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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)

Lunch!

| Joy, Kindness

Here’s one of my favorite quotes:
“Wild horses couldn’t drag a secret out of a woman. However, women seldom have lunch with wild horses.”                                                                             Ivern Boyett*

 

cheddar_broc_bread_bowl A few years ago, David was employed as a researcher for a museum design company, and he worked at home. Sometimes, he would have lunch with a friend. He would leave at 11:30 or so and go meet the friend. Then, he’d be back home at 12:30. So, about ten minutes of travel each way; 20 minutes total travel time. Then parking, walking to the restaurant, getting seated, ordering. (Probably 10 more minutes; a total of 30 minutes so far.) And then, only 30 minutes for lunch. Seriously? Seriously! I would always be amazed when he got back home. That is so not the way I do lunch with friends.

 

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Eureka!

| Joy, Patience

As many adult children do, my own sons have personal belongings stored at my house. I found it impossible to refuse, because my own mother stored stuff for me, way into my adulthood. Actually, there’s a barrel in my garage right now, of scrapbooks I made, growing up, along with a similar barrel filled with JoAnne’s scrapbooks.

Many years ago, Daddy created extra storage above the garage doors. That’s where the boys’ boxes are. It’s mostly Star Wars stuff. Jeremy also had a number of projects from the many art classes he had to take on the way to a Graphic Design degree. After we’d been in this house for a year or so, Jeremy came. He pulled down all the boxes that were labelled “Jeremy” and went through them.  He organized things, like his school yearbooks, and enjoyed spending some time with his old friends Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, et al. As he was replacing items and organizing and evaluating, he suddenly looked around and said, “Where are my LEGOs? Are my LEGOs here? In the house?”

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It’s a Girl!

| Goodness, Joy, Peace

I really had lost track of the passing time; or I guess I was uncertain about it. Anyway, she arrived! And, doing what so many do when someone new shows up on the scene, I grabbed both my phone and my regular camera and rushed to get photos of her in her wonderful fresh newness.

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The Heavens Declare

| Faithfulness, Goodness

The teen fashion department at Target is right in front of the door as I walk in. I enjoy seeing, at the change of seasons, what the new, trendy fashions and colors are. Some of the things I like; some of the things I don’t like at all. Some of the things wouldn’t have mattered how my teen-aged self felt about them; I would never ever have been allowed out of the house in them. I guess what goes around does come around, but some of it is coming around much shorter and skimpier than it used to be.

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Look What I Found on My Front Porch!

| Gentleness, Patience, Self-Control

I’ve gotten in to the unfortunate habit, lately, of waiting until Thursday afternoon, or evening, to write up a new post. I’ll have had an idea and been thinking about it for a few days, but I haven’t put fingertips to keyboard until late. Then, I end up not getting to bed until 1:00 a.m. or later, because I write it, and I edit it, and I need photos and search for them, and then have to scan them and get them put in where I want them, and then edit again because I always miss something, and then send it off to Kevin to look at, but by then he’s gone to bed and won’t read it until morning, and I MUST STOP DOING THAT!!! It is not a good professional practice.

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Happy Anniversary to Me!

| Faithfulness, Joy, Patience, Self-Control

Cup-cake-pink-candle-1

One year ago tomorrow, I wrote a Facebook post announcing my blog. It’s my one year anniversary! I said I would write new posts each week and put them up on Fridays. And I did.  At the beginning, four posts were already up, for Jeremy to work with as he got the website ready. So, if you visited the website that very first Friday, it had more than one lonely post that you could read.

This is a screen shot of the database-all full!

This is a screen shot of the database-all full!

I’ve made a database, to track the posts and what Bible verses I reference and which fruit of the Spirit I use. The program will only hold 54 entries, so it’s full and won’t let me add any more. I had to start a new one, for Year Two (plus the last two posts from the first year).

 

 

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Tra-DI-tion! Tra-DI-tion! Dum-de-dum-dum-Dum-Dum-Dum! TRADITION!!

| Faithfulness, Joy, Peace

Tradition!! Wonderful memory or millstone? Is it, “Oh, thank goodness Aunt Delilah brought her persimmon pie!” or, “Oh, no! Aunt Delilah’s getting out of her car and she’s got her PERSIMMON PIE!!!”

Caroline Kennedy says, of family traditions and memories, “Those memories, good and bad, are really what help to keep a family together over the long haul.” In the movie, milkman Tevye says that, “without traditions, our lives would be as shaky as a fiddler on the roof.” Other folks think traditions are silly and out-dated.&lt

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Maybe I *Am* a Little Hard-Headed

| Joy, Peace

The reason I went to Fort Worth this time (last Sunday afternoon) was to attend the Fort Worth Symphony concert at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. They were playing some Carmen, some Liszt, and ended with a rousing 1812 Overture with firecrackers that were advertised as “jaw-dropping” and “hair-raising.” They were pretty fabulous; here’s a YouTube video from the 2012 event. This year’s really was better.images-1

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What Goes Around …

| Faithfulness

A few years ago, the elementary school close to our church asked for volunteers to be mentors to at-risk students, to be another adult in their lives who could listen and advise and help, in whatever ways we could. We would visit the school once a week and spend time in the classroom with our child, or go with them to the library or teacher’s lounge to talk or do classwork. I had a third-grade girl; let’s call her A.J.

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Get Out the Slide Projector

| Joy, Love

We have a slide projector. And several cartridges of slides. But we cannot actually view the slides, because the slide projector doesn’t really work any more. And anyway, I’m a photograph girl myself. It’s just so much easier to get out an album or an envelope of photos than to wait until dark and set up the projector and take things off the wall to make a place to project the slides. And these days, you just swipe through the pictures on your phone, anyway.

But, I’m not with you, so I’ll put my vacation pictures here for you to see.

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