Some thoughts, lessons, and/or reflections from the day:

• When it snows over a weekend it can feel like there wasn’t a weekend, but these written pages help remind me of how God has blessed me with a good way to help support my family and the ministry He has given me to do.
• Whatever we’re in the midst of is rarely viewed objectively while we’re in it.
• It was a bitterly cold start to the day which made the stars seem even brighter in the clear night sky.
• When I’m able to remove distractions and “chill out”, God always appears closer and brighter to me.
• With the cold temps I was thankful there wasn’t a lot that needed done outside to start the day . . . cleaned up a few icy spots on the sidewalks and that was it.
• My morning cleaning and building prep was also the beginning of my prayer time regarding the writing of next week’s prayer guide.
• When the building was ready for the day, I settled in with God and a few topics I thought were good things to pray about.  There were many others, but these were the ones that my earlier prayer time had narrowed the list down to in my mind.
• As I prayerfully considered each topic and some scripture references for them, I eventually settled on the topic of “Answer”.
• Many people familiar with the Bible have heard its instruction to “always be ready to give an answer”.  What is often missed is that the context has to do with giving an answer for the hope we have in the midst of difficult times and what feels like unjust treatment.
• As with most things, God’s concern about our answers begins at the heart of the matter and not just on the technical wording of a response.
• I think of the rich young ruler who could give a “good answer”, but went away sorrowful because his heart was not ready to live that answer.
• My morning was filled with the writing, formatting, and scheduling for publication of the prayer guide.  As I worked and the sun began to moderate the outside temperature a little bit, some of the birds ventured out to spend some time outside my office window.
• By afternoon I had some technical work to do with tracking down some components in our building network.  I enjoy the IT work but it can be a challenge to my mind as I don’t work in it on a regular basis.
• Even the enjoyment we find in our time with God can seem challenging if we aren’t spending that time with Him on a regular basis.
• After a mid-afternoon lunch I made it home and relaxed for a short time before deciding to head out for an evening family adventure.
• We drove past a couple areas where we have seen snowy owls but we weren’t able to find them on this trip.
• With plenty of sunshine and blue sky, we headed to the beach to get some photographs and do some walking.  With the snow still rather deep, the walking was more of a workout than usual.
• We spent some time at our first beach-front stop but needed to spend time in the truck warming up before the sun actually set, so we drove down the shoreline to photograph the sunset at another location.
• The sunset was incredible and by the time we made it home I found I had shot over 200 photos during our evening excursion. 🙂
• When we really take in the beauty of God that He surrounds us with, it is almost impossible not to want more of it.
• It was late enough when we got home that I spent some time going through the photos from the day and left the actual writing of this page until the next morning.
• Today’s photo is actually today’s photos as I couldn’t decide. 🙂  In the first one I thought I was taking a photo of a blue jay and then found that there was a second one peering in from the side having a conversation.  The other photo is one of the sunset photos from Weko Beach in Bridgman, Michigan.

Some thoughts, lessons, and/or reflections from the day:

