Time for a random Amoretti update! There’s news, news, and more news . . . some more exciting than others.
Monthly Archive for March, 2011
I don’t blame you if you wonder whatever possessed me to write an article about breaking up. But someone asked me to. So here it goes.
Nobody wants to get into a relationship that’s going to end in a breakup. But it happens. So how can we minimize the hurt involved or is it even possible to minimize the hurt? Of course, I’m not talking here about divorce, the ultimate heartbreak, but rather the break-up of a courtship or an engagement.
Part of the glory of a relationship in the first place is that you are putting yourself (and your heart) at risk. So it is important to keep your heart guarded until you know where this is going. Don’t be too hasty in giving it away. Remind your heart that you are simply in a courtship, or simply dating, or whatever you want to call it. Until you are engaged, you should play it safe. Continue reading ‘Breaking Up is Hard To Do’
We have all either had this done to us or we have done it to others. Here’s the scenario: You said you would babysit Friday night, but then you got invited to do something more fun, so you flaked out, leaving the parents high and dry. Or you said you would help with the set-up for the party, but you got a headache and needed a nap instead. You said you would show up at 2 p.m., but you arrived at 3:30. You said you would bring dessert, but you got too rushed for time and decided you couldn’t do it. You accepted the invitation to the wedding, but then you decided it would make your day too congested, so you were a no-show.
It’s easy to flake. And Christians in particular can do it to one another and presume that fellow Christians will overlook it, be understanding, and let it go. After all, we are commanded to be forgiving, to go the extra mile, and to let love cover it. But all those verses apply to both parties, not just to one.
Flaking means that your word cannot be trusted. “But I was just volunteering. It wasn’t like a paid job.” But that just makes it worse. You offered. You committed. You said you would be there. You spoke carelessly.
Sometimes moms step in on behalf of their children and flake for them. “Susie can’t babysit after all because she was invited to go to the beach.” But if you Continue reading ‘The Flake’
“Faith is like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets.” I can remember hearing this for the first time from my mother-in-law Bessie who is now with the Lord. She spoke from a long experience of finding her Savior faithful.
What is faith? It’s trusting God and believing His promises. Faith means you let go of worry and give it all to God to sort out. Faith means not looking at the problem, but looking to Jesus. If you recall, when Peter took his eyes off Jesus and started looking at the waves, he began to sink and cried out, “Lord, save me!” And Jesus reached out and took hold of him. When we have faith, we don’t sink; but even when we start to sink, we can still cry out to God. He will never leave us or forsake us. That’s an absolute surety.
Troubles can be a lot like the waves. I can’t imagine a more “insecure” place to be than walking on the waves. If Jesus doesn’t keep you up, nothing will. Life is full of troubled waves, and you may feel pretty helpless out there walking on them. Remember Who you are with and where to keep your eyes. Don’t get distracted by the troubles and look at them. That’s a sure fire way to start to go down. Keep your eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of your Continue reading ‘A Faith That Grows’
Last time we went on a trip, I wrote a (nice) little feature story on the pat-down. This time we made it through the security lines with no weirdness, for which I am very grateful. We visited Southern Cal this past week and got to catch up with Doug’s sister and her family. It was delightful, and though everyone kept apologizing for the chilly weather (68 degrees), we felt we had fast-forwarded into springtime. Flowers in bloom for real!
One highlight was visiting the Huntington Library, a place that has been on my hope-to-get-to-visit list for some time. And there it was in plain sight: a first-edition (the Ellesmere manuscript) of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. (I was so wishing I could reach through the glass and get a peek at some of the other pages.) Next was a Gutenberg Bible (which was purchased for $50,000 by Mr. Huntington back in the day). What a chunk of history just sitting there Continue reading ‘Bleary-Eyed’
Here is a little photo from the archives. The twins escaped with a bag liner from a cereal box to a special hide out behind the chair in the girls’ room. Ah, the good old days! They never make messes now!
Sometimes I wonder what it is that we have been doing that keeps us from popping in and blogging? But then again, sometimes at the end of a single day I cannot remember what I did. I am pretty sure that this is the nature of repetitive work. You do it every day, or at least so often that you forget to notice that you are doing it at all.
This is why I would like to have a security camera in the house. A little something to play back at the end of the day in super-fast motion to see how many times the living room got blitzed, and how many times it got picked up. I might pause the tape around 3:00 and say, “Look what I did, Honey! It Continue reading ‘Good Morning!’
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