Notes from Nicole

If you have ever been around small children and you needed to say something to another person that you didn't want a child to hear you have probably spelled out the words. "Hey honey, do you want to go to the i-c-e c-r-e-a-m place later?" or "I think we will head to D-i-s-n-e-y next year, what do you think?" Now, this can only work for a short period of time. Most children begin learning to spell by the age of five or six, sometimes sooner if you have a genius for a child! I have older children now so spelling doesn't work, but I still use it around my dogs. "I might go on a w-a-l-k later, do you want to go with me?" It is pretty funny how some words just feel more secretive or ominous when we spell them out. I probably committed writers suicide by even using the word Sin in my title, whether I spelled it out or not. Adults and children alike do not like to talk about or even listen to a sermon on sin, am I right?! I mean how many of us w...

I am one of those people who you might call "directionaly challenged" or I may be lacking in my "sense of direction" gene. Whatever it is it all boils down to one thing.....I get lost a lot! I know that we are in the age of GPS and I have one on my phone and everything, but sometimes when I get behind the wheel of my vehicle and I'm singing to the radio or talking to my passengers I lose all sense of where I am supposed to be going. This happened a few years ago when a couple of my friends and I decided to go visit a mutual friend in Hartselle, Alabama, sir! I had never even heard of Hartselle before so I was already nervous about finding the place. We printed out the hard copy of the directions AND we had the GPS programmed, no problem. We made it to Hartselle without any issues and I thought to myself, "Wow, I did it. I drove to a place I have never been before without getting lost!" Now, getting home was a different story. I know, I know, re...

I have been a member of the Methodist faith for about 15 years now. I grew up in the Pentecostal faith at an Assembly of God Church. I thought Lent was something that only the Catholics did-which according to my southern Pentecostal granny-God rest her soul, "Didn't believe the same things we did!" So Lent was a term I may have heard once or twice growing up and then never thought any more about it; that is until I started working for the United Methodist Church. I found out that Lent is a time of personal sacrifice in order to mirror the 40 days that Jesus spent in the desert. It was supposed to be a time of reflecting on what Jesus had done for us when he performed the ultimate sacrifice on Black Friday-laying down his life for all and then rising again on Easter. As I learned more and more about the customs of Lent and about where they came from I was intrigued and humbled by some of the "things" I heard people were sacrificing. One was giving up coff...