Wet Blanket Maneuver

When I substitute in the public schools, inevitably there is one child during my day that seems to be the class target. This is the child who is the brunt of jokes, has few friends, and who is teased unmercifully. Usually, it is this child’s reactions to the teasing that spurs the perpetrators on to further abuse. I have a tender heart for these children because I was one. I was picked on in elementary and middle school and would come home crying out to my father. He would tenderly say, “Well, Cheri, you’re just so pick-able, that’s why they pick on you.” He’d then go on to tell me that my reaction was what was fueling their fire, and if I wanted them to stop, I needed to change my reaction. With his help, I learned to master the wet blanket maneuver. When someone meant me harm, I sent him or her blessings in my mind. After a while, it was no longer fun to pick on Cheri. This isn’t a new concept. God came up with it first.
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The Love Game

“I love you more than vanilla ice cream with hot fudge,” my friend will say to his daughter to which she will reply, “and I love you more than kisses from a puppy.” Instead of sharing the usual I love you they share in this lighthearted game. Each time trying to top what the other person has named. Not in a competitive way, but as a playful expression of the depth of love they share. God plays this game with us, too. He gives us a breathtaking sunrise then whispers in our ear, “See this? I love you more than that.” He sends someone into our life with an unexpected blessing and then whispers again, “I love you more than that.” God’s love is so great there is no way we could have ever comprehended unless He sent Jesus to die so there would be no doubt.
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The Real Thing

By Cheri Cowell

My mother’s favorite dessert is banana pudding. Now if the only banana pudding you’ve had is the kind made with vanilla pudding, you have not had real banana pudding. For my mother’s birthday I made the real kind of banana pudding: scalded milk, egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla over a double broiler, layered with the bananas and wafers, topped with a meringue. It tastes nothing like the vanilla pudding version. Looks like it, but doesn’t taste like it. Real and sincere love is like that. The counterfeit version looks like it from a distance, but doesn’t measure up.
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The Cupboard is Bare

Isn’t it amazing how we can have a cupboard full of food, yet can hear the cry from our families, “There’s nothing here to eat?” We know there is plenty of food in the house. No one is going to starve. But then they know that, too. They’re not really saying they can’t find anything to eat. What they’re looking for is something that will satisfy. Our souls are like that. We long for something that will satisfy our inner hunger. We look into the cupboard that is filled with all the world has to offer: movies, relationships, big houses, fast cars, and nice vacations, and yet see nothing to eat – nothing to satisfy. But God knows how to satisfy our hunger pangs.
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Does God Have A Workout Plan?

By Cheri Cowell

Most of us have some form of health goals for the New Year. It seems that every other commercial on television is about losing weight or getting healthy. I’m told that gym memberships increase by over 60% the first six weeks of the year, but decline to their normal numbers after that. Just this week I heard a fitness expert say we need to spend at least three hours each week on some form of physical exercise, and double that if we want to lose weight. He said that for most people, simply walking more is a good place to start in order to create an exercise habit that will stay with us throughout our lives.

How many of us have similar goals for our spiritual exercise? The goal of living longer, being healthier, and possibly looking better this time next year propels us towards making lifestyle changes. But what image or goal is going to drive us to make the commitments needed for our spiritual exercise?

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