Heart Hope by Olga

My mother is one of the servants in God’s kingdom that uses her gifts that often times go unnoticed. She loves people and has a way of making them feel special. At 85 years of age, she still works at the food pantry, sacking groceries for the needy in Jackson, MS. She has worked with a prison ministry as a mentor for women who have been incarcerated, but have been released to a halfway house. She has assisted them with finding jobs, buying clothes and even taught them about meal planning and cooking.  Mother’s ongoing job for her church is to visit the shut-ins. At one time they were all much older than she was, but now many of them are her peers. Mother will load up her arms with devotional books and special holiday treats to disperse to the ladies and sometimes men in assisted living or nursing homes. Recently while Mother was visiting an old college friend, the mother of a childhood friend of mine who has Alzheimer’s walked over to insist that mother call her daughter to come ...

Happy Labor Day A day free from work, to honor those who are part of the work force of America. What are your plans for the day? Will you be outside, enjoying the beauty of creation participating in your favorite physical activity? Are you going to be celebrating beside a pool of cool water to try and beat the heat? Do you have a barbeque planned for the neighborhood or for close friends? Or perhaps you are just going to let the day evolve, taking pleasure in the final days of summer before fall sets in. No matter what you have planned, I hope you have a great day. We often complain of work. We dread Monday morning and long for the weekends which seem to fly by so much faster than the weekdays. Contentment with the job that we hold is elusive. It seems that no matter what type of occupation we have, we wish we could do something else. If we work in an office, we wish we worked outside. If we get paid a salary, we think it might be better if we would be able to make overtime. We ...