43rd Anniversary

NOVEMBER 19, 1966
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Kathleen Wells wed Terry Flanagan
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From the very beginning of our fun-filled and zany high school days there was great passion and ease between us. How I treasure it's having given birth to our marriage ... and then to children ... and then grandchildren ... and now the beautiful Fall of the lives that are uniquely ours.

Along the way there was many a challe nge and many a blight, but our endurance won out - and so too our passion and ease. Your company is the best I've found on earth.


I love this poem. It's the promise you gave me just a week ahead of our wedding, when both our silly 18 year old heads were swimming in seas of doubt (yes, we should have listened, but I'm so-o-o glad we didn't!). On so many levels it was, and is prophetic.

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Out In The Fields

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

The little cares that fretted me,
I lost them yesterday
Among the fields above the sea,
Among the winds that play,
Among the lowing of the herd,
The rustling of the trees,
Among the singing of the birds,
The humming of the bees.
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The foolish fears of what might pass
I cast them all away
among the clover-scented grass,
Among the new-mown hay,
Among the hushing of the corn,
Where drowsy poppies nod,
Where ill thoughts die and good are born-
Out in the fields of God.

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My enduring love, Mr. Wiggles.
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Happy Anniversary, in the fields of God.
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Your Mrs. Wootie.

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What's With Those Words?

A confession: Whenever I visit a blog site that has a security code associated with leaving a comment, I typically come away giggling.
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Who do you suppose sits on the security counsel that decides which code to give? In my mind's eye I see the Wizard of Oz.

Check them out. Here's just a few that are included with my own personal interpretation of them. No doubt you'll never see another one without a giggle of your own!

• Promb - The dance that fell far short of the dream.
• Blibnar - The language spoken by Mork.
• Zelluber - A device that lubricates zells.
• Stintzi - A performing lizard.
• Helpub - A clinic that serves ale.
• Fletsyze - A German curse word.
• Cirztip - A bad ending to a good story.
  
• Gortrance - The entrance to Al Gore's home.
• Zebeener - The greens I'll fix with bacon.
  
• Aepnoard - A ditsy chimpanzee
  
• Melga - A character from a Tolkien story.
• Upsunz - What happens when you're too sassy.

God Bless Shaniya

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The beautiful, precious little girl in this picture is five year old Shaniya Davis.
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For the past several days, since reported missing by her mother, the police and volunteers have been searching desperately for her.
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From the git-go, conflicting stories about her disappearance have had many focusing intently on mommy.

The facts in this case are disgusting and disturbing, and utterly heartbreaking. I know. I've been following the story closely as I've hoped and prayed the child would be found alive and well.
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Little Shaniya's lifeless body was found earlier today, dumped some 100 feet off a North Carolina roadway like trash. The police have charged her own mother in felony child abuse for having offered little Shaniya for child-prostitution purposes. A man has also been charged in this senseless case of torture and murder.
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There's little more I can say, other than these sorts of crimes against children are occurring all too frequently, and often by the very parents that ought to be protecting them.
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I hope and pray someone has a plan for preventing these heinous crimes from every happening again, to any child. Ever!
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May little Shaniya be heard laughing with delight today in the arms of God.
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Though my father and mother
forsake me, the Lord
will receive me
Psalm 27:10
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The Sacred Echo

Some books are simply too good to keep to one's self.
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This is one of them!

Not only does Margaret Feinberg give us some amazing insights, but she does so with a style and humor that's going to charm your socks off! "Compelling" is the best word I can summon to describe her compilation.

From the flyleaf :

As you learn to listen for the sacred echoes - God's persistent voice - in your life you can walk more confidently and fully into all that He has for you. The Sacred Echo challenges you to prayerfully consider how God is at work in your life as well as in the lives of those around you. It's an invitation to spiritual awakening and a deeper relationship with God.

So how many of us haven't heard those echoes? Not a one, is my guess!

Grab the book at your local bookstore or Amazon or Zondervan. You'll be thanking me you did.

