Tag: talking with God
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Thank God I’m Sick! Really?
For the past three weeks I’ve been coaxing my immune system to get busy and fix me. I think it’s been ignoring its job. The day I came home from our mini-vacation at Christmas Mountain I felt like I might be getting a cold. The next day I had a high fever and was mad…
Marian
3 Rs, A Book of Wonders, All praise belongs to God, being sick, cough, cough syrup, coughing, Country Comforts Assisted Living, daily devotions, Edward Hays, God’s love, God-given gifts, hot spiced wine, illness as a blessing, illness as purification, illusion of being in control, illusions of being invulnerable, immune system, life challenges, listening for God, mystical broom, praise God in sickness, purification, Reflection, reflections, Relaxation, Rest, sick, sickness, spirituality, talking with God -
Discovering God’s Guest List for My Life
I read another one of Debbie Macomber’s books when I was on vacation the week before last. The book was God’s Guest List: Welcoming Those Who Influence Our Lives. The other two books of Macomber’s that I’ve read recently are One Perfect Word (about the idea of having one special word for the year rather…
Marian
assisted living, Awful August, Country Comforts, Debbie Macomber, Earl Ellickson, friends, Glee Ellickson, God will take care of you, God’s Guest List, God’s love, God-given gifts, Guest List, Guest Lists, kindness, life challenges, listening for God, love your neighbor, reflections, spirituality, talking with God -
What Do I Really Do?
Last week I heard from some voices in my past thanks to social media. A couple colleagues from the late 1970s-early 1980s when I worked for Northwest Industries in Chicago emailed me through LinkedIn, the professional networking site. Then I heard from a coworker at TDS in Madison where I worked in the mid-1990s, and…
Marian
Adventures in Hospitality, career, career path, Come Lord Jesus, consulting practice, daily devotions, devotional book, Disaster Recovery, Edward Hays, Experience Timeline, friends, God’s love, God-given gifts, homeward path, job, jobs, kindness, life calling, Linked In, LinkedIn, listening for God, love your neighbor, Northwest Industries, occupation, pilgrimage, pilgrimhood, Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim, reflections, Sears Tower, self-employed author, social media, spirituality, talking with God, The Virus Handbook, Virus Handbook, vocation -
A Pat on the Back
This morning I looked at my beautiful old dog Abbey and said, “Hey, Abbey. Come over here a minute. I want to give you a pat on the back – not just a few pats on the head, a real pat on the back.” “Okay, Mom. Just a minute while I coax my legs to…
Marian
93-year-olds, Abbey, Adventures in Hospitality, assisted living, Country Comforts, Country Comforts Assisted Living, daily devotions, Edward Hays, endless grandmas, endless supply of grandmas, God’s love, God-given gifts, grandmas, hospitality, kindness, life calling, life challenges, life changes, love, love your neighbor, old dog, reflections, spirituality, talking with God -
ENOUGH
Last December when I told Mim about the idea of selecting a special word for the New Year instead of making any New Year’s resolutions, she caught my enthusiasm and decided to select a word for herself, too, a word that would help her keep focused on one particular area for spiritual enrichment throughout the…
Marian
A Fruit Stall, Christian Century, concentrate on today, enough, enoughness, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, God’s love, God-given gifts, Helen Allingham, hospitality, Joan Chittister, just enough, kindness, life calling, life challenges, life changes, listening for God, love your neighbor, manna, Monastic Way, reflections, sharing, spirituality, talking with God, The Christian Century, virtue of enoughness -
Awful August – except for …
Does it ever seem like your world is shattered? That life is suddenly broken? For some of my family members, that’s what August has been like this year. I guess I would describe August 2014 along two tracks of events. One track is affecting my broadly extended family. The other track is affecting Mim and…
Marian
93-year-old, amazing transformation, broadly extended family, car accident, change in my life, condo sold, Conrad Bender, Ecclesiastes, extended family, family, farmhouse, For everything there is a season, friends, friends and family, funeral, getting organized, God at work, God will take care of you, God’s comforting love, God’s love, God’s presence, God-given gifts, hospice, kind strangers, kindness, life challenges, life changes, life of the farmhouse, listening for God, love your neighbor, next phase, oven cleaner, reflections, retreat, sadness, Sandy Bender, self-cleaning oven, sister-in-law, spiritual retreat center, spirituality, talking with God, time to die, time to mourn, time to weep, track one, whispering winds, Whispering Winds Retreat Haven, will to live -
Joy in Unexpected Places
The highlight of my day last Thursday came at the end of the women’s worship service in the county jail. As usual, I had gone to the Dane County Jail in Madison to play the piano for the women’s worship service. But this service was a little different. Instead of a more typical opening hymn,…
Marian
Be Not Afraid, Bob Dufford, Come We That Love the Lord, Dane County Jail, God’s love, He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands, highlight, jail chapel, jail ministry, Jesus loves me, Jesus Loves the Little Children, joyful moments, life challenges, listening for God, love your neighbor, Marching to Zion, reflections, spirituality, talking with God, unexpected joy, women’s worship service, worship service -
A Roundabout Path to Joy
Last week I read the book One Simple Act: Discovering the Power of Generosity by Debbie Macomber. It’s a wonderful little book with dozens of stories of people being generous in some way, and the consequences of that single act of generosity – to the recipient, to the giver, and to the observer. The book…
Marian
assisted living, Debbie Macomber, Discovering the Power of Generosity, feeding of the 5000, generosity, generous, God’s love, God-given gifts, joy, kindness, listening for God, loaves and fishes, love your neighbor, Mardelle Kornelsen, Mardelle Kornelsen Westley Burrowes, One Simple Act, path to joy, reflections, roundabout, spirituality, talking with God -
Blessed are the Arrogant
God in the form of the Holy Spirit came to chat with me while I was in the shower this morning. The hot steaming water was pretty noisy splashing on me and on the shower door, so I’m not sure I heard absolutely everything the Holy Spirit said completely right, but here’s the gist of…
Marian
accomplishments, Beatitudes, Bible translations, blessed, Blessed are the Arrogant, friends, God blesses, God’s love, God-given gifts, gun control, Holy Spirit, immigration, kindness, life challenges, life changes, listening for God, love your neighbor, nation’s borders, New Living Translation, outdated, peace makers, reflections, spirituality, talking with God, The Message, welfare hand-out -
Red and White Images and a Little Black Book
Yesterday morning, I decided to take out my mom’s little black book – the one where she wrote the Bible verses she memorized, week by week, when she was in high school. I looked up the verse for May 28, 1922. I wondered if she might have chosen a verse to memorize that would relate…
Marian
1922, Bible verse, Chesterton, Decoration Day, Eugene H. Peterson, Eugene Peterson, Gilbert K. Chesterton, God’s love, Introduction to Isaiah, Isaiah, listening for God, little black book, Memorial Day, memorize, mom, red, red and white, red and white images, red wheelbarrow, reflections, scarlet, scarlet sins, sins be as scarlet, spirituality, stars and stripes, talking with God, The Message, watercolors and melodies, white, white as snow, white chickens, William Carlos Williams
