Opinions

I am a small person from a small town in Alabama who moved to a small town in Florida. I have a small life—some days smaller than others. On all of those days--small and large--I am a rule follower.

It’s that time of year again… school is ending and summer is coming fast. When I was a student, one of my favorite things about the end of the school year was getting my new yearbook. That leads me to a question, what is the first thing that you did when you got your yearbook?

When I was a child and Mother’s Day ushered in the month of May, we wore a corsage of red floribunda roses and ribbons if our Mother was living, or a corsage of white blooms and lace if our Mother was dearly departed.

Mother’s Day was always a favorite of mine growing up, in fact, it ranks right up there with most people. Statista.com lists Memorial Day and Thanksgiving as the top two, and for lots of good reasons… remembering soldiers who gave their lives in service and gathering to express gratitude for our blessings.

I forced myself to be quiet the other morning. “Ten minutes,” I allowed myself, with the bedroom windows flung open. That’s when the birds sang to me. It seems that birds especially love Daylight Savings Time, or is it that I was previously asleep when they were singing?

Images of the United States continue to drop like an anvil. That thud is the way people around the planet view the super-power that is the USA. Long-seen as the land of opportunity and freedom, especially the right to speak and to worship, key reasons America sought independence, are fast becoming the last vestiges of its greatness.

How much grace does it take to love our enemies? That’s a good question. Tragedies occur all around us and it’s true we are heartbroken and disturbed, but how do we react when our family is harmed or we are personally offended? I admit that I do not always have the character of Christ when I’m being threatened or provoked to anger. Our natural reaction is to retaliate because that’s a natural part of our carnal nature. Most of us agree that people need to be punished for their evil deeds, but Christians must remember the temptation to hold unforgiveness against anyone must be resisted. Yes, we will face challenges and situations that attempt to lure us into loathing attitudes but, it’s forgiveness and love that keeps us on the narrow way of peace and contentment.

Most of my earliest memories of my Mother are black-and-white snippets of her standing before the kitchen sink washing dishes and wearing a blue apron with navy and red flowers, which tied in a bow in the back.