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Twisted

Posted in Christian, tagged , , , , , , , , on January 18, 2025| 2 Comments »

I put a wooden welcome plaque on my front door. It hangs by a jute string. But occasionally the wind whisks through the corridor of my apartment complex and twists it around. Sometimes I come home to find it hanging backward. The words are not discernable. The message is unclear. Not all the time. It depends on whether the wind has been calm or not.

Proverbs 8:8 states: All the words of my mouth are righteous; there is nothing twisted or crooked in them.

Can I honestly say that? Well, honestly… No. Can any of us?

Photo by Engin Akyurt on Pexels.com

Each morning, as part of my prayer time, I pray part of Psalm 51- create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. Start over with a clean slate, sins confessed, forgiveness received. Let the Light of Christ’s love, mercy, and grace shine through me like a sparkling clean glass. Then out the door I go, into the world once again. And that is when the winds begin to pound my soul.

Though I want to always be a welcome sign to others I must admit that my attitude and the words on my lips do not always convey that. During the day situations and stress twist my thoughts around to the negative. My witness becomes unclear.

Living in this world is hard for those who wish to walk with Christ, especially not succumbing to the winds of gossip, bad-mouthing, or grumbling. It is so prevalent and invasive these days. It whips around us in all directions, and some days it seems so forceful our umbrella of protection against the ways of the world flips inside out.

The only cure is to keep trying. Keep confessing, keep praying. Slowly the Christ in us will grow and the armor of the Spirit will shield us from the winds of negativity, selfishness, deceit, and grumbling that seems so strong at times… almost hurricane strength! But our God is stronger.

Jesus calmed the winds of the Sea of Galilee when He and his disciples were in the boat. (Matthew 8:23-27) He can still do the same for us. All we need to do is call out to Him. Then we can continue on the journey He has set for us… being a welcome sign that draws people to open the doors of their hearts to His ways.

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Kindness Matters

Posted in Christian, Life Experiences, tagged , , , , , on October 28, 2024| Leave a Comment »

A Christian author of romantic suspense and mystery, Gail Pallotta, gave me this devotional about where she unexpectedly found God in her day. I think it is a good reminder of how we can be a positive influence on others…

A few Sundays ago, I heard a minister say we need Christian disciples today more than ever. He added that he even thanked people for doing their jobs right.
I related to that…

I recently shopped for a certain kind of shirt for my daughter. After getting welcomed into stores time and time again, I was left in each place to thumb through the sea of clothes on my own. But I couldn’t find what I needed. I grew weary of searching and almost gave up on finding my daughter’s birthday gift but something told me to try one more place.

Moments after I entered the boutique, a sales lady walked over and asked, “Are you looking for something in particular?”


After I explained I needed a certain kind and color of top for my daughter, she showed me shirts
in my daughter’s size. As the two of us checked out the merchandise, we chatted. In no time it
seemed as though I looked for something special with a friend. My mood lifted. She asked where I was from. Then she told me about her recent move away from home. She was so happy to be back where
she grew up. She picked up a long-sleeved T-shirt buried under other clothing, and I let out a
sigh of relief. “Oh, that’s perfect.”

But when she showed the tag to me my heart sank. It was too expensive. She didn’t press me. Instead, she smiled. “There are lots of these types of blouses around. It won’t be difficult to find one somewhere else for cheaper. Have you tried….?” And she told me of several other stores I had not heard about. She cared more about me, a person she’d just met, than she did making another sale.

I walked out feeling positive I’d find what I searched for and eventually I did. But I will not forget what happened in that store. That last thing I expected when I entered the store weary and discouraged was — I’d see God in a sales lady’s kindness.


Three NIV Bible verses about kindness came to mind:
Matthew 22: 39, “…Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Colossians 3: 12, “Therefore as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves
with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”
Galatians 5: 22, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”


Dear Lord, our creator and giver of all things good, please let your light shine through us
in kindness as a witness of your love. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Gail has a new novel that is FREE in an e-book format on Amazon today through November 1rst. Hidden Danger. I just finished reading it- I think you will enjoy it! In audible and paperback, too. https://amzn.to/4ep3YMw
Website – gailpallotta.com – to check out all her novels.

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Burst My Bubble

Posted in Christian, Devotional, Life Experiences, tagged , , , , , , , on October 27, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Photo by Zdeněk Macháček on Unsplash

A routine eye check revealed something I had not envisioned…literally. I had felt something was wrong…eye strain maybe? A new prescription needed? Little did I know I could barely see out of my non-dominant, left eye. All was cloudy, skewed, and fuzzy. I had a hole in the macular at the back of my retina.

