A New Week

It is a BEAUTIFUL morning here in Southern New England; Dry and Cool. Temps in my area are currently about 67F, and the humidity is almost nil. Nice little breeze…and although it’s incredibly sunny (I’m fairly light-sensitive), I’m really enjoying the morning. Aside from this splitting two-day headache, that is.

Had a good day at church yesterday; a dear friend was Called to be our new Associate Minister, and that’s Fantastic! She’s an amazing person, and we’ve been blessed & lucky to have her since she was a student in seminary a few years ago. My church takes a student every year from Andover-Newton Seminary and gives them the opportunity to learn what it’s like to actually work with a congregation. I think that’s referred to as being a "Teaching Congregation", and it’s pretty neat. Then this friend ("CC") became our official Youth Minister…and now she’s been Called to the position of Associate, which has been empty for a few years. Good Stuff!

She gave a great sermon yesterday, about everyone’s "Tool Belt". She said that there are about 7 words that should be in your Tool Belt, and they can be found in Paul’s letter to the Galations in the New Testament. In Chapter 5, there is a list of things you Shouldn’t do (natch), but the really important list is the things you SHOULD try to do – your Tools.

• Love
• Joy
• Peace
• Patience
• Gentleness
• Goodness
• Faith
• Meekness (which I interpret as modesty/humility)
• Temperance/Self Control

CC’s recommendation to us was to take one of those words every day this week, and USE it that day. Try to find it in your life, in the world around you, and when you DO find it, talk about it. Notice it. At the end of the day, discuss what your day was like with that "tool" being added/consciously used. She suggested we share this experience, either with our family, or a friend, or even on FB. 🙂 CC & a group of folks from our church just came back from a week in upstate NY helping a community that has fallen on tough times. They helped by repairing houses – building sheds – and CC said that every morning, their group would pick one of these tools to use that day. I really like this idea, and am going to try it this week! Anyone who would like to do it with me is welcome to – and I will try to write down some observations at the end of each day. TRY – that’s the key word there. 🙂

I’m going to go down that list in order – starting today with Love. First off? I am very thankful for the LOVE you all show me, here in this diary community – many days, it’s your thoughts/words/actions of love that keep me going. Thank You. 🙂