe5cTnvId75AqIOnuHv2hgys8W9YynF_kjQHH03hjXb0iW3TUdMzZhbQTLvU6VK9CRa2PSxFIPruAt8y-wuO2JXW9oe61FXQc2tJaGiuyqt_tPW37p9tZTA/s320/walking+image+for+blog.jpg" width="211" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image courtesy of Simon Howden<br />FreeDigitalPhotos.net</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<i>The integrity of the upright will guide them. - Proverbs 11:3 (NKJV)</i><br /> <br /> My father inspected buildings being constructed for the state, making sure the contractors followed the blueprints. Having worked construction himself when he was younger, he knew too well how corners could be cut and a building's integrity undermined. He refused many a contractor's overtures, often gifts of liquor stashed in the back seat of his car. His colleagues soon recognized he could not be bought. He would not allow his personal integrity to be undermined.<br /> The word <i>integrity </i>comes from two Latin words that together mean "untouched, whole, entire." These two Latin roots also give us <i>integrate</i>, which means "to weave or blend separate entities into a working whole or unit."<br /> Personal integrity cannot be put on and off like a garment. Rather it is woven into the moral fabric of our lives over time. We weave it in each time we keep a promise or tell the truth no matter what it costs us, whether it's claiming all our income on our tax return, returning extra change we received by mistake, or paying the difference when we're undercharged. We weave it in each time we admit our mistakes and take responsibility for our words and actions.<br /> My father was a man of integrity - or, as I like to phrase it, a "Psalm 1" man.<br /> What characterizes a Psalm 1 man, a man of integrity?<br /> Two things: what he doesn't do and what he does.<br />
He doesn't walk in the counsel of the ungodly, stand around with
sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers (v. 1). Notice the verbs show a
progression: walking, standing, sitting. <br /> Walking in Scripture implies a way of life. The Psalm 1 man walks, all right, but he takes the narrow road, often alone (Matthew 7:13-14). He walks by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7), and he walks in the light (John 8:12). As a result, the man of integrity walks securely (Proverbs 10:9).<br /> The Psalm 1 man doesn't "stand in the way of sinners." He doesn't hang out with those for whom wickedness is a way of life. He knows that "bad company corrupts good character" (1 Corinthians 15:33). The man of integrity keeps moving, knowing if he walks with the wise he'll become wise, and if he associates with fools, he'll get in trouble (Proverbs 13:20 NLT).<br /> And the Psalm 1 man doesn't "sit in the seat of mockers." Sitting implies settling in and getting comfortable with those who mock God, ridicule Him, and defiantly reject Him. The man of integrity doesn't join in with those who scorn God and His way. Indeed, he stands up for that which is good and true, right and just, noble and holy.<br /> The Psalm 1 man knows God's Word so well it's a part of him, nourishing him and guiding him, causing him to thrive (verses 2-3). <br /> All it takes is one man of integrity to influence the world around him. Be that Psalm 1 man.<br /><br /> <i> May our nation and world be filled with Psalm 1 men. Amen.</i><br />
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More tea: Read Psalm 1</div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8414484690953810814.post-42389107682316636582015-06-14T00:00:00.000-04:002015-06-14T00:00:03.424-04:00Finding the trail <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxMMZQjMDjfeVKEbRgYwqQhBYuixTMns7n-QyKgZUmy2ZF_9cVCA6uLFe3KOGd7Okqv9x2ocCx-jzLU2tLV8d-0Iwy4aJPbYcKazb_kxUd0yP22zsjuAp_JHx3vHgWRiZdSlzt-BFcxPo/s1600/1907487_10206035606442059_1799083559903918223_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxMMZQjMDjfeVKEbRgYwqQhBYuixTMns7n-QyKgZUmy2ZF_9cVCA6uLFe3KOGd7Okqv9x2ocCx-jzLU2tLV8d-0Iwy4aJPbYcKazb_kxUd0yP22zsjuAp_JHx3vHgWRiZdSlzt-BFcxPo/s400/1907487_10206035606442059_1799083559903918223_n.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dean leading the way through the woods <br />on one of our recent hikes.</td></tr>
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<i>My soul followeth hard after thee; thy right hand upholdeth me. – Psalm 63:8 (KJV)</i><br />
<br />
<br />
Most of the trails my husband and I hike are usually well marked—with clear paths through the woods and markers placed at intervals to let hikers know they’re on the right path.<br />
<br />
Note I wrote <i>most</i> of the trails. One trail, which showed little signs of use, wasn’t so clear. Even my husband, who is more at home in the woods than he is anywhere else on earth, had difficulty discerning the way in places. We stopped several times, searching for the gray diamond marker on a tree that would ascertain we were where we were supposed to be.<br />
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Life’s trails aren’t always well marked, either. Many times we have to stop to figure out which way we’re supposed to go. We pray, read the Bible, and count on God to direct our steps as He’s promised in His Word.<br />
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But sometimes the path just isn’t clear.<br />
<br />
A number of years ago, Rick Warren’s <i>The Purpose-Driven Life</i> was all the rage. Folks enthusiastically embraced the premise of the book, which is that God has a purpose for each of us. Suddenly people who had no direction in life had direction. The book led many to spiritual faith as they turned to the Scriptures and to God to discover their purpose.<br />
<br />
I preach God’s purpose for each of us all the time. But one dear lady, in her eighties, struggles with this. Many of her generation ask not “Why on earth am I here?” but “Why on earth am I <i>still</i> here?”<br />
<br />
I struggled to give her a satisfactory answer. Then I came across a devotional reading from the NIV 365-Day Devotional, “What is my purpose and how can I be certain of it?”<br />
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“Perhaps our feverish search for the specific is misguided,” the writer said. “Maybe letting go of the pressure to find our purpose and instead following hard after God each new day will center us squarely in the target.”<br />
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Following hard after God isn’t hard. Just read His Word, meditate on it, and obey it.<br />
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Following hard after God means talking to Him in prayer and listening for His answers. It means knowing He will answer.<br />
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Following hard after God means stepping through high grass and over logs lying across the path. It means stopping every now and then to discern the way, trusting He will eventually give you a signpost so you know you’re where you’re supposed to be.<br />
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And if you’re not?<br />
<br />
Then remember the story of the Good Shepherd who left the 99 to find the one who lost its way.<br />
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Don’t stress about the specifics of your purpose on earth. Follow hard after God, dear one, and you’ll never lose your way.<br />
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<i>When I begin to stress over whether I’m fulfilling my purpose in life, remind me, O Lord, that YOU will fulfill Your purpose for me (Psalm 138:8). All I have to do is follow hard after You. Amen.</i><br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8414484690953810814.post-83461109052032592062015-06-07T00:00:00.000-04:002015-06-07T00:00:05.108-04:00Kill them with kindness<div style="text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of <a href="http://historynet.com/">historynet.com</a></td></tr>
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<i>Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. – Romans 12:21 (NIV)</i><br />
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<br />
I was online checking out campgrounds in the Allegheny National Forest when I came across an interesting bit of information about the Red Bridge Campground near Bradford: “The recreation area is located near the site of a former Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) unit known as Camp #3. The camp stood from 1933 until 1946. During World War II, it was used as a German Prisoner-of-War Camp.”*<br />
<br />
What? A POW camp here in Pennsylvania?<br />
<br />
My writer’s mind was intrigued. I researched further and learned that over 400,000 POWs, mostly German, were housed in close to 500 camps throughout the United States. Twenty-two POW camps were scattered throughout Pennsylvania, including in Kane, Marienville, and Sheffield in the Allegheny National Forest.<br />
<br />
The United States abided by the terms of the Geneva Convention, so the prisoners were treated well. One prisoner gained more than 50 pounds during his stay. Less than 10-percent were hard-core Nazis, and there were few escape attempts.<br />
<br />
They came at a time America was experiencing a severe shortage of labor—her men were overseas fighting the enemy. So the POWs were put to work—for pay, of course (the government receiving most of it)—on farms, in factories, and wherever they were needed. They built garages, harvested crops, stacked hay, cut timber. Some even sat at the dinner table with the families for whom they worked.<br />
<br />
“Having a chance to be shoulder-to-shoulder with [the prisoners], you got to know them,” recalled Mel Luetchens, who was but a young boy on his family’s farm in Nebraska at the time. “They were people like us.”**<br />
<br />
Yes, at first there was mistrust, but the arrangement worked. Lifetime friendships were forged. In my research, I read of POWs who fell in love, POWs who, after being sent back to their homeland after the war, returned to America to make new lives for themselves.<br />
<br />
“Love your enemies,” Jesus commands us (Luke 6:35). “Do good to them.”<br />
<br />
Is there anyone you see as an enemy? Perhaps “enemy” is a strong term. Maybe there’s someone who seems to thrive on making your life miserable. No matter how pleasant you are, you receive only hurtful remarks and treatment in return.<br />
