Corona Devotionals

We visited the Grand Canyon. Rock. Strong. Majestic. Silent. Powerful. Beautiful. Breathtaking. Decades/centuries, eons old. Countless eyes and hearts have melted when standing in the presence before it. Around before we all got here and still standing firm long after we're all gone. It is no wonder that our God compares Himself to rock.   ------------------ “Take to heart all the words of warning I have given you today. Pass them on as a command to your children so they will obey every word of these instructions. ( 47) These instructions are not empty words—they are your life! By obeying them you will enjoy a long life in the land you will occupy when you cross the Jordan River.” ~Deuteronomy 32:46-47 In Moses' last speech to the Israelites, after leading them for 40 years, God gives him a "song" to teach to the Israelites, narrating their physical and spiritual "journey" with God through the wilderness and toward the Promised Land.   Their journ...

Is there unity on your team?  In your family?  At the office?  In your classes, at church, or on your street? Unity, harmony, and being-in-sync-with-one-another is beautiful to gaze upon.  Families/teams/offices/neighborhoods/churches that share in it are noticeable and they stand out from the crowds of individuals who are fiercely promoting only themselves.  Unity and togetherness provides an undercurrent of success that has nothing to do with month-end sales or how many runs were scored.  (Although I have noticed that the bottom-line is often more favorable when team-members get along and share in fellowship.)  We may enjoy this harmony in some circles of our life, or we may secretly crave it from afar as we watch others partake in such community. But how does it occur?  What is involved in facilitating fellowship?  What are the steps to creating a culture of connectivity? It is work for sure.  Getting along with others doesn't "just h...

Is your spirit hungry? Have we been skipping "meals"? Are you lacking nourishment and beginning to feel weak today? I was. But it wasn't a physical hunger due to dieting or missing meals. Instead it was my attitude, mood, and heart that were becoming emaciated because I was skipping the buffet of God's Word and thus missing the strength and nourishment that He gives to us through time with Him.. We cannot be filled unless we cho ose to sit at His table and consume God's Word, teachings, and blessing over our day and our lives. Jesus replied,  “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. (John 6:35). Without specific focus and intention to sit down and "dine" with God, we do not eat of his bread  and are not quenched but His living water.  And so our hearts and souls hunger and thirst, and our interactions and attitudes show signs of distress. Whoever comes to me ...   (John 6:3...

When using "the crowd" as an influencer to get my parents' permission for something, I remember repeatedly receiving the same response over and over from my mom: "If everyone else jumped off a bridge, would you also?"   Maybe your parents gave you the same line after you had begged, "But, So-and-So is allowed to do  it...!" Heck, today we probably can't even use that line  ("jump off a bridge")  as a comeback to our children because it might "influence them negatively" or plant a harmful idea in their head.  But I think my mom was on to something, and the Bible has its own rephrasing of the same idea:  The one who walks with the wise will become wise, but a companion of fools will suffer harm.  ~Proverbs 13:20 We must choose to be able to think for ourselves and make wise decisions.  Succumbing to participation against our better judgement or being coerced/guilted/pleaser-mentality-ed into it is not  the path our mom's wante...

While in Arizona to visit family, we had the privilege of driving through the desert for a couple hours the other day.  That might conjure up dry and boring visions in your head, but the reality was anything but.  It was purely amazing to absorb the beauty of unfamiliar (to me) terrain of plateaus, mountains, sands and cacti. And rocks.  Lots of rocks. In random areas, we would see rocks stacked on top of each other.  Some in big piles (with nothing but sand surrounding them), and some literally  stacked in a tower, one on top of the other in a precarious fashion that forced you to try and figure who placed them there?      Hikers?  Native Americans?  God?   Regardless of that answer, the stacks of stone were  stark, stoic, beautiful, and made a strong impression, unable to be ignored.  Their images were still in the back of my mind's eye when I read today's verses in Joshua and saw them all over again.  God...

When I saw the gorgeous peaches hanging on the tree they looked plump, juicy and perfect.  Like they hadn't a care in the world.  As if the sun and rain had alternately bathed them in perfect proportions and the result was healthy fruit.  Are you in this season today? But actually, that's only half of their story.   The vision of our tree filled with fuzzy, plump peach-bulbs made me catch my breath because I knew that their road had not been paved with (only) rays of sunshine and soft raindrops.  My brain flipped back two months earlier when they had  almost  been buried by a late-April snow.  But they persevered. I'm not sure how they mustered the life to keep blooming and growing under the weight and variable of those circumstances, but the current-ripening fruit adorning our branches proves that they did. They persevered.  They went through a trying, heavy, taxing, extreme-circumstance season, and it led to a peaceful, bountiful, beau...

Never underestimate the influence that we have on others, just by living our lives. My husband loves gardening. Even though it is tedious and requires daily attention and the results take a long time...he has a passion for plants because he had a beautiful relationship and loved another who did also. Where does one get a green thumb? My husband's came from his grampa. Also an avid gardener and fruit-tree man, when you grow up seeing someone you love have an interest in something, it is natural for you to also gravitate towards it. And so, we just picked 80 peaches from a peach tree my husband planted in the front yard and I made pie fillings, w e can tomatoes for sauce, cut basil for pesto and make pickles from cucumbers. He likes to garden and I like to cook-it's funny how God works things out if we let Him. We also have a fig tree. We've had it many years, and my husband and mother-in-law "knew" from the sproutling that "it would take at least three...