Author: LAH

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YOU Are a Leader!

Sitting in church a few months ago, I watched as the guest speaker scanned the crowd, then asked, “How many of you are leaders?”

A few hands went up. He shook his head, “No, you are all leaders! Every hand should be up! Everyone repeat after me: ‘I am a leader!’”

The congregation dutifully repeated “I am a leader!”

I’m sure everyone paid close attention to the sermon that followed. After all, leaders get more attention. They get privileges the rest of us miss out on. They’re important. Don’t we look up to leaders? Think more highly of them? Don’t we all want everyone to think of us that way?

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A New, Improved Post

Hey, have you seen the new Nikon D800? It has a 36.3megapixel FX-format CMOS sensor, full HD 1080p video at 30/25/24p with stereo sound, an ISO range of 100 to 6400 (expandable to 25,600), a four-frames-per-second burst rate and their Advanced Scene Recognition System with a 91,000-pixel RGB sensor!

Hey, do you have the new iPad? It’s got that new Retina display, a 4 megapixel camera, and 4G LTE, and it’s only $499!

Hey, have you heard? They just came out with the…

Yes, I’ve heard. And no, I haven’t read the reviews.

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A Recommendation

Have I got a treat for you. Every so often, I highlight another blog I read. This time, I want to point you in the direction of Frantic Believing. Ever since I discovered Jordan’s insightful writing, I’ve been addicted. As she writes on her About page:

I am young and foolish.
Married and in love.
Captivated, rescued, adored by God.
On a journey, because I am sent [John 20:21.]

(You might notice that I’ve also added Frantic Believing to my list of Blogs I Read at right.)

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Dialog? or Diatribe?

You think politics and religion get people fired up? I’ve discovered something even more apt to generate extreme views and robust “discussion,” and it has nothing to do with the economy or same-sex marriage. Yup, I’m talking about food.

It seems that everyone has decided they’re an expert. They do or do not eat [fill in soy, bacon, sugar, etc., etc.], and they’re convinced that you should, or should not, eat it as well.

I was chatting with a group of women a few days ago, and someone asked if anyone had a good cold veggie salad recipe. I offered that I make a broccoli salad that is pretty popular at pot-lucks, and started to list off the ingredients. Since we’re all on diets of one form or another, I mentioned that I often substitute turkey bacon for higher-fat “real” bacon—and a lady I did not know, sitting across the table, started screaming at me!

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To Everything There is a Season

The green, slimy mass lurched at me from the bottom of the crisper drawer. I fended it off with a dish rag while rescuing the still-edible produce piled on top. Rats. Those green beans (or was it the chard?) looked so great when I bought them—I hated for them to go to waste.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes produce seems to spoil right away, while other times it seems to last a few days in the fridge? To some extent, it’s the nature of that particular vegetable. Some kinds just last longer than others. But that’s not the whole story. I find that produce purchased out of season just doesn’t keep as long, probably because it had so far to go to get here in the first place.

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Jesus Wept

Church was beginning, the band hit their first beat, and the congregation stood up to sing an upbeat song about God. It was two days ago, Sunday, a typical weekend service. I was feeling anything but upbeat.

Earlier that morning, I’d read the first news reports about the victims of last week’s shooting in Aurora, just an hour north of here. While every life counts, I was particularly affected by the mom in critical condition in the ICU who kept asking if her six-year-old daughter was all right. Of course, if you’ve seen the news at all, you know she wasn’t all right. She was dead. And no one could bring themselves to tell the mom.

I could relate too well. I have two daughters and now a granddaughter. Having something horrible happen to them is my worst nightmare.

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Home Grown Miracles

How many miracles have you seen lately? Most American Christians seem to think miracles are exceedingly rare. Perhaps you know someone who has been healed, but it happened years ago. Or maybe you don’t think God does miracles in this day and age.

Our missions pastor said something recently that really bothered me. He encouraged our Sunday School class to go on a short-term mission trip because it would give them an opportunity to see God do miracles. That’s right—raise $3,000, travel halfway around the world, and maybe you’ll get to see God do something amazing.

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Take a Break!

“I have to write a post for tomorrow morning. I’m on a schedule!”

It was getting close to bedtime, and I’d been staring at a blank document for the last thirty minutes. My mind was totally blank.

“God, I need your inspiration, and I need it now, please!”

No answer. No thoughts popping into my brain. Just exhaustion.

Instead, I kept mentally reviewing the list of tasks I had to accomplish the next day: Pay bills, balance accounts, clean the house for coming guests, defrost a freezer-burned hunk of mystery meat and turn it into that night’s dinner. Do a load of laundry. Feed and water the chickens, cat, gecko; water the drooping houseplants (I have an indoor jungle) and flower beds. Find some time to work out or go for a walk. Spend significant time with God. (Why did that always seem to be at the end of the list?)

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Talk, Talk, Talk

After a month of house guests, appointments, projects, meetings, errands, and working overtime, we finally had a day all to ourselves. An entire day. Just for us. No visitors. No interruptions. No obligations.

Once a month, my sweetie and I set aside a “date day” to spend time together. The only rule is that we can’t delete if off our calendar. It can be moved, if something important comes up, but sometime during each month we take a day for ourselves. Today was the day. I was eager to get reacquainted with this wonderful guy I’d married 33 years ago.

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[Yet another installment in my series on “Godly Success,” based on 2 Peter 1:3, 5-8.]

Cain killed Abel and started a war that hasn’t ended yet. We see it continue with Jacob and Esau, Leah and Rachel, James and John (I bet Jesus didn’t give them the nickname “Sons of Thunder” because they were so kind to one another). My husband, one of six siblings, remembers being repeatedly pounded into the lawn by his next-older brother during elementary school. Our two daughters also had their moments—our favorite was, “She’s breathing my air!”

As an only child, I really didn’t understand sibling relationships. Thank goodness my husband could offer insight on how to deal with dueling sisters! I honestly thought they hated one another until a third party was added to the household. When our girls were in 8th and 10th grades, we became foster parents for a 15-year-old teenage girl. Suddenly, it was a whole new ballgame. Our kids welcomed the newcomer, but in any sort of conflict it was the sisters who presented a united front.

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