Hallelujah! We Are Not Alone

I got these shoes off of a clearance rack in Dallas recently. I didn’t necessarily need another pair, but $20 for Ariats was a no-brainer. Since my knee is in such bad shape, I always have to be very careful of what kind of shoes I wear. If not, I won’t be able to walk the next day and the older I get, comfort also becomes a top priority.  Several years ago, when I showed my mom a pair of shoes I had purchased. She told me they were nice but looked a little manly. Since then, the family joke has been… Julie wears man shoes . We’ve had too many laughs through the years, and I just received a pair of shoes from my sister for Christmas with a note on the outside of the box saying, “I hope they’re manly enough”. Lol  Imagine how happy I was when Hey Dudes and the like became popular a few years ago. I remember sitting in a hospital waiting room with several family members one day when I took notice that everyone in the room was wearing the same style shoe. I didn’t miss the opport...

Nativity scenes are abundant this time of year. They serve as a reminder of the birth of a Savior. Since we don’t really know what Mary, Joseph, or Jesus looked like, I prefer simple silhouettes, similar to the one above. It forces us to use our imagination of that glorious night.  Many depictions  include shepherds and wise men in the scene. We know the shepherds were there, but we aren’t told how many of them came. Since the wise men were traveling far from the East, we can assume it took them a while to get there, and didn’t arrive until much later. The gifts of frankincense, gold, and myrrh make it easy for us to believe there were three wise men. However, we can’t be certain since the Bible doesn’t specify. One thing we can be sure of is this… No matter who all was present on that night in Bethlehem… Jesus was there. Immanuel, God With Us. He was there in a manager, there on a cross, there in a tomb, and is there at the right hand of the Father.  This Christmas, I p...

  It’s the time of year again when several of us from the church go to Dallas, TX to help process Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. Our group of twelve met two relatives at the processing center to join in with hundreds of other volunteers to accomplish the mission of getting gift-filled shoeboxes ready to ship to children in other countries. These children will not only receive a tangible gift but will also be presented with the gospel of Jesus Christ and have an opportunity to participate in a discipleship program.  While there, we went shopping at the mall and played games at the arcade. We had some great food, shared lots of laughs, and enjoyed a scenic drive home after we missed our intended exit. Relationships were strengthened and fun was had, but we never forgot the purpose of our trip. No matter what we do in life, spreading the love of Christ to a lost and dying world should always be our main focus.  My prayer this week is that I never forget what we are ins...

Adapting to a prosthetic leg is a process.  Stump socks, shrinkers, and liners accompany the prostheses as part of the new daily routine. Even simple tasks can be a challenge in the beginning. As Rusty was getting dressed recently, he made the statement… This brings new meaning to putting your pants on one leg at a time. As usual, my wheels started turning. The old Gospel song, One Day At a Time, immediately came to mind and I began to think about how everything we overcome has to start somewhere. Just as babies have to crawl before they can walk and even eventually run, every challenge we face in life starts at one point and requires many small steps along the way to reach our ultimate goal.  We’re now eight months into this journey and many obstacles have been thrown in our way. However, Rusty is making great progress. Although that progress has been slow at times, he’s still moving forward One Day and One Leg at a time, and that’s all we can really ask for.  This week...

  Kristine loves to cook and she loves using old family recipes. Two years ago, she made some old fashioned no-bake fruitcake for Thanksgiving that everyone raved about. We knew it was going to be good because she had made some before so we told her to be sure and keep it as a Thanksgiving tradition. However, last year's batch was nothing like any we had before. It wasn’t just not as good, it was terrible and we  will never let her live it down.   (BTW, she approved of this blog being written. She has a good sense of humor and she knows it was terrible too, lol.)  We had all gathered at Mt Nebo for Thanksgiving last year. She came in carrying several foil pans of individually wrapped no-bake fruitcakes, straight from Mamaw Thomas' recipe. We could hardly wait to sink our teeth into the gooey goodness. However, the moment we pulled the foil back to take a peak at the long awaited treat we knew something was off. It was the first time we had ever seen any with an ...