Dear Mr. President (2)

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Dear Mr. President,
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As you near the end of your first term, it must seem an eternity since you stood to take the oath of office. I wrote you on that auspicious occasion, just as I'm writing you now. If you recall, I promised I would.
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America is my homeland, and my heart bleeds red, white & blue. Nothing would delight me more than to applaud your personal devotion to the founding father's intent, or to endorse your Administration as noble, and honorable. I cannot.
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I realize your position is a tough one, Mr. President; much has transpired on your watch. For that reason I pray for you and all government leaders. Yours is a sacred trust and, presumably, from your lips comes the sentiment of all Americans - - whether you speak here on native soil, or in foreign lands.
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So it is that I recognize the tremendous responsibility laid at your feet. You have been elected as our - my - standard bearer. I wish that was of comfort.
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Today I feel it necessary, even my civic duty and right to ask you: Where are we going, Mr. President? I know that ought to be clear, but instead it's a murky morass of ever shifting sands. On the wind of your compelling promises comes what feels an awful lot like the ultimate bait and switch. Isn't that unethical, if not illegal?
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It is tempting to site here a litany of grievances. I don't feel that would be useful, if even appreciated. Yet there are those that sound an alarm about your moving us systematically towards Socialism or, worse, Marxism. Whether those accusations are true or untrue I cannot say. I can only tell you that I am very, very concerned about the obvious liberal machine that's driving everything American.
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I might take a less critical position were it not for the fact that my Christian worldview - the same worldview espoused by the majority of our founding fathers and woven into very nature of our Constitution - has become the singular focus of intolerance. Instead, a welcome mat is rolled out to all other worldviews, many of which actually run counter to any form of decency; some of which imperil our very freedoms. What's that all about? What standard is it that you bear, Mr. President?
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In the worst way I long to esteem not only the office you hold, but your personal agenda as well. You have made that extremely difficult. So, too, your Administration. With the passing of weeks and the corresponding passages of legislature, it is beyond the pale to even consider what comes next.
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Sacred trust is not mine to bestow or to vote upon. There is only one Source for it and, without that Source, nothing is sacred. Blessings do not flow from the body politic, nor does freedom. It's why we - myself and the vast majority of God-fearing Americans - weep when we sing: God bless America. What is He to bless if He is not sought? What is sacred when the liberal government not only seeks to silence a moral voice, but to mock adherents of God's word and the gospel? .
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It cannot be emphasized too

clearly and too often that this nation

was founded, not by religionists, but

by Christians; not on religion,

but on the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Patick Henry

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In circumstances as dark as these,

it becomes us, as Men and Christians,

to reflect that whilst every

prudent measure should be taken

to ward off the impending judgments,

… at the same time all confidence

must be withheld from the means

we use; and reposed only on that

God rules in the armies of Heaven,

and without His whole blessing,

the best human counsels

are but foolishness …

John Hancock

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Again I ask you, Mr. President: Where are we going?
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The Family's Song

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We go back a long ways, Carol and I.

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When I arrived in 1948, she had already claimed the coveted position of The Baby in our family for nearly seven years. The older girls, Dolores and Barbara, were well on their way to adulthood, being 15 & 13 years my senior.
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So you can just imagine Carol's surprise to realize she'd been replaced by this curly headed usurper & interloper. Imagine, too, my own great delight in growing up beneath her loving, sometimes tormenting, and consistently lively shadow!
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Something was always afoot when Carol stirred.
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She made me laugh, and from my earliest days I longed to be just like her.
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When she cried, I cried; and our parents could scarcely scold her lest they contend with the sobbing little sister coming to her defense.
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When she was in love, so was I (with each and every one of her beaus!).
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Her prom dresses became my princess-wear (when she wasn't home). Her closet is where my first case of coveting stirred - she working to purchase such sophisticated garb while I wore little-girl stuff. Many were the times I'd "borrow" something, only to ruin it - to her rightful consternation!
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Yes, the world was bigger, and zany, and so very exciting when I could glimpse it through her eyes..

