Journey into Forever

Love. The world is filled with images of it. It's what everyone strives for, from the smallest toddler to the oldest individual. It's what drives everything, when you look at it under a microscope. Bad behavior, depression, even crime can be blamed for the lack of it. No one ever seems to have too much. We search for it everywhere. Much of the advertising world is based on love. A large portion of it is sexual love, but it also depicts family love, friendship, and 'love' of objects. It's pretty important in our society. It must be pretty important to God too. I mentioned earlier how many mentions of love there are in The Word (551- NIV). That's alot of them. Everywhere I turn for the last week I have noticed a lesson in love or the lack of it. When God is trying to make a point with us, you can see His Hand in providing those lessons for you. One of these lessons in love involved an act of desperation. Hearts were broken, lives change...

Don't ever let anyone tell you God does not have a sense of humor. All I have to do is look in the mirror to know that is true! I mean really.....someone who struggles so much with the love piece of the puzzle is writing about it? I think it is so interesting the way God teaches us. I know when I taught in public school, one of the best ways a child learned a concept was through teaching it to someone else. I think God is chuckling, saying, "Okay, Vee Ann, Let's investigate this topic and see where it goes." The other way He shows His sense of humor is by casually but constantly bombarding us with the subject He wants us to learn. It's like everywhere you turn, the subject keeps coming up over and over in many different ways. You see, I have no trouble loving God. He's so easy to love. He lavishes His love on me, and no matter what a jerk I am (and I can really be one), He loves me anyway. I may not always feel it, but I know that it is al...

Sometimes I hate being human.....and I am SOOOOOOOOOO human! I have been in a very deep funk lately. Yeah, I know all the reasons I'm not supposed to be, but I have been nevertheless. Lessons I have to learn, lessons others have to learn, a number of things can get me in this condition. Then, I get angry with myself, because I know the ending! I know the answers! And yet I allow myself to be thrown into a pit. Go figure. I say that so you will know that I really haven't been up to par lately. You need to know that. I think we all need to know that EVERYONE has times when they are not on top of their game. When they feel like the only one that feels this way. When they feel lost, and alone, and miserable. Even those of us who know the end of the story feel this way once in a while. And it's okay. We have a Father's lap to sit on and tell Him all about it. And believe me, I've been doing that alot! Sometimes I just want to run and hide, leavi...

We had a friend (back in the day) who always used the phrase "Peace, Love, Bellbottoms." Well, he's still a friend, but I haven't heard him say that in over 40 years. I'm pretty sure he doesn't use it anymore. Never really understood why those three items went together. Peace and love of course were words that were really tossed around during the 60's and early 70's, and I guess he just added the bellbottoms for fun. It was fun to say it. I think maybe there is much more to the first two words of the phrase than it seems. Since I'm thinking about peace for the first few weeks of 2013, (I started to write 19.. something. Little behind huh?) I had a subject to use for this post. My dear friend and mentor gave me some cherished advice that I took her up on. Had something to do with patience. Consequently, the subject I chose disappeared. I love it when God chooses the subject because everything just falls into place. Peace ...

I have some friends who I have known for about 35 years. We have a tremendous history together. We've taught together and been through all the drama that entails. We've faced marriages, divorces, death of mother, father, sister, husband. There have been children and grandchildren born. We've faced terrible tragedy and amazing success. Disease, misunderstandings, getting older, always together as friends. We are different friends than we were so many years ago. Different people. Different circumstances. When our life situation of teaching changed, our proximity with each other changed. But our feelings have never changed. If anything they've grown deeper. We've learned more about life and about each other. We've learned how to take the bad with the good. We know how lucky we are. When we do see each other we pick up right where we left off. There are few friendships like this, especially made up of so many people. This year we ...