We Are Community 261
Having owned an antique store since 1982, auctions are a way of life for me. Now there are too few live auctions so I attend them when they happen. Thursday was Lowderman in Macomb and Saturday was Miller in Camp Point. Both had too many things for a one-day auction. One of the things I really love about auctions is that they can bring out the very best in people. I often buy quite a bit. Saturday, I bought 7 crocks which are pretty heavy and you will recall both days were HOT. Both times, people offered to help me carry and load. As I was hauling crocks to the van, a kind lady picked up two of the biggest and carried them for me. She probably will never understand just how grateful I was. Thank You.
Lots of things going on at Living Faith UMC this week. We had a council meeting on Tuesday. Everything seems to be going well. We still need some contributions to help pay for the new boiler but quite a bit has been raised for the project. We are very sad to see our pastor of eight years, Shari Renner, being transferred and currently there is not a pastor available for us. We will use guest speakers for the interim. Hope that people will continue to support our church family. In the last two weeks we have two baptisms, the Bollin and Goughnour babies and Sophia and Chase Campbell completed confirmation classes. Today we had a potluck lunch in honor of our pastors last Sunday. Everyone brings their best foods and there is always way too much food but all is appreciated. Good to see Bruce Morton out this week.
There have been days of lovely sunsets and days of no sunsets this week. As my flowers are beautiful, I can send flower photos when there is not a good sunset to photograph. Lovely new moon this week.
As you know, I use a devotional guide and sometimes the devotion for the day speaks to me. One of this week’s readings was from Galatians 5. This is by no means all of it. There are what are called fruits of the spirit-some good, some bad. Things which Paul considered bad were our sinful nature, sexual immorality, impurity, idolatry, hatred, discord, jealously, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness and more. Good fruits include love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. There are a lot of discord, hatred, jealously, fits of rage and selfish ambition and more reported daily. We could all do better with expressions of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control and our world or our small corner of it at least, would be a better place to live.
I hope you have a good week. The celebration of our country’s birth is this week. Let someone else shoot off the fireworks and be safe. Scatter Kindness and Love even though it is not always easy, it is the best both for you and those around you.