<br />
I once read of a woman—let’s say her name was Mary—who had a co-worker like this. So one day Mary showed up with a plate of homemade cookies, which she gave to her tormenter.<br />
<br />
“Oh, how did you know chocolate chip cookies are my favorite?” the woman said.<br />
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The woman’s attitude improved, and the two became friends. Mary later learned the woman was going through a difficult time in her life.<br />
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You can play the one-upmanship game, but that will only lead to more and bigger hurt. Or you can refuse to retaliate. You just don’t know what that person is going through. Everyone, I’ve learned, has “stuff” they’re dealing with.<br />
<br />
“When you know people as human beings up close and understand about their lives,” said Luetchens, “it really alters your view of people and the view of your own world.”<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>Help me, Lord, to treat others the way I want to be treated—no matter how badly they treat me. Fill my heart with Your love, compassion, and understanding. Amen.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="text-align: start;">More tea: Read Luke 6:27–36</span></div>
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<b>Sources:</b><br />
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* <a href="http://www.alleghenysite.com/cabins/red-bridge">http://www.alleghenysite.com/cabins/red-bridge</a><br />
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** <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/german-pows-on-the-american-homefront-141009996/?no-ist=&page=1">http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/german-pows-on-the-american-homefront-141009996/?no-ist=&page=1</a><br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8414484690953810814.post-77737420015478430512015-05-31T00:00:00.000-04:002015-05-31T00:00:06.073-04:00Pretty but dangerous
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vinca Minor<br />From <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vinca_minor,_2006-05-03.jpg" target="_blank">WikiMedia Commons</a></td></tr>
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<i>Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. –1 Peter 5:8 (NIV)</i><br />
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<br />
As my husband and I hike the trails of the great outdoors, we spot different forms of wildlife and plants. I especially love wildflowers, often stopping to examine tiny blooms and wishing I knew what they were.<br />
<br />
But I’ve learned not all flowers are good for the environment. <br />
<br />
Take periwinkle, for example. Those pretty, delicate blossoms can be downright dangerous to its surroundings. Also known as <i>vinca minor</i>, the quick-growing vine can take over an area, crowding out native vegetation and providing very little in terms of food and other habitat needs for native wildlife, such as insects and birds. Like other non-native invasive plants, <i>vinca minor </i>plays a major role in the decline of native plants—and wildlife dependent on them.<br />
<br />
Spreading by its root system,<i> vinca minor</i> is hard to get rid of. It isn’t easy to pull up all the roots. It just takes a portion left in the ground for the persistent plant to reappear.<br />
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Who would have thought those innocent-looking flowers could be so dangerous?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by Janet Allen<br /><a href="http://www.ourhabitatgarden.org/plants/invasive-vines.html" target="_blank">Stewardship Garden </a></td></tr>
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That’s how temptation comes—appearing as something harmless, pretty, and beneficial. Something that will satisfy us physically, emotionally, and spiritually.<br />
<br />
That’s how Satan tempted Eve to eat the fruit God specifically commanded them not to eat. “She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too” (Genesis 3:6 NLT).<br />
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The result was not what they expected. Where before they knew only good, they now knew evil. And because they knew evil, God did not want them to eat of the Tree of Life and live forever in their sinful state. So they were expelled from Eden.<br />
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They lost their innocence, their home, their easy way of life, and their relationship with God Almighty. No more walks in the garden with Him in the cool of the evening. No more tending to a beautiful, weed-free garden planted in just the right kind of soil just for them. No more looking at things with awe and wonder.<br />
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Sin had done its nasty job. Their perspective of the world, of life, and of themselves was forever tainted.<br />
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Satan hasn’t changed his tactics.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWU4xu3qzcl6qBHhx-prJcDL4dn5wRTbIhq72uAShJOAqsAchj335Gab_R7veh1kfQoxDSH3StmGZW_Qvs5yn4MOxMUEMxSqr8T1hyzvX8fIYh-zpcV5S_9qbLdLHGX159-qkdGyfqdLc/s1600/WEEDEM_OUT_NWD-01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWU4xu3qzcl6qBHhx-prJcDL4dn5wRTbIhq72uAShJOAqsAchj335Gab_R7veh1kfQoxDSH3StmGZW_Qvs5yn4MOxMUEMxSqr8T1hyzvX8fIYh-zpcV5S_9qbLdLHGX159-qkdGyfqdLc/s200/WEEDEM_OUT_NWD-01.jpg" width="171" /></a> <br />
A song popular in 1977 concluded with these words: “It can’t be wrong if it feels so right.” Dangerous words. Because something can look and feel right and be so wrong—and change your life and the lives of those you love forever. Something good can be irretrievably lost.<br />
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Don’t be fooled. Be alert. Pray for wisdom and strength.<br />
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And the God of grace will give you what you need to fight and win (1 Corinthians 10:13).<br />
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<i>When temptation comes my way, O Lord, give me the wisdom to recognize it for what it is and the strength to say no. Amen.</i><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="text-align: start;">More tea: Read Genesis 3</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To learn more about invasive plants in Pennsylvania, visit the following sites: </span></b><br />
<span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-style: italic;">DCNR Invasive Species Site</span>:
</span><br />
<span style="color: #b333ff;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/conservationscience/invasivespecies/index.htm
</span></span><br />
<a href="http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/plants/invasiveplants/"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/plants/invasiveplants/</span></a><br />
<span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Plant Invaders of Mid-Atlantic Natural Areas</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">National Park Service</span>:
<span style="color: #b333ff;">http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/pubs/midatlantic/midatlantic.pdf</span></span><br />
<span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Invasive Plants Field and Reference Guide, U.S. Forest Service</span>:
<span style="color: #b333ff;">http://na.fs.fed.us/pubs/misc/ip/ip_field_guide.pdf </span></span><br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8414484690953810814.post-6475737832310586902015-05-24T00:00:00.000-04:002015-05-24T00:00:04.751-04:00My Mantra and My Man<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDe-5KBXV_syYPYgVc8WE7QmNsZSlNGxu9rxtiejsCOcIYwSaK8uW1YfcOpo9w8m_27Sp7nsP2xVj2FV3gSmY_hCBLi6ECz8-lV2jG9tWA0MNVUIIwKpYBSyt_Xzs8P_apjgW0UeOX9gY/s1600/trail+ANP+Sept.+2014+WebL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDe-5KBXV_syYPYgVc8WE7QmNsZSlNGxu9rxtiejsCOcIYwSaK8uW1YfcOpo9w8m_27Sp7nsP2xVj2FV3gSmY_hCBLi6ECz8-lV2jG9tWA0MNVUIIwKpYBSyt_Xzs8P_apjgW0UeOX9gY/s400/trail+ANP+Sept.+2014+WebL.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trail to Beech Mountain Summit<br />
Acadia National Park, Maine<br />
September 2013</td></tr>
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<i>I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. – Psalm 121:1–2</i><br />
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<br />
Both hubby and I love the outdoors. Especially mountains, forests, streams, waterfalls, and wildlife. So camping and hiking have become activities we enjoy together during these empty nest years, although DH has more experience in walking in the woods and is more conditioned and stronger than I.<br />
<br />
Over the past two years, we’ve trekked in the Finger Lakes region of New York, the Adirondacks, Maine, and North Carolina, in addition to trails here on the Huey homestead.<br />
<br />
The trails at Taughannock Falls State Park were easy and short. At Fort Ticonderoga we walked 853 steep feet up Mount Defiance, where the elevation rose a foot and a half with each step we took. We stopped 11 times so I could catch my breath, Dean waiting patiently beside me.<br />
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Rocks, roots, and boulders marked the trails in Acadia National Park, which were longer and more challenging than the trails at Taughannock. “I can do this” became my mantra when the trail was rough, rocky, or steep, and when my body, mind, and spirit screamed with fatigue.<br />
<br />
My mantra served me well when we hiked in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The trails there weren’t as rocky or as steep as those in Acadia, but they were long and steep enough to have me stopping to catch my breath every 50 steps, with Dean waiting beside me. I so appreciated his patience. He could have forged on ahead, at a much faster pace, but instead he waited until I was ready to move on and often took my backpack. He gave a whole new perspective to the term “long suffering.”<br />
<br />
During the fourth mile of a 5-mile hike, my feet were dragging, my shoulders sagging, and my spirit flagging. “I can do this,” I muttered under my breath with every step. Dean slowed his pace to match mine and told me how well I’d done that day. I think he would have hauled me over his shoulder the rest of the way if I had asked.<br />
