Busy, Happy Woman LLC

How can there be a multi-car "pile up" accident at a light, at an intersection where the top speed is 35 miles per hour? I don't know how the accident happened but it did.   Yesterday, I was shopping for a birthday present. I came out of the store to see flashing blue lights across the parking lot. A gentleman coming toward me warned that there had been a bad accident. He advised to not go out the closest exit that led to the intersection, as there were several cars involved. As we were talking, other emergency vehicles arrived. I thanked the gentleman for alerting me and continued toward my car. In a few moments I could clearly see the accident was indeed bad.  I had used that same intersection to get to the store and it would have been the one I would have chosen to exit the shopping complex. If I had left the store a few minutes earlier, I might have been in the accident.   I prayed for the people involved. My hope is that no one was seriously hurt. And I tha...

As a Believer, I am committed to paying the debts I have and to minimizing the addition of debt as much as possible. At one point in my life, medical bills from my seriously ill spouse (who ultimately passed away) were crushing and depleted every resource we had built. After the death of my spouse, it took seven years of hard work and frugal living to pay off  what remained. It was such a relief to receive the final notice from the last creditor that the debt was completely paid.  But there is a debt that is greater than any financial debt. It is the price that sin exacts on the human condition; and the resultant misery has catastrophic consequences. Today is the day that many Believers celebrate the debt that was fully paid by Jesus on the cross. The Bible says it better than I ever could. "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our i...

 Peter was in prison, guarded by 16 soldiers. The only "crime" he had committed was preaching Jesus' life, death, resurrection and redeeming love. King Herod had sought him out to add him to the martyrs (those who had died for believing in and preaching about Jesus). Peter was considered a formidable influencer of the people and the soldiers guarding Peter knew their lives would be required if Peter escaped. Herod had chosen a particular day to bring Peter before the people with the ultimate goal of setting the day and time for Peter's execution.  The news of Peter's imprisonment reached the church and the believers gathered to pray. The Bible lets us know prayers were going up to God around the clock ; not a moment went by without someone praying for Peter.   The night before Herod's appointed day an angel of God appeared in the prison, woke Peter up and helped him up. As the angel lifted him, the chains with which Peter was bound fell off. The angel told hi...

Each time I go to the grocery store I am stunned. It costs more and more to get less and less. There are only two of us in our household, we both have jobs, and it takes great skill to not "break the bank" doing the necessary shopping. I wonder about the ability of families to manage as costs soar while incomes often don't. The Bible speaks of a time that is coming when a day's wages will only buy enough food for one man for one day (Revelation 6: 5 & 6). That is a sobering thought. How does one "prepare" for those kinds of shortages? One answer is this: stay close to God . There are many examples in the Bible of God's Provision for His People. Elijah is one such example. A true prophet of God, when Elijah spoke, what he spoke came to pass. He predicted a famine in the land and the famine came. No rains fell and no crops grew. God commanded Elijah to hide from Ahab (the king who was blaming Elijah for the famine), so the prophet did as God told him t...

I have been married a little over six years so it has not been too long since I was navigating the sometimes perilous waters of dating. One dating experience came to mind this morning, and it prompted me to launch a new blog feature "Pearls of Wisdom." From time to time I will share practical life experiences and observations that may be useful to those who read them. The Date I don't remember his name. What I do remember is that he was a well-respected teacher, outwardly financially stable, intelligent, and good looking. We had communicated for a bit and decided on a date. He enjoyed cooking and invited me to share one of his home-cooked meals. His home was neat and inviting. His home had a wood-burning fireplace and there was a cozy fire burning. Engaging and pleasant, he easily kept the conversation going. As I watched him cook, he explained that a bit of orange juice helped bring out the flavor of spinach (a tip I have continued to use).  I found myself wondering ...

Last week I wrote about how grateful I am for the mercy of God. When I look back at my life, there were so many opportunities where I could have made better choices. So much of the pain that I have experienced was because of decisions I made. Even after I accepted Jesus as my Savior, I kept making mistakes. I wanted to do better but kept repeating the same patterns. Tears and prayers, tears and prayers were a cycle that I knew needed to be broken. Here's the wonderful part: God saw and heard that I wanted to change. Through His guidance, I sought out a Christian counselor and that was the beginning of understanding why I was making certain choices, and that I had the power to get off the destructive "hamster wheel" that I had been on for so long. I discovered that I had been "programmed" to believe certain things about myself that were in direct conflict with how God sees me. The counselor pointed me to Scriptures (the Bible) that helped me see that "I am ...

Today is an absolutely beautiful Sunday. The sky is a clear spring blue, the sun is shining and a light breeze is making every breath fresh and exhilarating. It's the kind of day that makes me smile and reminds me of God's mercy and grace. Mercy, in the biblical sense, is God's divine decision to not give us what we deserve. To avoid sounding "preachy," I am going to make it personal. God did not give me what I deserved. For so many years I attended church, was active in the church, but was not really living a lifestyle that reflected God's standards for living. I was "picking and choosing" the parts of the Bible that fit what I wanted to do, and making excuses for my actions that were in contradiction with biblical teaching. I was also very good at seeing, and pointing out, the "speck" in someone else's eye while ignoring the "beam" that was in mine (Matthew 7: 3).  God showed me mercy. He did not "throw me away" ...