Still a Little Color

 I know it has been quiet here. I have been busy with choir, Bible study, and Winona Literary Club.

 Yesterday I co-hosted at club; that means I and another lady provided the decorations and refreshments. Fortunately, she had lots of Thanksgiving things. Mostly we used Pilgrim pairs. I bought pumpkin rolls at Aldi's which were quite tasty. I had a medical appointment Tuesday in Fort Wayne. I stopped at Costco to buy some nuts for the club meeting. I ended up with Savanna Honey Roasted Nut Mix, but the item that the ladies liked best was the cranberry bark that I bought on a whim. 

Many of our trees are bare, but the pear trees on my street are always the last to change color and lose their leaves.

We have decided to join my husband's sister and her husband for Thanksgiving at Palette Restaurant. 

It is going to be a bit tricky for me to select my food items. I am on a lactose-free diet for 4 weeks to see if that is causing/contributing to my bowel discomfort and problems. But there are plenty of selections on this menu.

I am toying with the idea of getting a Bob Evan's holiday feast for Christmas. Some friends bought that for us when I had cervical spine surgery December 22nd, 2020. My husband was able to manage following the instructions provided. They do have one choice that includes turkey and ham (my brother-in-law is not a fan of turkey). It might be nice to eat Christmas dinner in my own home.

 It is around 70 degrees today. I am going to head out to my front porch and work on my Bible study there. Tomorrow the temps plummet; I will probably bring in the rocker cushions as it looks like this is our last chance of an Indian summer day.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I may not get back to post anything until after the holiday.  

Second Half of Autumn

 In northern Indiana where I live the first 6 weeks or so of autumn are glorious. Warm sunny days with cool nights and beautiful colorful foliage. 

But the last 6 weeks of fall are bleak and barren with cold days and some overnight frost. Before we officially leave autumn in December, we will probably have some snow. When I say I love autumn, I am definitely thinking of the first half.

Brrr! I am not a lover of cold temperatures. Usually Thanksgiving makes the second half of autumn special. This year we will not go to a buffet in a restaurant. My husband's sister will join us in our condo; there will be just the 3 of us. We will have the traditional turkey (I already bought a frozen breast) and pumpkin pie. We will probably work on a jigsaw puzzle or play games.

A card I received today from the Fort Wayne Hallmark store.

I brought the purple celosia in from the front porch several weeks ago. It is doing OK inside. It will eventually be replaced by a poinsettia. My cheddar pinks look amazingly fine after last night's heavy frost.

Covid is overtaking our state and county. An 85-year-old woman at my church who had Covid in early July has it again. That is not a comforting thought; that any immunity she had lasted about 4 months at most.

 I have dropped out of Grace Village choir for now. 20 people singing without masks was too much risk for me. Grace Village has put out an announcement that any health care and assisted-living residents that leave to spend time with family or friends for the holidays must quarantine for 14 days when they return. If they have no single room for returning residents to quarantine in, they may not be allowed back inside. Currently we have 5 health care workers who tested positive for COVID. We are supposed to get some National Guard workers to help with testing and other non-medical jobs. All of the staff, including independent living area, are being tested twice a week now.

I know a few people who plan to have big family gatherings for Thanksgiving. I hope they don't get sick. Since I don't have kids or grandkids, it is a little bit easier for me to stay away from groups.

The news that there is an effective vaccine in the pipeline keeps me plugging away, taking it day by day. There is still a long road, but there is hope for a brighter future.

Bible Studies and Devotionals

 This next week I will embark on two new studies. Actually, one is an extension of the 2nd Samuel study I just finished. Are you looking for some fairly short studies at this time? Why not join me in reading/listening?

The first is by Beth Boggs, a local Bible study leader. We just finished our study of 2nd Samuel which was interrupted last March. It was finally converted to online audio since such a large group of ladies could not safely meet together as we had been doing. This coming week she is starting a 4-week study of David's legacy followed by Psalm 23. You can go online at a time convenient to you (though the newest lesson isn't posted until Tuesday afternoons). The lessons are archived on her church's website. You need no password to access it. 

