Love this Guy ~ Enjoy Eric Lige

Life at Warp Speed

It's been a momentous weekend. Honey and I were at the Big Box store and I caved. We spent a few minutes looking at the new phones as it was time for an upgrade.

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Does anyone speak Verizon Ozone?

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O my goodness! I feel so very blond and so very frustrated. It's a beautiful device and promises to know when my laundry is ready to move from the washer to the dryer and when to add the softener to boot. There are buttons for muting, calling by simply speaking, speaker-phoning (which is a personal irritant) and checking online activity at every possible time one could imagine.

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It came with two DVDs and they both have been loaded on my computer. I've figured out how to dial, how to charge it, and how to pull up a website. I took notes Sunday morning during the sermon. It was far easier once I figured out how to type numbers, too. But other than that...well, if you leave me a message (either texted, e-mailed, spoken or in French) trust me, there are no guarantees that it will be retrieved. JJ was able to load my e-mail and connect the data from my home computer - all 1, 432 messages. But then they quickly disappeared. Such a mystery.

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I'm waiting for a good three hour time space to devote to ringing up the tech support from Verizon. I hope I get their office in California or Kansas. I most assuredly plan on asking for another blond to assist me.

"Called To Worship"

I'm sure some of you wonderful readers of Grace Today have no interest in a book about worship. If that's the situation, maybe you'd like to scan back a year or so and find one of my best "Big Box" stories about the frozen chicken. No guilt will be placed upon you whatsoever!

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But if you spend a major part of your life pondering things like, "What is the purpose behind worship?" "Does God care if I raise my hands in church?" "Why do they have to sing that song one more time - O please let them stop right now God ." Then this book is for you.

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It's not an easy quick read. It's far more a reference book, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The author's in-depth analysis of the why and when and "just becauses" of our worship life and relationship with God are amazing. It's full of biblical references and could easily be used as a textbook for a college course on music or worship. Note, I said "or." Music and worship can be considered the same thing, but they aren't necessarily identical.

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Although "referency" most Christian adults will have their understandings of worship theology deepened through reading this book. There is much more to the concept of praise and worship than simply remembering to put your white hanky in your bag and pull it out to wave when you feel a "Hallelujah" comin' on. But thank goodness, there is a time for waving your hanky!

It's Autumnishy Here!

We may have to break down. We're looking for the matches and the fireplace is ready. The logs are waiting in the box out in the garage for this momentous event. Tonight is the night... It's fall. We shall have a fire in the fireplace.

The pot roast is in the slow-cooker, it's Monday which means nothing else but "Monday Night Football." Honey and I are preparing mashed potatoes and we may even do up some gravy.

Life is so good in our house here in Sunny tonight. Yet I struggle when I think of the song I'm working on for a service in the near future. The video shows the homeless and the despair in which they live. Life is good here for us. And sometimes, that makes me cry.

Find Your Strongest Life

Ok friends... this book is written for women. When our daughter-in-love saw it, the first thing she said was, "A book for women on how to live, written by a man." Hmm, I thought. Interesting observation.

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I found the first chapter to read a bit slow, but also found that with each subsequent chapter I became more and more intrigued with Marcus Buckingham's research and observations. He has studied what makes people happy and happy with or without success for many, many years.

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When I reached the halfway point of the book, I went online and took the Strong Life Test (which was free, by the way). AMAZING! That's just about the only thing I can say. Both the primary result and the secondary result for how I'm put together were dead-on accurate. Sort of scary accurate, honestly.

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If you're looking to achieve more with less stress in your life, I really hope you'll pick up this book. It's just out this week and is a fairly quick read. Doing life better... who doesn't want that!

A Mystery Someone

Rarely am I truly curious...but it's just the sweetest mystery. I've been working at a church for about a month now and last week the mystery began... Every day I'm greeted with a single fresh rose on my desk. Now, the church has a beautiful rose garden, so the flowers have probably been cut from there. But I must confess ~ my heart is smiling.


I've been more of a sticker person myself. I've given people stickers every once in a while just to brighten their days. But this may be motivating me to have a change of heart. Even if a sticker is scratch-n-sniff, it will not cause your soul to smile too often. But roses...well. That's the stuff of great novels and love sonnets.


And honestly, who doesn't need a little more love in their Tuesday.

The Strong Life Test for Women

Carefree Days

Tomorrow, or perhaps today, is my birthday. (It all depends on when you're reading this, eh.) The photo on the right is from one of my best years. It wasn't a birthday celebration ~ just a few friends getting together for some summertime fun. We did that a lot.

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Mom would get on the phone (that was plugged into the wall in the hallway) and dial some numbers that all began with JA. We don't have numbers like that anymore. Spur-of-the-minute adventures were one of her specialties.

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TV was still in black & white and we were all amazed when we could see Jeannie's beautiful pyjamas, Gilligan's island and Johnny's monologue in color the next year.

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But back to the day in the backyard here...we all took our favorite role and put on an impromptu re-creation of the Cinderella story. Everyone must have grabbed their favorite outfit from their dress-up closet and brought it over. I'm the one in white next to the girl who looks like a princess in her lovely red ensemble. My dress was an actual church dress with what might be a tablecloth wrapped around my legs to make it "full-length."

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I'm still in touch with a few of the friends in this photo. Some of their moms send us Christmas cards every year. This day was completely free-of-charge ~ and completely priceless. The only expense was for the cupcakes to celebrate. Thanks Mom. For all the good times.

"Hmmm," she said.

Some days I just shake my head. Today is one of those. It seems everywhere I go I'm amazed on some days and that's today, this day.

I'm going to take a few hours and contemplate the mysteries of life. Feel free to join me. It's one thing I often do while the NFL is consuming the attention of the family. I watch ~ but actually spend a lot of time pondering, musing and what-not. A lot of 'what-not' honestly.

Hope your day is absolutely fantastic, NFL or not.

Find your spot in the sun. You're entitled.

Off to the Sea

Honey is smiling a bit brighter today. Her sister and brother-in-law arrived last night to spend a few days here in Sunny. They're planning a few hours in the sand to catch up on sisterly news today. And then perhaps a bit of shopping at one of the marketplaces downtown.

Master Max is not at all sure of this arrangement. You see, Honey and her sister have the same voice. He's just a bit confused. And the big guy with her goes by JJ, also. Yes, the sisters married men with the same name.

I think their other sister, Lovely, should make a video for youtube introducing her brothers... Yes, you're way ahead of me. "This is my brother, JJ. And this is my other brother JJ."

Hope you have a great weekend and find a good spot in the sun, too!