<br />
This year we’re staying close to home. The Allegheny National Forest beckons us. The trails will still be challenging, but I’ll have my mantra and my man to see me through.<br />
<br />
Hiking is a lot like life. You start out “slow and easy,” thinking you’re prepared, but you’re not. You meet with challenges, some so great you don’t think you can go on. You can’t plop down on the side of the trail and quit. Going back takes just as much as going forward. So after a brief rest stop, you push on. “I can do this,” you say.<br />
<br />
Somewhere along the way, you realize you’re not alone. Someone stronger and wiser and more experienced is beside you. That’s when your mantra becomes “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).<br />
<br />
With hiking and with life, I know I’ll stay the course—with my mantra and my Man, who waits patiently until I’m ready for the next step, carries my burden when it gets too heavy, and whispers tender words of encouragement.<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>Thank you, Lord, for walking beside me in this hike called life. Someday I will say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7). Amen.</i><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
More tea: Read Psalm 121</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGolrkAshf0Z5xcftWivFn6XJq8Z0qLaXJTVumdcPLS4Ishe5k1x-5lvjCKDj3SkmvCG0e0JEm_eC53VKI95VH0TyR2GLc128apEMnvsYdnfQBufXFB4SwwRDpKitIMv-_3JDo40wVCno/s1600/Dean+and+me%252C+GSM+Oct+2014+Web+L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGolrkAshf0Z5xcftWivFn6XJq8Z0qLaXJTVumdcPLS4Ishe5k1x-5lvjCKDj3SkmvCG0e0JEm_eC53VKI95VH0TyR2GLc128apEMnvsYdnfQBufXFB4SwwRDpKitIMv-_3JDo40wVCno/s400/Dean+and+me%252C+GSM+Oct+2014+Web+L.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dean and me<br />
Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Bryson, NC)<br />
October 2014</td></tr>
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NEWS from Helping Hands Press:</h2>
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SPRING SUPER SALE </h2>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Right now until </span>June 18th <span style="font-weight: normal;">everything in the Helping Hands Press Store is</span> 25% OFF<span style="font-weight: normal;">!!!!!!</span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">When you checkout, please put the code word </span>SpringSuperSale<span style="font-weight: normal;"> into the coupon area to receive the discount.</span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">We will be adding in as many of our ebooks on a daily basis as we can, so please check back often.</span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Here is the direct link to the Helping Hands Press Store: <a href="http://shop.myhelpinghandspress.com/" target="_blank">http://shop.myhelpinghandspress.com/ </a></span></span></h3>
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How would you like to be able to listen to over 20 audiobook samples by going to just one place?</div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The audiobook genres cover everything from Fantasy and Sci-Fi to Devotionals and almost everything you can think of in between!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">What do you have to do to get the link to go to this magical place?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Pretty simple: just fill out the “Contact Form” on the left sidebar of the <a href="http://myhelpinghandspress.blogspot.com/2015/05/how-would-you-like-to-be-able-to-listen.html#.VV9NnmC4mql" target="_blank">HHP Blog </a>and we will send you an invitation to enter.</span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8414484690953810814.post-12658491300954547142015-05-17T00:00:00.000-04:002015-05-17T00:00:02.878-04:00The pages of my journal<br />
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<i>Trust in Him at all times. Pour out your heart to Him, for God is our refuge. – Psalm 62:8 (NLT)</i><br />
<br />
<br />
Do you keep a spiritual journal?<br />
<br />
I do.<br />
<br />
On the pages of my journal is where I’m honest with myself about myself – my feelings, foibles, and fears. It’s where I come face-to-face with my wants, my weaknesses, and my wrestlings. Where I record my struggles with life. Where I pour out my mind and my heart as I strive to hear and understand God’s direction. Where I try to make sense of things that just don’t seem to make sense.<br />
<br />
Here’s one entry from January 13, 2011. I’d had carpel tunnel surgery a month earlier, which did little to relieve the numbness in my left arm and hand. In fact, my condition worsened. “Inflamed nerve endings” was the diagnosis and the Rx was Tylenol with codeine. I’d never experienced such debilitating pain, and I hope I never do again. An MRI eventually revealed three herniated neck disks, for which I had surgery six months later.<br />
<br />
In the midst of the pain, I wrote, “I never thought to pray myself for God to take away the pain and heal me. I’ve asked others to pray – for the neck to heal – but in its time. I don’t expect a miracle. Why? Because I believe that God is in control of my life, and that He has allowed this for a reason. There is a purpose for the pain.”<br />
<br />
Then I skipped a space and wrote, “I’m almost 60. My body is slowing down.”<br />
<br />
Nine months later, on September 12, I wrote:<br />
<br />
“Today I begin my retirement from teaching. I am sad. Teaching is my passion, and I loved teaching at PCS. But I know at this time it’s the right decision. I’m weary in body, mind, and spirit. I must tend to all areas to get my life back in balance and to find renewal, restoration, and healing.<br />
<br />
“I’m spending the morning feeding my soul (with reading and prayer). This first week I’m making a personal retreat to have time alone with God, not necessarily seeking His will, but seeking HIM. I will rest my body, which is exhausted. . . . Yes, I have responsibilities and obligations, but my first priority is restoring health in my body, spirit, and mind.”<br />
<br />
I confess: I’ve been neglecting my spiritual journal. I’ve let my life get out of balance again. <br />
<br />
It’s time to get back to recording my spiritual journey. For I need to pour out my heart to God, let Him help me make sense of the senseless, and come face-to-face with not only myself, but the God who loves me and guides me and is present with me every moment of every day.<br />
<br />
<i>You have a journal, too, Lord. It’s called the Bible. May I read it every day because on its pages You pour out Your love for me. Amen. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="text-align: start;">More tea: Read Psalm 62</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8414484690953810814.post-57480258587089219122015-05-10T00:00:00.000-04:002015-05-10T00:00:00.908-04:00Remembering Mom<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQdhFKZTpMVRLBclrtGOhzhHD-PiYuzET_7gXwxsK_3vCcPzdXx6XpkgyjwampYvFK4ui6kqfRfdxnlYacl3KWqDIk3HrTsIUtUaJlpHVE6lNO1rOZ4mD3i3rDs6nw3x0ZrBpWGBY7i4M/s1600/mom+and+dad+June+1971+webL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQdhFKZTpMVRLBclrtGOhzhHD-PiYuzET_7gXwxsK_3vCcPzdXx6XpkgyjwampYvFK4ui6kqfRfdxnlYacl3KWqDIk3HrTsIUtUaJlpHVE6lNO1rOZ4mD3i3rDs6nw3x0ZrBpWGBY7i4M/s400/mom+and+dad+June+1971+webL.jpg" width="246" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dad & Mom, June 1971</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>Her children rise up and call her blessed. – Proverbs 31:28 (ESV) </i><br />
<br />
<br />
My mother wasn’t the cuddly, “warm fuzzy” type. She was a strict disciplinarian who found joy in family, faith, hard work, and music.<br />
<br />
She didn’t need an alarm clock to awaken her at 5 a.m. Her biological clock did it for her. She woke up wound up, kept wound up with pots of coffee, and finally wound down after the dinner dishes were done.<br />
<br />
Back then, there were no dishwashers, automatic washers, and clothes dryers. Dishes, pots, and pans were washed and dried by hand, then put away as soon as the meal was done. Clothes were washed in a wringer washer and hung on a line to dry. When the weather was cooperative, they sashayed in the outside breeze (after a finger-wagging to heaven from my mom—“Now don’t You let it rain!”). When it wasn’t clothes-drying weather, they hung from wire lines strung through the basement.<br />
<br />
Mom never left a job for the next day, unless it was a major project, like knocking old plaster off a wall with a crowbar to prepare it for new plaster. She could snore away on the sofa in peace every evening because her work for the day was done.<br />
<br />
Paydays meant trips to the bank, the grocery store, the utility company, and wherever else money was owed or something needed — and she walked because she didn’t drive. Dad tried to teach her, but she ran the car into a telephone pole and refused to get behind the wheel again. We used no credit cards. If the store extended credit, the bill was paid on payday.<br />
<br />
She was the family accountant and, because of her childhood poverty, knew how to stretch a dollar. So when Dad was laid off, she knew how to tightening our belts, with using toilet paper for facial tissues and serving meatless meals, such as bowties and cottage cheese or tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches — still two of my favorite meals today.<br />
<br />
Technology was on the distant horizon. No one was tethered to an electronic device 24/7, so I had time to learn to play the piano, visit with Baba (our grandmother) across the street, go to the library, and read to my heart’s content.<br />
<br />
Life was simpler. We were taught to obey and respect our parents and teachers. If we didn’t, there was a leather strap in a kitchen drawer that was to be avoided at all costs.<br />
<br />
“A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed better than silver or gold” (Proverbs 22:1) was one of the Maddock family mottos, as well as “Honor your father and your mother” (Exodus 20:12).<br />
<br />
I never realized how much my mother modeled the Proverbs 31 woman until I sat down to write this column.<br />
<br />
