Mugs

Good one! You weren’t exactly the worst teenager 🙂 You had two older brothers!

I really loved the imagery as a lover of Three Dog Night and my high school era from 1969-1973 where spiritually inspired referenced songs were many! Thank you for the insight. Now I have bullfrogs on my mind!

In so many ways, your posts are comforting, calming and encouraging.

Love this. So much insight and faith.

So love your writings.
Miss both of you! Hope all is going well. ❤️❤️

Absolutely beautiful. . . all I can say. Read it, then reread it, then read it again. Saving it, printing it. Its a keeper.

This article is food for thought. . . In one sense, it seems we have always “categorized” our churches by stating the denomination. The beliefs of the denomination (persons like us) leads us to understand whether we wish to attend, and would “fit in”. This article causes me to reflect on whether it is right to identify denomination. On the other hand, we enter our walk with Jesus at all levels; so if a curious or shy cowboy feels an urge to attend church, will he not find a good starting place in a church made up of his peers? In fact, the cowboy’s friends may be asking him to come to church and know Jesus. I agree that extremism and over identifying with the subculture is not desirable and moves the focus from Jesus and that is never right. Lots to think about here. You make excellent points.

Another wonderful lesson based on personal experience – the best kind!

Love this poem. Love it – Love it!

This was a wonderful story that made me cry. I know it wasn’t the whole story of his life, but it certainly was some of the most important and sweetest parts.

Merry Christmas!
Love your personal stories.. And thinking about some of your stories, helped me allot this last year!
Thx Tricia

I love reading your posts. 💓

Love everything about these posts. The insight God is giving you to write is so awesome in your expression of truth. The points you make are clearly stated and strong. The outlay of the paper is very easy to read. Keep on being inspired by the Holy Spirit to share with all of us.

Right on! Your Mamaw was a pillar in the Church, although she never spoke out much. We all knew from her daily life and the things she did say or expressed in her own quiet way with a gesture, a small act of kindness or the manner of her daily life that her reliance was on Jesus Christ and that he was ever beside her. Among the many things she was and she did she brought an enduring sweetness to the lives of those around her. Wherever she was she made it home. Her table was always set, her beds always made, hospitality and love abode under her roof. Even if the armadillos were running beneath the house, their hard backs rumbling as they struck the floor joints and rain pattered on the tin roof, the comfort of a home filled with faith and kept by gentle hands was always there. When Sunday morning came you always knew where she was going to be: in Church praising her Lord and Saviour by her very presence. “Present your bodies a living sacrifice” and she did that by being PRESENT in the congregation. She taught more profound lessons by example than others attempt to do with a proliferation of words, which I suppose this will be if I don’t close with this line.

I found your comments about a simple, small stone particularly interesting. As a child, when I was living on the corner of 11th street and Emporia in Muskogee, Oklahoma, I was playing in the tiny yard on the west side of the house one day. I happened to find a
small stone and picked it up. My usual next move would have been to throw it at something; however, my mind was swept into another realm as I pondered this small, smooth stone.

For some reason I considered whether I could make one. Make a stone like this one. I had a toy truck someone had manufactured, but I realized the manufacturer had used things that he COULD NOT make to make it. Like this stone, no one could MAKE the metal used to form the likeness of a 1935 Ford pickup truck. And I could NOT make a stone like that one, or a tree, or dirt or a cloud. I could only manipulate things that were already made.

Man can make things, but he must begin with materials and objects that have ALREADY been made, and those testify of their MAKER. The small stone I slipped into my pocket testified of an Almighty God, its Maker. I had just received a message from the One who made that stone. I AM THAT I AM. I would eventually come to know that the stone witnessed of Christ, who said, “Before Abraham was I AM.”

Indeed, I could not make that small stone, but God could and did. Jesus stood as a lamb slain before the foundation of the world. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

All nature testifies of Christ.

Mike and I were on Waikiki Beach when the tsunami hit in 2011. Not a drill nor a mistake. Leaving our hotel room with only our backpack in search of higher ground. We stepped off the elevator into the lobby of the beachside resort to find management announcing this was a tsunami safe hotel. Guests would be okay from the 8th floor and higher (along with other instructions). “Do not leave the hotel. You are safest here!” Having our own version of a natural disaster (tornado) I believed the local knew best. While listening to his directions, I noticed a young couple in their early 20’s watching him speak, struggling to comprehend. This Spanish speaking couple (from Brazil) was terrified and confused because the emergency announcements overhead at 10:30pm were in English and Japanese. I could see the pain and anguish on their faces. I recognized their christian faith by a necklace she was wearing. Approaching them I showed her my rosary, Her face lit up as if she had been reunited with her own family in safe arms! Our lives were instantly bonded! Mike in his best broken Spanish explained to them the situation, safety precautions, and because our room was on the 14th floor, we invited them to come hold vigil with us and pray together. Our Christian faith is universal, Catholic. Our prayers are the same in English and Spanish and so as we said the Rosary together, we alternated reciting…one decade in English and the next in Spanish. You know the rest of the story. No damage to Hawaii.. from terror to tranquility…only through Jesus! I’m loving your blog!

Unlike you, my daughter, living in Hawaii contacted me by text with a screen print of the alert she had just received. For over 20 minutes I was trying frantically to ascertain if this was real or false. Assuring her that she would be okay and that I loved her. I had to calm myself and many short prayers were vocally lifted between us. Thankful that this was a mistake. She had decided to make a plan with her housemates for any future disasters that might come up. Thank you for sharing your story.

Ahh, dear Tricia – so refreshing, and a great guide to align (or realign) myself in my Christian life. Each step is so vital.. Blessings to you as you are to me!

Tricia, I saw myself in what you said so clearly and have many of the same regrets, plus a whole lot more. I was not the mother I should have been. I lucked out though because my kids love me enough to forgive me, can only come from divine help.