• I was awake early to see if it had snowed overnight and it had.  
• Forecasts and predictions are great, and even useful at times, but they’re not sure things.
• The side windows of my truck were iced over fairly significantly but the snow covering the windshield kept me from having to scrape it as well.
• As I headed into work to clear the new layer of snow from the sidewalks, I arrived just after the plow company began clearing the parking lot.
• Clearing snow with a layer of ice on top is much easier than dealing with ice that is frozen onto bare concrete and pavement.
• When we allow things to adhere to our lives, it becomes much more difficult to remove them than if we were to deal with them before they “take root”.
• I found myself whistling a tune again as I ran the snowblower.  I used to whistle a lot more than I have recently but never really thought about it until now.  And no, I don’t remember what tune I was whistling this morning.
• To me, whistling is a happy sound.  Perhaps I’m happier than I realize when I’m running the snowblower.  🙂
• Once the walks were clear I went inside to warm up with a mug of coffee.  As I drank my coffee a pair of cardinals showed up outside my office window long enough for me to get a couple photos and then they flew off.
• We had a guest preacher during our church gathering as the missionary to the Philippines that we help support was in town.
• The weather seemed to have kept quite a few people away this morning, but it was a great time of worship and Bible teaching.
• Brett’s message was focused on being sent. 
  • It’s not just missionaries and preachers who are sent to share the good news of Jesus — God wants each of us to share the message of Jesus everywhere we go.
  • For a person to believe in Jesus they have to hear about Him.  Who are you telling?  And perhaps more importantly, what are you telling them with your life and your words?
  • “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  But not just for “us”, for “them” too while they are still sinners.
  • God’s love isn’t dependent on our goodness.  We can never make ourselves good enough, but He can transform us into what we ought to be.
  • What we say we believe about the Bible doesn’t matter as much as what our actions say we believe about it.
• After the church service it was lunch with my family and then a restful afternoon.
• Even when the weather isn’t ideal, getting out and working/playing in the elements usually helps me sleep better at night.
• As I prepare to close out the day, the forecast is calling for a very cold but dry night.  But as I did to start today’s page, I will still be up early in the morning prepared to clear walks again if I need to but satisfied if I don’t.
• Today’s photo is of the male cardinal that stopped by outside my office for a brief visit this morning.

Some thoughts, lessons, and/or reflections from the day:

• I guess with the snow day yesterday making it feel like a Saturday, it was only fair that today didn’t feel very much like Saturday. 🙂
• After I was up and had my coffee, I headed outside to clear the snow out of my driveway again.  There wasn’t a lot of fresh snow overnight, but with more in the forecast it seemed wise to take care of what was there.
• “Stuff” has a way of accumulating in our life if we don’t deal with it as it comes.  Sometimes it is tempting to think things aren’t big enough to take care of now and then we eventually find ourselves buried under the circumstances of life with no idea how things got so deep.
• Once my drive was cleared at home, it was time to head to work to take care of the snow and things that didn’t get done yesterday.
• My workday was shortened up by the help of my wife who did most of the inside cleaning while I worked on clearing the snow from the sidewalks.
• It has been a while since a song has taken over my mind as completely as it did today while I was running the snowblower.
• Instead of just singing the song in my mind, I found myself whistling the tune as I worked — “A child of the King, child of the King!  With Jesus my Savior, I’m a child of the King!”
• At first I thought it was an odd song to come to mind as I worked, but then I thought about what it means to be a child of God and realized a big part of that includes doing the work He created for me to do.
• With the extra help, the building cleaning and prep was done by early afternoon, so we headed out for an afternoon family adventure.
• Our first stop was lunch but then we went to Potato Creek State Park where we drove around looking for photo opportunities before finally stopping for a family walk through the snow.
• Walking through snow that is nearly a foot deep is a lot of work. 🙂
• Just because something takes extra effort doesn’t mean it isn’t worth doing.  In fact most things that are worth doing will require extra effort at some point in the process.
• After a couple short walks in the park, we drove into Michigan to see if we could find a snowy owl to photograph.
• The snowy owl we saw a couple days ago was waiting for us, so we stopped and took some photos while the she posed for us.
• Today’s photo is of one of the picnic sites at Potato Creek.  The snow was stacked up high and I didn’t see anyone using any of the grills or picnic tables today. 🙂  

Okay, for those that were expecting an owl photo or two, here are my favorites from the day. 🙂

Some thoughts, lessons, and/or reflections from the day:

