Scatter the flowers

  "Marriage is meant by God to put that Gospel reality on display in the world."  ~John Piper, preacher & author Bridezilla - the word can imply some pretty ugly scenarios.  For example, a best friend who was not asked to be in a wedding because she was overweight and the bride thought she would throw off the wedding photos.  Or the one who threw a mandatory bridesmaid meeting and warned them they all better not show up to the wedding in natural makeup.  Or the one who insisted on pre-approving all hairstyles, giving out pictures of acceptable ones.  I think there's even a show about these people. Yikes. But this week I attended a wedding that was truly refreshing - God was revered from the very first moment, given the most honorable place at the event.  While I've been to many weddings that acknowledge God, I am sad to say I've also been to some where God is not even mentioned. I don't have any idea how a marriage hopes to survive or thrive withou...

  "All warfare is based on deception." ~Sun Tsu, The Art of War 🌣   Yep.  I fell for it again.  I let someone deceive me into buying something and it was a scam.  I feel so vulnerable and helpless when this happens.  And stupid. Yet one more reminder there is a dark side of the web and bad people who want to hurt us - whether it be financial, spiritual or personal.  In an area where you can feel unsavvy, uneducated, even novice in some areas (and others, experienced enough to know better), it's easy to feel the need to act on trust, and want to believe people's intentions are good.     But some are not, and it seems more and more we need to distrust, check, verify, and not hurry into transactions without validating so we are not deceived.  Welcome to the end times... 🌣 Our trust is in the Lord - for our eternity and our well-being now on this earth.  It doesn't mean we are exempt from exposure to evil.  Jesus warne...

  "None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free."  ~Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe As a teenager, I used to cry to my dad because of his strict rules for me, often saying, "Why don't you just lock me up and throw away the key!"  Dramatic much?   I fought back, thinking I knew best, that I had control over my behavior, and that I would always make the right choice and not need anyone's help.  I viewed all of his rules as obstructions to my freedom.   All my poor sweet dad was intending to do was set some sensible boundaries to protect me from boys with not-so-good intentions, laziness, idleness, and just general teenage girl tendencies that possibly reaped life-altering consequences he had witnessed too frequently as a high school principal.  He just wanted the best for me. As America celebrates their 250th year as an independent country, our founding doctrines guarantee us freedom from an overreaching tyrannical ...