Real Life is Better Than Fiction

Enjoy Summer is a time when people often think of vacation. Families make plans when the kids are out of school. Summer is a time to enjoy life. The weather allows for more outdoor activities. People plan BBQs (activities surrounded by food are something I always enjoy!). As a child, summer for my siblings and me meant riding bikes, making trails through the woods, plenty of badminton, and long, sunny days at the community pool with friends. We would spend hours with our friends and only come home at dinner time or when Mom rang the bell Dad had installed on the porch to get our attention in far off places. Now that we're all adults, whenever my siblings and I are all together we do a lot of reminiscing. We remember those days gone by that we enjoyed so much. We enjoy the time remembering. So many of our conversations begin with, "Do you remember that time…" "Do you remember that time you spit on my head?" "Do you remember when Mar...

Kindness What do you do when people are rude to you? I have a tendency to "kill them with kindness." Unfortunately, my "kindness" is laced with sarcasm. I'm pretty sure sarcasm isn't what God had in mind when He commanded us to "Be kind one to another" (Ephesians 6:1). While I might have the right thoughts, my attitude is definitely wrong. I'm certain Christ didn't have a sarcastic bone in His body, even when there were those who treated Him so poorly. Sometimes people just need a word of kindness. I was going through the line at the grocery store one day when the cashier, whom I'd had several times before, said, "Thanks for always being so nice." To which I responded, "I try to be. I don't know who came through before me that may have been nasty." "You don't know who's coming after you, either." There have been countless times I have witnessed customers being rude to emplo...

Attentive Attentive. There's another one of those traits where I need some work. I have a friend that I want to be like when I grow up. She not only notices needs, but she also does something about meeting those needs. If I were to be absolutely honest, I would have to admit that I see needs sometimes, but I just come up with a whole lot of excuses as to why I can't do anything about those needs. Yes, my life is busy, but is it really that busy? Am I too busy to do something even once in a while? My friend puts me to shame. When she sees a need, she jumps into action. That's the difference between my attentive and her attentive. I need to rethink my attentive. I need to be more like God's attentive. He sees our needs and begins meeting them before we even know they're there. Have you ever prayed for something and almost before you were finished getting the words out of your mouth an answer was there? I have. There was one time we were struggli...

Ambivalence Oh, how this word defines us as humans! We are ambivalent about so many things. We are wishy-washy. We can't seem to make up our minds about anything. Just look at a woman's bedroom after she has gotten dressed. The pile of clothes on the bed tells us that dress is the wrong color, that one is uncomfortable, today's the wrong mood for that one, that one isn't appropriate for the situation, that one doesn't fit anymore… I've known women that can't make up their minds about who they want to date. Some can't make up their minds about which women they truly want to be friends with. College students enter the university with one major and come out with another, yet work in a completely different third field. Couples get married only to find out shortly after the wedding that marriage (or the person they chose in the first place) isn't really right for them I could go on with examples of how we have mixed feelings, unc...