Countdown to Graduation

Remember Sr pictures? I was playing around with my camera while Em was having hers done--she just cannot take a bad picture!

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God At Work

"One person may read the Bible, but a hundred people will read the Christian."

Read the rest of the story right here.

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The Secret

There were all of these beautiful people sitting around on the Oprah show talking about a "Secret." Their lives were changed because they believed that good things could/would come to them. "That's faith," I thought, too busy to really go any further with it. Now they want other people to pay them so they can learn the secret, too.

Fast forward a few weeks. A friend calls me raving about the SECRET. She is ready for good things, wonderful things to come to her--so excited, so full of expectation--she is full of faith.

I look at my life, my expectations. There is something very wrong with this picture...

"I'm ready, God, for good things to come to me." And I expected the walls to come crashing down on me. What kind of god is this who withholds good things from his children?

Lord, You see how I cling to my little gods
I have tried so hard to please them.
But they are harsh and abusive and I cannot please them.
They are awful little gods, but they are all I know.
I have grown accustomed to them and
Adjusted my expectations to their smallness.

I am weary to death of the gods who come from shame, LORD.
I long to worship You, God of Grace.
I long to worship You.
You are the God of Glory.
Give me eyes to see You today
Give me a heart that hopes in You.
Amen.

From Rooted in God's Love, Dale and Juanita Ryan 1991

"I am ready, God, for good things to come to me because I believe--I believe that You are Jehovah, Breath of Life, and You love me."

Now, this may not rock your world like it did mine-but the universe shifted as soon as my heart received the goodness of God. It's been forty years of tug-of war--trying to do the right thing when I need to believe the right thing: Jesus loves me.

Oh, and here's a newsflash: Jesus has been around since well, forever. What's so secret about that?

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