Friday, February 5, 2010

Do you have more than 150 friends? Are they real people or are they Facebook friends? Have you met them in person or just in cyberspace? If they invited you on a shopping trip, would they know that you prefer antique stores to bookstores? I'm reading an interesting book called The Church of Facebook, by Jesse Rice. The author makes a point that friendships used to come and go. You controlled how much access people had to your private life ...
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Friday, January 29, 2010

We're just a few days away from the biggest game and party day of the year. It's time for the Super Bowl. We talked about it at lunch this afternoon and an interesting phenomenon occurred.The women immediately talked about their favorite wing and dip recipes ...
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Friday, January 22, 2010

Remember your high school health class? Did you learn CPR on a practice dummy? My teacher was a paramedic, so we heard all kinds of stories about things we should and shouldn't do if we wanted to live a long healthy life.When I talk with high school students now, it's amazing the issues they face every day on their campus. When I was in high school, we had gang fights, drugs, and pregnancy, but it was more the exception than the norm. Jim Britts, a youth pastor in Southern California, looked for ways to reach out to the high school kids in his area ...
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Friday, January 15, 2010

I got to spend Christmas in Texas, and it snowed on Christmas Eve. We had a white Christmas morning. Even though it melted away by the afternoon, it was still a very welcome sight.Upon returning to California, I learned we had a white Christmas also ...
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Thursday, January 8, 2009

When was the last time you wrote a letter? Not an email or text message or Facebook update, but a letter written with pen or pencil on paper. What about writing a letter to God?I've written a few letters to God. Some were full of complaints, others full of gratitude, depending on the circumstances ...
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Thursday, December 31, 2009

Did you spend any time in an airport or other crowded public place this Christmas season? If so, you may have noticed a phenomenon I like to call "looking-down-itis." I noticed it a couple of days before Christmas, when I went to join my family in Texas. Hardly anyone was looking up as they walked through the airport. Their heads were down as they focused on sending and receiving text messages.They didn't see the little boy so excited to see his grandparents that he skipped by his parents' side ...
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Friday, December 18, 2009

When was the last time someone gave you some good news? I mean really great news that made you want to jump and shout; do you remember what that felt like?I got some great news yesterday when I opened my mailbox. As soon as I went in my front door, I did a little happy dance. At first I was afraid it was a hoax ...
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Tuesday, November 30, 1999

Every year I spend a few days in Texas with my family for the Christmas holidays. Since I only get home about once a year, I'm always surprised by how much my nieces and nephews have grown and changed. Last year when my sisters picked me up from the airport, my niece drove us home ...
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Friday, November 20, 2009

Do you know any unsung heroes? I'm thinking about people who quietly put Jesus' words into actions without looking for any praise or glory. They don't need someone to tell them they're doing the right thing, they just do it.I have a friend who takes the words of James' letter seriously. He's supporting some widows and putting a couple of kids through school ...
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Friday, November 13, 2009

When I first moved out to California and found a church home, one family adopted me as one of their daughters. I don't think I'm in the will yet, but I am invited to all major holidays, especially Thanksgiving. Their entire family gets together for a day of football, movies, golf and food.I'll never forget the movies we watched the first Thanksgiving I was with them ...
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