Heart Hope by Olga

Washcloth was among the myriad of other things on the list of things to take on the trip to Israel. It was the only thing I didn't pack as instructed, after all they would certainly have them in the hotel room. At the first two hotels there was no problem, but at hotel number three, there were none in the rooms. A note had been placed on the bed telling us that they wanted to provide excellent service, and if we needed anything in order to make our stay more enjoyable, just let them know.  A stop at the front desk and I was promised that it would be delivered. Two hours later I was still waiting. On my way back to the front desk, I encountered a hotel employee with a cart and followed him to the "employee only" door. I asked for a washcloth and he holds up two towels, I shook my head. He then held up a roll of paper towels, again I shook my head no. All the while holding my hand in a small square and then rubbing my face. He then tried to give me shampoo. No ...

The little tyke had a smirk on his face as he grabbed the bag of Sun Chips on his way into Subway, as if to say look at how clever I am. However the look quickly faded as he ran to his dad holding up the bag and asked, “Can I have these?” and was told no. I waited anxiously to see what his response would be and was amazed to see him turn and obediently return the chips to the stand alongside all of the others.  Being pleasantly surprised, I wondered if perhaps it was a test by the dad, because once the order had been placed he sent both boys over to get their chips. The son’s original obedience of being denied what he wanted was ultimately rewarded with getting what he wanted. I believe that sometimes God tests us too. Maybe he answers our prayer with a no or a wait answer, just to see how we will respond. If obedient like the child to his father, God our Father will give us what we want or perhaps something even better. However if we choose to have our little tem...

The young boy was pushing his younger brother in the high chair throughout the restaurant. Although he was holding up traffic in places and running into a thing or two, the boys were having fun and not causing any real problems when the dad approached and said, "Cut it out. This is a disaster waiting to happen." What had appeared to have been a harmless activity to a bystander, appeared to have been trouble to the person who knew them best. He had probably observed similar times when things started out fun and then were carried too far and had a poor outcome.  God has probably felt a lot like that father. As He watches us He may know that we too are headed for a disaster. He has seen to all too often when His children seem to be doing something that appears to be harmless, but God knows that if we continue on that path, things will not turn out so well. Perhaps that is why our loving Father has given us the Bible as an instruction book filled with guidelines t...

At least four times in the last few months while sitting in my living room, I have heard a thud at the window. Each time, I discovered that a bird had crashed into the large picture window that looks into my backyard, and believe me it was not because the windows were so clean that they could not tell that they were flying into the glass pane. I’m not sure exactly why these crashes happen, but I do have a few guesses. The first one is that they just get distracted either by another bird or by the freedom that they feel gliding through the air. That sometimes happens to me in life; I lose my focus and while distracted I get myself into a situation that might be harmful or even dangerous. Another possibility for the flying mishaps could be that the reflection in the glass makes it look like there are blue skies and clouds out in front of them, but it is actually a mirage. This can happen in life too when we don’t check out things carefully we can be fooled into a false manner of thinking...

The Obama stimulus money is at work in our community. It is being used to put in a series of round-abouts, so there are construction workers at every intersection directing traffic. I have gotten to where I pass them often enough to recognize them and wave, but that is obviously not the case with everyone. The signs are 2-sided with “stop” on one side and “slow” on the other. Recently I observed two cars either unknowingly or perhaps on purpose ignore the stop sign of the construction worker. (They must have been from Texas, because Texans get blamed for everything and since I claim that citizenship, I can poke fun at them.) The worker was clearly upset because of the unlawful behavior of the drivers, so in order to try and restore some semblance of dignity to her job, as I obediently followed her instructions, I rolled down the window of my car and said, “Thank you for doing a difficult job.” It seemed to make her day as she smiled back at me and waved. Of course I began thinking abo...