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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)

Re: Boot

| Joy

When I went to the podiatrist’s three weeks ago, for a checkup, she said No, I can’t get up in the night to go to the bathroom without wearing the boot.

Really? It’s just a few feet away.

My boot in its little pillowcase nightgown

My boot in its little pillowcase nightgown

No. “Boot on” with every step you take.

But, it’s really urgent, when I wake up at two, to get to the bathroom quickly.

Well, then, wear the boot overnight.

REALLY??

Oh, people do it all the time. Put a pillowcase over the boot and tie it on. It’ll be fine.

And, it actually was fine. It didn’t bother my sleeping at all. Really.

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Weave, Weave, Weave Me the Sunshine Out of the Falling Rain*

| Joy, Love, Patience

We’ve had a lot of rain. Last Sunday set a new rainfall record for the date. And I hate to complain (and, really, I’m not complaining), because we just came through a pretty dry summer. After a really wet spring. Which led to problems with growing things. And, says the exterminator, an increase in vermin. But the much, much larger problem is this: we’ve not been able to do things with Peter that we’ve wanted to do.

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The Falling Leaves

| Faithfulness, Kindness

 

The white oak in my front side yard. The trees beyond it are in my neighbor's yard.

The white oak in my front side yard. The trees beyond it are in my neighbor’s yard.

One of the trees in my front yard is the first one to turn in the fall. It is also the first one to drop its leaves. It drops them into that narrow piece of our property that’s to the side of the driveway.

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Brushes and Paper and Paint–Oh, My!

| Goodness, Joy, Love

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Peter’s being here when we had lots of rain here in Waco. We couldn’t get out to do some things I had planned (zoo, play outside, have worship service in the park on Sunday). Although we were able to take a rainy walk Saturday afternoon, we mostly did inside things instead (reading, making cupcakes, watching Mighty Machine videos, playing with dominoes, playing with colored craft sticks). And we got out the art box.

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Ollie, Mollie, Gollie! NOW What?!?

| Patience, Self-Control

I have a lot of doctors. A few, like the gastroenterologist and the cardiologist, are specialty guys that I only see for special occasions, like the super-special colonoscopy, and that sort of thing. Others, I see often enough that I ought to be sending them Christmas cards. There’s:

my Primary Care Physician (at least twice a year)

my Ophthalmologist (every 4 to 6 months)

my Retina Specialist (also every 4 to 6 months)

my Dentist (um, I really need to make an appointment)

the kidney guys (every 3 to 6 months)

and, my Podiatrist (every 3 to 6 months, unless …) And we have had a recent “unless.”

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My New Hoodie

| Peace

My new hoodie

My new hoodie

I have a new hoodie. It was a spur of the moment purchase. But the spurring happened because of an … um … inciting incident.

 

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Sew What?!?

| Love, Patience

 

I’ve mentioned before that my mother sewed for us. Some of that sewing was for Halloween.


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Imagine That!

| Peace, Self-Control

I had imaginary friends when I was a little girl. (The more current term, in educational circles, is now  “imaginary companions.”) I don’t remember them, but my parents told me about them, and Mother wrote their names in my baby book. Linda and Lulu. Maybe after the comics character Little Lulu? I don’t know. But I did have an actual friend named Linda, so maybe when she wasn’t around, I just conjured up an imaginary Linda to play with. Anyway, all I know about them is that once, they got left behind on a bus.

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‘Tis the Season to . . . Get My Hopes Up

| Patience

I was driving home a week or so ago, and I noticed some Halloween decorations in a yard in the next street over from us. I smiled to see several happy Jack-o-Lanterns on the lawn. They were created by using decorative trash bags that some company makes so people can fill the bags with the leaves from their trees, and have a low-cost source of holiday happiness that they can easily get rid of by dumping the leaves into their compost or their green recycling bins (or maybe putting them in the actual trash, but let’s don’t go there). I drove around the block and looked at them again. And I wondered, “Where’d they get the leaves to fill up those bags?”

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