Many individuals unfortunately allow other people to define their existence and destiny.
 

What is prayer, and what results do you expect from it?

Driving to the highway the other day, I spotted a beautiful tree!  The tree has obviously been there for a number of years, for she is tall, full and stately.

Forgiveness is a healer when it comes to adoption issues.

Our hearts melted into one another’s in instant recognition during that first hug. Two bodies reunited after 36 years...two spirits that had never been separated. The gap of time was instantly filled during that one moment of reunion.

Q: I'd like to change my life for the better but I don't know how. I know I'm weak and need God's help to do it, but how do I get that? Maybe you can point me in the right direction. - S.P.

Q: How can we teach our young son that it's wrong to lie? I don't know why he seems to have such a problem with this (he's only 7), but just about the time we think he understands, we go through another episode. Our  older son is never this way. - Mrs. R.N.

Q: My husband died two years ago, and the only thing that has comforted me is that he lives on in my memory, in our son's personality, in the color of our daughter's eyes, and things like that. Is this what your religion means when it talks about life after death? - Mrs. V.M.

Dr. Rev. Linda Hollies takes a new position of Calvary United Methodist Church in Jackson, MI. Read about her thoughts about the journey her family has already begun to their new home.

It’s Hard Out Here For A Woman!

It’s Hard Out Here For A Woman!

Mista Chuck is a private pilot and I remember him taking me on my first flight in a little piper cub.  I asked about our connection with the airport.  I didn't hear the radio speaking from ground control and I wanted to make sure that we didn't accidentally hit another plane, or be hit by one either!  It was then that Mista Chuck told me that we are on a "see and be seen mission!"  This meant that he was watching out for other planes at our level and he was "hoping/wishing/believing" that other pilots would be on the alert for him!  Not only was this a scary way for me to fly, it's all together contrary to the way that Jesus expects us to live!

In the year that I mother died, I head God speak!  Talk about a difficult time to listen to God.  With the death of my mother, I and my siblings were "officially orphans!"  I didn't want to talk to God!  Yet, the year that Mama died, I heard God speak!

     The national holiday that celebrates the independence of a nation has just passed.  The Fourth of July is an occasion for great joy, parades, fireworks, bar-b-ques and good clean fun at the beach, as we remember that America is a free country, under God.  Its another holiday for family, friends and travel.  I wish us all a period of recreation and safety.

                        
    I don't really remember just how my oldest and dearest friend, Barbara Jean Baker Vinson VanBuren and I met.  It's been over fifty years ago!  We met at Lincoln Elementary School in Gary, Indiana.  She lived in the projects on one side of the school, just beyond the sand dunes.  I lived on the other side of the school in a new house that one of my father's friends had helped him buy after my first born brother had been released from the hospital, suffering pneumonia as we had lived in a cold basement apartment! Mr. Montgomery and my father both worked in the Gary Works Steel Mills, as did Barbara's father, Mr. Edwin Baker.  I was the oldest of eight children and Barbara was in the middle of her family's seven children.  We hooked up in grade school and continued our relationship through graduation at Froebel High School in 1961.  Oh, how the years have flown!  For I can remember when.....

The Daffodil Principle

           
 
       

The Daffodil Principle

           
 
       

     
    When Ben Franklin first proposed his idea of street lights to the Philadelphia City Council, the idea was voted down as ludicrous.  Rather than being discouraged, he decided to install a lantern on the street near his house.  Others liked walking in the warm glow by his home and decided to place lanterns close to their homes as well.  Before long, the streets of Philadelphia were lit with Franklin's idea.  Whatever it is that you would like others to do, begin yourself.  If you've tried and failed, forgive yourself and try again.  One person can make a difference.  And that one person can be you.  When we are living like a Christian, that one person WILL be you!

The War Within!!!

(This letter is in response to the February 20, 2005 - March 6,  2005 edition article entitled “ Religion and Homosexuality Tolerating Dr. Dobson” on the front page.)

 When Will You Rise

  Do You Need To Go Shopping?

The Word According To Your Enemies!

 SIMPLE IS DIFFICULT!