Love must be sincere.

Romans 12:9 says, "Love must be sincere." Recently, I've seen several demonstrations of insincere love. Insincere love on the surface looks like love and sounds like love, but it doesn't feel like love to the recipient of this 'love'. What I've seen demonstrated was a mean spirit, manipulation and control, masked in a cloak of "niceness". The actions looked good, the words sounded good, but the spirit behind it was not good. It was not love. And the result is a tearing down of trust and relationship, rather than a growing mutual love and respect.


I want to love sincerely. I don't want to hurt anyone with an insincere love. I want the love I demonstrate to others to be real. I want to love the way God loves, with the kind of love described in 1 Corinthians 13...


4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

The only way I can consistently love like this is with God's love. It's His Spirit in me that can love others with a sincere love, consistently. I need to get myself out of the way and let Him love through me. And for me, that's not always easy.

Whatever happened to commitment?

One of the things I'm finding the most difficult about being the mother of grown children is the changing of partners that takes place in the lives of my kids. Years ago a couple married, had children and stayed together until death parted them. Good or bad, that's the way it was. While that wasn't always the happiest state to be in, it was a commitment that was honoured.

Today, it is not uncommon for people to change partners, with or without marriage. Commitment doesn't mean the same thing as it did way back when. "I promise to be faithful to you for as long as I love you," is not commitment. When the feelings wear off and challenges arise in the relationship, it's easier to say goodbye than stay and work it through.

Some couples seem to think that they are the only ones affected by these changing relationships. But in reality, the extended family is affected, as well. When one of our kids brings a partner into the family, my husband and I receive that person with open arms. We accept them, get to know them, grow to love them, and consider them part of our family.

When that relationship breaks up, our hearts are grieved because of the love we have for both our child and the former partner. While our first loyalty lies with our own child, we still love the former partner as a member of our own family. We experience a loss when they can no longer be a part of our lives.

I'm finding my heart reluctant to so readily accept a new partner of my child's as I once was. The disappointment and loss make it difficult to want to open my heart up as freely as I've done. A part of me is now held in reserve, safeguarded against the grief.

And that, in itself, is a loss.

Dear deer

There are three young deer resting in my yard. That isn't unusual for here. Deer in town and in our yards is a common occurrence, some might even say 'nuisance'. And yes, they do leave messes and they do eat my flowers. But they are such pretty animals and having them laying in my yard, resting, brings such a sense of peace to my surroundings. After living in the hectic city for so many years, there's something soothing about being this close to the 'great outdoors' and its wildlife. Pretty tame wildlife, I admit. But soothing, nonetheless.

That doesn't happen here, does it?

BOIL WATER ADVISORY. City works crews were going door-to-door today delivering notices to all homes and businesses in town. Seems a contamination has been discovered. "E coli" was the unconfirmed rumour. Nevertheless, we're being advised to boil all our water: drinking water, water used for washing dishes, brushing teeth, washing fruits and vegetables. In other words, any water that would potentially go into the mouth. This advisory is in effect until further notice.

It's interesting to me. It takes an event like this — a temporary lack of something I take for granted — to make me appreciate how blessed we are to live in this country. We have so much — I have so much, compared to so many others around the world.

Thank You, Lord, for safe, clean water. Forgive me that my first reaction was to complain about the inconvenience. May each inconvenience only serve to strengthen my gratitude for Your goodness and the blessings I take for granted.

Alberta trip

I like road trips. There's something about driving, enjoying the scenery, stopping for a meal or a treat, and then spending the night in a hotel, that captures my interest. Even if our destination is a familiar one, I like to take a different route whenever time permits.

This was one of those times. We spent our first night in Radium Hot Springs, in a lodge overlooking the valley, with a fantastic mountain view. The sunset we observed from our balcony was spectacular. Going through the Rocky Mountains the next morning was all I had hoped it would be. Majestic, towering rocks...an awesome display of God's creativity. I took close to a hundred pictures before we reached our son's house.

After a night there, we all went to Calgary for a couple days. It is so fun to take a two-year-old to the zoo! Our grandson, Alex, is the cutest, most polite little man, with an adorable personality and wonderful smile that lights up his whole face. His daddy would hold him up to get a better view of each animal and when Alex had seen enough, he'd say, "All done." By the end of the day, he really was "all done".
I had booked a less expensive hotel the next night, wanting to save a few dollars. We were late checking in and discovered that our room had been upgraded for some reason ~ I couldn't quite understand why. But we were getting the upgraded room for the same price I had been quoted, so I just accepted that. Turns out our new room was an Executive Suite with a jacuzzi tub! Tastefully appointed, cozy, with the most comfortable sleigh bed...this was the nicest room we had on this trip and for the least amount of money! I think God was saying, "I love you, My children."

Flash Storm

It came unexpectedly and so quickly. For several days now it's been sunny and hot. We've spent a lot of time indoors with the air conditioner on because the temperature outside has been like this:

Today was another day like so many previous ones, except that today, mid-afternoon clouds began to roll in. Were we going to get the rain we'd been praying for? Rain wasn't in the forecast, but that doesn't mean anything when God is in the picture.Suddenly, an enormous dust cloud blew through town. Behind that, the rain came. Rain poured and the wind picked up furiously. The wind increased, and increased, blowing branches off of trees...little branches, then bigger branches. I watched from our back window as a couple of large branches came down over our sheds.

This one I could see from the window.

The storm lasted about 20 minutes, dropping a lot of rain and bringing the outside temperature down to about 20 degrees. I've never seen the temperature drop so much in such a short time! When the storm ended, I went outside to check out the branch that had fallen on the other side of the sheds.

Often, Nick parks his Jeep in this spot. Fortunately, it wasn't parked there this afternoon.

Nick came home a few minutes later, describing some of the mess he'd seen around town and asking me if I wanted to go for a ride to see what the storm had done. We went to the park just across the river from us, where we discovered three trees had been uprooted. Two of them were great big pine trees about 100 feet tall. I didn't have my camera with me, so we had a quick look, then came home for the camera. By the time we got back to the park a few minutes later, city work crews had already cleaned up one of the trees. But I got pictures of the bigger ones.

I've never seen anything like this before. We get wind here, but I've never seen it like this. As far as I know, no people were injured, thank God.

The storm blew through here about 4 hours ago. Now the sky has cleared, it's sunny again and it's warmed back up to 30 degrees. What a day!

Calling and Vision

Recently, I had the privilege of teaching in our church on God's calling and His vision for our lives. The way I understand it, God's call on my life is "what" He has called me to do. His vision for my life is "how" He wants me to do what He has called me to do. I believe as a Christian, it's important for me to know what it is God wants me to do in His Kingdom and how He sees me doing it. Several people may have the same calling on their lives, but the vision God has for how they are to fulfill that calling will be unique to each individual. For example, we are all called to be "ministers of reconciliation for God". But not all of us "ministers" will be pastors of a church. Some will pastor churches, while others will "minister" one-on-one. God wants to work through each individual's unique personality and giftings.In the class, we took time to wait on God, listening while He spoke to each of us about His calling and His vision for us personally. We wrote down what He told us, shared it with each other, then offered it up in prayer, coming into agreement with God about His call and vision for our lives. It was a powerful time, drawing us closer to our Lord and to each other. And we all came away with a greater sense of who God has called us to be and the vision He has of us and for us.