I only wish Mom were alive today so I could tell her, “Many women do noble things, Mom, but you surpassed them all. I love you. Thank you for teaching me, by example, how to be a wife, a mother, and a woman of character. ”<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>Help me, Lord, to be a Proverbs 31 woman. Amen. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<div style="text-align: center;">
More tea: Read Proverbs 31:1–31</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8414484690953810814.post-1341696091954981082015-05-03T00:00:00.000-04:002015-05-03T00:00:01.279-04:00The grocery list<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAkDlHedW8g2uNfG5VLi5go3m_L808SxVxxh8Diuq_36bbRbSLodJ5GuT837ZBPK2UMruUxD-Q2biimlxL9_IMQ5fELGfdKokjCt0G4C7AW4323uAdj7j8T-nQL4GSqSDRV-CZx27yUfQ/s1600/grocery+list+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAkDlHedW8g2uNfG5VLi5go3m_L808SxVxxh8Diuq_36bbRbSLodJ5GuT837ZBPK2UMruUxD-Q2biimlxL9_IMQ5fELGfdKokjCt0G4C7AW4323uAdj7j8T-nQL4GSqSDRV-CZx27yUfQ/s1600/grocery+list+1.jpg" height="208" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>“Lord, teach us to pray.” – Luke 11:1 (NIV)</i><br />
<br />
<br />
I grew up at a time when small, family-owned grocery stores perched on just about every corner in every neighborhood. My mother would call in her list, and they’d gather the items, pack them up in boxes, and deliver them by the end of the day. The stores extended credit, so when Dad got paid, they got paid.<br />
<br />
I’m reminiscing those old grocery store days because I’ve been pondering prayer and our perspective of it.<br />
<br />
Too often we approach prayer like writing up a grocery list and phoning it in to God, expecting Him to box up what we need and deliver it pronto.<br />
<br />
It doesn’t work that way.<br />
<br />
Like the disciples, we need to ask the Lord to teach us to pray.<br />
<br />
So let’s look at Jesus’ response. “The Lord’s Prayer” is simple, but it contains all we need on our grocery list to the Heavenly storehouse.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfXJ4grPep5XnPPfORrOigTaQIs19xGlhIPfv6vaH4eEsKMjN5hRyR2VUpmI335rn8pXN8tLj2Cu11hi953LN79SNaQ0ut2Tiap1qKB8_gDgTzebuOwRSgFfwNMiUfWBqG3SmuCD333GM/s1600/grocery+list+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfXJ4grPep5XnPPfORrOigTaQIs19xGlhIPfv6vaH4eEsKMjN5hRyR2VUpmI335rn8pXN8tLj2Cu11hi953LN79SNaQ0ut2Tiap1qKB8_gDgTzebuOwRSgFfwNMiUfWBqG3SmuCD333GM/s1600/grocery+list+3.jpg" height="320" width="239" /></a></div>
First on the list is HONOR. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” Sometimes we’re so focused on the family relationship that we forget our Father’s holiness. We’re so busy crawling into Daddy’s lap that we neglect to bow down in worship to El Shaddai. Honor Him as your heavenly Father and honor Him as your God.<br />
<br />
Second on the list is SUBMISSION. “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Submit to His will for you and surrender what you think you want. Father does know best. Too often we want what we want and nothing else, and get mad at God when we don’t get it. “This wasn’t on my list,” we complain. “This isn’t the brand I ordered.” Submit to His best for you.<br />
<br />
Third on the list is TRUST. “Give us this day our daily bread.” This isn’t a request only for food to sustain us physically. We also need bread for our minds, hearts, and spirits. And notice the words “this day.” Too often our lists contain more than what we need for one day. We feel better when we see caches stashed away for tomorrow (and tomorrow and tomorrow)—it’s much easier than trusting God (whom we can’t see) for today’s needs.<br />
<br />
Fourth on the list is FORGIVENESS. “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” I prefer the word “trespasses” rather than “debts,” but both convey the same meaning: If you want to be forgiven, you’ve got to forgive others who have hurt you. And we all need to forgive and be forgiven.<br />
<br />
The final item on the list is DELIVERANCE. “And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” God, being holy, will never lead us to do wrong. That’s our choice. I like the way the NIV Study Bible explains this verse: “Do not lead us into trials so deep that they would tempt us to be unfaithful to you. God does not tempt (in the sense of enticing us to sin).” Rather, we ask God to deliver us from the evil that surrounds us, so it won’t it affect us, inside or out.<br />
<br />
Honor. Submission. Trust. Forgiveness. Deliverance.<br />
<br />
And, remember, you have all the credit you need—Jesus' signature, written in His blood, is already on the check.<br />
<br />
What’s on your grocery list?<br />
<br />
<i>Father, remind me to keep my prayers simple. Amen.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="text-align: start;">More tea: Read Matthew 6:5–13</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="text-align: start;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="text-align: start;"><br /></span></div>
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<div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8414484690953810814.post-86875846865791860252015-04-26T00:00:00.000-04:002015-04-26T00:00:02.673-04:00Getting in shape<i>No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. – Hebrews 12:11 (NIV)</i><br />
<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWYQgAdtD2PNmcfAEw1JSTIbWdQ6x1n2bRTxVm5X4IYK55LkLp8M12ZDuxBrnmXQHHd5pP3tXQaCz-nm85lL51NceL4MuF23eut3offGufNeS0Jg9KoYReeF1ej_Sqee7ctFY51wY40js/s1600/michele+hiking+A+4-5-15webL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWYQgAdtD2PNmcfAEw1JSTIbWdQ6x1n2bRTxVm5X4IYK55LkLp8M12ZDuxBrnmXQHHd5pP3tXQaCz-nm85lL51NceL4MuF23eut3offGufNeS0Jg9KoYReeF1ej_Sqee7ctFY51wY40js/s1600/michele+hiking+A+4-5-15webL.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me and Wilbur Dean </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Hiking season has officially begun for hubby and me.<br />
<br />
We took our first hike of the season on Easter Sunday afternoon, and, according to Dean’s GPS, trekked 2.25 miles over the trails here on the Huey homestead.<br />
<br />
“No steep hills or thrashing through dense underbrush,” I warned DH as I laced up my hiking boots.<br />
<br />
Off we went, Dean with his weighted backpack (he’s getting in shape for a fall hunting trip to Colorado) and me with a water-bottle-stuffed fanny pack and my walking stick named “Wilbur Dean” for the man who made it for me. (Note: “Wilbur Dean” refers to my walking stick; “Dean” or “DH” refers to my Dear Husband.)<br />
<br />
The second week we hiked 2.5 miles with some climbing, and last week we put on 3 miles—and me with a bigger fanny pack (to hold more water bottles).<br />
<br />
Oh, I felt that third hike—for two days.<br />
<br />
But if I’m to enjoy hiking and the scenic views of God’s beautiful creation while doing so, I must discipline myself to get in shape so I won’t be huffing and puffing and stopping every 25 steps to catch my breath (like I did on our hikes in the Great Smoky Mountains last year) and won’t hurt so much at the end of a hike.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHMcgBxjZOQGfYKL48q6fOozZBCUFNQNpT_rg4OGzRySUaP0MfapVibpSwyln0Es3n6dotvjbp9hstapK3cmLTqfj05_PBQUtxu7SlmK4g6l68kWYQl0mlQJK59eKkClBrKFVVjDJOevw/s1600/10610627_10204364626108595_4562984316428240318_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHMcgBxjZOQGfYKL48q6fOozZBCUFNQNpT_rg4OGzRySUaP0MfapVibpSwyln0Es3n6dotvjbp9hstapK3cmLTqfj05_PBQUtxu7SlmK4g6l68kWYQl0mlQJK59eKkClBrKFVVjDJOevw/s1600/10610627_10204364626108595_4562984316428240318_n.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Great Smoky Mountains National Park</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So in January I began a training program to get myself in shape—walking indoors, working out on the elliptical trainer which I talked DH into getting me for Christmas (he uses it more than I do), and water aerobics and swimming several times a week. My goal is to hike 5 miles without feeling like I’m dead or nearly so by the end of May.<br />
<br />
Building up my stamina—training myself to endure more and more—can be grueling and painful. It takes time out of an already too-busy schedule. But it’s vital if I’m to grow stronger and build up my endurance.<br />
<br />
The same goes for our spiritual life.<br />
<br />
If we are to grow and become stronger in our faith, we must do more than endure the hard times and the difficult circumstances that appear on the trail of life. We must allow them to stretch us and make us stronger and better. We must embrace them and cooperate with them.<br />
<br />
And when you get to the point when it seems impossible to put one foot in front of the other, you say, “I can do this. I can do all things through Christ, who gives me the strength” (Philippians 4:13).<br />
<br />
So keep stepping, Pilgrim. Your faith, which is more precious than gold (1 Peter 1:7), is in training. <br />
<br />
<br />
<i>Thank you, Lord, for the faith-building exercises You send my way. Give me the strength to endure them and remind me to stop frequently and enjoy the view. Amen.</i><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
More tea: Read 1 Corinthians 9:24–27; Hebrews 12:5–13</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKPdhZXKUBGeXNFmoxmD6dvh6DxBxGAZb2ZFlPHnIcMW80HJo6XuoJdExNXhhKB8KtsmTv7EHGjideQ3JZV7jI3DW5khM_Fa4mvknjO8z-FKx0xKWS89RI1ivtLTo91Xbar1JWBdxfq1U/s1600/michele+hiking+B+4-5-15+webL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKPdhZXKUBGeXNFmoxmD6dvh6DxBxGAZb2ZFlPHnIcMW80HJo6XuoJdExNXhhKB8KtsmTv7EHGjideQ3JZV7jI3DW5khM_Fa4mvknjO8z-FKx0xKWS89RI1ivtLTo91Xbar1JWBdxfq1U/s1600/michele+hiking+B+4-5-15+webL.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>So,</i> I'm thinking, <i>how can I use this in my next book?</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">What's coming down the pike . . . </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Getaway Mountain</i></span></div>
<div>
Reclusive romance novelist Melody Harmon, her career on the skids, flees to her writing retreat in the Pennsylvania mountains rather than team up with Don Bridges, an ex-cop turned suspense writer. When she discovers caches of cash - to the tune of a million dollars - she assumes it's her late husband's gambling winnings. Then dead bodies start popping up. Don wants to help her solve the mystery, but trust isn't one of her strong points. Can she overcome the pain of betrayal and learn to trust and love again? </div>