So I had surgery. The eye specialist inserted a gas bubble into my eye and I had to keep my head down for days while it positioned correctly to allow the hole at the back of my retina to knit back together. After the surgery was deemed a success, I had to endure the gas bubble clouding my vision for several weeks while it slowly diminished. The eye surgeon had said he couldn’t exactly predict when the bubble would evaporate. It depended on each individual. But it would happen. I had to be patient and follow his instructions.

At first, it was hard to see around this cloudy black thing. I had to really concentrate. But slowly it began to become less of a distraction and more of just an annoyance. Black floaters began to lift off, and I had the urge to swat them like gnats. By the second week, it reduced to a navy blue opaque dot with a blue veil in the center and it lowered in my vision field to somewhere around my lower eyelid, then my cheek, then mouth, then chin. It became the size of a quarter, then nickel, then dime, and then a bead. At last, this morning when I awoke, it was gone.

Where did I see God in all this, other than Him leading me to an excellent eye surgeon?

This bubble represented a sin in my life that I had not yet dealt with because I wasn’t quite sure I had to. Or maybe it was easier to just ignore it. My dominant faith covered it up and compensated…for a while. But deep down I knew something was not quite right. Once revealed by the Great Physician that I had a hole that distorted my perception of Kingdom living, I was in total dismay, and a tad frightened.

God inserted a “bubble” around that sin. At first, it was all I could see. It became so magnified in my life that it clouded everything else. But little by little, God’s mercy worked in my life. I had to be patient and follow His instructions. My attitude and actions began to slowly change. The hole healed, and the sin’s influence and tendency began to diminish. My thought pattern slowly altered and one day I realized it was no longer part of how I saw the world.

For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,  so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 5:19-21).

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Watch, Wait for It

Posted in Biblical, Christian, Devotional, Life Experiences, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on September 20, 2024| Leave a Comment »

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
    and in his word I hope;
 my soul waits for the Lord
    more than watchmen for the morning,
    more than watchmen for the morning. Psalm 130:5-6 (ESV)

Simon and Garfunkel sang about darkness being their friend. It is true that in the middle of the night, there can be a special stillness that can bring peace. But for many, darkness is far from friendly, especially if their emotions hover in a dark place.

The psalmist relates to those who feel uneasy sitting in the darkness. He compares their waiting on God to act on their behalf to a watchman on a lookout tower peering into the blackness. He holds short, quick breaths to stay alert, hoping he doesn’t detect an enemy stealthily sneaking toward the gated community he is in charge of protecting. Come on morning… come on light. Illuminate the landscape so I can see all is well.

And so the watchman waits… so do the many crouched on their beds as tears drip down their cheeks. Or children who cringe at every creaky sound in the house, or the caregiver who is not sure he or she can watch their loved one suffer one more night. The parent waiting for their child to come home, fearing the worst.

Perhaps you are there right now. In the dark. Wait…

Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength… Isaiah said that. Believe it. Cling to it.

Lips whisper a prayer, “Shine, Jesus, shine on me–the way the dawn brightens the sky. Let me feel the warmth of Your love on my face and shoulders as Your loving strength penetrates every inch of my body. You will let the sun rise every morning, so I know You will lighten my darkness…”

No wonder many start their day praising the Lord. After all, the dawn does finally come, and with it, the promise that God is there and He cares. He was right there in the darkness all along.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23

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Bloom

Posted in Christian, tagged , , , , on September 18, 2024| Leave a Comment »

My favorite bush is the purple sage, so against all odds I ordered one online–and a week later, even after being misdirected to New Jersey instead of North Texas, the little guy arrived alive and well. Then one day, as I locked my door to head for work, I noticed tiny green buds at the end of each branch.

As I drove home from work later that day, I noticed every purple sage bush I passed by was in bloom. Imagine my joy when I got to my apartment to see mine in full color as well. Hurray. Well done little plant!

Now, how did every sage bush in my city know to bloom on the same day? Perhaps you can conjure up a scientific reason, but for me, that wouldn’t negate the fact that it had to be a God thing.

There is a lesson in that for us, don’t you think? No sage bush would fold its branches and say, “Nope. I refuse to do it. Can’t make me. I will do things my way.” Nature responds in the way it was created to respond.

The familiar phrase, “Bloom where you are planted” is credited to Saint Francis de Sales. He lived almost five hundred years ago. He is one of my favorite writers. His wisdom is so pure, untarnished, and simple. No matter where we are in life, God can still use us to His glory to bring beauty, joy, empathy, or relief into someone’s life.

