Colossians 4:6
"Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone."

All three of the attached comics have special meaning for me.  Again, for me, they signify the lack of personal connection which can occur in today's society.  No, I don't have 'Facebook', so if any of you out there think I've 'kept up' with you by it, you're mistaken.  It's a shame that instead of personal emails, phone calls, or face-to-face visits which seem to have gone the way of outdated 8-tracks and VHS, we lack the desire to 'keep in touch'. 

Thanks Dad

To a father growing old nothing is dearer than a daughter. ~Euripides

Every year of my childhood, our family of six would take a summer vacation. Over the Sacramento River and through the Idaho woods to our grandmother's house we'd go.

Trips were simpler then. No itinerary, no restaurants, no motel reservations, no travel kits or GPS units dictating the miles. Just a few old maps, historical landmarks, rest sites and Burma-Shave signs marked our route along the highway.

We were a large family on an educator's budget so we packed our own food, slept in the car while our parents drove through the night, or stayed at the welcoming homes of our relatives for reunion family fun from the West Coast to the Midwest prairies of North Dakota.

Travel may have been simpler then, but the packing ritual of the family station wagon was not. My father planned the placing and stuffing of camping gear, coolers and suitcases, cramming the luggage rack, every cubby and space beneath the seats. There was a method to the madness, but only my father understood the logistics.

The car sat ready overnight as we all tried to sleep until the 4:00 AM start time. The loading of our family into the car was no less strategic than the astronauts strapping into their seats before they are blasted off into space.

The back seat was loaded first. My sister, Dawn, sat in the center with her feet on the hump of the floor that could get uncomfortably warm. My brother was on the passenger side, his scouting experience earning him the official map-reading position of authority. I was on the driver's side with my feet on everyone's flip-flops, activity books, comics and magazines. My youngest sister, Tammy, was in front between Dad and Mom, in a seat with her own play steering wheel, horn, blinkers and all. My mother sat with her feet on a cooler filled with the chicken she had fried, boiled eggs, rolls, fruit, celery, chips, and salami and cheese sandwiches.

Before my father got in the car, he checked us all for safety and comfort and then did something my fourteen-year-old heart will never forget. In a gesture of respect, love, and appreciation for my self-taught ability, my father handed me my guitar in its stiff cardboard case, and helped slide it behind me on top of everything else, into the perfect pocket he had created for it. It was a safe spot, protected from roughhousing and direct sunshine, and it was easily accessible for me to play.

How understandable it would have been for him to say that there was no room for that big awkward thing or that it was a bother, or that he didn't want to hear that "noise" through the whole trip. But that wasn't my dad's way. He packed it, guarded it at gas stops, encouraged my song writing and sang along as I struggled to strum the right strings.

Now, I'm the one packing the car to drive my dad and mom to vacation at our lake cabin. My husband and I built the cabin with my parents' comfort and my mother's wheelchair in mind. Every year, I load the car to its last inch. When I can't find room for another thing, I slam the trunk, always relieved when I hear the soft thud of a job well done and not the clanging sound of overloaded resistance.

Ready to go, my father helps my mother into the car. Even though it's painful for him to bend his knees, my father insists she sit in the front.

One time, my father stopped before getting in the car.

"No room for this?" he asked, pointing to my guitar case left in the entryway.

"Not this trip, Dad," I said, trying not to show my disappointment.

I locked up the house while my father struggled to wedge himself into the crowded space allotted him. I backed out of the driveway and we headed the three hours north.

When we pulled into the dirt road of the cabin, I parked and hurried to help my mother out of the car and into her wheelchair.

After making sure she was comfortable inside the cabin, I went to unload the car. It was only then that I realized that my father wasn't on the deck taking in the blue beauty of the lake. He was still sitting in the back seat.

"Cindy, can I have a little help here?" he laughed. "I'm kinda stuck."

Puzzled, I went around to his side of the car and saw what the problem was. There, on his lap, for three hours, without a word of complaint, he had held my guitar, wedged between his knees and the back of my seat. He was in obvious discomfort.

I hurried to move the front seat forward so I could pull the guitar case out.

"Dad, you didn't have to do that!"

"Sure I did, Cindy. I always make room for what's important to me, and what's important to me is you." He winced as I helped him up and out.

Stretching his knees before he could walk, my father looked out at the lake and breathed in the piney air. He smiled, despite his pain. "I'm grateful that you make a place for us here."

"Dad, I always make room for what's important to me," I repeated his words to him, "and what's important to me is you."

By Cynthia M. Hamond, From "Chicken Soup for the Soul"
  

Matthew 5:37
"Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’
Anything beyond this is from the evil one."

Discourage the Devil

"Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets." Luke 6:22-23

Do you want to know how to depress the devil? Just follow the instructions in that last verse. When persecution comes, when friends or family criticize you, and when coworkers call you a fanatic because you love Jesus and aren't afraid to say so, rejoice! Shout hallelujah and leap for joy!

I tell you that will discourage the devil to no end. He's expecting that persecution to hurt you. He's expecting it to damage your faith, to wipe you out, and to leave you in dismay.

I'm not saying you should enjoy the persecution itself. But you can learn to overlook the discomfort of those things by focusing your attention on the reward that's coming and the fact that Jesus said you are blessed.

The Apostle Paul certainly knew how to do that. He was an expert on rejoicing in the midst of persecution. Satan was constantly stirring up trouble for him. But do you know what he said about all that persecution? He said it was not even worth considering compared to the glory that was about to be revealed.

If Paul could rejoice in the midst of beatings, stonings, shipwrecks, imprisonment and almost every other kind of persecution, you can too!

Just do what he did. When he was told by the Holy Ghost that bonds and afflictions awaited him, he said, "But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God" Acts 20:24

Don't get all caught up in what people think and what people say down here on earth. Get caught up in pleasing the Lord. Get caught up in finishing your course with joy. Get caught up in the glorious hope that's ahead. For that hope is enough to make anyone -- under any circumstances -- leap for joy!

 ~ Gloria Copeland ~

I have an 'e-pal' who devotes herself to Facebook.  She checks it first thing every morning and stays on it until late at night. No, I'm not 'downing' Facebook, although I personally do not have an account.  Connecting with others is wonderful, it's only when staring at a computer screen dictates all other aspects of life that 'the habit' overtakes - 'life'. 

Our den has no windows, as strange as that may seem.  It would be very easy to just stay sequestered down here, 'talking'     on my PC, and not even walk to the front of the house to peer outside.  What a waste, if that's what I did.  God has given us    a beautiful world filled with sunshine (or rain) and smiles (if we look for them).  E-Pals and the Internet can be great, as long as we don't forget about everything else. Think I'll go 'check out' the sunshine.  Hope you have a great day.  Maggie ________________________________________________________________________________ 

Psalm 106:1

"Hallelujah! Thank God! And why?
      Because He's good, because His love lasts. 

“This command I am giving you today is not too difficult for you to understand, and it is not beyond your reach. It is not kept in heaven, so distant that you must ask, ‘Who will go up to heaven and bring it down so we can hear it and obey?’ It   is not kept beyond the sea, so far away that you must ask, ‘Who will cross the sea to bring it to us so we can hear it and obey?’ No, the message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart so that you can obey it."

When we turn our lives over to God, and promise Him that we're going to do His work here on earth, He gives us a complete peace in our spirit, and anything which seems to be 'not easy', our Father will make a path for us to follow..... if we just ask Him and 'let' Him.                                                              

                                                                              Isaiah 43:2 

"When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. 

When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. 

When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; 

the flames will not consume you."

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Coffee Break