Our family enjoys eggs, and we eat them quite often.  Early in the morning...or late at night as a (teen) snack--I am often opening up the egg carton at our house.  And every single time  I open that carton...my mood changes for the better, and for God .  I can be rushing, or mad, or sleepy, or happy...but on the inside of our (store-bought) egg carton there is always a Bible verse that greets me, and without fail, it encourages me.   This is the day the Lord has made; W e will rejoice and be glad in it.  ~Psalm 118:24 Question : Who would think to put a Bible verse on the inside of an egg carton? Answer : The egg farmers and followers-of-Christ at GoldHen Eggs , that's who.  Their business is eggs, but their God is the Lord, and they proclaim Him boldly for the rest of us to see (and be encouraged by) on their packaging.   It's encouraging in our faith to know that there are other Believers being bold in theirs.   Be vocal, ...

My papa planted a different apple tree in his yard when each of his grandchildren were born.   And we have a beautiful peach tree in our front yard. We've all seen fruit trees laden with their specific fruit, but I never considered that a fruit tree might be p raising the Lord from the earth with its fruit, until I read the Bible today. P raise the Lord from the earth , you creatures of the ocean depths, ( 8) fire and hail, snow and clouds, wind and weather that obey him, ( 9) mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars...  ~Psalm 148:7 ~~~ Do we know why we are here today? For the same reason that the twinkling stars  are here, and for the same reason that the fruit trees are here. To praise the Lord  (Psalm 148:1) !  The Lord has called everything He created to praise Him...from the stars, to big  wild animals and all livestock ...to  small scurrying animals ... to fruit trees. God forgets nothing and He has made every thing.  ...

Don't take the easy way out today.  No matter what.   We know better...we were created for better, and so we should do better today   Sometimes it can be hard to do the right thing, and sometimes that might just mean  living -out the rest of today or the rest of this minute.  But let's make the choice to do just that today.   We live for the Lord once we ask Him into our hearts and lives...and so why would we compromise on that (holy) privilege (and permission) that God has granted us, once we have united with Him?    I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  ~Galatians 2:20 This world offers many distractions and even addictions to withdraw us from our present reality and in attempts to tether us to alternate worlds where we don't belong.  Let's not  get distracted today...

I'm holding on tight to  the harness bells of the horses  today.  Can you hear them?  Jingling brightly as the horse's trot...and tinkling lightly as the horses stand at attention and throw their heads back and "neigh!".   Yes, we can hold on tight to the harness bells of the horses today (in our hearts), and we can have hope for tomorrow.  What do I mean? I mean--we can read the Bible and hold on  to God's promises.   We can encounter sin and sorrow, darkness and depravity today ...but God's Word gives us hope  because we will hear the holy harness bells   of the horses tomorrow. What do I mean? Zechariah 14 tells it like it is...and it's ugly.  People are sinful.  People are bad.  People have turned away from God, and our world is bad .   ...But our God is good . And we can have a light in our darkness today, because this (bad) is not how it will always be. A day is coming when  the Lord wi...

My husband is the gardener. He plants, and waters, and weeds, and dutifully-and-happily loves on his plants day after day, and so when the harvests come in, it's my turn to get busy and make good use of the fruits (and vegetables) of his labor. Last night it was cucumber time, which meant that it was pickle time. Turning cucumbers into pickles isn't a difficult process, but as I walked through the recipe and steps, I decided that the ingredients involved with making pickles are unexpected...but essential. And it made me think of our lives, as we live them in faith for the Lord. We would like to think that following Jesus would be easy: like the cup of sugar that gets poured into the recipe for pickle brine. Wouldn't it be nice if our (faith) life was sweet and easy, all day every day, like sugar? And sometimes, our faith is. Taste and see that the Lord is good;  blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.  ~Psalm 34:8 Blessed is the one  who does not walk in step wi...

Nutritional value in Pop-Tarts today?   I'm pretty sure the answer is less than 1%, maybe even zero. But, when I asked our middle son if there was anything that he would like from home, (since his college roommate was in town and could pick it up), our son said, "Pop Tarts". Such an interesting request, (and one that is neither healthy nor fulfilling), but it was a request that I wanted to fulfill anyway, if it would make him happy. His friend was stopping over while we would be at church, and I had readied some other items for the campus-drop, but I had forgotten to buy some Pop-Tarts. I realized this minutes before our church-departure time, but luckily...we have a convenience store right by our house. I hurried there, hoping they would be open and they were. Not only that, but when I hurried into the breakfast aisle, they had Pop Tarts! I hurriedly grabbed some and hurried to the check out. I was in a hurry. Getting the Pop Tarts for our son was important to ...