Being content calls us to reflect and cherish a spiritual gift we can choose to open. We each have the chance to accept and open up a vital dynamic relationship with God for our lives, for the present and for our eternal well-being.

The witches and ghosts of Halloween have scarcely flown out of the stores before Christmas carols start to waft through the atmosphere. The glitter and glitz of the holiday start to line the shelves reminding us that it is time to buy, buy, buy! Christmas is on its way, and the mental list starts to form.

Cursing the internet for taking too long to download or upload is easy. If it takes a few extra minutes, we are in a panic and do our frustration dance. After all, it is wasting precious minutes of our life.

To this day dairywoman Judy Springstroh, age 75, gets up at 3:30 every morning to milk cows alongside her daughter Amber on their 65-head tiestall dairy in Freedom, Wisconsin. Springstroh grew up on a dairy in Forest Junction, Wisconsin, and originally said she wasn’t going to marry a farmer.

“Every adversity, every failure, every heartbreak carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”
— Napoleon Hill

As I consider the next chapter of my life, I turn to my past heroes for advice. I first heard one of my heroes, Steven R. Covey, speak in 1972 when I was the ripe old age of 21.

Recently, I heard a rumor a group is trying to change the Bible to make it more politically correct and to accommodate those who are not comfortable with the intolerant way it excludes people who choose diverse lifestyles.

In a science class in college, I watched a video depicting rock formation and movement. The film hypothesized that rocks gradually change shape over time, not just with erosion but a kind of stretching.

I recently had an opportunity to teach a grandchild about the truth of this statement: As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.

Lately, I have been studying the book of Isaiah. I love that book because every time I read it, poetic treasures spring from its pages and I understand their significance for our day. This time was no different. I found a treasure in Isaiah’s account of King Hezekiah.