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I'm currently working on the edits on this one, the first in a romantic suspense series featuring Melody and Don. I'll keep you posted. </div>
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Enjoy your week. </div>
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Blessings,</div>
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Michele</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8414484690953810814.post-49979042497696733752015-04-19T00:00:00.000-04:002015-04-19T00:00:00.808-04:00The joy stealers<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image courtesy of Tina Phillips at FreeDigitalPhotos.Net</td></tr>
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<i>What has happened to all your joy? – Galatians 4:15 (NIV)</i><br />
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When we moved to the country 35 years ago, we planted three kinds of fruit trees. I had visions of homegrown apples in bowls on the counter and sparkling jars of fresh canned peaches and pears.<br />
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For the most part, though, the vision remained just a dream. The apple trees never bore fruit, never grew more than three feet high, thanks to the deer. The peach tree produced luscious peaches for a few years then shriveled up and died.<br />
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The only fruit trees remaining are two pear trees. One is dwarfed—I think because my son shot an arrow through it when it was still quite young. The other is leafy and laden with fruit come late summer, but the pears are small, misshapen, and marked with black dimples.<br />
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To produce more and better fruit, the trees need cultivated and nurtured. The problem is we don’t have a clue. Or maybe it’s because we haven’t made the trees a priority. Until we get serious about those trees, until we take the time to learn how to care for them and then do it, the trees will struggle along, producing little usable fruit.<br />
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I tell you this story because, like fruit trees, the fruit of the Spirit also needs to be cultivated and nurtured. <br />
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Take joy, for example.<br />
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If there is anything missing from society today, it’s joy. Just look at the faces of people you see every day. Even believers, who should be oozing joy, are not. Joy should set us apart right off the bat.<br />
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Do you remember the joy you had at salvation? Overflowing, spilling out, you couldn’t contain it. Then little by little, life robbed you of that joy.<br />
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Life is going to happen. Although we can’t control it, we can control our reaction to it. We can choose joy. We can make it a priority and nurture it.<br />
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How?<br />
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First, be aware of the joy stealers that chomp away at it or shoot it right in the heart. “If a homeowner knew exactly when a burglar was coming, he would not permit his house to be broken into” (Luke 12:39 NLT). Know the burglars will come. Don’t let them in.<br />
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Forgetfulness is one of those burglars. Stuck in the mire of this earthly life, we forget our past and our future: from what we’ve been saved and what awaits us in heaven.<br />
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Legalism is another joy stealer. Religion—all that we do to try and earn heaven (which can’t be earned—see Ephesians 2:8–9) binds us. Relationship—our personal relationship with God through His Son—frees us.<br />
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Unconfessed sin, disobedience, worry, anger, people, and life are other joy stealers.<br />
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Being aware of these thieves will make you more alert when they try to rob you. And when they do, don’t let them in.<br />
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How can you replace the joy you’ve lost?<br />
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Simple: Ask the joy-giver—God Himself—to fill you with His joy and help you to sustain it. Seek His presence (“In your presence is fullness of joy.” – Psalm 16:10).<br />
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Choose joy. Nurture and cultivate it. Then spread it around, letting it overflow, spilling over onto those around you.<br />
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<i>Remind me, Father, that “the joy of the Lord is my strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). Amen.</i><br />
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More tea: Read Galatians 5:22–23</div>
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Thank you, dear readers, for all your encouragement and support. I love you all. Philippians 1:3-4</div>
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Have a great week.</div>
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Michele</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8414484690953810814.post-29567058681217821202015-04-12T00:00:00.000-04:002015-04-13T16:09:49.893-04:00Cleaning the closet<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, forgiving one another…. But above all these things put on love. – Colossians 3:12–13, 14 (NKJV)</i><br />
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I’ve got closet full of clothes I hesitate to throw away. There are my “fat” clothes and my “skinny” clothes, outdated clothes and classic clothes that never go out of style, casual clothes and dressy clothes, comfy clothes and those that aren’t so comfortable, clothes with missing buttons, broken zippers, and holes in the fabric with some use left in them.<br />
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Every spring and fall I go through my closet, sorting and organizing, weeding out those I don’t fit into anymore and will probably never fit into again, those that just aren’t my style any longer, and those I’ve grown tired of.<br />
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I make four piles: pitch, give away, keep, and I don’t know. Clothes that are threadbare or torn (I don’t sew) go on the pitch pile, destined for the rag bin or garbage. The giveaway pile is for clothes I haven’t worn in a year and probably won’t wear even if I slimmed down enough to fit into them, yet they still have enough wear in them for someone else.<br />
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The clothes I keep are the ones I wear frequently, the ones I’ll need for special occasions, and the ones that don’t go out of style. Clothes that I can’t decide whether to keep or to toss go on the I-don’t-know-pile.<br />
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I confess: More goes back into the closet than out the door, but I figure if I could get rid of at least one item that has lost its usefulness, I’m ahead.<br />
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I need to have a regular cleaning session with my spiritual closet, too. But for those items I need only two piles: pitch and keep.<br />
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Onto the pitch pile go resentment, anger, gossip, envy, deceit, lies, greed, pride, selfishness—all those things that came with my sinful nature. Like old clothes that no longer fit, we must put off that old nature—a nature we were slaves to before we received Jesus as Savior and Lord—a nature that no longer has power over us because it is no longer in us.<br />
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“If anyone is in Christ,” Scripture says, “he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).<br />
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“Put off the old self, which is corrupted by its deceitful desires,” wrote St. Paul to the Ephesians. “Instead put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22–24).<br />
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Too often I push those old attitudes and emotions back in the closet where I can’t see them, but still they take up room, crowding and wrinkling the ones I need to put on often.<br />
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And what are the clothes I should put on?<br />
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Compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, tolerance, and forgiveness. And over all, the one item I must not be without, the one that, like a jacket, coat, or shawl, covers all the others, is love.<br />
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Cleaning out the closet is never a fun thing to do, but when it’s done—and done right—we have all the wardrobe we’ll ever need. A wardrobe that will never wear out or go out of style. A wardrobe that fits better and becomes more comfortable the more we put it on.<br />
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<i>Help me, Lord, to clean out my closet regularly. Give me the wisdom to see those items that I must put off and those I must put on. Amen.</i><br />
