45 Days Of Faithfulness

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!     Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints,     for those who fear him have no lack! The young lions suffer want and hunger;     but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Psalm 34:8-10 I like to […]

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6 Have you ever played with dominoes? I’m not talking about the game where you get tiles and match them with your opponent’s tiles to see […]

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,  that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Have you ever received a gift or made a purchase of something that you couldn’t wait to use, only to discover you had […]

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.  1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 In college, I paid much of my way through school waiting tables in a restaurant. Being a food server meant I made very little money per hour from my employer […]

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. Psalm 107:1-3 In the children’s book, […]

My favorite holiday growing up had to be Christmas. What's not to like? School was always out, there was lots of candy and baked goods lying around, and let's not forget about the presents! And even though we were a family of eight and my parents didn't have much money, they always made sure we had a lot of presents to open even if they we're very impressive or extravagant.

When I was young, there was a story about a handsome and athletic astronaut who was seriously injured when his spaceship crashed. Barely alive, the government rushes him into a top secret and experimental surgery where the doctors and scientists give him two new legs, one arm, and one eye; all mechanical but with enhanced and super human strength, speed, and telescopic sight.

Out of all the classic children’s stories that have made it into Disney movies, there’s one particular home furnishing in one of those stories that is unforgettable to me: the talking mirror in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. You know the one; the evil queen keeps asking the mirror who’s the fairest one of all and faster than she can say Siri or Alexa, she gets her answer.

Growing up as a kid my family always had at least one dog. I still have a great love of dogs. We currently have four now! So it makes sense that one of my favorite books growing up was about a dog; a big red dog named Clifford. Clifford was different from other dogs because he was so big, sometimes he appeared around 25 feet tall!

Stanislav Petrov isn’t a name you probably recognize, but he is one of the greatest decision-makers of the 20th century. Back in 1983, he was serving as a lieutenant for the Soviet Union Air Defense Forces during the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union. During his overnight shift, his computer showed that five U.S. missiles were heading toward his homeland.

Located in Yellowstone National Park is one of the great wonders of the world; a geyser. This particular geyser that I’m talking about was most likely first found by the native tribes long before any settlers moved west following Lewis and Clark. But it was some 150 years ago when one westward expedition led by Henry Washburn gave the geyser its now famous name.

In the first novel of the children’s series, A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, we hear about the story of three children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, who are orphaned after a fire and are sent off to live with Count Olaf, who tries to steal their inheritance. As the series title suggests the world around the three kids is not great but somehow they survive because they are together.

Halloween costumes have come a long way in the past 30 years. When I was a kid all we could choose from was a handful of plastic masks of characters like Casper the Ghost, Batman, King Kong, an astronaut, a witch, and maybe a clown. They would sometimes come with a screen-printed trash bag of sorts and, if you were lucky, a cape to complete the look. And that’s how it was every Halloween; lots of stiff-faced, cape wearing midgets running around with empty pillowcases or round plastic pumpkins.

I didn’t grow up on a farm, but we did have three acres of land behind our house and, at different times, we had a goat and some rabbits in addition to our usual population of dogs and cats (along with my brother and four sisters.) One time when I was very young, my mother cooked a chicken dinner at my dad’s request. According to legend, my sisters ate up and finished the feast at which point my father told them it was rabbit; our rabbit! Needless to say my sisters were traumatized!

Back on Day 19, I talked about Dr. Seuss’s book Horton Hatches the Egg, where Mazie picks the best egg-sitter around when she asks Horton to sit in her nest while she takes a rest. What makes Horton so trustworthy is not his elephant memory, or his impressive size but his faithful commitment to do what he says he will do. Though times were trying, though storms raged, though danger was all around, Horton continued to live by the words:

We can learn a lot about the world by studying it. We call the study of the physical world science. I used to love science as a kid, especially the experiments. My favorite was building a volcano; really anything that could safely blow up! But there is more to science than messy experiments, there is also the study of the things we cannot see, like atoms.

The Velveteen Rabbit was always a favorite read for my daughter. It’s kind of a tear jerker about a stuffed bunny who becomes real because of the love of his boy. It’s a tough journey though, and his life is almost lost when the boy gets scarlet fever and the doctor says to burn all his toys to stop the contagion. Through all the trials the bunny learns that being real means being hurt, and he learns an amazing lesson.

When we were first married my wife Hayley bought us tickets to Nashville Predators hockey for my birthday. Though she had never been to a game before she wanted to participate in something I love, so we went. Before the game started I explained a few key rules to her so she wouldn’t be clueless when the puck dropped. During the game, she would often sit there while the rest of the crowd was on their feet screaming.

When Peter Pan came to the Darling house it was to find his shadow which he had apparently lost last time he was there. But when the kids wake up and discover his presence, he decides to take them back to Neverland with him. But in order to fly, the kids have to do two things.

If you’ve never read Robinson Crusoe, you should. It’s a classic book filled with all kinds of spiritual lessons. It was written by Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk, who spent four years on an uninhabited Pacific island after a shipwreck and lived to tell the tale. Shipwrecks often fascinate us don’t they?