Heart Hope by Olga

Those of you who know me, understand that I am not your typical mountain woman. I prefer to sit on my veranda drinking iced tea and reading, but I am trying to get out and enjoy the beauty and nature of the outdoors more often. Several friends encourage me, push me, teach me and most of all are patient with me when I do venture out into the sporting world. So when my friend Deb asked if I wanted to ride bikes to Vail, I cringed inside thinking I could never do that; she doesn’t know my skill level, after all, I am a flatlander, but I consented to try it. We got off to an early start to beat the heat of the afternoon and enjoyed the cool crisp morning air and the magnificent views of the green mountains and the raging river. As we rode, I thought of all the blessings I would have missed if I had chosen to say no—the views, the workout, the wind in my face, the fellowship with a friend. But the funniest thing I would have missed is seeing my friend, Christy’s face when we ran into her ou...

Our local chapter of Pet Partners, which trains volunteers and their pets to visit hospitals, nursing homes, schools and other facilities, had their annual fund raiser over the weekend. As a volunteer, it was fun to see all of the different dogs and their owners who came to participate in the Doggie Dash, a three mile walk. There were huge ones. There were tiny ones. There were graceful ones. There were unique ones. There were pretty ones and maybe even a few homely ones. There were even dressed up dogs for the event. Each dog had a look and personality of their own. One small cocker spaniel, sporting a vest that said “Adopt Me,” was shy and frightened at the crowd of people and dogs. A black Irish Setter thought is was much more fun to roll in the grass than to walk the trail. But most of the dogs wanted to stop at my station, because they could jump in the river and enjoy the cool water before continuing on the last leg of the dash. As I surveyed the motley group that had assembled,...

After spending the morning in the library doing research for an upcoming talk, it was perfect to be able to take a walk around Nottingham Lake, since there was cloud cover, and temperatures in the mid-80s and I needed some fresh air and relaxation. Kids were playing on the playground, moms were strolling their babies, men were fishing and the lacrosse teams were practicing, which made it a pretty standard day in the park for a June afternoon. Listening to my praise and worship music trying to determine the perfect song to use at the Bible study on Contentment in Our Circumstances, suddenly I spotted something that didn’t look ordinary--in fact it looked a bit scary. A station wagon was parked on the walking path at the top of a steep hill. A man had the back end of the car open which contained a computer, a large metal box and a telephone and he was looking off in the distance toward the bottom of the hill. Now in these days and times, you can imagine what went through my mind—what is...

My friend Ikie had her hip replaced less than a week ago. After having several experiences with hospitals and surgeries in recent months, I thought I would give her sometime to recover and get over all of the pain, drugs, and lack of sleep, so I was quite surprised when she called me today and sounded better than ever. She reported that her recovery had been a breeze and that she had even been “entertaining” friends. Ikie also informed me that she had learned some things from this experience that I thought were worth passing along. First of all, the people in her church had stepped up to the plate and had showered her with gourmet meals and cards of encouragement. I think the thing that astonished her most was getting meals from people that she hardly knew and cards from people she had never met. The impact that this had made her realize the importance of doing the same for others when they are suffering in some way. Since Ikie has been such an active and independent person, using the...

My five year old grandson, Will, is very inquisitive, with dinosaurs being his main interest. He wants to read all about them and has millions of questions about what they looked like, where they lived, what they ate, what happened to them, etc. so it should have been no surprise when he began questioning his mother about what the Bible says about them. That’s when I received the phone call to find out why the Bible does not mention them. I fumbled through some answers, but then the thought came to mind, why not search the internet to see what I could find. As I googled “Dinosaurs in the Bible,” I found that there were actually many articles on the subject. All of the ones that I read pointed out that the term dinosaur wasn’t coined until the 19th century, so that particular name would not have been in early translations. Most of them also pointed out a passage in Job that could have been a description of a dinosaur. Interestingly enough as I read through the material, I came upon some...

