Annoyed

Ever been annoyed by a friend or family member who you like, but some parts of their personality just rub you the wrong way?  You recognize their positive character traits and you appreciate the things they do for others, but one of their quirks turns you off.  We have a choice when someone’s fault bothers…

The Most Important

Relationships are the most important thing in our lives.   We are relational beings.   Since the first human walked the earth, it’s been clear that relationships are necessary for happiness.  God himself declared in the second chapter of the Bible, “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be…

God Stories

Happy tears welled up in my eyes.  I was in shock in a good way.  Our lifetime friends were leaving our house.  They were already in their running car and I was bidding them goodbye.  I said to the husband, “Have as good a time as possible visiting your mom.”  To my utter surprise, he…

Spur Each Other On

Years ago we were sitting on our front porch taking a break in the tropical heat chatting with the father of our teenage daughter’s best friend.  He was reminiscing about his family’s long years in this primitive third-world country where we now served alongside him.  The stories began to flow and I’ve never been the…

Boomerang

Want to be happy?  Make someone else happy!  Happiness is a boomerang – you send it out to someone and it returns. Think of all those times when it just seemed like a lot of effort to make someone else happy.  But afterward, you were happier yourself!  We all know that making others happy makes us…

Later

Dear Husband volunteered to help plan his high school 50th reunion scheduled for this Fall.  One of his duties is to contact classmates to tell them about the reunion.  Catching up with folks he hadn’t had much, if any contact with, for fifty years has been enlightening.  While searching for a former classmate, Husband visited…