Sabbath Thoughts Blog

My co-worker has a little daily challenge devotional and one challenge last week was to go to someone you had a disagreement with and try to make it right. The quoted scripture was Matthew 5:23-24 ESV: “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against…

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28 ESV). A few weeks ago, a friend told me about a lady she knew who had cared for a geriatric cat in need of daily medication. It got to…

I remember when we first moved into our home, there was a beautiful trumpet vine growing over the shed with big orange blooms cascading down. It almost had a romantic glow like something from a Thomas Kinkade painting. What I didn’t know was that the vines had started growing down into the shed busting up…

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all” (Psalm 34:19 ESV). July 27, 2010 When I worked for a small non-profit in West Virginia, it took 45 minutes to drive from the office to home. Most of the road twisted and turned as if they paved it…

“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.…

“Where there is no counsel, the people fall; But in the multitude of counselors there is safety” (Proverbs 11:14 NKJV). A few months ago, I completed a beginner sewing class at a local vocational center. I’ve wanted to make my own clothing for a long time however my instructor advised against it. “Why would you…

It is almost as much a tradition to break New Year’s Resolutions as it is to make them! About 80% of New Year’s resolutions don’t survive past February. I remember, several years ago, cleaning out a closet and finding a small journal from probably my middle school days. The very first entry was from January…

I remember a day in the middle of November when I decided to turn on my Christmas music. Ryan jokingly questioned, “Christmas music before Thanksgiving?!” I’m not usually someone who skips Thanksgiving and heads straight for Christmas but this year I started festivities early! During this Christmas season my mind has churned over Mary’s response…

“Freedom isn’t free.” The interim rector (pastor) at the Episcopal church I work for said that the week before Veterans Day. I have worked for the same church for almost seven and a half years and Veterans Day was the only federal holiday we did not observe by closing the office. However, this year was…

Giving up, quitting, and failure are three very different things. I remember the very first essay I ever wrote for a college class. I received a F. It was like a slap in the face for someone who had done very well academically in high school. The professor also happened to be my advisor which…

Have you ever found yourself driving, coming into perhaps a big city or seeing something unusual ahead like a section of construction or maybe a wreck, and you then turn down or off anything you happened to be listening to? When I am preparing to make a turn especially in a crowded intersection, if I’m…

For probably a year or more now our cat, Princess Margaret, has had what we thought was back pain or arthritis or something wrong with her hip or tail that caused her discomfort now and then. It doesn’t happen all the time nor does it seem to prevent her from using the steps or following…