Did you know that McDonald's is being sued by a consumer group for putting prizes in their Happy Meals because it is an illegal marketing ploy? For quite sometime now I have felt that America has become “sue happy.” Anyone and everyone can sue anyone for anything, but this one just seems to take the cake. Do you really think that kids want the Happy Meal just for the toy that they get? If it is the prize that children are after then why is it that many of the toys never leave the restaurant and even more end up being left in the car, never to enter the child's house? In my opinion, there are other reasons that kids want that particular product and it is not the toy. Maybe they like the burgers and fries, maybe the parents are too tired to cook after working all day and it is an easy dinner, or just maybe they want to go to the cool playground and the food is just and afterthought. And there is the also the issue of the size of the meal--children do not want or need to have the ...

All garage sales are not created equal. In Texas, they are big, with lots of stuff, in Mississippi there are treasures to be found, but in Colorado, they tend to be small since people are generally not big collectors of things due to space limitations. Garage sales, estate sales, junk sales, or yard sales, no matter what you call them, they usually have certain elements in common. You can almost always find some kind of fitness items (which were bought at another garage sale when you thought you were going to get fit), vases from the Valentine, birthday and anniversary flowers from the past year (which no one else needs either) and wedding gifts that you didn’t want or need in the first place (no matter whether you got married last year or have celebrated decades of marriage). Now I happen to love garage sales; not going to them, but hosting them. If I sound a bit weird, let me explain, it is not because I love to clean out closets and get organized, but because I enjoy the people who ...

Father's Day brings up different emotions for each person. Many people find that it is a wonderful day to celebrate the great men in their lives who have made a difference by their love, example and life. For others , however, it may be a day filled with pain because the dads that they had were not so good. Those men may have abandoned their child in life to fend for themself, or they may have been abusive, or maybe they just simply had more "important things" in their lives. I have a theory that people tend to view their heavenly Father by the way that they see their earthly fathers. So those who have fathers who shown love see God as loving and kind while those who have dads that are harsh tend to see God as being mean or angy. This is of course is not always true, but it is something that makes you think about the huge responsibilities that dads have in the lives of their children. I was one of the fortunate kids to have a great daddy. My father was a good man who love...

I have been refinishing our deck over the last few days. It has involved sanding, power-washing and painting multiple coats of the finish, so as you can tell, I have had lots of “think” time. One of the things that went through my mind happened years ago when my daughter, Margaret was about 4 years old. She was playing on her grandmother’s wood deck and as she scooted along on her bottom, she got splinters. Now at that time Margaret was a “scaredy cat” and did not like pain. Therefore, she would not let me remove the splinters, so you know what that means—they got infected and hurt even worse before she finally let me perform minor “surgery” to get them all out. Aren’t we all a bit like that in our own lives? There are things that are harmful for us, but we don’t want to get rid of them for one reason or another. The sins that we leave alone, thinking that they are not so bad, usually bring us more pain and suffering the longer we allow them to be a part of our lives. We must be dilige...

What makes snakes so frightening? Last week I had two separate encounters with snakes and I can tell you that neither time did I experience any pleasure in the incidents. However, a fox walked less than six feet in front of me during the same period and I got so excited that I was trying to get a picture of the beautiful, yet dangerous wild animal. The fox was probably much more of a threat to me than the small little garden snake. So what is the difference? Could it be that growing up in the South there were several types of poisonous snakes that we had to be cautious around—copperheads, rattlesnakes, water moccasins? Or maybe it is a memory of my mother being afraid of them and calling my dad to kill them? Or perhaps it is the Bible story in Genesis that gives us the creeps when we are around snakes. Do you remember the snake in the Garden of Eden? Eve was probably enjoying a beautiful day in the garden when she was approached by the serpent. It doesn’t sound like she was afraid of ...

