Heart Hope by Olga

Practice hospitality...that's what the morning sermon had been about. The pastor had encouraged all of us to invite others into our homes for food and fellowship. It's something I enjoy, but wasn't expecting to be able to do it in the unplanned way. My mentoring session was finished much earlier than expected freeing up some additional time, so I stopped in at Walgreens to check on a product, however I quickly discovered that they didn't have what I was looking for. Since I was already there I decided to see if there were any specials in the flyer and discovered that they had a bargain on cashews, less than half price. So I purchased a couple of bags and headed to my car. Once inside the car, I found that one of the bags had a small hole in it and was concerned that they might be stale due to the opening. I would return them and then be on my way, or so I thought. God had other plans. An older lady standing next to her car shouted to me that she had locke...

The little yellow envelope under the windshield wiper was ominous. Trying to do the right thing with the new parking process at Eagle Airport I looked for signage to explain the new system, but little was found. So I did the next best thing, asking a fellow traveler who readily explained where the free parking section was located. When I left my car I was confident that I had maneuvered the new process, but now returning to the car with the envelope positioned on the windshield I wasn’t so sure anymore. Opening the filled pouch, I was horrified to see that it was packed with daily tickets totaling almost $60 when I thought I was parking in the “free” section. I hate to waste money needlessly and felt betrayed by the system. There was a little card in the envelope that said if you felt you had received the billing in error to call the contact listed; so that’s what I did. After explaining my situation to the kind worker, she said she understood and would void the t...

It hasn't been that long since my friend Susan and I went to watch a baseball practice of my Grandson, Will. We had a good laugh, because he was doing anything but learning or enjoying the game. For a while he would look at the ground and play with the doodlebugs, then he would come over to where we were positioned wanting snacks, already knowing that we hadn't brought anything with us. And then he again left the field to go over to the water fountain. We turned to each other and said, "Looks like he won't be a baseball player." But two years later he has proven us wrong by receiving four game balls for outstanding skills and performance. He was also selected to be a part of the All Stars. What brought about the change? Research, practice, videos, encouragement, maturity, coaching and conversations have all been part of the transformation.  It became a desire and a passion to play the game. I see a couple of lessons in this. First don’t be too quick to ju...