Salty Zebra

   When it comes to the side effects of radiation, this wasn't listed in any of the literature, but it seems that it has caused in me a passion for... crochet. Didn't see that coming did you? Yep, since the beginning of my treatment, I can't put my hook down! In fact, I often have multiple projects going at once. It all started with turtles...  I like to call them my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles since they were a result of my radiation treatment 😂. I had been finishing a project I had started some time ago, just for something to do, while scrolling through patterns and ideas when these little guys jumped off the screen at me. I bought my first digital pattern on Etsy  and navigated to Knit Pics , my mom's favorite yarn site, to grab the required supplies which, by God's grace, were on sale and there was a free shipping promotion! I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed using the Animation yarn from Knit Pics! It is high-quality with beautiful colors and a joy ...

  This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.  Genesis 6:9  Before whom do you long to be seen as great? Your friends? Your family? Your boss? Your pastor? I read this verse this morning and my first thought was, what an incredible eulogy! Oh, to be known this way, but I think the key to it comes in the verse before this, Genesis 6:8, “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.” As we read and learn about Noah, he wasn’t well loved and liked among the people in his generation. At best, people probably thought he was a weirdo. At worst, a lunatic. Had he sought to be well liked and loved by his peers, this would be a very different story. Instead, Noah was well liked by God, and why? Because he was righteous, blameless and he walked faithfully with God.  What does it mean that Noah was righteous? That he did not sin? Certainly not! But Noah sought to do right be...

  The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.  Genesis 6:5-6  Our verses today share that, at the time of Noah, “every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” Do you think God feels the same way now? If not, what’s different? I’d like to think that humanity has come a long way from this place. We have good people that love God and do good things all over the world, from the Billy Grahams and Luis Palaus to the Sunday school teachers and church janitors. But, if I’m being really honest, there are still evil thoughts and inclinations in my heart all the time.  I rarely act on them, mind you, but yesterday was an example to me of how, even as a new creation redeemed by Christ, I am definitely NOT perfect. I wa...

Image created with the aid of Gemini's Nano Banana 2 and Microsoft Designer    Have you ever heard someone say, "Sweet Baby Jesus!" or refer to His mother as the "Virgin Mary"? Oftentimes, we take an image, an impression, of someone from a particular point in their life and then apply it to them as a whole. Sunday morning, during worship, God impressed upon me the idea that we tend to "live" in one of the mindsets of the days of Jesus' crucifixion. On Friday, Jesus was executed on the cross. On Saturday, He lie dead in the tomb, and on Sunday, He was gloriously resurrected. Whether intentionally or by default, we operate with one of these perspectives.   Friday was a dark day. Our LORD was tortured mercilessly. He fulfilled all of the prophecies about Him and He gave up His Spirit, dying the death that we owed. It is a day for which I will be forever grateful, and one that I must remember, but it was not the end! Think about it. How often do you se...

  To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your labor pains; with pain you will give birth to children. You will want to control your husband, but he will dominate you."   Genesis 3:16  In the last post, we looked into how sin is essentially believing someone or something else over God. We might believe we know better, or that the powers of this world are more powerful than God, but the truth is we’re wrong. No one is wiser, no one is more powerful, no one has better thoughts or intentions for us. And when we choose someone or something else over God, that’s sin. Sin separates us from God because we have chosen something over Him, we have chosen to follow another path than the one He placed us on. It never works out well. In that choice, that sin, we experience spiritual death, the separation from God. That essential part of us that lives on forever is now dead. Our body may still be walking around on earth, our heart beating, our mind thinking, our mouth talking...

  Last spring I wrote a few posts ( 1 , 2 , 3 ) about stock options*. These documented my learning and entrance into the stock market and all its wonders. Now that I've been doing this for about six months, I thought I'd come back to you and update you with how my new job is going! Yep, this is my job, a job graciously given to me by God that I am SO THANKFUL FOR!!! You see, when my husband was job hunting last year, I was his sidekick. I learned the ins and outs of AI for the job market and the great variety of ways to find job listings. I hunted down opportunities and sent them his way. All the while, there was a little voice in the back of my head that said, "What if you  got a job?" I knew I wasn't nearly qualified to get a job like my husband's, but I do have an AA and I have a wealth of life experience, so I thought that, surely, I could find something out there in the $20/hour range that I could do for 20 hours a week. That would both contribute to my f...