Heart Hope by Olga

A great summer morning, good friends and a beautiful mountain to hike—it just doesn’t get any better than this! While walking along the path to Shrine Pass God showed me how our lives often parallel the hike I was on. Since I had not been on this trail before, I started out with excitement and curiosity. Our lives are a lot like this, aren’t they? We begin our journey with great expectation about how wonderful it is going to be—free from hardship and hurts, but we quickly find out that things might not be just as we think they should be along the way. As I walked the path, there was beauty all around, but there were other things that could come in and steal the moment from me. There were gnarly dead trees that had been damaged by the wind, weather or fire and were really no longer good for anything. Some people end up like these stumps and logs. They allow the junk of the world to come in and kill and destroy the very life within and then become hardened and dry, not useful to anyone o...

Wildflowers are a sight to behold no matter where you live. Whether it is the bluebonnets in Texas or the pink buttercups in Mississippi, or the orange poppies in California, it can be breathtaking to look at a field of flowers that God Himself has planted, watered and grown so that everyone can enjoy them. However, I think the wildflowers in Colorado have to be more beautiful than anywhere else. I’m not sure if it is because there are so many different varieties or if it is that I am so excited to see color exploding everywhere after the long cold days of winter. One of my favorite wildflowers is the lupine which may be found in pink, purple, yellow, white and red. While hiking in the woods, I spotted a purple lupine plant that had finished blooming and had seeds pods hanging from the spike. I took a few of the pods off of the plant, thinking that I would try to grow a few plants from the seeds in my garden. Upon returning home, I laid the pods on my kitchen counter. Tonight while do...