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<span style="text-align: start;">More tea: Read Colossians 3:1–17</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>PUBLISHING NEWS</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Have you been wondering what Gracie and Jim have been up to? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Wonder no more. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Wheel-Tucson-Two-Step-ebook/dp/B00VVT7ANO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1428679990&sr=8-1&keywords=Michele+Huey+Fifth+Wheel" target="_blank"><i>Fifth Wheel Vol. 4</i>, "Tucson Two-Step"</a> by Roberta Updegraff was just released!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">After a holiday visit to Pennsylvania, the roving retirees set out for Tucson, Arizona, to visit an old Air Force buddy of Jim’s he’d never mentioned. Believing she’s needed at home to help settle the hornet’s nest of problems plaguing her children, Gracie nurses a grudge against Jim for dragging her away and animosity toward her wayward daughter-in-law. </span><span style="background-color: white;">As Gracie and Jim sort through the fallout, they encounter deeper dimensions of themselves and their marriage that will either break their bond or bring them closer to each other and God. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Wheel-Tucson-Two-Step-ebook/dp/B00VVT7ANO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1428679990&sr=8-1&keywords=Michele+Huey+Fifth+Wheel" target="_blank">Click here to download "Tucson Two-Step" for only $.99.</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Michele+Huey+Fifth+Wheel" target="_blank">For the entire series to date, click here.</a></span></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Michele+Huey+&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3AMichele+Huey+" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To browse Michele's books, click here.</span></a></span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8414484690953810814.post-54455189197324284652015-04-05T00:00:00.000-04:002015-04-05T00:00:02.577-04:00Embracing the seasons<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come. –Song of Songs 2:11–12</i><br />
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As I write this—Friday morning—the day is overcast, rainy, cool, dreary. Patches of snow linger about the hillsides, in crevices—wherever the ground is in more shadow than sun. Where there isn’t snow, there’s mud or spongy, marshy terrain.<br />
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On days like this I’d rather strap on my CPAP mask, pull a pillow over my head, snuggle beneath a quilt, and succumb to slumber. Or bury my nose in a good book. Anything but look outside.<br />
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As I glance out the back patio door, though, I see clusters of green and white snowdrops pushing up through the rotting leaves of the forest floor behind my house. And I know the daffodils will soon emerge below the stone wall in the front yard.<br />
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I’m so ready for spring.<br />
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But not this wet, muddy, mushy mess that’s spring in these parts. Which is why spring is my least favorite season.<br />
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But it is what it is.<br />
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Not all good and not all bad.<br />
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Just like winter, which really isn’t as bad as we make it out to be.<br />
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Winter is a time for growing things to rest, for animals to hibernate. It’s a time when I spend long evenings crocheting, reading, or doing something I’d feel guilty doing when the weather’s nice and I can get outside without falling and breaking something.<br />
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Every season has its good aspects and not-so-good aspects. What we choose to focus on determines whether or not we find the joy in the season.<br />
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Just like life.<br />
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I’m not just referring to the seasons of life as we tend to think of them—childhood, youth, adulthood, middle age, and finally our sunset years.<br />
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I’m talking about the seasons of life-change—when our lives change in ways we don’t plan or want. A financial setback. Illness. Disability. A wayward child. A broken relationship. Betrayal. Death. Divorce. Anything that leads to brokenness—a broken heart, a broken spirit, broken dreams. Seasons of pain and drought and floods of tears. Seasons when the roads are impassable and we can go no further. Or, as the old timers say, when we get the stuffing knocked out of us.<br />
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As I write this, I'm thinking of a dear writing colleague and friend who recently lost her husband of 35 years to cancer. I'm thinking of one of my little flock who is the caregiver for her mother, who has suffered a series of strokes, each one leaving her more debilitated than the last one.<br />
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These times, like seasons, are not here to stay. They, too, will pass.<br />
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We can spend the season bemoaning our fate, questioning God, and making ourselves more miserable.<br />
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Or we can embrace it for what it is, remembering that if we have chosen to believe in a sovereign, loving God, we know whatever He allows in our lives has a purpose we may not understand or see this side of eternity.<br />
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Child of God, push on in faith, trust that all things WILL work out for your good (Romans 8:28), and remind yourself that nothing can separate you from His love (Romans 31–39).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiluPHDNjHJwkUOPpPl3tcGglPu6Yyhozh0gvzOr8D69p0F0U0EDqEN1Z0r27xkvcrTE5WwAbUEkUMl2zZMR3RoCrMhuPg_HzrzKFFJHH7yOYd3hHyLNA3IwPG4dja2ku7yPXDPIVxxqKY/s1600/P4031526.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiluPHDNjHJwkUOPpPl3tcGglPu6Yyhozh0gvzOr8D69p0F0U0EDqEN1Z0r27xkvcrTE5WwAbUEkUMl2zZMR3RoCrMhuPg_HzrzKFFJHH7yOYd3hHyLNA3IwPG4dja2ku7yPXDPIVxxqKY/s1600/P4031526.JPG" height="149" width="200" /></a>Only when we choose to embrace each season for what it is do we find the daffodils of hope and the snowdrops of joy sprinkled in the places only the SON can reach. <br />
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<i>Thank you, God, that You are the One in control of the seasons of my life. Help me to embrace whatever season You send, knowing Your plan and purpose is for my ultimate good. Amen.</i><br />
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<span style="text-align: start;">More tea: Read Ecclesiastes 3:1–8</span></div>
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<i style="text-align: start;">Looking for a <b>speaker</b> for your event? I have a slew of topics listed on my<a href="https://michelehuey.wordpress.com/speaking/" target="_blank"> SPEAKER PAGE.</a> If you don't find one you're interested in, I can develop one especially for you. <a href="mailto:michelehueybooks@yahoo.com" target="_blank">Email me</a> at <a href="http://michelehueybooks@yahoo.com./">michelehueybooks@yahoo.com.</a> I'd love to connect with you.</i></div>
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<i><b>CURL UP AND READ:</b></i></div>
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<i>How about a love story of an Army nurse and a Dustoff pilot who meet, fall in love, and get married while on their tour of duty during the Vietnam War, only to have him go MIA and show up 40 years later with amnesia? (</i><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Remembers-Michele-Huey-ebook/dp/B00IZKDJ2I/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8" target="_blank">The Heart Remembers</a></b><i>) </i></div>
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O<i>r the story of a 50-something woman with a lackluster marriage who wants to fall head over heels in love just one more time before she dies?</i> <i>(</i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Before-I-Die-Michele-Huey-ebook/dp/B00MPWXUHG/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8" target="_blank"><b>Before I Die</b></a><i>)</i> </div>
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<i>Or the story of a retired couple who up and sell everything to travel the country in a fifth wheel? (</i><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Michele+Huey+Fifth+Wheel" target="_blank">Fifth Wheel </a></b><i>series of short stories available for download)</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>Or maybe you'd prefer something inspirational for your devotional reading. (</i><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Michele+Huey+God%2C+Me+%26+a+Cup+of+Tea&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3AMichele+Huey+God%5Cc+Me+%26+a+Cup+of+Tea" target="_blank">God, Me & a Cup of Tea </a></b><i>for download and in print)</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8414484690953810814.post-15578092546277773582015-03-29T00:00:00.000-04:002015-03-29T00:00:04.981-04:00The Eyes of Faith<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWcSKlm9WsP7xswlhuVRUeuFjEI-U0aN-k6ZA1uPQH-f3h6DDplHSi3nf2ojjbCGQuSTtWpxo3ZzaRkI1mHES8mbRiGvS5UkzkPRHdzAlqYs7BDB3yRxD_o4XHVFFBjBFY0mdsZ3u5ToY/s1600/Stations-Of-The-Cross-Animated-jesus-9027154-873-655.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWcSKlm9WsP7xswlhuVRUeuFjEI-U0aN-k6ZA1uPQH-f3h6DDplHSi3nf2ojjbCGQuSTtWpxo3ZzaRkI1mHES8mbRiGvS5UkzkPRHdzAlqYs7BDB3yRxD_o4XHVFFBjBFY0mdsZ3u5ToY/s1600/Stations-Of-The-Cross-Animated-jesus-9027154-873-655.gif" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him. – Luke 24:31 (NIV)</i></div>
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<br /></div>
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He was hanging there, dying now, for all the world to see—</div>
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A sinner caught, condemned to die, never again to be free;</div>
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When another man was nailed and raised beside his cross of shame—</div>
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With a crown a thorns, a robe of blood, and a crowd that mocked His name.</div>
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Wasn’t this that preacher man—he’d seen Him once before—</div>
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And eaten of the bread He’d made beside the Galilean shore;</div>
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And wasn’t it just the other day He rode into the town—</div>
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To a cheering crowd who laid their robes before Him on the ground.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Now they shouted, “Save yourself—and us if indeed You are who You claim to be—</div>
