Where did it go?
Time is a funny thing. It moves all the time. It moves quietly so you're not even aware of it leaving. Life happens and things are busy and it just keeps moving while its busy. Today my daughter, my youngest daughter Rebecca, got engaged. What a joyful lovely day for Becca and all those who love her! And while I sit here on my couch (that my precious beautiful friends bought me) I think about all the time I've had to love Becca. I can see her so clearly down through the years. I see her running around with a basketball in her shirt because she thought it was funny. I see her hiding from her sisters behind the tree while she was yelling I'm here I'm here. I see her crying because she lost Jewel Parkhill whom she loved so dearly .....asking all kinds of questions about God and death and why. I see her face lit up when daddy comes in the door... so excited to see him. I see her wrestling with her sisters in the living room floor laughing hysterically because she could finally take them. But the thing I'm thinking most right now is the ending of this season. Did I treasure it enough? Did I love it? Sometimes when our kids are little we think things like ....its always going to be this way ...what good am i doing? It's because we can't see the long-term picture. It's because we get caught up in the small everyday things and we forget we are raising adults who someday will leave. I thank God today that I treasured every minute. I think God that even the hard days were treasures to me and her dad. While I sit and remember I pray this... I pray that I will love this new season. I pray that I will love this new joy. I pray that I will only mourn for a short time and then I will rejoice in what God is doing with her.. to her.. through her ...and for her. Seasons come and go. Time does not stop. You can choose how to spend your time. You can choose how to enjoy your seasons. You can gripe about the snow... you can gripe about the cold.. you can gripe about the heat...but you cannot change the seasons of your life. They will pass and they cannot be retrieved. I beg you live them with screaming joy....live them with passion...live them unto the glory of God who made them. Live them with tears and laughter. Live them in real genuine truth. Live them so that you wont regret when they are gone.
Humans - Just Sexual Animals?
This morning I perked up when I heard the anchors on the CBS Morning Show say the upcoming segment would feature "scientific" studies revealing whether monogamy is natural or not.
Aliens?
The July / August issue of Popular Mechanics magazine has an article titled "The Case for Alien Life." It chronicles the billions of dollars spent by our government scientists and others in search of life on other planets. Meanwhile on the 3rd Rock from the Sun 20,000 children starved to death today and America and China aggressively supported the termination of the lives of many thousands of unborn children.
Happy Birthday America!
As we celebrate Independence Day in America, I am so conflicted.
Gossip
Three scenarios women never refer to as gossip..
Family the Way it Should Be
I am the daughter of Dave and Joyce Hoke...the Granddaughter of Pearl and Bud...the sister of Cindy and Judy...and more aunts and uncles and cousins than I can name. That is the family I was born into by birth. And I thank God for every single part of them...the good and bad. But in my lifetime I have been blessed to be born into another family...the family of God. What has that meant in my life? Let me break it down in practical ways.
Why I Never Needed the Boy Scouts
I remember the very first Pinewood Derby I ever saw.
Hope for the Double-Tongued
James 3:10 My brother out of the same mouth pour blessing and cursing. This should not be so.
Playing God
Well, I guess it's official. According to an article in the Baptist Press paper by Tom Strode, "Human cloning apparently has arrived." Some scientists in Oregon (big surprise, right?) report that they cloned human embryos. Their purpose was to produce stem cells. So, after only a few days of life, these scientists-turned-murderers "extracted" the stem cells.
Bye-Bye Boy Scouts
The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) signed its own death warrant at their national convention last week. Granted, they did not go all the way down the path of destruction. They now accept boys who are active homosexuals, but do not allow adult leaders who are active homosexuals to serve. But, if we have learned anything from our US Military, we know where this journey is going to end.