Notes from Nicole

Sometimes I wake up with ideas in my head of things to write about. There have been times when I have gotten busy doing other tasks of the day or I have ignored those thoughts completely, but I don't do that anymore. I have come to acknowledge that this is one of the ways God speaks to me. Now I know that some of you doubt that God speaks to people today, or maybe you have a hard time grasping the concept that God can speak to us through different forms of communication. But I am telling you that I feel this is how God speaks to me most of the time. Sometimes I question these thoughts, like the one I woke up with this morning. Mary Poppins is like Jesus. No, I am not joking. I woke up with the song "A Spoonful of Sugar" running through my head and then as I lay there I started thinking about the character Mary Poppins and the similarities between her and Jesus. Ok, for those of you still reading (because I know this isn't very theological) just stick with it

Consolation prize, participation award, a "thank you for coming" card, whatever name you give these types of "awards", let's be honest-they all stink! If you have ever been in the competitive arena for sports or other activities did you go into it with the mindset of, "Wow, I hope I can earn that participation award again this year!" No!! If you are like just about every other human being that competes for anything your goal is to win, and not just win, but to be FIRST! That may seem like a callous way to look at competing for some of you and there are probably a handful of people who do compete to check something off their bucket list or they do it for the pure joy of proving something to themselves, but I think those folks are in the minority. Let's face it, being first feels good. No one wants to come in last in a game. What about the game of life? Not the actual board game, but the life that you and I are living right now? Do you ever

There are two kinds of people in this world; the rule followers and the rule breakers. Right? What causes someone to want to break the rules when another person may be perfectly content with following the rules? Don't we all want to be law abiding citizens and contribute to our community in a positive way? Sorry, a lot of questions. But right now my head is swimming with all of these questions. I have always been the type of person to see the good in someone before I see the bad....my mom calls it being "naive." I call it being positive. Sometimes that mindset has gotten me into trouble and has caused me heartache, but for the most part I would say that it has helped me be more compassionate to those whose circumstances are different from my own. A couple of weeks ago we had a sermon in church on a passage from Romans 7;14-20. I like to call it the "do-do" passage-it's kind of funny to hear your own minister say the word "do-do." Yes, I

I live in the Midwest; where the summers are hot and the winters are unpredictable! That being said I was driving to work one January morning from one small mid-western town to another on country roads and it was so incredibly foggy that my visibility was very limited. I couldn't see oncoming traffic until they were almost right next to me! As I was driving I began thinking about how that morning's weather was such a metaphor of my life at that time. The fog was my life, thick and full of the unknown with limited visibility into the future. Going through the "fog" of life thinking to myself, "This has got to let up soon, right?" Fog, to me, is much more hazardous to drive in than any other weather condition. I think it is because you can't see what is up ahead. You just don't know if you are going too fast because there may be vehicles in front of you with their breaks on, or there may be vehicles behind you coming up quickly. Doesn't l