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My sister taught me everything I
really need to know,
and she was only in sixth grade
at the time.
Linda Sunshine

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Her name, Carol - a short form of Caroline - derives from the English root that means "song" or "hymn". How lovely, but made more lovely still when you know her. There is, indeed, a song that's yet been sung to those not blessed with that privilege.
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Certainly I could dot the page with highlights from her life ... perhaps another day.
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Today I just want to savor the moments that allowed me to be her baby sister again, for awhile.

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Our goodbyes are now said until next time, when again we celebrate our unique and special bond, and His goodness in forming it.
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Bless you, my darling,
and remember ...
you are always in the heart -
oh tucked so close there is
no chance of escape -
of your sister.
Katherine Mansfield
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P.S. A special "thank you" to Carol's hubby, Hal, for relinquishing her to me while holding down the ministerial fort there in Mexico.

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Funny Little Word

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Really?

So often it's the one and only word God speaks into my heart.
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It may be that I've said or done something that probably should have had more thought than I gave it at the time. Along comes the nudge: Really?
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Or it might happen that someone else says something that lands sideways in my knower - as if a bad case of indigestion. Again His prompt: Really?
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In fact, it occurred just the other day when I said something that I had put the spin of certainty to. Within moments that question - Really? - began to form. I knew at once I was standing on shakey ground and, quite possibly, had lead someone else there too.
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Odd how one seeminly innocuous word can send me scurrying along the ponder path. Most of the scurry is associated with something biblically related (typically something unsound or untrue), but it happens with the common, garden variety stuff as well.
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Merriam tells us that the word itself is an adverb, and it's uses vary...

• 1a : in reality, actually
• 1b: truly, unqestionably -used as an intensifier
• 2a: used to emphasize an assertion

When you add a question mark to any of those uses, the word becomes something altogether different - as if a challenge to the reality, the intensifier, or the assertion..

For the time will come when men

will not put up with sound doctrine.

Instead, to suit their own desires,

they will gather around them a great

number of teachers to say what their

itching ears want to hear. They will

turn their ears away from the truth

and turn aside to myths.

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But you, keep your head in all situations ...

2 Timothy 4:3-5 .
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In everything set them an example

by doing what is good. In your teaching

show integrity, seriousness and soundness

of speech that cannot be condemned, so

that those who oppose you may be ashamed

because they have nothing

bad to say about us.

Titus 2:7-8

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God's mysterious ways never cease to amaze or baffle me. The holy, all-powerful Sovereign ... the profoundly majestic Creator ... the love-driven Savior ... comes near and resides in my very being - your very being. Incredible! But that He does so in such an intimate, personal way is beyond the beyond - - and that for my protection! . .

I tell you that men will have to give account

for every careless word they have spoken.

For by your words you will be acquitted,

and by your words you will be condemned.

Matthew 25:36-37

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Words mean much to THE Word, which is why I listen closely when a question mark follows His Really? ... I know then that truth has somehow been compromised (whether intentionally or unintentionally - by me or anyone else), and it's time to sift.
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In those moments I know the foundation and walls of discernment are being fortified. I also find it interesting that the enemy would use the same word to cast doubt on truth, while God uses it to expose untruth. Really!
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The Strength to Rise

For friend Sheryl @ the Perch, and for all of us that have suffered grief, loss, failure - and hope dashed on the rocky cliff's of life's terrible trouble.

You will have the strength to rise!


SONG LYRICS

Everybody falls sometimes
Gotta find the strength to rise
From the ashes and make a new beginning
Anyone can feel the ache
You think it’s more than you can take
But you are stronger, stronger than you know
Don’t you give up now
The sun will soon be shining
You gotta face the clouds
To find the silver lining

I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn’t ever end
Even when the sky is falling
And I’ve seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That’s what faith can do

It doesn’t matter what you’ve heard
Impossible is not a word
It’s just a reason for someone not to try
Everybody’s scared to death
When they decide to take that step
Out on the water
It’ll be alright
Life is so much more
Than what your eyes are seeing
You will find your way
If you keep believing

I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn’t ever end
Even when the sky is falling
And I’ve seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That’s what faith can do

Overcome the odds
You don't have a chance
(That’s what faith can do)
When the world says you can’t
It’ll tell you that you can!

