Thinking on these things . . .

I was perusing the Sunday paper and checking out the weekly ad from one of my favorite craft stores. I confess, I'm at the craft store more than I need to be, so much so that I almost feel a bit like Norm from the show Cheers...remember, he would walk in and everyone would shout out "Norm" because, well, there everyone knows your name. (don't tell me you're not having that music go through your mind right now) So I have just about every craft supply known to mankind ; soap and paper, and candle wax and fabric and yarn and... what can I say, I'm a great starter and yet so easily distracted! So here in my hand is the big colorful two page ad with the big 40% off coupon right there at the bottom of the first page, tempting me to think about what I could possibly get with it. I search the ad for what's on sale; there's silk flowers, stickers, paper, frames, wedding supplies etc. I read through it again just to see if I missed anything, nope, I saw them a...

"Never doubt in the dark what God has revealed to you in the light." Good advice: not easy to follow but sound wisdom nevertheless. I find that more often than not that I feel I am in the dark, in the twilight or shadows. Doubting, not so much what God has revealed, but how I feel about my own abilities or more precisely, my capability to do all that I am responsible to do. It takes failing at just one endeavor for me to start disregarding everything I've accomplished. I'm a firstborn and accustomed to things coming easily and being successful and when they don't and when I'm not, I have not developed ways of handling that. But I've discovered that I do have a way that helps: it helps even when I'm being moderately successful and not only when I'm discouraged by failure. I've begun to save affirming words - treasured words like the rare gems they are in dust of day to day living: cards, personal notes, and copies of emails make up this collecti...