Parenthetically Speaking

Let’s be honest, some mornings, many mornings, okay MOST mornings, it seems to be a herculean effort to just walk over pick up the bible and spend 15 minutes reading, listening, worshipping, praying.  Why is this?  I easily open my phone and begin watching the lives of others through social media.  I answer emails as if they have a short fuse and will self-destruct if I don’t get to them immediately.

But the very thing, the very words, the very small time investment to start my day off correctly seems to be the most impossible.  This one step of obedience is the hardest to take.

Well if you are like me, I hope to help. Here I am in your social media stream, hoping to interrupt you with a bit of information your heart truly desires…the truth.

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Who is He, anyway?
He is the Lord.
He is good.
He is the God of gods.
He is the Lord of lords
His love endures forever.

Is He Powerful?
He does great wonders,
He made the heavens, He spread out
the earth upon the waters,
He made the great lights;
the sun to govern the day,
the moon and stars to govern the night
His love endures forever.

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The table is just four legs, (or a pedestal) with a slab of glass, wood or laminate on top. Square, rectangle or round-not much creativity in geometry there!

Of course this four legged thing with the flat slab on top demands chairs, ugh! The chairs are usually a separate purchase.  What a racket!

And those chairs, now we have a dilemma.   What to pick…slipper/side chairs (no arms), captain’s chairs for the ends (so wait, you get to sit at the head of the table and have the better chair with arms?! What kind of madness is that?!).  Cloth or wood.  Take it from a mom of 4, get wood, really dark wood, that can be cleaned (read hosed off) daily.  Forget the ones with fancy scrolling if you have kiddos, mac and cheese, or marinara will surely finds its way to those crevices, ugh and gulp!

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Saturday, a day filled with promise and no demands.  My Saturdays nearly all begin the same way-a nice long walk or hike.  Usually, preferably with my dog, my daughter and her dog on the hiking trail at Lake Fayetteville.  Sometimes on the best Saturdays my Little Rock daughter and her dog will join us.

But occasionally I find myself waking up on a Saturday morning in a city, with no dog or daughters.  Those walks are harder to start but can be magnificent just the same.

I love to head out around 9:30 when the city is waking up to receive the day and her patrons.  (Also I start at 9:30 because I can’t bring myself to get off the couch before that).

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Hospitality?

You aren’t at the local bookstore.  All I can find is cookbooks, lots and lots of cookbook and a teeny tiny section on etiquette, (mostly wedding) and of course the 18th edition of Emily Post’s Etiquette.  I was also directed by a very helpful clerk to DIY and decorating magazines.

When I google you, Hospitality, I get images/websites for hotels and restaurants, (probably restaurants in the hotel) (the hotel industry seems to own this word).

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