Heart Hope by Olga

My friend Nancy gave me an amaryllis bulb to plant right after Christmas, so that I would have a beautiful flower for Valentine’s Day. I have grown them in the past and was looking forward to having the beautiful blossom during the winter months to bring some cheer indoors. The bulb was planted according to the instructions, was placed in a sunny spot and was watered faithfully. After just a few days, the green tip began growing. Nancy and I would compare notes on how tall our plant was getting, but I soon noticed that I had nice long green leaves, but nothing was growing in the center of the plant where the flower should be forming. I kept watering and turning it so that it would get plenty of light. I even tried talking to it, but no flower ever formed.  Now I have a pretty plant with green leaves, but if you gaze deep into the plant you know that no matter what kind of care the plant is given there will not be a flower—at least not this year. What prevented the flower from ...

It had been a long year for my 6 year old grandson Will. As a kindergartner, there are great expectations put on you to sit still, listen, pay attention, follow instructions and various other rules to be followed. To encourage the appropriate behavior the teacher allows the students to earn tickets for good behavior. When ten have been collected they get to make a trip to The Treasure Box.  It is now February and there had not yet been a trip to The Treasure Box for little Will, because he is 100% boy, not bad, just a boy. Last week it happened to be picture day and the teacher told the students that they would have an extra opportunity for a ticket…if they could behave during the photo shoot. As Will describes it, he thought to himself, “I can earn a ticket for that short amount of time.” And then as he began to count in his mind that since he already had 8 tickets and if he earned the special one offered then he would only need one more to order to earn the right to the long ...

Did you know that Valentines Day did not originate to celebrate romantic love, but instead because of an early Christian? It has simply evolved into a day for giving cards, chocolates, jewelry etc probably due mostly to the retail industry.  If you research Saint Valentine, you will most likely find that according to history there were actually several people who were given that title. The one I found most inspiring was a kind hearted Roman priest who aided young Christians being persecuted by Claudius II and was imprisoned for his faith. While in custody, he converted 46 members of a guard’s family to Christianity. Upon discovering this, Claudius sentenced him to death. Today St Valentine is known as the patron of love, young people and happy marriage. So as you can see, Valentine’s Day was started to honor a man who loved people enough to sacrifice his life for them. This sounds like true love to me. It also sounds a lot like the love that God has for us. God the Father love...

Today when I was on the rowing machine at the gym in hopes of strengthening my legs in case I decide to go out and take a few turns on the slopes and trying to get rid of the flabbiness on my upper arms, I noticed a young tyke about 5 years old. As he and his father walked past me rowing away, the young boy began laughing.  Did he think I was funny? Did I row to slow? Was my form amusing? I found out the reason for his laughter a few minutes later when I saw the little guy on the rowing machine himself. He thought it looked like fun and he wanted to imitate what he had seen me doing.  Often times we fail to realize that what others see us doing affects their choices. A couple of incidents that I recall reinforce this thought. Many years ago my husband and I went to a movie as we often do on Friday evenings. As we were walking into the theatre a friend from Bible study was walking out. She said, “I won’t tell anyone I saw you here if you won’t tell that you saw me.” I ...