You may be a fellow retiree or perhaps it is still far off, but it will quickly approach. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, be sure to firmly identify yourself as a child of God first and foremost. That will never change and your job description is permanent.

The other day I was driving into our neighborhood and a squirrel shot across the road in front of me. Now this particular squirrel was quick and spasmodic in his movement as most squirrels are, but also pretty flighty. He was completely beside himself in an attempt to decide which way to go. He darted back and forth probably half a dozen times within a two to three foot area just ahead of my approaching tires.

Finishing up my gardening that day, I was reminded of the fact that my heart has sometimes been rocky or thorny soil. It's a daily pursuit to maintain a soft heart that is receptive to the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes unanswered prayers are painful. There doesn't seem to be any apparent good that can come from some situations. So many people were praying--and it wasn't asking for a miracle. Just freedom from complications.

A kind gentleman explained that I was the only passenger needing to catch my particular connecting flight and the timing may be pretty tight so they were offering me a much later flight that would go through Chicago. My luggage, however, would still go to Denver and I'd catch up with it, hopefully, in Minneapolis. Because these were final flights for the evening, if I missed my connecting flight I would be in Denver overnight, likely trying to sleep in the airport. I was in no hurry to make this decision and had many questions. The kind gentleman even brought out a map of the Denver airport so we could…

You may not be a mom reading this. You may not even be a woman. (Thanks for reading anyway!) But something I know about all of us is that it is easy to look back at things we've attempted to do well in the past and wishing we could have done it better. Or done it differently.

It's funny that the word "transition" also makes me think of the difficulty transitions are for students and teachers in the classroom setting. Transitioning from one activity to the next, or one place to another, is when most behavior problems would break out. The transitions are what teachers must prepare for and establish routines for and for which they should have an arsenal of tricks on the ready. Anytime we don't exactly know what is next, chaos can ensue. I'm feeling a little bit of that.

Let's live out this life of dichotomy being lights in the darkness. Don't let your flame burn out and don't let it cause destruction instead of peace and calmness. Just like bugs to a light, I hope our lights will draw others and that they can experience the warmth of God's love just because they are near us.

After a recent update on my iPhone, some of my contacts' names were separated from their cell phone numbers. It drove me nuts! I don't know people's numbers and had to respond to countless text messages with "I'm sorry…Who is this?" Names are important.

As part of our welcome we were given nametags with names for us in Kiswahili. My husband's nametag said, "Gitonga" which means "the rich one" and mine said, "Nyawira" which means "hardworking one". I guess I'm supposed to work hard to make my husband rich. :)