I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn’t ever end
Even when the sky is falling
And I’ve seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That’s what faith can do
That's what faith can do!
Even if you fall sometimes

You will have the strength to rise

Conundrumming

Today I stare down a conundrum.

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There is a body of thought bordering on doctrine that would have me believe that poverty and/or suffering is evidence of salvation on the one hand, of God's special

endorsement on the other. To have much - be it in moderate or magnanimous portions - would thus be a show of something tethered to the worldly. To be poor or suffering is, then, the higher calling. (I often wonder what these folks do with Abraham, Job, Solomon ...)

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And then there's that other group - the ones that consider it sound doctrine to seek hard after material gain. It's their contention that the child of God is destined to have health, success, riches and great glory ... now. To have little (not to mention nothing) is a sure sign that one is living far beneath one's God-mandated dignity. To be prosperous is, then, the higher calling. (I often wonder what these folks do with those of the early church, many of whom are featured in Hebrews 11 who lost/suffered everything ...)

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In both cases, the condition is often (if not always) given an altar of it's own; a place of distinction where one can worship the evidence of their (or someone else's) obvious heavenly favor.

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So which is it?

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How does one, to the exclusion of the other, bring glory to God? How do the people living on one side deflect the shame of not living on the other? How can the poor man rise above their lack without robbing from God, while the rich man sheds the trappings of the material world without biting His hand of blessing?

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I've now added head-scratching to my staring.

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I realize this has the look and feel of a rant. It's not my intention. Actually, it goes hand-in-hand with much of what Paul teaches us in Scripture; the stuff of which conundrums are born. Why else does he say (?) ...

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I have learned to be content

whatever the circumstances.

I know what it is to be in need,

and I know what it is to have plenty.

I have learned the secret

of being content

in any and every situation,

whether well fed or hungry,

whether living in plenty or in want.

I can do everything through him

who gives me strength.

Philippians 4:11-13

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Keep your lives free from the love

of money and be content

with what you have, because God has said,

"Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

So we say with confidence,

"The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
Hebrews 4:5-6

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But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.

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What is more, I consider everything a loss

compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing

Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake

I have lost all things.

Philippians 3:7-8

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When the operative word is contentment, I needn't stare at all; I can pivot on this one word alone.
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Do my gains/losses bring me contentment? Can I sing with the chorus, "whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, 'it is well; it is well, with my soul'."?

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This is not meant to minimize life's miserable mutinies. I've experienced no few of them; wept no little volume. I mean no impudence or disrespect to those on life's loosing side. It's painful, and can be utterly devastating!

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Yet I have known many from the communities of wealth and an equal number from the communities of lack ... each of them content in their own placement, if not their own calling. Gains or losses matter little to them.

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No alters.

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No special endorsement from heaven.

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Their lives are not about what they have or don't have; or even what they're doing for God. They are simply glad to stand back and give Him the glory because of what He is doing in them - and that deserves no alter to anyone other than Him.

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Indeed, godliness with contentment is great gain. No conundrum there.

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Now I just have to figure out how to remain surrendered in a contented condition. More conundrums!

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Signs of Dawn

Morning. There's nothing quite like it. In a perfect world it follows on the heals of a restful sleep; it heralds a new day containing a fresh serving of God's amazing grace. It's a time of fresh starts, new beginnings, energized agendas and hopeful happenings. In a perfect world.
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From my earliest recollections morning was - and is - a call to joy for me. Long before my feet hit the floor, I'm anticipating the wonder of it all. Dawn's early light never ceases to inspire me, even when it's cloaked in clouds.
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Mother often quieted me while the household slept, reminding me that not everyone rises with such a boisterous beginning. I learned all about sunrise stealth from my Father ... a man that could brew coffee and whip up waffles without making a sound.
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On the rare occasion that I rise with a heavy heart or a rustled spirit, you can be sure I slip away to consider just what's attached itself to my soul. Today is such a day..

