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The Bible Tells Me

I’m not the Bible scholar I should be. I know some verses; not as many as I ought. Still, I find most of my experiences can be framed or underscored, explained or illuminated, by Scripture. Or maybe a hymn or a worship song, a devotional or a testimony. Frequently, I have those “Oh, yeah” moments when I see God clearly in an event. Or realized that I should have seen Him.

These are the moments of “The Bible tells me.”

These essays reflect that. Do know that I can proof-text as well as anyone. I have a concordance, and I know how to use it. Well, truthfully, I do all of that online now, where I can quickly find a passage, see it in many versions, and choose the one I like best. I try not to be narrow, but instead broad, as I apply Bible words to my experiences. I know that your interpretations and understanding may be different than mine. But I also know that our God is big enough for all of us.

I have a friend who, in her prayer time, likes to tell jokes to God. “I know He knows the punch line,” she says. “But I tell them anyway. He likes it when I laugh.”

He likes it when I laugh. I’m going to hang on to that. It’s Biblical. The Bible tells me.

Our mouths were filled with laughter then,
and our tongues with shouts of joy.
Then they said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
The Lord had done great things for us;
we were joyful.

Psalm 126: 2,3 (HCSB)

Oh, Gnats!

| Patience

On Saturday, July 2, David said to me, “What’s with all these ants?”

“What ants?” I said.

“They’re all over the place!”

“Where?”

“Around my computer, in the bathroom. They’re everywhere!”

“When did you start seeing them,” I asked.

“About three days ago,” he said.

“Why didn’t you tell me then?” I asked.  “We have a contract with the bug people. They could have come out then. Now we’ll have to wait until after July 4th. And, I haven’t seen any ants.”

“Ants,” he said, just a little frustrated. “What ants?”

“You said you’d seen ants,” I said, getting a little testy, myself.

“I said, ‘GNATS,'” he said.

“Oh. Gnats. Well, yes,” I said. “I’ve seen a few gnats.”

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There Was This Tutorial for a Cute Cake . . .

| Patience, Self-Control

I’ve looked at, and used, some of the YouTube tutorials about knitting, especially the ones showing how you graft one side of an object to another.  I can sit and start and stop the video as I work my way across a knitted teddy bear’s head, for example. Watching someone, at least for me, is way more helpful that merely trying to follow written instructions. Last year, I saw one for a cute cake that looks like a Canadian flag when you cut out it into wedges. So all this past year I’ve thought that maybe I could make something similar, but for a July 4th cake. The tutorial made it look easy (don’t they all), but she did mention, at one point, that she had to make SIX cakes before she got it right. I neglected to take that into consideration.

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Oh, Those New Yorkers!

| Goodness, Kindness

I saw a story a couple of weeks ago about some kind, helpful, brave New Yorkers. A man fell from a subway platform onto the tracks, just a few minutes before a train was due to arrive. Three men saw him fall, jumped down onto the tracks, picked up the unconscious man, and, with the help of others on the platform, hoisted him back up, and were then themselves pulled to safety. A young journalism student was sitting on a bench nearby, saw what happened, and grabbed her phone and began to film the incident. It’s been seen by a couple of million people. The place where I first saw the report had a space for comments. One person wrote that, yes, New Yorkers rise to the occasion and do what needs to be done for their fellow man. Another person (apparently in a bad mood) wrote that the three were most likely not New Yorkers at all but people from somewhere else. And, she said, if they were actual New Yorkers, they only began to help when they saw someone filming, and helped because they thought it would be good for their images to be seen being so helpful.

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I Always Forget About the Subway Stairs

| Joy

 

And then there was this wedding. JoAnne and Jim’s oldest kid, Collin, married Amy. It was on a pier by The Admiral Fell Inn. Right on the water. It was lovely.


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Still on the Road

| Patience

 

I was telling you about the first plane part. And I was at the Knoxville airport, where folks were sitting quietly in rocking chairs and watching the planes land. I got on my plane, settled into my seat, took out the airline magazine and a pen, so I could do the crossword puzzle, and promptly fell asleep.

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I’m Going on a Trip

| Joy, Patience, Peace

 

Actually, I’m back from the trip, but I’m not a hip modern girl with a laptop and a tablet. I only have my phone. And that’s no way to write and post a blog each week. So, before I left home on May 21, I had to get three blogs ready to go out on the three Fridays I’d be away. So, let’s pretend that it’s three weeks ago, and I’m getting ready to leave. Okay?

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hel-looow

| Kindness, Patience

I remember having a party line, just briefly, when we first moved into this house, in 1959. Mother and Daddy probably had a party line, at some earlier point, but it must have been when I was too short to be able to answer the phone that was in the phone niche.

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I Have These New Socks

| Patience

Perfect!

Perfect!

I saw these socks at Wal-Mart. The tag says “Aloe-Infused,” and I thought that sounded comfy. And they match some of the Crocs that I do yard work in. So … a Win/Win!

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Do Unto Others? Pay It Forward?

| Kindness, Love, Peace

walmart logoI was at Wal-Mart the other day, with a friend who was purchasing one of those giant bags of flour (for a school project). The checkout lines were long and she said, “Let’s do the Self-Checkout.” (Fortunately, she is much younger and stronger than I, and was pretty easily handling the really GIANT bag of flour.)

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Here’s How Old I Am

| Patience, Peace

If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then is age in the heart of the beheld? (Or, you’re as old as you feel.) I’m 66.  When I look out and think about people who are 66, I think, “Wow. That’s really getting on in years, isn’t it.” But when I think about myself, I think, “Sixty-six. Not so bad.” Or else I’m thinking, “Sixty-six!! Ollie, Mollie, Gollie! How did this happen?

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