Serve by Design

I’m not accustomed to seeing very many Mourning Doves in the springtime. Many hunters in our area like to harvest these bullet-fast birds for sport and food in September. I do know that it takes a good mess of dove’s breasts to make a delicious bread-dressing recipe! I have read and understand, though, that many of the eleven varieties of the dove species, who habitat in Illinois, do not migrate, but spend their winters in the Prairie State. In late April and early May of each year, doves begin building nests and mating in earnest. Mourning Doves receive their name from their low and soothing mating call that sounds like a lament or sorrowful song. Some have mistaken this sound for an owl! I looked out the kitchen window recently and saw one of these beautiful birds gracefully moving about our rock patio. It was pecking and foraging for small seeds. Ornithologists say that a dove eats up to twenty percent of their body weight daily! That’s incredible to me! The dove plays a prominent...

Recently, during our Sunday morning Bible study group, we were dealing with a challenging paragraph from Luke’s Sermon on the Plain. The text included a short passage of three verses on Jesus’ statements of woe (Luke 6:24-26). The teaching was characteristically paradoxical in nature. The kind of challenge that often has the best of Bible students shaking their heads. One of our class members confessed aloud to everyone gathered around the table, “Hey! I don’t know about you, but I’m going to need some help with this one!” Image credit: istock.com Monique and I love to watch episodes of The Chosen on television. We like the vividly fresh way that the producers and actors depict the life of Jesus. Sometimes these creative writers take liberties with the literal accounts of Scripture (like a paraphrase would do!), but we have found that the end-product usually captures the essence of what the Bible is teaching. One memorable, thought-provoking, and entertaining scene (obviously extra-...

In a recent article, I mentioned buying a bread cutting guide for my daughter. It was inexpensive, but much appreciated. She immediately texted back her gratitude with this exclamation, “Best gift ever!” That may seem to be a little over the top until you try your hand in processing several loaves of crusty sourdough bread with just a cutting board and bread knife! If you desire uniformity and you want the slices to be even, you need a guide to accomplish the task! A guide for perfect bread slicing! I confess to being a perfectionist and so does my bread-making daughter. She cares enough about what her loaves look like to put a heart at the top of the loaf as a sign of pride and affection. Since her married name, Hartman, has the sound of “heart” in it, this final decorative touch becomes the perfect seal of approval! As human beings, we can speak of perfection only in relative terms. Only God is perfect in every way! That’s why He gives us His Word, the Bible, to be our guidebook. W...

It’s not always easy to find what you are good at and what you enjoy doing, too! Our two oldest grandsons, Brady and Ben, have had the initial experience of declaring a major now that they have completed their application processes to enter college in the fall. Brady has chosen business and Ben is thinking he will do a double major in biology and art. I think it is predictable that they will likely refine their choices. It’s been my observation that many young college students change their majors within the first couple of years of college! Image credit: picsgag.com I am watching with prayers and great interest, as the middle-aged guys of our family (the dads of those same new college students) have already moved through a few chapters of change in their own professional careers. Advancements often feel like two or three slow steps forward and sometimes… one or two steps backwards! The increased responsibility and pay are rewarding, but the adjustments to change in the workplace can th...

What? Baseball bans spitting! What is the world of sports coming to?! In the last few days, Major League Baseball has finalized their decision on health and safety protocols that will enable players to take the field by August 1st for baseball's shortened, 60-game, 2020 season. In light of the Coronavirus Pandemic, MLB announced that smokeless tobacco products and sunflower seeds would be prohibited along with spitting! Yes! MLB has instituted "a ban on spitting!" The Seeds of Summer! Of course, this was a wise and necessary decision in light of what we understand about how the virus spreads in community settings. However, think about how radical and revolutionary the ruling! (Sarcasm alert! "I now have my tongue firmly in my cheek!") Our 9 year-old grandson, Danny, has been practicing and perfecting his spitting since he began junior league ball over two years ago! What is he to think now that "America's Pastime" has banned spitting of any ...