• Is there something specific or someone in particular needing prayer?
• Have I said or done something that's incongruent?
• Was it Elaine's post, Innocence Lost, that troubled my heart?
• Did I not get enough sleep?

I may or may not figure it out, but this I know: today is the day the Lord has made, and I will rejoice and be glad in it.
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Dawn is certain, even as the Son also rises.
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And Then They Were Gone

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So ... until Thursday when my sister Carol arrives for her visit, my house is again still, and oh-so quiet. The Sugar Plum Fairy has left the building.

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Family Moments

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The week is coming much too quickly to a close. Daughter Molly and granddaughter Rylie, along with Molly's sweetheart, Tom, and his two girls, Megan & Ava, have made for some warm moments & new memories here at the Sugar Plum Fairy's roost (what Grandpa calls Grandma).

Just a few selections from my growing collection...

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Their favorite passtime ... Grandma's pool!

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And coloring in our jammies ...

Rylie & Molly

Grandma and all three girls.

Tom and his girls ... Ava (4), and Megan (9). We're celebrating Megan's birthday.

Molly & Tom

More to come! But now it's time to gather more plums. The princesses need lunch.

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By the Rules

It's always a bit disconcerting when I learn, especially so late in life, that there are rules I didn't know existed, but that I'm supposed to live by. Worse is the discovery that there are some rules I needn't have lived by at all.
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These discoveries are made all the more complex because rules here aren't rules there, and vice verse.
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Those darned old rules.
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I might be a hero in one camp because of my righteous adherence to this or that. In another camp I'm as good as dead for not living by, much less knowing the rules.
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Those darned old rules.
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I also know something about the making of rules. I did it for a living when my children were small; again when they were teens. With embroidered borders I'd post them on the bathroom mirror, or tacked with a Sticky Note (or ten) where they'd be seen clearly - and often.
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Growing up, I was schooled (literally) in the art of rule-making and breaking - - the sort that link up with blame, shame and guilt. They were the rules dejour, and many of us now know they were little more than bogeymen meant to control. Precious few of them were crafted out of love; most had the distinct look and feel of fear.

Lest you think I'm advocating anarchy or insubordination, let me allay those concerns: I'm all for rules. I'm all for boundaries and laws. I'm all for order.
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However, apart from those rules backed by the gold bouillon of God's own heart, I seriously doubt any rule has much substance. Apart from Him, there's little meat to the boney frame that undergirds the law of any land, any school, any home.
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Any fool can make a rule,
and any fool will mind it.
Henry David Thoreau

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Rules are mostly made to be broken,
and are too often for the lazy
to hide behind.
Douglas MacArthur

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Neither current events nor history
show that the majority rule,
or ever did.
Jefferson Davis

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"... why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? Matthew 15:3
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"... which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"

Jesus replied:

" 'Love the Lord your God with all

your heart and with all your soul

and with all your mind.'

This is the first and greatest

commandment.

And the second is like it:

'Love your neighbor as yourself.'

All the Law and the Prophets hang

on these two commandments."

Matthew 22:36-40

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As if to summarize - - that clever sage of the ages - - Charlie Brown, asks:
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If you don't like the rules,

whose would you use?
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Through It All

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Daunted. That's the first thing that comes to mind when I consider the mountains that have appeared in my life.

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Some have merely been scenery - backdrops to an otherwise ordinary landscape. Some I saw coming miles in advance. Yet others have been completely unexpected, as if they'd been hidden by a bend in the road, or obscured by clouds.

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Rugged, often with jagged, ice covered peaks and steep slopes, the mountains of life have stopped me (and perhaps you?), dead in my hiking boots on occasion.

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Traveling through Switzerland recently, I had the amazing and awe-inspiring blessing of encountering mountains like never before. Coming from Washington State as I do, where both the Cascade and Olympic mountain ranges are incredibly beautiful, you'd think no mountain could impress me. I thought that too; that is, until I wound my way through the Swiss Alps - - literally and figuratively!

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I've thought often of Switzerland since returning to the flatlands of the Arizona desert. My thoughts aren't fully developed as yet, but many of them center on Switzerland's well-defined tunneling systems - systems that make it possible to wind one's way through mountains. Here's a few items that I find intriguing.

