And the winner is…and a simple thought to start your Monday <3
Thank you for all of your comments. Truly meant a lot to hear from some surprises and some of you all made me laugh out loud.
We held a very scientific drawing whereby I took all the names I had recorded in a notebook and cut them into strips…
swirled the bowl…
held it up so Russ could reach in and then hand me the Golden Ticket for….
(drum roll please…the excitement is palpitating…..)
TADA!! Congratulations to Suzi Goken!!!!
Your book will be in the mail by the end of the week <3
And now…that simple thought to start your day….
I am halfway through the six weeks post-surgery on my foot. Not that I am counting the hours, I mean days, or anything….(insert that emoji with the severe eye-rolling…)
They removed the stitches and put a smaller cast on last time and the doctor asked me how I was doing.
I said I had only minor discomfort and an occasional twinge of pain, which I assumed was all normal.
He is a man of few words and most are kind of funny…so he said…well…you did have surgery on your foot.
It’s not what he says, it’s the way he says it…and it made me laugh.
But it also made me think.
There is a lot of pain here in our country right now, but there is also a lot of pain around the world.
Not to mention there is pain in our homes and pain in our friends’ homes.
And yes, there is much joy and celebration going on as babies are being born and weddings are happening.
But to push away the uncomfortable and difficult parts of today would be as foolish as ignoring when my foot hurts and pretending like nothing happened to it.
So my thought is simply to say that we are living in painful and difficult REVEALING of some ugly stuff that we have been unaware of.
The hatred and conflict around the world and in our midst is not new news, it is just more openly shared.
As a follower of Christ, now more than ever, I am turning to God’s Word…not to hide…but to be guided in how to love God and live His way in the middle of it all.
I am thankful for several teachings that I have been exposed to this summer that I would like to share that are timely words about being Christ-followers and how to do Kingdom work in a way that offers HOPE to a dying world.
http://www.firstdecatur.org/sermons/ The series on Samuel/It’s Complicated and the last two Sundays called “God Thoughts” have been excellent resources
http://grace360.org/th_gallery/thrive/ The series on the book of Daniel has offered great teachings of how Daniel lived gracefully and graciously and faithfully in captivity.
The Living Room Series: No Other Gods by Kelly Minter has been a powerful study that has tied in beautifully with these teachings as it forces me to examine where I have turned to “functional idols” …. things that I have come to rely on instead of God.
Be blessed as you start this week.
Feed yourself on God’s Word so that you can walk in His ways and point others to the only Hope….Jesus Christ <3
Well, Laura, I wrote an entire comment to share with others and lost it! Is there any way you can, at my request, post my response to you this morning ? I truly am so happy to be the winner…winning this makes me feel like I’m still a part of FCC, and that my heart is ” home” again !! Thank you , again. Much love to you! And…. I love your blog on finding the dinosaur! I always pray to find lost things, and some day I will tell you a story about this. Isnt it amazing how even the smallest desires of our hearts are important to God?! ( like finding a lost toy) yet, how very powerful when he grants these prayers, and through His grace , we, as well as your sweet grandson strengthen our belief in His almighty power! I always think of these answered prayers as ” faith builders”!
Love and blessings to you, sweet one!
Susie
Oops! I just noticed this isn’t directly to you , but you may post anyway!
You are the cutest thing Susie! and I even spelled your name wrong!!! So SORRY!!! We love you so very much and yes, once FCC, always FCC <3