Corona Devotionals

My husband and I celebrated our wedding anniversary the other day.  I love walking down memory lane and remembering the events and emotions and food (weiner schnitzel!) of that day.  Sometimes on our anniversary, we will go out for dinner, and sometimes I make him a special one at home.   But not this year.   Our anniversary date happened to be the only date that worked-out for hosting a team dinner for our daughter's high school soccer team.  You might think that feeding twenty-five young women at our house instead of enjoying a quiet dinner for two might not sound romantic or edifying to our marriage, but it was.   After opening a few thoughtful anniversary gifts to each other,  we got to work.   Him--putting folding chairs around the table and me--prepping mains dishes and sides.   Him-- vacuuming the basement and me--organizing table cloths, silverware and cups. I looked up to see him busily moving-on to his ...

I like to be ready.  I like to  be ready  for Christmas-time.  I like writing Christmas cards and wrapping gifts a bit early.  I love to bake Christmas cookies.  I like to  be ready. I like to  be ready  when I am hosting friends or family or strangers for supper.  I clean up the piles of papers, and shoes, and stuff that inevitably gather in a home.  I vacuum and I cook.  I get ready .  I like to  be ready. However, I am less enthusiastic...but still obedient to what God says in His word to be ready for today: So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too.     For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin.   ~ Peter 4:1 Uh oh.   Baking is one thing.  Vacuuming and even the work of washing a floor is another thing.  But God calling us to suffer physically for Him/His nam...

My husband has a green thumb, and he plants and cares for many creative, beautiful, and delicious things in our garden and around our yard.  Most of his plants have a nutritional purpose and he is specific about what seeds he puts in the ground.   But the other day, he was excited to invite me into the garden area to witness something that he didn't plant, but that had bloomed all over. When I walked in, I saw dozens of gorgeous and dainty indigo blooms weaving and waving their way along the wall, in and around other potted plants, and down the full side of the garden area.   With my first glance, I said the first thing/prayer that came to my mind and heart: " May God's glory run over and through us and our lives, just as this plant has done in our garden ". The viney interwoven plant was so plush and alive--it almost seemed fluffy!  And there were so many blooms! “Arise,   shine, for your light   has come,  and the glory of the  L...

How do we receive hard/difficult/ impossible news? (Oooo, by putting "impossible"--we move into a new emotional-category to include such events as ugly diagnoses/death of a loved one/or other devastating circumstances). How do we receive that kind of information delivery? King Nebuchadnezzar (in the Old Testament of the Bible) had a dream. It impacted him. It confused him. It disturbed him. It drove him to threaten murder upon people if they could not explain it to him. ...And they couldn't. One night during the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had such disturbing dreams that he couldn’t sleep. ( 2) He called in his magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, and astrologers, and he demanded that they tell him what he had dreamed. As they stood before the king, ( 3) he said, “I have had a dream that deeply troubles me, and I must know what it means.” (4) Then the astrologers answered the king in Aramaic, “Long live the king! Tell us the dream, and we will tell ...

Can we just talk ? ~~~ How do we handle communication with someone that holds a different opinion than us?   Are we first and loudest to speak, without regard for the other person's view? A fool has no delight in understanding, b ut in expressing his own heart.  ~Proverbs 18:2  Or are we willing and wise-enough to engage in fair discussion and debate?  There is one who speaks like the piercings of a sword, b ut the tongue of the wise promotes health.  ~Proverbs 12:18    Can we just  talk ? ~~~ The Bible not only has advice for us on how to communicate when we find ourselves at odds with someone, but God's Word reminds us of how the Lord  goes about connecting when there is not (an apparent) connection. For instance, take us.   Take our sin.  Take our short-comings, and take our vulnerabilities, and take our transgressions before we came-to-Jesus or accepted-the-Lord.  And then take the Lord.  Take ...