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We’ll believe if You come down off that accursed tree.”</div>
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Suddenly he understood and cried, “Can’t you see?</div>
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Lord Jesus, will You remember me?”</div>
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<br /></div>
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He was hanging there, dying now, for all the world to see—</div>
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A sinner caught, forgiven now, and finally set free.</div>
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Through the eyes of faith he saw the King of all eternity—</div>
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Who said, “Today you’ll be in Paradise with Me.”</div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>Grant me, dear Lord, the eyes of faith that I may see You in every aspect of my life. Amen. </i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Read Luke 23:32-43</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8414484690953810814.post-3637661994013218252015-03-26T10:19:00.000-04:002015-03-26T10:19:19.529-04:00If you're in the area . . . I'll have a book table at the Craft Fair at the Purchase Line United Methodist Church on Rte. 286 (Commodore, Pa.) on Saturday, March 28, from noon until 3 p.m.<br />
<br />
If you've been wanting an autographed copy of any of my books and are in the area, please stop by. I'd love to connect with you!<br />
<br />
Books available:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><i>The Heart Remembers</i></li>
<li><i>Before I Die</i></li>
<li><i>God, Me & a Cup of Tea devotionals</i></li>
<li><i>Minute Meditations: Meeting God in Everyday Experiences</i></li>
<li><i>I Lift Up My Eyes: Minute Meditations Vol. 2</i></li>
</ul>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBCCwnHm4tomWSa4Wy_wqQjLVy9a6uYKAVemi6LzXZshCPOuXHn2LxOuD1SHtZ7LDESfvIBHxARhBA06LXzeoyGhSQQzaT4JD9N1HCJSNopavES4KU60lQqXOp9DGETA3apsSrMZtU9GE/s1600/cover+THR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBCCwnHm4tomWSa4Wy_wqQjLVy9a6uYKAVemi6LzXZshCPOuXHn2LxOuD1SHtZ7LDESfvIBHxARhBA06LXzeoyGhSQQzaT4JD9N1HCJSNopavES4KU60lQqXOp9DGETA3apsSrMZtU9GE/s1600/cover+THR.jpg" height="200" width="133" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl_o046Oh-71bYxn86ZCsbJJ_TSmPhJrWt4HuYrzyF3fJbNx8fnoeOJZOPgMx299lQDyWHTS2i0lh6nrkxN7cR5ZBOCerrJ_rZiUiL1LbQkI58YynwZtDW-aESvYQJD_0U9JWZg52oyZU/s1600/coverGMTpaperbackAmazib.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl_o046Oh-71bYxn86ZCsbJJ_TSmPhJrWt4HuYrzyF3fJbNx8fnoeOJZOPgMx299lQDyWHTS2i0lh6nrkxN7cR5ZBOCerrJ_rZiUiL1LbQkI58YynwZtDW-aESvYQJD_0U9JWZg52oyZU/s1600/coverGMTpaperbackAmazib.jpg" height="200" width="133" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6jgeEMFm5sOHI4z28gMr6_1SSCyxseuew4Ys5u6_52kOKkc4rUW2MVufV8yPJqzGxmGbNh3m4u598EMQbgKjRyjkxpGlUFMGCmH7Zii1qEDy7Yo5EAQk1RaTqSUO8Uc6hEMTY_6ukwx8/s1600/MM1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6jgeEMFm5sOHI4z28gMr6_1SSCyxseuew4Ys5u6_52kOKkc4rUW2MVufV8yPJqzGxmGbNh3m4u598EMQbgKjRyjkxpGlUFMGCmH7Zii1qEDy7Yo5EAQk1RaTqSUO8Uc6hEMTY_6ukwx8/s1600/MM1.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdZfvfJGVuhc81J6Vw9rl8OQlxBCR6Z6VxHCSVIISbcWruwhU80lHkNvxtKm9tvwaKzOmzjswdZmsoySXShR0Ffp5WiLougVXYaX83KCw1wbn3ynBuSPPLFaAIWQBBECsnlmCj9rqWRxY/s1600/MM2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdZfvfJGVuhc81J6Vw9rl8OQlxBCR6Z6VxHCSVIISbcWruwhU80lHkNvxtKm9tvwaKzOmzjswdZmsoySXShR0Ffp5WiLougVXYaX83KCw1wbn3ynBuSPPLFaAIWQBBECsnlmCj9rqWRxY/s1600/MM2.jpg" /></a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8414484690953810814.post-8754554972725573102015-03-25T00:00:00.000-04:002015-03-25T00:00:03.745-04:00Wonderful surprise<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1aVsWvAiyU16exuma3n_dlthUn5I2IKV1q2w7DMdRw65jQif47o_Hx9dSbRGj76e42Td17wmNVF8CseT-81iWG6nJeR1MqXZx_uaGxcVBAAuqKMBwYVh-uGn_GbxjREKBlk-hTujf0Rc/s1600/11084297_10205433608752493_8488336378663730893_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1aVsWvAiyU16exuma3n_dlthUn5I2IKV1q2w7DMdRw65jQif47o_Hx9dSbRGj76e42Td17wmNVF8CseT-81iWG6nJeR1MqXZx_uaGxcVBAAuqKMBwYVh-uGn_GbxjREKBlk-hTujf0Rc/s1600/11084297_10205433608752493_8488336378663730893_n.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brent and me </td></tr>
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<div style="color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">
I received a wonderful surprise in last week's mail - an autographed copy of Jerry B. Jenkins's latest book, <i>The Matheny Manifesto</i>, written with Mike Matheny, manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, autographed to my grandson Brent. I sent Jerry the link to last week's blog, "To Risk It All." The autographed book was Jerry's response. Thank you, Jerry, for your kindness and thoughtfulness. You made our day!</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8414484690953810814.post-1913246585441957632015-03-23T10:25:00.000-04:002015-03-23T10:26:01.187-04:00Need a speaker?Are you looking for an inspirational speaker for your event?<br />
<br />
I'm firming up my speaking schedule for 2015 and would love to talk to you.<br />
<br />
I've spoken at retreats, revivals, ladies' events (teas, luncheons, mother-daughter dinners), banquets, conferences, and monthly meetings (such as DAR). Please check out my <a href="https://michelehuey.wordpress.com/speaking/" target="_blank">speaker page</a> on my <a href="https://michelehuey.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">website </a>for a list of suggested topics. <br />
<br />
<div style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3s linear; border: 0px; line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.3s linear; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">These are just a few of my speech topics. I’ll be happy to develop a speech or retreat around the theme for your event. All of the topics can be expanded for a retreat.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3s linear; border: 0px; line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.3s linear; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3s linear; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.3s linear; vertical-align: baseline;">“I can’t thank you enough for all the time you put into teaching and preparing to minister to us. You are extremely talented and gifted, and your ministry to us was exactly what we needed. We love you.”</em>– The Summit United Methodist Church Women (Erie, Pa.)</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3s linear; border: 0px; line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.3s linear; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Let me help you make your event meaningful, insightful, and fun<b>.</b></span></div>
<h2 class="site-description" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3s linear; border: 0px; clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 0.3s linear; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><i>…so I can continue to help all of you grow and experience the joy of your faith. (Philippians 1:25 )</i></span></h2>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div>
Use the contact form on the website or <a href="mailto:michelehueybooks@yahoo.com" target="_blank">email me</a>. I'd love to hear from you!</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8414484690953810814.post-11679443538021032362015-03-22T00:00:00.000-04:002015-03-22T00:00:05.046-04:00Rearview mirror<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgInokrGzqrsVqOKWk1EFSt0eSfrLD7dT7H_5RK0v0NzyG991B9kKrd5PCYQS7h29GLenCRRAsoHhTuU8NF5GagRURc1KwLw8WLvoiiqyQXoHcteXoQdlEHFfFYRtcCgXeMtMuAjqNUDVo/s1600/post-14-rear-view-mirror.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgInokrGzqrsVqOKWk1EFSt0eSfrLD7dT7H_5RK0v0NzyG991B9kKrd5PCYQS7h29GLenCRRAsoHhTuU8NF5GagRURc1KwLw8WLvoiiqyQXoHcteXoQdlEHFfFYRtcCgXeMtMuAjqNUDVo/s1600/post-14-rear-view-mirror.jpg" height="215" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(c) 2007 Bill Frymire</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<i>Remember the wonders He has done, His miracles, and the judgments He pronounced. – 1 Chronicles 16:12 NIV</i><br />
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<br />
Before the days of digital devotionals, I used the blank backside of the front cover of my printed copy of <i>Our Daily Bread </i>to record prayer requests. This way, my prayer list and my daily readings were all in one place. When the month was up, I often tore off that cover and stuffed it into the new booklet until I had time to copy the prayer list.<br />
<br />
One day while cleaning out my devotional basket, I came across those old prayer lists. Reading them over, I was amazed at how many of those requests had been answered. Perhaps not in the time or manner I’d wanted them to be, but, looking back over time, I could definitely see the hand of God. And my flagging faith was fortified.<br />
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A few weeks ago I wrote about the importance of not looking back at our past mistakes. But that doesn’t mean we never look back. We need to.<br />
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For it is only when we peer into the rearview mirror of life that we can see the hand of God more clearly than we could at the time, when doubts and despair, like dust swirling through the air, cloud our perspective.<br />
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I look in the rearview mirror, and I see ways God provided for my needs—a tank full of heating oil just before winter when we didn’t have the money to buy it, boxes packed with groceries left on our front porch by an anonymous giver at a time we didn’t have two nickels to rub together, money for gas so I could drive to Alabama to see my mother one more time before she died. Oh, I could go on and on and on . . . but you get the idea.<br />
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In the rearview mirror I see God’s faithfulness, deliverance, presence, protection, and provision.<br />
