This moss in our brick pathway is there year-round, but it really stands out in the fall and winter when many plants lose their green and go dormant for the colder months. From our towering heights as we walk by, it just adds a touch of character and texture to the visual landscape. But consider the perspective of an ant… Continue reading Directed Steps
Tag: encouragement
Rock of Ages
When my daughter was very young, she had a moving sand art picture. A picture frame held blue water with different hues of blue sand, and when the frame was tipped over, the sand would fall to the new bottom and create a different landscape. I think I played with it more than she did!
Our lives can often feel like that picture frame. Continue reading Rock of Ages
I Still Need the Cross
It only took a split second for me to regress 40 years. Poor Dominique in Customer Service had no idea what was coming when she answered my call! She was just following the rules, doing her job, and couldn’t give me the information I wanted. And what did I do? I had a temper tantrum. Once I cooled down later, I felt awful. What got into me?? Continue reading I Still Need the Cross
Harmony
How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony! Harmony is as refreshing as the dew from Mount Hermon that falls on the mountains of Zion. And there the Lord has pronounced his blessing, even life everlasting.
-Psalm 133:1, 3
Don’t miss the blessing found in being at peace with your brothers and sisters in Christ!
Search for peace, and work to maintain it.
-1 Peter 3:11
Teenagers!
Isn’t he cute? We found this Red-Spotted Newt on the trail down from McAfee’s Knob this summer. I didn’t know it at the time, but this little guy is just a teenager (more properly called an eft)! These newts are hatched in the water much like frog tadpoles, breathing with gills and not having more than two front nubs for legs. They grow and develop, and go through a metamorphosis to become land creatures, where they will live for at least two years. After spending a few years on land, the eft goes through another metamorphosis and becomes an adult, losing the bright coloring (but keeping its red spots). The adult newt returns to the water, where it can live another 10 years or so!
I think as we go through life on this earth as believers in Christ, we are all in the eft stage. We are not what we were, as “anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun” (2 Corinthians 5)! At the same time, what we will be is not yet, but it’s coming!
…we will all be transformed! It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. For our dying bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies (1 Corinthians 15:51-53).
The best is yet to come!
Fan the Flames
“This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you” (2 Timothy 1:6).
What gift has God given you? Whatever it is, it’s not for you to keep to yourself. God’s people need you to use it! Exercise that gift, and grow it for the betterment of others.