If you click on the 11-3-20 lesson, you will see a rectangle labeled LBS lesson Notes to click on to download/save the study questions for this new segment. However, she never goes through the questions as she teaches. She may touch upon the material covered by the questions, but the teaching goes mainly verse by verse. I suspect this legacy study will jump around the Bible some though. She is pleasant to listen to, and you will not need to do the study questions to benefit. Each lesson will be about 50 minutes long.

The second study is one centered on Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts book. I read this book several years ago and still have it on my bookshelf. I ordered the study guide on ebay. Faith Gateway would like you to buy the items from them, but you can get them elsewhere. Your public library may have the book. Grace Village library owns a copy. Maybe somebody in your church would loan you the book. I toyed with not even getting the study guide, but since I found it at a good price I went ahead and ordered it. The study goes November 16 through December 20, with the videos available until December 27. I am not sure how the videos will come out re timing. You can see an introductory video and sign up for the free study at this link to Faith Gateway I can guarantee that you will get emails because I already have. You can unsubscribe to them. 

Since I will not start this study until November 16, I am going to get started next week on a devotional 12 Days of Thanksgiving. The ladies in my church will start this together November 9th. Unfortunately, I do not have a smart phone and my ipad 4 does not have the latest ios because Apple no longer updates it. You have to download the app to interact with a group. But you can do the devotional online by yourself. That is what I am going to do. Or you can download the app and do it on your phone by yourself or invite others to join you. 12 Days of Thanksgiving has a daily reading and devotional thought. Since I didn't download the app, I am not getting emails, but I think you probably will with the app.

I do see this site has some Christmas devotionals as well. 

May God's Word bless you in the coming weeks.

A Thought From Sarah Young

For Christmas I received a copy of Sarah Young's Jesus Calling devotional book. Here is a snippet from today.

 

“It is impossible to praise or thank me [Jesus] too much. As it is written, I inhabit the praises of My people. Sometimes your praise is a spontaneous overflow of Joy, in response to radiant beauty or rich blessings. At other times your praise is more disciplined and measured—an act of your will.”

 

After 6 decades, I agree that there are the easier times of thanksgiving and harder times. No matter which kind fill my bowl, I need to do more praising and thanksgiving to God.

A Ledger of Love

Have you ever pondered why Eve and Adam disobeyed God? They were not satisfied with what God had provided for them. They were ungrateful, wanting more. Human kind follows in the steps of the First Parents exhibiting the sin of ingratitude. How well do we give thanks always for all things to God as instructed in Ephesians 5:20?

Ann Voskamp’s friend challenged her to make a list of 1,000 things for which she was thankful; thus, the title of her book 1000 Gifts.
It is pretty easy to see the big picture items like family, health, housing, food, perhaps an extraordinary answer to prayer, but what about small things? To capture 1000 gifts from God in writing or photos, requires being aware and focused on the moments of our days. Why should we even bother to enumerate and give thanks to God for a beautiful sunset, a kind word from a friend, a close parking spot when our energy is flagging?

Because the practice of giving thanks is the way we realize the presence of God in all of the moments of life. It builds and undergirds our relationship with God. Gratitude for the seemingly insignificant plants the seeds for what Ann calls hard thanksgiving, the times of loss, pain, suffering that we all experience in our fallen world. With day after day bathed in thanks, we touch the pulse of God’s love for us and we build a relationship of trust that gets us through the hard times and creates a willingness to say “Thy will be done” to the Heavenly Father. We can give thanks in everything because there is a good God working all things unto the purposes of His plan.

Will you start a ledger of God’s love for you? Take paper and pen or camera and record His gifts throughout your day. Ann has many suggestions on her Joy Dare calendar on her blog. Here are some samples: 1 gift that made you laugh; 1 gift that made you pray; 1 gift that made you quiet. Something above you, something below you, something beside you.

God is evident all around us.

Psalm 136:3-7
v.3 Give thanks to the Lord of Lords; For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
v.4 Give thanks to Him who alone does great wonders; For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
v.5 Give thanks to Him who made the heavens with skill; for His lovingkindness is everlasting.
v.6 Give thanks to Him who spread out the earth above the waters; for His lovingkindness is everlasting.
v.7 Give thanks to Him who made the great lights; for His lovingkindness is everlasting.

Go out and embrace the beauty and goodness of God through the act of thanksgiving.