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What I don’t see in the rearview mirror are my mistakes, my sins. For God has removed them from me “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12). If God forgave me and remembers my sin no more (Jeremiah 31:34), why should I remember and beat myself up about it?<br />
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I often quote St. Paul, who wrote that he forgets what’s behind and reaches for what’s ahead (Philippians 3:13). What Paul was forgetting was his utter failure to meet up to God’s standards on his own.<br />
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And so we, too, should forget our failures.<br />
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But God wants us to remember the good things—His able protection, His abundant provision, His abiding presence.<br />
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Why else would He command the Israelites to set up a memorial with stones from the Jordan River (Joshua 4), to observe the Passover Feast, to never forget the many ways He delivered them from the time He saved them from the Egyptians to the time they entered the Promised Land, 40 years later?<br />
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Why else would Jesus say at the Last Supper over the bread and the wine, “Do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19)?<br />
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What do you see when you look in the rearview mirror of your life?<br />
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<i>Thank you, God, for what I see in the rearview mirror. Amen.</i><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
More tea: Read Joshua 4</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8414484690953810814.post-29954075616351609152015-03-15T00:00:00.000-04:002015-03-16T11:43:54.672-04:00To risk it all<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>The integrity of the upright will guide them. – Proverbs 11:3 NKJV</i><br />
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If you’re a faithful reader of this blog, you know I love baseball. My family loves baseball. And I’m a diehard Pittsburgh Pirates fan.<br />
<br />
I’m known to keep track of a Pirates game on my cell phone while sitting in the bleachers cheering on one of my grandchildren. All three who live in the area (next door, in fact) play ball. Our oldest grandson, Brent, and his younger brother, Deagen, both play baseball. Granddaughter Madison plays softball.<br />
<br />
Baseball is the love of Brent’s life. He eats and breathes baseball even in the off-season, working on his swing and fielding techniques. He was the player taken off the field by ambulance when a violent collision with another player in the outfield resulted in a compound fracture of the upper bone in his left arm. There went All Star season that year. But he still sat in the dugout, arm in a sling after surgery at Children’s Hospital, keeping the scorebook.<br />
<br />
Then the following spring he broke his little finger playing dodge ball in gym class. Now finger breaks these days aren’t too big of a deal, but this break occurred in the joint at the base of his finger, where it’s connected to the hand. He was swinging a bat and fielding balls within three weeks. He never missed a beat.<br />
<br />
Like I said, he loves the game.<br />
<br />
That’s why this year’s injury is so frustrating.<br />
<br />
Actually it occurred last year when he dove for a fly ball in the outfield, jamming his shoulder upon impact with the ground. We all thought it was a jammed shoulder that would eventually heal on its own.<br />
<br />
Only it didn’t.<br />
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The pain, which never completely went away, worsened when he began practice for tryouts for the high school JV team.<br />
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Now, Brent gives 101-percent and will ignore pain so he could play the game he loves.<br />
<br />
But when the intense pain could no longer be ignored, a visit to the doctor was in order. An MRI revealed a bone break in the shoulder.<br />
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“Rest it for four weeks,” the doctor said, handing him an excuse for gym. If rest and physical therapy didn’t work, surgery was the next option.<br />
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Here he was in the middle of tryouts. With a broken shoulder. The first game in three weeks.<br />
<br />
What to do? Keep playing hurt and continue to hide the injury from the coaches until after tryouts? Or tell the coaches he’d be out for at least four weeks, risking a chance to make the team? <br />
<br />
He told the coaches.<br />
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“I could have waited until after tryouts and then handed them my doctor’s excuse,” he told me, “but I didn’t feel that was right.”<br />
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What integrity!<br />
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It made me think—Am I willing to risk it all to do the right thing?<br />
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I sure hope so. A young man at 15 set the bar for this grandma and reminded her there are things more important than fulfilling our dreams.<br />
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Oh, yes—Brent made the team.<br />
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So you know where this grandma will be come ball season.<br />
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<i>Thank you, Father, for showing me integrity is not dead. Amen.</i><br />
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More tea: Read Psalm 1</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8414484690953810814.post-34734918289992572352015-03-08T00:00:00.000-05:002015-03-08T00:00:06.593-05:00Keeping the temple<br />
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<i>Everything is permissible (allowable and lawful) for me; but not all things are helpful (good for me to do, expedient and profitable when considered with other things). Everything is lawful for me, but I will not become the slave of anything or brought under its power. – 1 Corinthians 6:12 (AM</i>P)<br />
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Pregnancy messed up my hormones.<br />
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That’s when my weight problems started. Never mind that during my first pregnancy I kept a bag of candy in my desk drawer at school because I’d developed a fondness for gummy spearmint leaves and devoured them by the handful.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image courtesy of kjnnt<br />at FreeDigitalPhotos.net</td></tr>
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Here I was the girl my grandmother called “peanut” because I was so small and who was mortified when the scales tipped at 135 when I was in college.<br />
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With every pregnancy (there were three), I kept on more weight. Then I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. When your metabolism slows down like it does when your thyroid gland is underactive, you gain weight and it’s next to impossible to get it off. So I said.<br />
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The baseball years didn’t help because when you eat on the run, you tend to consume fast foods that have little nutritional value but pack on the pounds. And then there were the pizza parties after the games.<br />
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Over the years, I’ve lost and gained and lost and gained – you know the drill. I’ve tried all kinds of diets. I lost weight but gained it all back (and then some) when I went off the diet.<br />
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Currently I’m eating gluten-free. And while I feel better – no sluggishness, brain fog, body aches, fatigue – I’ve learned “gluten-free” isn’t the magic bullet that will melt away all these unwanted pounds. I still have to avoid consuming too many calories, I still have to eat the foods that are right for me, and I still have to exercise three times a week if I want to see the numbers on the scale go down.<br />
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One thing all those diets did was teach me what I could eat and what I shouldn’t. I wish I could eat all the bread and pasta I want and not gain weight. But that’s not going to happen.<br />
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So I’ve got to be diligent about “temple keeping.”<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono <br />at FreeDigitalPhotos.net</td></tr>
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My body, you see, is a temple of the Holy Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 6:19-20), so “keeping the temple” means I take good care of it, physically, mentally, and spiritually. Body, mind, and spirit are all connected. If I neglect the physical, the spiritual and mental will also suffer for it.<br />
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Just like Jesus drove out the moneychangers from the temple, so I, too, must drive out anything that causes more harm than good.<br />
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That doesn’t mean that I can’t occasionally indulge in pizza or spearmint leaves. It does mean that I don’t allow them to become addictions.<br />
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It’s easy to blame my weight problems on pregnancy, hypothyroidism, and busyness. But the real reason comes down to the choices I made in eating and exercising.<br />
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I want this temple to last a long time and work the way it should. And that means I make the right choices in what goes in – physically, mentally, and spiritually.<br />
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What about you? How well are you keeping your temple?<br />
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<i>Dear God, help me to make the right choices when it comes to feeding my body, mind, and spirit. Help me to be a good temple keeper. Amen.</i><br />
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<span style="text-align: start;">More tea: Read John 2:13-17</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0