Home

I long for childhood. It was a time in my life when I felt totally safe, completely free and never lonely. This is the kind of security Stan and I try to provide for our boys too. In this ugly world I want their home to be the place they feel the safest, the most loved.

That is what heaven will be for us--a return to that beautiful feeling of safeness and freedom. A place where we are ultimately secure and completely loved, no strings attached. It will be home. I long for it today. Maybe that's what God is teaching me through trial--to long for home. I get terribly comfortable here sometimes but on days like today I long to be in His presence. I ache for heaven.

Time for a new debate

It makes you look tired, even old. It stains your fingers and penetrates your clothing and your home with a vulgar smell. It blackens your lungs and puts you at high risk for cancer. It seriously annoys people around you (especially when they are trying to enjoy a meal).

Smoking is gross. I searched my vocabulary for a more sophisticated word but nothing really captured the sentiment as well as "gross." As we sat and attempted to eat our breakfast this morning at our local greasy spoon I was amazed at the number of people lighting up around us. After all of us began to lose our appetites and were developing headaches, we decided to move to a back table. (Stan let our waitress know that we weren't interested in exposing our kids to lung cancer at such a young age.)

Smoking in public--a long overdue debate topic. What do you think?