• No mountain deters the Swiss. If they can't lay a road to go over or around it, they carve a tunnel that runs right through it.
• Some tunnels entail short treks; others are many miles long. It takes time to navigate them, sometimes with the dimmest of light.
• Swiss tunnels are as different as the mountains they burrow beneath. Many are rather dark and foreboding. Others are well-lit, with a scenic charm all their own.
• The weight & wonder of the mountain is always above the tunneler, yet they pass through with no sense of the heft.
• Without their tunnels, the Swiss would have no consistent way to get between one verdant valley or lake and the next. They'd surely miss out on some incredible beauty, not to mention having their journey dead end at the mountain's insistence.

I am compelled to hum along with today's musings that soul-stirring song, Through It All. If you're navigating mountainous regions today, you might want to hum along:

So I thank God for the mountains
And I thank Him for the valleys
I thank Him for the storms
He's brought me through
Cause if I never had a problem
I wouldn't know that He could solve them
I wouldn't know what faith in His Word could do

Through it all
Through it all
I've learned to trust in Jesus
I've learned to trust in God
Through it all
Through it all
I've learned to depend upon His Word

Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the skies.
Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains,
your justice like the great deep.
Psalm 36:5-6

In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.
Psalm 95:4

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by
every experience in which you really
stop to look fear in the face.
You are able to say to yourself,
"I have lived through this horror.
I can take the next thing that comes along." . . .
You must do the thing you think
you cannot do.
Eleanor Roosevelt
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The Land of Nod

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Most of us associate the The Land of Nod with the mythical land of sleep. Babies are woo'd there by lullaby-singing mothers; old men fall there as they "nod off".
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The first recorded use of the phrase in conjunction with "sleep" comes from author Jonathan Swift in his book, Gulliver's Travels written in 1726, and his Complete Collection of Polite and Ingenious Conversation, written in 1737. Another early instance of it's appearing is in the work of Robert Louis Stevenson, A Child's Garden of Verses, written in 1885.
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Yet pre-dating these, even at the dawn of time and recorded history, comes the truly first use of term: The Land of Nod.
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It's an actual place known as eretz-Nod, and we discover it along with Cain in Chapter Four of the Book of Genesis in the Bible. Located just east of Eden, it's the place to which Cain was banished following his having murdered his brother, Abel. (We are told that his banishment resulted because of His rejection of God, not solely because of the crime of murder).
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"Nod" (נוד) is the Hebrew root of the verb "to wander" (לנדוד). It is synonymous with the way chosen (intentionally or unintentionally) by those preferring to go the Way of Balaam, the son of Beor (2 Peter 2); those that prefer self-rule to God's sovereign authority.
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Residing in the Land of Nod, then - rather than producing a contented, dreamlike sleep - produces quite the opposite. In fact, some Bible commentators have even associated Nod with that eternal place of separation from God, the one called hell (the same hell no one wants to mention, much less talk about).
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I don't know about you, but I've visited Nod on occasion; occasions when I felt I knew better than God.
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At first, Nod's realm has the exhilarating notion of freedom that's so tasteful to the self-determined. But then the mists roll in, the scary sights and sounds rise up from their imperceptible lurking places to become an anxious foreboding, and a sense of loneliness settles over the shoulders like a wet & weighted wool cloak.
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Long term, Nod is - quite certainly - the dead end of all dead ends.
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One rarely lingers long in Nod unless determined to do so.
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It's one thing to wander or stumble there in error, retreating to safety at first chance. And what a great comfort it is to know the safety of the Savior Who comes to collect His own when that happens:.

If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.

Matthew 18:12-14

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It's an altogether different matter to settle into Nod's guilt-ridden culture and make it home. I dare say: There's no rest, much less sleep in Nod.

Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. 1 Timothy 6:10

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Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment... that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing have wandered from the faith.

1 Timothy 6:17-21
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Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. Their teaching will spread like gangrene ... they have wandered away from the truth. 2 Timothy 2:15-18
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