Beech Tree News Network

Recently, a customer came into our shop with a Valvoline reminder card in his hand.  (Valvoline sends the cards out to remind customers when their next oil change is due.)  The card was addressed to the customer “or current resident.”  When the man showed the card, he said, “I guess I’ll have to be the one who pays for this oil change, doesn’t look like the other current resident is going to show.”  I laughed, but it made me think about how much mail I get addressed to “current resident,” and I realized the day will come when I will no longer be the current resident where I now live.

Genesis 28:1-2 records Isaac sending Jacob to Padanaram to find a wife among his mother’s people. After some traveling, the Bible says Jacob spent the night in a certain place (v. 11). As he slept, he had a dream in which he saw, “a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it” (Gen. 28:12). In this dream, God blessed Jacob, promising him the same things He had promised Abraham and Isaac in previous years (Gen. 28:13-15). Please take a moment and notice the responses Jacob had to this prophetic dream.

It just doesn’t get any more country than this.  I passed this beautiful setting up when I first saw it and immediately had to turn around and capture this moment. I’m really glad I did, because when I went back by the same place the next day, the tractor was moved. It just wouldn’t have been the same photo without the tractor. That again, proves how fast life can change. We need to capture every moment!! Country life is my favorite, there is always beauty to be seen.

 NOT  AGAIN

There are those in my life whom I “will never see the likes again.” As I was pondering this notion I realized that I and my children are some of them. I will never again see the boy I was years ago, I will never again hold my children as babies and sometimes that realization brings on a sigh of regret but sometimes, a sense of astonishment.

NEVER AGAIN

There he is, the boy I was, just looking to fit in, looking to belong,

looking to excel in something, anything, baseball, or track, the smartest kid in class?

Why do we revert back to our childhood? We do so especially as it pertains to video games.  Mainly, video games are an escape from our daily lives.  Have a bad day at school or work? Pop in a game and play for hours.  Seriously, it’s easy to get caught up and find yourself hours later playing the same game.  

Games are therapeutic for children with illnesses.  Those who suffer from mental health issues can vent via playing games.  Video games can improve your decision-making skills.  They can make you happy in old age.  

According to “Summer Vacation Travel Statistics” using 2015 data (http://www.statisticbrain.com/summer-vacation-travel-statistics/), about 45% of Americans take a summer vacation. More recently, May survey data by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research said that 43% of Americans won’t take a summer vacation (“Poll: Many Americans Can’t Afford Vacation,” Daily News, June 18, 2017, p.12A). The statistics haven’t changed too drastically.

To me the word, supernatural means: more than human, more than fate, more than luck or happenstance. It means God. He doesn’t deal in fate or luck, or “maybe this, or maybe that”; or in the natural. 

God is also greater than the powers of darkness (Satan). By-the-way the word “luck” comes from the word Lucifer: the Devil. On one occasion God described Himself as “I am”. This was in response to a question of one of the prophets: who shall I say sent me?” 

At work on Saturday, Logan set off a firecracker near my feet.  I screamed like a little girl, which made him and Dillon laugh like little boys, which is still what they are, on some level.  I was reminded of my little brother, Mark, and how much he loved fireworks as a child and how it carried over into his life as an adult.

Over two hundred years ago, our Founding Fathers put their lives on the line to create a new country in which freedom reigned. These men had a vision of a nation unafraid to face its enemies and win. We, the people of the United States, have faced insurmountable odds since our young country’s conception but continue to fight for our God-given rights unique to the United States of America.

    “That’s your opinion.” “Who are you to tell me what to do?” “Who is to say _____ is right or wrong?” “I see nothing wrong with it.” Have we not heard or said such statements in the past? I am afraid we all have. The common theme in these statements is selfishness resulting in the abandonment of a standard of rule or authority in our lives.