We often say “I want things to change” , yet we tend to fall back into the same ruts that we pulled ourselves “half” out of last year. It’s like the crab in the bucket routine, when the bulk of the crabs see that one of their fellow crabs is crawling out to freedom, they pull him back in to the bucket. Whoa-where am I going with this? I say it’s time to purpose to change the areas in us where we allowed the environmental “crabs in the bucket” to pull us back into a trap. We recognize the old rejections, the old emotions, all the old rusty cycles of thinking that have pulled us back to the same problems that we have sat under in the past. We can choose not to give our personal power over to the things that have robbed us in the past!! It is our choice only! Let this be a year of new beginnings!

I borrowed this from a billboard that I passed on the way home, yesterday was Veteran’s Day…though a day late- I want to say thanks for giving to all those veterans who gave their time, courage, sacrificed family time, hard work, and those who gave their lives so that this nation remains free….Thanks so much to you and your families for giving to us!!!!!

I am so excited about being alive at such a time as this!!! The world is at all of our fingertips-I mean this in every sense, that is of course, unless you live in a third world nation or worse! We are able to see sites in every part of the world without even traveling there!
I once met a couple who lived deep in the hills of West Virginia who made the claim that they had never traveled away from their property…in all the years that they had lived there. Imagine… never even going to a store. I asked if they needed things , how did they get what they needed? They said that their neighbors brought them supplies now and again. I said to them.. “Don’t you even wonder what is out there… that you have never seen?” I cast an inquisitive stare at the two old folks…(their mountain hats tarnished by the elements); the old man put his arm around his wife and said, “Why do I need to go anywhere, when I got all that I need right’ ‘chere”….I was left thinking….you know we can go everywhere, see everything and still ask ourselves…”Am I missing something?”

A newborn baby has a perfect hand that reaches out to receive all that the world has to give to it. This hand has not known how to feed itself, does not know yet how to pray, has not lifted anything to give to someone else, has not felt pain or hard work, has not experienced disappointment,or has not learned to caress or lovingly touch another. It is yet still considered a valuable part of the body. There are those whose hands have caused great pain, whose hand has taken from others spitefully, who have wounded or even killed others, hands that have created many things but have also learned to tear things down, whose hands have hated, betrayed and hands that have been badly mistreated. Even these hands- though lost in pain and suffering are considered a very valuable part of the body. Through Christ, all things are made new.