Summer Is Over, Now What?

By Don Otis

For many of us, summer is filled with activity. We take vacations. We get outside. Then comes the fall and we scramble to fill our woodshed or prepare our garden for the dormant winter months. Aside from shoveling snow, our winter workouts consist of channel surfing or shivering to stay warm.

I lived and worked in North Idaho for fifteen years. When I first moved there from southern California, it was an adjustment. I spent many of my evenings at a gym, playing squash, swimming, running or lifting. Then I discovered running outside, even in the snow. I took an old pair of running shows and placed about eight short flat-headed screws around the parameter of the sole. The screws give traction on the snow and ice, a bit like having studded snow tires.

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Our Weakness, His Strength

By Keisha Bass

It’s my belief that there is no way you can kick any addiction without the help of the almighty God. He knows exactly what you need and exactly when you need it. We may take ourselves through a great deal of unnecessary stress and worry behind our current situations, but we must keep our eyes on Him. (Matthew 6:33, NIV) We must also remember that He is forgiving, loving, and merciful. Whether it be drugs or alcohol, cigarettes, food, shopping, self-pity, and the list could go on and on AND on. He helps us through ALL things.

I am a recovering drug addict and in my weakest moments, I called out to God. It was like I had tried everything else, and I had to really get broken down to fall on my knees and cry out for Him. I pray that you don’t have to experience “rock bottom” to get set free, but sometimes it’s the only thing that can open your eyes. God is made strong in our weakness. He broke me down, so He could build me up. And just as He did for me, He will be there to pick you up and dust you off. But then you must do your best to turn from those ways. The struggle is just that, a struggle, but lean on God and He will see you through.

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Quality Decisions and Skateboards

By Lane R Johnson

I sat glued to the television. On the screen a 17 year old male, bare headed and determined, was perched on the ridge of a two-story roof overlooking a lower slope covering the first floor. He seemed focused, which was probably the right mindset, because he was standing on a skateboard.

Before I could gasp my incredulity, he had begun his rocket ride to the ground. The second floor slope went fast but successfully and he even negotiated the jump to the lower level, but somewhere about halfway to the end, he and the skateboard parted company and the balance of the ride concluded with him crashing abruptly onto the pavement below. The good news is that he survived this heroic feat and eventually was able to discuss it coherently with the interviewer that had hosted his moment in the sun.

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Psalm 139 Can Help You To Lose Weight

By Julie Morris, RN

Psalm 139 has been an awesome help in my weight-loss journey and it can help you too. Read each verse, followed by the thoughts I wrote years ago in my personal journal. Then try writing your own thoughts.

“O LORD, you have searched me and you know me….you are familiar with all my ways….You have laid your hand upon me.” (Lord, you know me. You know all about me, all of my negative thoughts and bad choices. You are always with me, reaching out to me, holding me—when I let you.)

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Teach Your Children

By Dorothy Ward-Winters

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. (Proverbs 22:6  NIV)

Our duty as parents is to train our child to be a responsible adult, just as our parents trained us. Why did we think they could only be happy if we gave them their heart’s desires?

I had it rough when I was small, and I wanted my children to have an easier life. Easier and happier. Happier meant stuffed animals, tricycles, bicycles, (I balked at motorcycles), designer clothes, cell phones, computers, I-Pods, and so on, things I did not have. No matter how hard I tried to satisfy her, there was always something new she craved. I never could make her understand that money does not grow on trees.

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