Tag: gratitude
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Thanksgiving in Threes
A prayer for thanksgiving. O Living God, you who are Three-in-One and One-in-Three, we give thanks and praise for your abundant gifts—your mercy and grace. We give thanks… For friends who challenge, bless, and care.For books that confound, enlighten, and teach.For scriptures that nourish, correct, and upbuild.For Jesus, who heals, forgives, and saves.For ancestors of…
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Home Depot Prayers
It goes without saying: Worship has been dramatically altered by the pandemic. Some of these alterations have been less than desirable, of course, but some of them have also been worth celebrating. Among the gifts of the pandemic, I would suggest, is our increasing attentiveness to everyday work and workers. Over past months there has…
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Wishing life away?
My latest column in the Christian Courier. ______________________ There’s a temptation to wish life away—to wish that pandemic days, months, or even years would rush to oblivion. That from some bright future these mournful days would become as an Autumn mist burned away by the late morning sun. Forgotten; banished from memory. Exhaustion of online…
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My garden won’t save the world…
My latest column in the Christian Courier. ______________ My front-yard garden measures 12 feet by 11 feet and so represents a modest effort in terms of urban agriculture. It certainly doesn’t compete with the larger plots tended by some Portuguese seniors in west end Montreal, or with the wide-open community gardens that flourish here. But…
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what we wear – who we are
Clothing has always been a significant part of human identity. Historically human clothing has been particularly significant in terms of our shared or our collective identities. In particular cultures there was always a similarity of dress; our clothing marked us out as belonging to a particular culture or community. So there has been a style…
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Brokenness and Beauty
Kintsugi (or kintsukuroi) is a Japanese practice and refers to the repair of broken pottery. In this particular practice, a broken piece of pottery is repaired using a resin that is sprinkled with gold. The pieces of a broken bowl or cup of plate are bound together with this gold-sprinkled resin. The result is striking,…
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where will envy take you #sermon #proverbs #envy
The content of this sermon is based in part on Rebecca Konyndyk De Young’s Glittering Vices (Brazos, 2009). ____________ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciFTP_KRy4 I could feel envy eating me up – from the inside out. I could feel envy getting hold of my life and my thoughts and my emotions. But it seemed that there was little I…
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say thank you (or not…)
What does gratitude look like? How should gratitude be expressed in our lives? For most of us, one of the earliest things we were taught by our parents was to say “Thank you.” When someone paid you a compliment: “Did you say thank you?” When someone was giving you a gift: “Remember to say thank…
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Daily grind – sharing
It goes without saying – toddlers find it difficult to share. Have you ever tried to convince a 2 or 3 year old that they need to share something? Sometimes they are willing – very often they are not. Just this past week, Becky had two of our kids with her picking up vegetables just…
encrusted words 