Father's Day Blessing

                Men want recognition and respect. Here’s mine for you.

Being a good father was always a hard job.
And if you did all the things the Bible said you should do, it was even harder. God always asks us to do impossible things.
And for good reason; so we’ll find out what our human limitations are.
This is so that we will relinquish control over our lives to Him, and let Him be our Savior and Boss.
Being a man has lots of advantages, but even those advantages might slow us down from humbling ourselves to come to God.
Best deal is to take it like a man.
God wants to be that Perfect Father that you never had. He wants to take you to Heaven for Eternity.
What’s so hard about that?
Well, for one thing, there’s this humility stuff,
Then asking forgiveness and expressing love,
It’s not exactly every man’s vocabulary, but, it’s worth it.

Here’s to all the men who are fathers,
Do the right thing. You can trust God to give you the straight scoop.
I appreciate you and your many good qualities
so this is not like criticism,
just a reminder that Departure Day is coming for all of us, and there’s a choice to be made.
Already know Jesus? Good for you.

          HAPPY FATHER’S DAY and many more happy days, besides. 

by Elaine Hardt ©2000

A Christmas Prayer

Turning aside from an overdose of Christmas, trading that frustration for meditation, and coming to a quiet place of prayer. . . 

Heavenly Father,

You are the Designer and Maker of All there is,

How awesome that You also made the way

for me to approach You in prayer. 

I come in humility and honesty.

Today I’m occupied with Christmas

traditions and expressions of family,

mingled with the excessive, the noisy,

the beautiful and the tacky,

the demands and opportunity.

All the trinkets and toys and earthly treasure

snare my mind with thoughts of pleasure;

show me the way through the unnecessary,

the way to what is true,  and what pleases You. 

Does God Automatically Help Us?

Will God automatically spare us from trouble?

Does God automatically lead us to truth?

Does God automatically give us what we need?

Does God automatically give us what we want?

Life goes on. Some days we feel energetic and capable; things go very well.  Other times we may feel like there is a backpack of bricks that we’re forced to carry. 

What’s the difference?  As Christians won’t God just automatically give us what we need?  Can’t we count on Him?

We can count on circumstances changing.  Some people welcome challenge; others take it as a personal affront.  Some expect risk, others want comfort. Many expect good things, automatically.

Is this normal?

For a long time we believed that Christians are supposed to “tough it out” and “put on a smiling face.” We expected to have some troubles, since they were good for teaching us patience.  

Does this unwittingly play into the hands of our spiritual enemy?

By taking a passive stance do we actually invite more problems?

Remember, then . . .

Things Got Worse, Before They Got Better

Things got worse, before they got better,

But God’s blessing made all the difference to this man.

Maybe something of this will speak to you. 

We Keep Memorial Day Because We Should

We owe it to them to remember their courage, sacrifice, dedication;              

We must celebrate with joyful solemnity across our nation.

We owe it to each other to honor the memory of those who served so well;

We owe it to those in service now who strive to keep us safe, this we must tell. 

Our small measure of thought and remembrance is certainly due,

And we must verbalize our appreciation, and so we will do.

Fly the flag today and other days, but look deep with our heart;

Persistent vigilance must stand tall to faithfully do its part.

Some would have us surrender to evil, by their behavior and speech,

But the truth of morality shall always be within our reach.

We owe it to ourselves every day to acknowledge what is good;

We owe it to our Maker to live as His Word says we should. 

by Elaine Hardt ©2013 

Is It True?

        Our friend, Lucille, died yesterday. She KNOWS if it’s true, or not.
        You and I are still here, and we don’t know what Lucille knows.
        What happens at death? Where did this vivacious woman go? Her worn out body is left behind, but she is not here.