My childhood spanned the era of the Space Race and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. In other words, the 1960s. Therefore, my earliest answers to the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” were influenced by those two cultural icons. I expected to be a spy, and…
One year ends, another begins. Time marches on. How can we come to the annual calendar replacement without thinking about time? Perhaps about what we do with it? Generally, we tend to think about time in a couple of different ways. Naturally, time involves the sequential passing of seconds, minutes,…
This past Saturday found me caught up in the mayhem that is the modern Christmas season. I needed to run to Walmart to get a couple of items—just 2! Of all things, can you imagine it, we ran out of coffee…in the Bice household? That’s another story. For reasons I’ll…
Several years ago, a terribly heart-breaking incident in our family shortly became known to many who know us. We had to travel several hundred miles to deal with the situation, and my cell phone rang just as we got on the road to return home. On the other end was…
Last week we had the joy of welcoming grandchild #5 into the world and to our family. Apparently, Zakkai Patton had been listening to the news and put off his entrance as long as possible (he was almost two weeks “overdue”). Can’t say I blame him. Nevertheless, December 1 becomes…
I grew up in a home that celebrated Thanksgiving in the most traditional way. An early afternoon feast of turkey, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, and dinner rolls—often Pillsbury crescents slathered in butter. Of course, pumpkin pie with whipped cream. After such…
Throughout my childhood, we had pets—mostly one at a time, except for a cat or two to complement the German Shepherd. More than once I experienced bidding a pet adieu. The first was my cat, Cleo (short for Cleopatra—not sure why). I’m a bit foggy on the details about how…
I really didn’t intend to get up. Hitting the sack at 10:30 meant 3:00 was a mere 4 ½ hours away. Too short of a night, in my book. After all, last week I had written about the need for stewardship of the “temple,” and I know my “temple” doesn’t…
I served for two years on the staff of a church that held an annual “Stewardship Month” in February. Many churches do such a thing, I know. Some will call the emphasis by different names—“Capital Campaign”—for example. But the emphasis is pretty much the same. Money. Your “Treasure.” Typically, in…
Like many people this time of year, I got to looking at the calendar and compared how much time is left in the year with how much “vacation time” I have available. More than I’ll use, it seems, but thought I should make a stab at it! I did feel…