Here is another saying of his I love:

What if we chose to respond the way Saint Francis de Sale describes? That no matter what happens, rain or shine, cold or hot, day or night, we could still bloom with a beautiful peace, witnessing to the belief that our Father in Heaven is there and He cares?

Maybe that is why I love purple sages. They remind me of that fact, often just when I need it.

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Don’t You See?

Posted in Christian, Devotional, Life Experiences, tagged , , on September 7, 2024| Leave a Comment »


They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. Psalm 115:5

That is what the optical tech asked me as she covered my right eye with a black spoon-like instrument.

I paused. I couldn’t believe what my left eye was NOT seeing! Even the top letters of the eye chart were nothing more than blurred, squiggly lines. My heart beat in my ears. I held my breath and tried to focus but it didn’t work. My EYE DIDN’T WORK!

The response hung on my tonsils. I swallowed and forced it out between my teeth. “No, I don’t see. I can’t see. What’s happening?”

She wrapped her arm around my shoulder. “Let’s go through the rest of the exam, then the ophthalmologist can see you. She’ll figure it out.”

I had come to get new glasses. For months my eyes felt tired and strained. I had ocular migraines. Floaters. I had been told that after major spinal fusion that was common and would most likely settle down. But it hadn’t so I went to the optometrist. It had, after all, been four years since I had my eyes checked. I prepared myself for the cost of new glasses. Little did I know my left eye wasn’t functioning so my dominant right eye had been doing all the work. Turns out I had a large hole in my macular (the back of the retina that captures what the eye lens projects) and I needed surgery to fix it. When I do, I will need to bow my head for days on end to help stimulate the healing process.

So, yes I found God in the midst of my shock and panic. Well, no pun intended, it actually came to me several days later in hindsight after my brain absorbed the news and my emotions settled.

How often do we think we see, yet our eyes have been skewed by the world? Our experiences cloud our vision, and things can get out of whack. So much so that it affects what we actually observe. It is well documented that if you ask five witnesses to describe a crime scene, they will vary in their responses.

God in His gracious mercy gave us two eyes, one dominant. It is the same with our faith eyes. One may have been damaged by the ways of the world, but our faith can give us dominance to see things the way God does…if we let it. As the contemporary hymn states, we need to pray for God to open the eyes of our hearts.

The amazing thing is that the faltered spiritual eye is fixable, just as my left eye is–all we need to do let the Great Physician work in our lives and bow our heads for a while. In time, we will see more clearly through the loving eyes of the eternal Father. The healing may take quite some time, but He is patient, and so must we agree to be as well.

Let’s see how it goes!

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He Knew Why

Posted in Christian on August 30, 2024| Leave a Comment »

I was re-reading First Samuel 16 where Samuel goes through all the brothers and then asks if is there one more? “Yes, but he is just a boy and the shepherd.” In those days, shepherding was one of the lowest chores, so it was delegated to the youngest child or woman in the household. Then why did God choose a shepherd boy to be the future king His people were praying to have established?

Answer: David already was developing the skills. Shepherds are overseers. They put the welfare of the flock over themselves. They are assigned to protect the herd, which cannot defend itself, and they have to be brave enough to fight off predators. Sheep can wander aimlessly without the shepherd’s constant supervision. Shepherds learn diligence and also humility. They learn to quickly analyze any situation and act appropriately. Yet they are consistently obedient to the master of the sheep.

Sort of sounds like the Hebrews at the time. A sheep without a shepherd. Oh, they had a king, but Saul did not put them above himself. David would be the one with the skills to bring them together as a nation and defeat most of their neighboring enemies. Plus, David had developed the survival skills God knew he would need to live in the wilderness and hang out in caves to avoid being killed by the jealous Saul’s armies.

So a shepherd, in God’s eyes met all the necessary qualifications needed to become a great king.

Still does. That is why our Lord is called the Good Shepherd because we are like sheep who have gone astray (Isaiah 53:6). We don’t have David anymore, but we have the One who created him. Even when we wander, we are never out of His sight. His rod and staff still comfort (Psalm 23:4).

God sees our potential. No matter your circumstances, your fumbles and stumbles, your successes and achievements, God measures your experiences and sees how they can be used to His glory. You may not feel up to the task, but the Lord knows you have it in you. So hang close and let Him bring it out. Be obedient to the Master. Everything does happen for a reason, just like your grandma said!

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Shelled

Posted in Biblical, Christian, Life Experiences, tagged , , , , , on June 27, 2024| Leave a Comment »

I saw this posted on Facebook- there was no acknowledgment so I apologize to whoever captured this for not attributing it to you.