On the news this morning I heard that 10 people had to be rescued from a 60 foot Ferris wheel after an observant carnival worker noticed a split in one of the parts and immediately stopped the ride to prevent further damage. I had to chuckle to myself, thinking back to my childhood days. My best friend, Gail, loved Ferris wheels, so one September evening at the State Fair, she convinced me to ride with her. I approached the double wheel ride with great apprehension, but was assured by Gail that it would be great. As the wheel began turning I was so terrified that I didn’t even make it around one of the rotations of the smaller wheel before I was screaming and pleading to the ride operator to let me off. Apparently I was convincing enough because he stopped it just for me to get off. Standing on solid ground, shaking from the event, I watched Gail ride it all alone in awe, wishing that I was that brave. This fear of heights followed me into my adulthood, so when my daughters were small ...

Last night the Wednesday Morning Bible Study cooked hotdogs at the Edwards Skate Park as an outreach event for the community. While studying 1 Peter this spring we decided that we wanted to be an example to others and one way that we could do it was through serving. So with a great team, helping to bake cookies, making signs and purchasing the hot dogs we were just about ready. My husband and I went to pick up the grill from The Vail Church, but while walking up to get it we noticed movement under it—a snake. Well Satan may have been trying to keep us from serving the community, but we weren’t going to allow a little garden snake to thwart our plans. So we moved the grill toward the car, but soon discovered that it was not going to fit in our SUV. Satan again??? A phone call was made to a friend with an enclosed truck who agreed to stop by and see if it would fit in her vehicle. Upon her arrival, she was about 2 inches shy of fitting it in her truck, when she laid hands on it and said,...

Lunch with my friend Denise is always a treat. She can always bring a smile to my face and easily makes me laugh. I enjoy being with her, because she loves and accepts me for who I am with no strings attached. She always remembers to ask about everyone in my family, including the dog (which by the way is now in doggie heaven). What a great friend! If you saw us out together, you might think we are an odd pair, because of the way we have to communicate. You see, Denise is deaf and I don’t speak any sign language, so we have to pantomime and then guess what the other person is talking about, so it’s a lot like a game. When I have been with her, I usually have to ask her sister, Linda, what the conversation really was, and get her to relay messages to Denise with important matters, such as not to try to “talk” to me when I am driving, because it is so hard to “listen”, because it involves watching her instead of looking at the road. Some people might feel sorry for my friend and the fact ...

Several years ago my daughter Margaret and I were meandering down Canal Street in New Orleans, just enjoying spending time together. We were interrupted by a snaggle-toothed young man on a bicycle who seemed to be stalking us--He would ride past us, go up about a block then circle back around and repeat the action. Each time he rode by, he asked us the same question, “Who is you?” After multiple encounters we ducked into a nearby store, laughing so hard we were almost in tears. We never knew if he really thought we were someone important or if this was just his normal daily activity to harass people on the street. But to answer his question, we are nobodies. Wait a minute—rewind; we are not nobodies, we are mothers, children, sisters, friends, teachers, et cetera, but most importantly we are children of God. Do you know what that means? We are daughters of a King, the King of the universe. While visiting Houston recently, I noticed that my granddaughter, Molly, would get dressed for th...

Since Monday was a day of reflection, I’m still thinking about how we all need to look back not just on the men and women who have sacrificed their lives for our country, but we also need to look back on the times and people in our personal lives that have made a difference. These are the things that can give us hope in our times of trouble. If we have seen God’s faithfulness in the past, we can trust that He will be faithful to us in our current struggles. In the Bible when Joshua was leading the people into the Promised Land by crossing the parted waters of the Jordan River, he instructed one person from each of the 12 tribes to pick up a rock from the river bed. They set the stones up as a memorial so that when people saw it and asked about it, they would be told the story of how God had miraculously shown His power in guiding Israel during the time in the desert. In the Old Testament, the wise prophet Samuel set up a stone and called it Ebenezer when God came to the rescue of Israe...