May 20, 2011
It is probably safe to say that somewhere in some educational institution in the world, the march, “Pomp and Circumstance” will be playing this weekend, and someone will be struggling to keep their mortar board in place. As a professor in the higher education world, one of the most pleasant, and at the same time, unpleasant events on campus, is Graduation Day! Why is it that such a day, which celebrates the milestone achievement of so many students, is both a cause to smile and to cry? …
May 13, 2011
Is there something you really want to do but know you shouldn’t? I was asked that question the other day and I really didn’t know how to answer it. My mind went to thoughts of things that might be illegal, sinful, or fattening, like insider trading, giving someone a piece of my mind, or eating a vanilla and chocolate twist ice cream cone while dipping a soft pretzel into it. And then it dawned on me that what I really wanted to do but knew…
May 6, 2011
Finally! It seems that spring has arrived here in the Northeast and for this Southern belle, not a moment too soon. A few weeks ago, my mother was visiting and she pointed out the vivid yellow of the forsythia bushes and said, “We call those February bushes back home.” I suppose they are “April bushes” in this part of the country. But spring coming brings with it the consequences of a bitter winter and for all my folks “back home” in Mississippi, the…
April 29, 2011
It is that time of year again when many are concerned about dropping even the slightest excess weight so as to prepare for the summer season of wearing lighter and lesser clothing. How easy it is to pick up the weight along the way and yet how not so easy to shed it!
But sometimes we pick up weight during the year that has nothing to with physical baggage but everything to do with spiritual pounds that slow down the running of the race in which God has…
April 22, 2011
As you prepare your heart for Easter on this Good Friday, we want to offer you one simple and powerful word.
ABLE.
As in, He is ABLE.
No matter what God is showing you about His character or what you feel He is leading you to do now, He is ABLE.
ABLE to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.
ABLE to make all grace about toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.
ABLE to aid those who…
April 15, 2011
It has been said that “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”. Could it also be that a “Proverb a day keeps the devil at bay”?
Many years ago I began reading a Proverb a day, which corresponded with the day of the month, and which resulted in reading the Book of Proverbs 12 times a year. I have lost count now as to the exact number of years that I have been doing this, but it could very well be that I have…
April 7, 2011
Do you have someone in your life you love to be “near”? Someone whose presence is such a delight to you that when sitting near them, you want to scoot just a little bit closer? When I was a little girl, my grandmother was that person for me. I just couldn’t get close enough to her. She was like a magnet for my heart and I loved her fiercely. Sometimes she would ease down onto the couch and say, “Come over here and sit…
March 31, 2011
When I was a young girl, my family, along with my cousins and their families would visit my Italian grandmother, especially on holidays. At the time I was just tall enough that if I stood on my tiptoes my eyes could clear the top of my grandmother’s dining table where I would see rows and rows of grandmom’s handmade cheese stuffed ravioli. Soon after arrival we would sit down to a delicious meal of Italian wedding soup and cheese ravioli. The cousins all sat in…
March 25, 2011
Right at the top of the list of activities I rarely engage in is fishing. I just don’t have any reason to go fishing. I don’t own a pole, a tackle box or lures, and probably if I were being honest, I don’t “own” the patience it requires to sit and wait on a fish to swim by and take my bait. However, despite the lack of my equipment and even my lack of desire to go fishing, I do know this: there’s more to…
March 17, 2011
“To be forewarned is to be forearmed” is an expression I often heard as a child when a teacher would warn me to study for an upcoming test or when my mother would warn me to carry an umbrella to school because it was going to rain later in the day. The adults in my life wanted me to be READY for an upcoming event and not to be caught unprepared.
That adage has stayed with me throughout the years and is one I still often practice….
It is probably safe to say that somewhere in some educational institution in the world, the march, “Pomp and Circumstance” will be playing this weekend, and someone will be struggling to keep their mortar board in place. As a professor in the higher education world, one of the most pleasant, and at the same time, unpleasant events on campus, is Graduation Day! Why is it that such a day, which celebrates the milestone achievement of so many students, is both a cause to smile and to cry? …