But I found it so very profound. Some people just cannot let go of their past, even if it was not great. They wear their pain as a shield to keep them from ever making a similar mistake or allowing hurt back into their lives. And yet, it burdens their journey in life and keeps them from growing.

Jesus told the crowds, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30)

Why do we insist on carrying our burdens? Why do we allow them to identify us and shape our futures? Anger, hurt and bitterness only shackles us. True peace can only come when we “let go and let God”, as the well-quoted phrase of the 1990’s states.

Shake off your past and walk freely into a future where you can grow as a human being by growing closer and more dependent on our LORD. Our pasts don’;t have to make us chicken!

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A Little Girl and the Commander

Posted in Christian, tagged , , , , on June 2, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Today in church we read the story of Naaman the leper from 2 Kings Chapter 5. He grumbled because he went all the way to Israel from Syria to be healed and Elisha told him to go bathe in the River Jordan. Now, most sermons I have heard over my life are on how we are not to grumble like Naaman but trust and obey. But today, my heart jumped as my eyes landed on verses 2-5.

Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman’s wife.  She said to her mistress, “Would that my lord were with the prophet in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”  So Naaman went in and told his lord, “Thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel.”  And the king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.”

Do you catch it? A little girl had been kidnapped, snatched from her homeland and family, yanked from her religion, and enslaved. Was she bitter? No. Did she grumble? No. Instead, she had pity on her new master’s ailment which, in her religion, would have ostracized him from society. She told his wife a prophet in Samaria could heal him. This was before Samaria and Israel split and harbored bitterness with each other.

And guess what? The wife listened and she told her husband, who also listened and went to the king to ask for permission to go to Samaria…all on the testimony of a foreigner, who was the lowest of the low…a child and a girl.

Photo by Omar Elsharawy on Unsplash

What faith she must have had. What courage. She could have been flogged for speaking up. OR laughed at and shoved into the pig sty. Surely God’s Spirit strengthened and encouraged her to make this bold move.

And the result? Naaman eventually obeyed Elisha and washed in the Jordan. He was healed and acknowledged God as Almighty and the One and Only worthy of worship. A very influential man, a commander of the whole army of Syria, was converted. He returned to Syria with healthy skin and no sign of having, what in that day and age, would be considered an incurable disease. I can only imagine the stir this miracle caused.

Reading those three verses humbled me.

How about you? The next time you feel a bit uneasy when the Holy Spirit nudges you to speak to someone remember this nameless little girl. She obediently spoke up (to the ones who had enslaved her and snatched her from her family no less) and let God handle the rest. Her faithfulness cascaded in ways she could not have imagined, all the way down through the centuries to someone like me.

So can your faithfulness. So can mine.

Lord, help me put aside my feelings of inadequacy and boldly proclaim what your Holy Spirit prompts my heart to send to my tongue. I pray this through Jesus, my Savior, my strength, and my Redeemer. Amen.

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Surge Protector

Posted in Christian on May 17, 2024| 1 Comment »

Stormy weather zipped through my area one morning this week. The weather team on TV had predicted a 20% chance of rain, no big deal. But the cold front didn’t listen to the news last night, I guess.

It came barreling down. The sky darkened to almost a solar eclipse quality. A huge flash lit the living room with a white glow, followed within a second by a rolling crack of thunder. BOOM!

And my whole apartment complex lost power for a few minutes. Then everything came back on…except for my desktop computer unit. Ugh. The monitor, printer, and lamp on my desk were fine. But the CPU would not turn back on. And I work from home.

I dug out an old, ten-year-old tablet and between it and my phone, I was able to conduct business. It took holy patience, mind you, and quite a few breathed prayers! Finally that evening, my favorite techno-geek (AKA my son) arrived. After a few minutes of diagnostic head scratching he figured out the problem. The lightning zapped the surge protector and the one outlet where the computer cord prong plugged in had received the brunt of the shock. He replugged the cord into the surge protector and all was well. My CPU hummed again.

So, why am I telling you this? It occurred to me that this was a prime example of how the Holy Spirit works in our lives. When we are plugged into His presence, gifted through the Father, and proclaimed by the Son, then we have protection against the zaps of the evil one in our lives.

Zaps are inevitable. They are part of living in a temporal world broken by sin. They can be disturbing, scary, and at times greatly disrupt our lives.

But through confessed faith in Jesus as our Savior, His Holy Spirit comes to dwell with us and in us. We have a God-given surge protector to minimize the shock of what happens to us here on earth. In fact, it may be that He absorbs more than we realize, which is why we need to stay plugged in through prayer, Bible study, and fellowship with other faithful believers walking in the Word.

Because we never know when lightning will strike next!

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