Just had to share this cardinal poster shown on Pinterest. Enjoy your Sunday however it unfolds.
Author Archives: Patricia Ann
Fun in a Mailbox
Sometimes a chuckle will come out of nowhere just when you need one. I love to laugh but don’t always find something to laugh about. I found the following on an advertisement in my mailbox yesterday.
THE SILENT TREATMENT
A man and his wife were having some problems at home and were giving each other the silent treatment. Suddenly, the man realized that the next day, he would need his wife to wake him at 5 a.m. for an early morning business flight. Not wanting to be the first to break the silence (and LOSE), he wrote on a piece of paper, “Please wake me a 5 a.m.”. He left if where he knew she would find it. The next morning the man woke up, only to discover it was 9 a.m. And he missed his flight. Furious, he was about to go and see why his wife hadn’t wakened him, when he noticed a piece of paper by the bed. The paper said, “It is 5 a.m. Wake up.”
How many wives are having a little “tee hee”? How many husbands are groaning?
…do not let the sun go down while you are still angry. Ephesians 4:26
Have a Cardinal Sunday
Cardinals make me happy. Lately I have seen this beautiful bird both in my yard and on Facebook many times. May your Sunday be blessed with what makes you happy.
My Happiness
The other day I caught myself humming a song recorded by Connie Francis in 1959, My Happiness. It was one of my favorites of the time and it popped into my head on Wednesday, January 6th. Why? Because I was feeling very happy. It was my birthday. I’m always happy on my birthday and look forward to it every year. This birthday was kind of special in that it was the first day of the last year of the seventh decade of my life. Am I happy to be saying good-bye to the seventies? Not so much, knowing there are fewer years ahead of me, but there is also a whole new decade coming up, in which, God willing, I hope to experience even more happiness.
For one thing there is a brand new family member coming to meet me in July, my eighth great-grandchild expected on July 3rd. Also, another one of my grandchildren is getting married in 2016, setting the scene for even more great-grandchildren.
Having had a few weeks of unpleasant health problems at the end of my seventy-eighth year, on my birthday I found out that although the diagnosis and prognosis are not excellent, at least they aren’t fatal, and medication should contribute to better control and more comfortable living.
I’m looking forward to enjoying my seventy-ninth year and all that it holds in store, while being mindful of Proverbs 15:13 – A happy heart makes the face cheerful…
My Happiness is still playing in my head. I don’t mind if it stays there for the next three-hundred-and-fifty-eight days.
What Do We Have to Lose?
“Heaven Is So Real”. That’s the name of a book I couldn’t quite finish reading because most of the content left me wondering what is real and what isn’t. However, the author, Choo Thomas, did describe Heaven and Hell in some detail and how attainment of each is realized, which also had me wondering how many people have ever given these two places any thought at all.
Christianity makes up one-third of the world’s population. This religion teaches that the only way to Heaven, God’s abode, is to believe in Jesus, His Son…that he was born to save us, that he died to save us, and that he lives to save us from going to Hell. I believe. I believe I am not going to Heaven because I am a good person, do good deeds, live a good life, do not hurt anyone…I know that none of these things will get me into Heaven…only my belief in Jesus will get me there.
So far no one can “prove” that Heaven or Hell exists. However, after reading many descriptions of what Hell is presumed to be like, I am certainly glad I’m a believer.
It has been said that it is better to believe that God exists and to die and find out he doesn’t, than to not believe in him and die and find out that he does. In my opinion, that’s where Hell awaits.
Weighing the options; learning about the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6) and choosing to believe, seems to me the best way to stay out of the “hot seat”.
What do we have to lose?
A New Sunday in a New Year
Today is the first Sunday of the rest of the year, be happy, be blessed, be content and enjoy this day that the Lord has made for you. Rejoice and be glad in it.
From Beginning to End
Each year has its own peculiar ups and downs, blessings and blunders, things to remember and things sooner forgotten.
Saying hello to the future while waving the past a final goodbye is like tossing out a calendar chock full of old agendas and looking forward to a brand new start of appointments, birthdays, celebrations, events, and a new year of life in general.
There are already two events on my new calendar: a new baby joining our wonderful family in July and another family wedding towards the end of summer.
While we pray that the world will be a better place and do our part to make it so, it is God who knows the beginning from the end, as it is written in Deuteronomy 11:12…It is a land the Lord your God cares for; the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.
With that comforting thought in mind, my wish for humankind is peace and prosperity, health and happiness, more love and less violence from beginning to end in 2016.
Happy New Year, World!
Another Sunday
I pray your Christmas was filled with the love of family and friends and that the presence of Jesus was among your best presents. Enjoy this gift of another Sunday.
Let’s Give Christ Back to Christmas
The reason…and there are many of them…that we celebrate Christmas on December 25th is secondary. Celebrating the birthday of Jesus every year is really what Christmas is all about. It is remembering that he was born, lived an exemplary life, for approximately thirty-three years, and died an agonizing death. It is remembering not that he lived and died, but that he died and lives…lives in the hearts of those of us who believe, lives to reach out to those who do not believe, and lives to give real meaning to the event that is the most widely celebrated on our planet…Christmas. Let me share a poem I wrote in 1995 while pondering the idea that Santa Claus seemed to be the the reason for the season in many minds.
THE WONDER OF CHRISTMAS
The wonder of Christmas,
The birth of a Child,
The angels are singing His praises,
The people rejoice
At the sound of His voice
Echoing down through the ages.
Hope, love and laughter,
Peace and goodwill,
The message resounds loud and clear,
The birth of God’s Son,
His gift to us all,
This is the wonder of Christmas.
©1995
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good life.
Praying for Others
Believing in the power of prayer is powerful in itself. As mentioned in a previous blog, I belong to a chain gang…The Prayer Chain. Some of you responded that you also have this privilege. So I’m once again asking for prayer for others.
Last week I blogged about a wonderful gentleman in our congregation who celebrated his 100th birthday. He now has pneumonia. Please pray for Alf.
The sister of another of our congregation members has recently been diagnosed with a brain aneurysm. Please pray for Linda.
One of our members has just lost a sister, and another a brother. Please pray for Sandi and Mary.
These are but a few of the people that I know who need prayer, but there are others. Here is what I feel is a very appropriate prayer which came to me via the internet:
Thank you for your prayers.
My Precious Life 