• By the time I went to bed last night, nearly all the area schools had made the call to cancel today so I went to sleep without setting the alarm.
• I still woke up at my usual early weekday time but was tired enough that I went back to sleep.
• It didn’t seem that bad outside when I got up, but the snow kept coming all day and would have made transportation to and from school treacherous at either end of the day.
• Being responsible often means you have to make the difficult decisions that will likely be unpopular with some people regardless of what you decide.
• They say hindsight is 20/20, but leaders can’t base decisions on hindsight . . . they must consider as much information as possible to make an informed decision to the best of their ability.
• With the snow day it kind of felt like a Saturday but that will eventually catch up with me once I start dealing with the snow at work.
• I started the morning by writing yesterday’s page and then did some research on some vacation options for later in the year.
• My neighbors thought I wasn’t home and stopped by to clear my driveway.  It is good to have neighbors who look out for each other.
• By late afternoon, the snow had filled back in so I fired up my snowblower for round two on my driveway.  
• Working in the beauty of the great outdoors made me hungry so I started up the pellet grill to cook some steaks for dinner.  It can always be grilling season. 🙂
• It sounds like there will probably be a pause in the snow sometime tomorrow so I’ll try to get some rest before then so I can clear the walks at work in preparation for Sunday.
• Today’s photo is one I took yesterday before this current round of snow began.  The day of rest was nice today, but that meant I didn’t get out to take new photos. 🙂

Some thoughts, reflections, and/or lessons from the day:

• Page 39 was kind of the calm between the storms.  There was just a dusting of fresh snow overnight, so I didn’t have to spend much time outside to start the day.
• My morning cleaning routine included a few minor maintenance issues to have the building ready for the day.  It is much easier to take care of the issues when I catch them, or are made aware of them, while they are minor.
• Once the building was ready and the students arrived for the day, I put on my accounting hat and spent the morning working on the financial accounting and reporting that I’m responsible for.
• With the sun out most of the morning, I was somewhat surprised that the birds were not filling the trees outside my office window . . . but there was one rabbit hopping around in the snow.
• By early afternoon, the Friday forecast was not looking good so plans were discussed for the potential of cancelling school and church activities for the day.
• It was still mostly sunny by mid-afternoon, so we headed out on a family adventure to see what we could find to photograph.  Sometimes it is so easy to just get home and sit after a full day that the hardest part of finding photo opportunities is simply getting up and going.
• It was cloudy to the south, so we headed north with our first destination a search for a snowy owl.  We didn’t see one after a bit of driving in the area where it’s been known to hang out but had to call a time-out in the search to find a nearby town with a bathroom for Susan. 🙂
• It was starting to cloud up around us so instead of going further north we headed back to look for the owl.  I finally saw her sitting in a vineyard a long distance from the road.  The first picture in today’s page was the best I could do even with long-range zoom and cropping of the photo.  It was still fun to see and good to know she was still around.
• Sometimes we find what we’re looking for but it isn’t where we would like it so we have to simply choose to enjoy it where it is.
• The cloud cover seemed to have some cracks in it, so we headed west and south to Michigan City where we were able to photograph the lighthouse and beach front scenes with an early sunset look to them.
• On our drive, we were able to catch sight of a beautiful sundog shining brightly along one of the larger openings in the cloud cover.  This mini rainbow would grow and shrink depending on the amount of light that passed through the upper level moisture.
• God can turn even our cloudy rain/snow filled lives into something of beauty when we allow His light to shine through the moisture of our tears.
• After a walk along the beach and on the pier out to the lighthouse, we decided to take a longer route home in order to stop for dinner at a restaurant a friend co-owns.  They have great food and it is good to be able to help support this venture.
• As we were driving, I commented that there had been some snowy owls sightings reported about a mile north of the main road we were on.  It wasn’t long after saying this that I noticed one sitting on top of a telephone pole right along the road!
• After turning the truck around, we parked beside the pole and used the truck for a “hunting blind” as we got some good shots of this beautiful snowy owl.
• The second photo on today’s page is a collage of three photos taken of this owl in the twilight of the evening.  These owls are fun to watch and I think they may enjoy watching us. 🙂

Some thoughts, lessons, and/or reflections from the day:

