The Son

We have had a very mild winter this year.

But the temperature does not always tell the full story.


I walked into church this morning without my coat buttoned up.

Then, I realized I should feel colder because it was only 13 degrees.

I felt warmer than I had the day before when it was 36.


The difference was the sun.


The sun makes all the difference in whether I feel cold or warm.


When I am going through a hard or dark time in my life, the only way to get through it is with the Son.

He makes the cold days seem better even if they aren't.

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? Psalms 27:1

Just Write

Some time back before Christmas I decided to give up social media.

I recently had given up sugar. 

Not because it's "bad", but because I had noticed some effects it had on me that I didn't like. 

So, it was also a bit of an experiment to see if it changed some of these physical things.

It did.

I feel 100% better not eating sugar. 

And I don't even crave it so much because I know what it does to me.

When I started, I wrote down some things that I wanted to replace the sugar with. 

Eat an apple, a handful of nuts, drink some water.


I don't think that social media is bad, but I did feel that I was spending too much time on it.

I had also been thinking about all the books I used to read and wondering why I didn't read anymore.

Was it just because I had gotten busy?

But, really I stopped reading when I got a smart phone and when Facebook came out.

--Sidetrack --

I love Facebook!!

I love being "in touch" with old college roommates and old friends and knowing what is going on in people's lives.

How did I ever live without it?

I guess I had to be more diligent about keeping in touch.

I wasn't.

And I actually had to write letters or make phone calls.

I didn't.

Who has time for that? 

Well, I guess people who aren't spending time looking at their phone at the hundreds of people they're keeping in touch with.

Anyway, my main point was that I wanted to free up some time. 

Or at least experiment and see if it freed up some of my time.

So, I wrote down some things that I would like to replace that time with.

READ
CLEAN
VISIT
WRITE

I've gotten good at replacing social media with reading. 

(In some ways, it's not that different!)

I've already finished 3 books!

My house is cleaner.

And I've been able to make visits to neighbors and friends that I haven't in the past.


But, what about writing?

Why do I want to write?

When I write, I just put all kinds of jumbled thoughts down.

And as I do that, things become clearer.

I'm not saying that I'm a good writer.

But, I'm not bad at editing.

I spend less time writing all the jumbled thoughts than thinking about what I've written and getting it just right.

So, that's what I'm going to do.

Just write.