13May2017 Future Gen

We celebrated our wedding anniversary by going our with friends to a charming local restaurant.  As we waited in the foyer for a table, I noticed a cluster of framed photos on the wall.  Generations of the family who'd lived in the home-now-restaurant looked out upon the room from their black and white settings. As I stared at wedding photos, family portraits, vacation shots, I couldnt help but imagine their lives and their relationships.  Most were certainly dead and buried but there on the wall their memories remain and certainly the impact of their lives remain as well.
So does ours.  This vapor of a life passes so quickly, even quicker as the birthdays...and anniversaries add up.  It seems a bit morbid but that's not the impression I'm shooting for.  We have an opportunity to impact those around us, particularly those closest, for both the good and the bad.  Our children and the generations that follow can either benefit or their harm, depending upon how we invest in them.  Praying for and with them, sharing Scripture and devotion time, loving them in His Name are such an honorable calling.  And they are so worth it. 

5May2017 Little Things

Sometimes those big things get you.  You know the life events that make a huge impact of your life, or your emotional well being.  For me, here lately, it's been little things.  Hopefully this doesn't come off as whiny or complaining but I've been keeping a tally of these small but growing list of little things the enemy has been bombarding me with.  I told a friend yesterday it's been like a swarm of mosquitoes, divebombing me, constantly stinging, buzzing my ears, landing on my arms, landing on my face.  I swat at them but just keep missing.  You know the feeling?  

We had a flat tired that turned into five broken lug nuts and an all day affair. One of the kids broke a tooth eating a piece of candy at school. Then there was the glass of water spilled on laptop, frying the logic board.  Oh and the sicknesses:  Every family member has been sick, ranging from the flu to sinusitis, an ear infection and finally strep.   Fun, right?  Taken individually, no big deal but all-at-once, it's been overwhelming.  

One redeeming part of this last has been the gentle reminder that He cares about us.  He cares about even the little things.  He cares about us!  The other is that even in the midst of the experience, these little things are really just that.  Little!  There is always a brighter side.  A flat tire can be fixed, a broke tooth can be capped, antibiotics are readily available and cheap here and that Macbook...well that thing is deader than a hammer but it makes a great paperweight.  Back to the main thing:  Our Father loves you, He cares about you and He cares about the little things.