Gated Community

By Kathy Carlton Willis

Yesterday the gates went up. Temporary walls providing safety and barriers. This was not a great divide between two nations. We installed baby gates to block off the guest bedroom and the family room, two areas where our almost 10-year-old calico, Libby, hangs out. Why? Because our 3-month-old Boston Terrier has learned to permeate the smaller barriers we previously used. So, we brought out the big guns. These gates will also help us house-train Jazzy.

It has been interesting to watch the behavior of our two pets since the installation of the dividers. Libby acts more confident and seems to be rubbing it in the face of her housemate Jazzy. Now that Libby has secure areas she sits like a queen on her favorite pillow, taunting the puppy spying from the other side of the gate. Jazzy is making new habits and enjoys the times Libby comes to the great room for some interaction.

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A Well Of Our Own

By Cynthia Ruchti

This morning, did you have other clothes to change into besides the ones you wore yesterday? More than one choice for shoes? Even if you chose to skip breakfast, was there something in the cupboard or the fridge you could have had?

How many people in the world ache for something as simple as clean drinking water?

We have so much more than we realize. My husband and I are among those who have one well for the two of us. What extravagance! It’s an old country well, but it has more than enough good, clean water to meet our needs. My ice cube maker probably uses more water in a day than some Third World villages see. Decadence.

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Ears To Hear

By Virginia Smith

Not long ago I was working on my laptop, and I had the strangest thought. It’s been a long time since I did a full backup of my data. I’d better do that. I know I should do regular backups, but it’s something I often don’t think about until after the computer is shut down for the night. So it had been several months since my last one. I responded to the nudge and backed up all my critical data.

Three days later while I was working, I heard a sizzle and pop and my laptop died. Gone. Unrecoverable. My first thought was, Thank you, Lord! I have a backup.

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A New You

By Cheri Cowell

We talked often in my childhood home of what heaven was going to be like. We spoke of the people we loved who had gone before us and what fun they must be having in the perfect place God had prepared for them. We just knew that my great-grandmother, Mumsey, was in a perfectly outfitted kitchen, baking heavenly treats for the heavenly host. We knew my grandfather was in the woodshop building beautiful pieces of furniture for the many altars in heaven. I now appreciate the gift my parents gave me in providing those happy discussions of heaven.

My father was a diabetic and took insulin shots three times daily from the age of nine. He is now in heaven and I am grateful he no longer suffers that pain because he has a new body and one day I know I will be with him again and will hug him with my new body. What a gift that assurance is.

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Are You a Whiny Wimp?

By Sharon Autry

I am officially a wimp! I whine and complain about the most ridiculous things. Dried out leftovers. Missing the two-hour sale by five minutes. The smell of wet sneakers. Having to backtrack an aisle in the grocery store.

The Apostle Paul, on the other hand, was not a wimp. His “light and momentary struggles” included things like beatings, traumatic shipwrecks, and spending days, months, even years chained to a guard.  Those things seem anything but “light” to me.  But compared to the joy of offering people the hope of Jesus, Paul saw these persecutions as the temporary situations that they were.

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