Heart Hope by Olga

‘Twas the morning of Thanksgiving when all through the house preparations had been made… It was going to be perfect. The lawn had been manicured, the house had been cleaned. The table was set with the Woodlands Spode china set on Southern Living chargers, crisp white monogrammed linens and Waterford crystal. Fresh flowers adorned the table, and the food had been prepared. All was well, until... Billy had gotten up early with the kids to let everyone else catch a few extra winks of sleep, but while watching The Lion King yet once again, he looked down and that's when the discovery was made. I heard him heading down the hallway, calling Margaret's name and saying, "Come and see." A few moments later Margaret dashed into our bedroom with a look of shock across her face and announced, “Molly has lice.” L-I-C-E... How could it be? Margaret suddenly remembered the note that had come home from school the week before which told of an outbreak of the insect...

Several months ago, my sister, Ginny and I were visiting and she told me of a quote that she had read which said, “What if you woke up tomorrow morning and you had only the things that you were thankful for today.” This was a pretty startling question and made me examine my thankful quotient. I try to be thankful, not only because the Bible commands it of us but also because I have so much to be thankful for in my life. A thankful heart can always be improved upon, so I did a little research to see what the Bible says on the subject. I was rather shocked to find out that the word thanksgiving is only used 32 times in the NIV translation of the Bible; however, there are some powerful things that are described in them. Let’s take a look… First, we are supposed to give thanks to God for every good thing comes from Him. It’s easy to fall into the trap of grumbling and complaining, so we need to refocus so that we become people who are thankful. How many times a day do you thank God fo...

It was nine o’clock on a Saturday night and I was just leaving WalMart and although tired, I was ashamed of myself. While in line the checker called my name cheerfully as she greeted me. This beautiful and talented woman and I have crossed paths over the years that we have lived in the Valley in a variety of ways, primarily through places that she has worked, but also through ministry opportunities. It was great to see her smiling face and since I had not seen her working at WalMart before, I questioned if she still had her day job. She replied yes and my response was something about how difficult it must be to work all day at one job, just to go to the next one in order to pay the bills.   Her comment back to me is the reason for my shame. My friend continued by saying that she wore the bracelet on her arm that said “Just ask me about JESUS” as a reminder of how thankful she is for the job to go to go to each evening.  What a novel thought…instead of grumbling and co...

Pumpkin Cranberry Bread 2 eggs, slightly beaten 2 c sugar ½ c oil 1 c solidly packed pumpkin 2 ¼ c plus 2 T flour 1 T pumpkin pie spice 1 t baking soda ½   t salt 1 c chopped cranberries In a large bowl, combine flour, pie spice, soda and salt. Make a well in the center. Pour pumpkin mixture into the well. Mix just until moistened. Stir in cranberries. Spoon batter into 2 greased and floured loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean. www.hearthope.org

Several years ago I was sitting in Las Vegas with one of my co-workers when a deep conversation ensued around the topic of evolution versus creation. This young man was telling me how he thought the world had come into being, explaining his big bang/cell evolution theory. That’s not exactly the way I believe it happened and since I had just been teaching a Bible study on the first chapter of Genesis, I was armed and ready for him.  My rebuttal for his hypothesis was that if everything on this planet evolved from one cell, I could possibly accept that one bunny rabbit might have evolved by chance, but what I could never accept is that another bunny rabbit of the opposite sex would have developed at exactly the same time in exactly the same place, so that they could then mate and produce other little bunnies, so how could I ever accept the fact that the same thing happened with every mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, plant, tree, etc?  The only thing I have to do is loo...