Small Town

If you would like to live in a perfect world (that we hope one day will be real) my latest book is out through Amazon, Life in Small Town. A fictional town of encouragement where with a little kindness to those who need it most, learn how to survive life’s disappointments.

If you have Kindle capabilities, you can get it on the Kindle.

This book tries to show how easy it is to be kind and how we should all strive towards the healing powers of kindness. Yes, we still have hard times and conflicts but with the help of others, through kindness, we can survive.

Since the beginning of creation, God has laid before man choices to make. Choices that have the ability to make us stronger in love for Him, for other people, and choices to help us survive in this fallen world.

Small Town shows how with the help of friends, family, or maybe even a total stranger, the hard situations we find ourselves in can be made a little more tolerable. It involves struggles for adults, for children, with coworkers, and yes, even for dogs. All of creation was created by love with God, for God, and for us to find the love He has for each of us with kindness and support of each other.

I hope this fictional town helps show how kindness can be a factor in finding peace as God intended as he told us in John 14:27…

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. NIV”

In 1 Corinthians 13:4, Apostle Paul remind us the power of love and kindness…

“Love is patient, Lone is KIND.” NIV

So, check out my new book and see if it help bring you a smile and helps you see how kindness can bring a healing power to a hurting world. And as always, please be kind.

CFFC: White

Cee’s FUN Foto Challenge is right up my alley for this time of year. Fortunately, we do not have a white ground…yet. I am sure it will be here before I want it. But this time of year, I have lots of white inside my house, it is Christmas after all.

We can start off with the large angel shelf…

Then we have the 4′ white tree in the dining room…well the tree is green but the lights and ornaments are white…

Or if that is not really following the rules, we do have a 4′ white tree in the sun room with 2 other trees that are not white. All toll we have 6 trees.

This is the ocean tree that is white but all the ornaments are creatures from the ocean in their natural color. The those who may be more purest that that we have the white tree, white lights and white nativity scene.

As we smile and enjoy each other’s pictures, remember the purest form of sharing is kindness. If we can be anything, be Kind.

Fun in Christmas Town

Frankenmuth, Michigan is also called Christmas Town and at this time of year, it was amazing. We went this past weekend and yes…I bought more Christmas ornaments…lots more. So let me share my pictures for those who may never get there.

We stayed in the Bavarian Inn Lodge, a fun place where you can swim in December.

But the best part was getting there. You had to go across an old wooden bridge.

The weather was a little cloudy but temps were great. The bad weather did not show up until we left. The lights at night were fun and the town Christmas tree changes its colors as it plays a new song.

Of course one of my favorite sites was the carriage ride where the horses were decked out in wreaths, bells, painted hoofs, and some were driven by a small elf on the shelf(besides the real driver). We didn’t ride cause I wanted to make pets of them because they are work animals…but still.

The main focus for the trip was shopping and good giggly wiggly…its almost too much. Bronner’s by itself could make you dizzy…about $200 dizzy. Plastic can get you in trouble.

But the amazing part of Bronner’s is the Silent Night Memorial Chapel. It was built in 1992 as an exact copy of the Silent Night Chapel in Austria. It is a must see if you go there.

All around the building are signs with the words to Silent Night written in possibly every language.

Inside was quiet reverence and information about the song as it was originally sung with guitar.

Of the trips we have taken this year, this was the most fun and relaxing. Our Inn at night…

I hope you enjoyed my vacation in pictures. I did not realize that Michigan was the Lighthouse state but it makes sense when you have a lake the size of an ocean that needs a lighthouse. The was the lighthouse at the Michigan Welcome Center.

Lighthouses are an instrument of safety to guide you from troubled waters – in my mind, Jesus is our lighthouse. Shining His light of love for all of us to see to walk safely…with an outreaching hand to grab when we misstep.

Remember as you step, step with kindness. Your kindness may be a lighthouse someone else needs to see.

Reality Check

I guess we all need that check periodically…knowing what we believe to be true…and seeing how others…don’t. What we try to figure out is…are they wrong because they don’t believe what you believe or are you wrong because of what you do believe.

I prefer to stay on my course of believing that God is in control and if others prefer to not follow Him, that is their choice. Ultimately in the end…we will all see whether we are sheep for the slaughter or sheep for the shepherd…better known as the separation of the sheep and the goats. There is a saying I saw once that puts into perspective – You can live your life believing in man’s truth, and when you die and nothing happens then you are just dead…OR you can believe in God’s truth and when you die, you are still alive in Christ. Not a difficult decision for me.

Our “vacation” to Las Vegas was a definite reality check for this concept…making me cling that much harder to my belief in Christ, and I was a bit amazed how blatant some could be who refuse my belief system. But we knew ahead of time what to expect and only participated in the few things we deemed as fun. Yes, eating was one of those things and of course buying a few unique Christmas ornaments…like I needed any more ornaments 😕.

We did go see Piff the Magic Dragon and while his comedy was a little rough because we were in Vegas, he was amazing in his magic tricks.

Of course, I did take lots of pictures that I will share in a few posts but spending time with my daughter who has the same addiction that I do (buying Christmas ornaments), we did have a good time. We are going to Frankenmuth, Michigan in two weeks and it may snow while we are there. Snowing in Christmas town…awesome. there will be more picture there. So for now, let’s share a few Vegas pics.

This is the Coca-Cola Exhibit…2 floors of shopping. Spent way too much money there but it was fun.

The coolest thing there, to me, was the picture dome. I took some videos of the ocean scene, that was amazing, but I could not get it to download. so I am including a still shot…not as impressive. We could see it from our room but it was too far to walk too and traffic was crazy. You can find it on line. The emoji face makes me giggle.

One universal truth that did ring out, even in Vegas, was kindness. So be kind whenever you can.

Always Be kind!