• I woke up just before the alarm would have gone off and found out the schools were closed so I was able to go back to sleep for a while. 🙂
• To be up and ready and not be needed is often better than being needed and not being ready.
• Before heading to work I found out the school was having internet issues and nobody seemed to know the who and how of their network setup.  Unfortunately, I didn’t know the answer to either of those questions.
• My first task of the day at work was to take care of the snow.  There was no wind and the temperature was not bitterly cold so it was rather pleasant to be out clearing the walks.
• When I came inside to take a break I got pulled into the internet issues, so my next several hours were spent with my IT hat on.
• We eventually found a temporary workaround and I was able to find the source of the problem.  What I didn’t have was time to figure out why it was set up in the way it was and what all would be affected by dealing with the problem so we settled on the workaround until a more thorough evaluation could be made.
• Sometimes we see a problem and are so quick to “solve it” according to what helps us that we miss seeing how our “solution” may actually cause bigger problems elsewhere.
• I suppose that would be a good question for each of us to ask ourselves during the decision making process, “Does this course of action make things easier for others or more difficult . . . or does it honestly have no affect on others?”
• Even the most “big-picture” thinker we know will miss parts of the actual picture as the details can often seem unimportant to them.  But when the big picture person works in cooperation with the detail person, a lot can get accomplished.
• While there are situations that require immediate action, being able to have time to “think things through” helps me to have actions that are more productive.
• Eventually I made it back outside to finish the snow blowing that needed done.  The wind had picked up so it wasn’t quite as pleasant of a task as it had been in the morning, but it was still nice to see the bare sidewalks appear behind me.
• With a full day, today’s photo is one I took yesterday as we arrived at Lake Michigan and this flock of ducks took off from the water’s surface.  It seems that when one senses danger, the entire group takes off and relocates away from the perceived source of danger.  We would all do well to consider those around us rather than just looking out to protect our self.

Some thoughts, lessons, and/or reflections from the day:

• Another winter night and another early morning clearing snow from walks . . . and it sounds like this pattern is stuck on repeat for a while.  🙂
• It was so beautiful outside and my mind focused on a line from an old hymn, “Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.”
• I think the thought that struck me the most this morning was that as beautiful as the fresh snow was, I can be even purer than it as I allow God to cleanse me.
• With the walks cleared, it was time to warm up with some coffee and turn my attention to the inside work that needed done.
• There was to be a funeral dinner at the church today, so once the usual cleaning and building prep was done I turned my attention to cleaning and setting up the cafeteria area so it would be ready.
• As I worked, my mind thought about the Growing Strong focus that the teaching part of Impact Prayer Ministry has.
• Most people realize that growing strong physically requires work on our part yet many seem surprised at the suggestion that growing strong spiritually will also require work.
• As I went about my various morning tasks, I prayed often for a family that was saying goodbye to a loved one today.
• By late afternoon I had finished up my work tasks for the day so I headed home to pick up my family so we could go out to see what we could find to photograph.
• Our first stop was to pick up my insulated overalls I had left at work as it sounds like I will need them again in the morning. 🙂
• We spent a little time looking for a snowy owl in the area where it has been seen frequently, but we were unable to find it.
• With no owl in sight, we headed to Lake Michigan to see what might be photo worthy there tonight.
• The cloud cover had mostly hidden the sun but the water was extraordinarily calm for Lake Michigan which made for some great reflection shots.
• When God says, “Be still and know that I am God”, I think that not only are we more aware of Him in our stillness, but we also are better able to reflect Him to others when we are still.
• Today’s photo is of the reflected sun and clouds as the sun dropped behind a gathering bank of clouds.

Some thoughts, lessons, and/or reflections from the day:

• With fresh snow overnight, I headed into work knowing I would have both inside and outside tasks to take care of before the start of the school day.
• There wasn’t a lot of accumulation of snow, so I once again thought I would use the snow shovel as it was the easiest tool to get.  It didn’t take long before I realized that a better job would be done if I would just make the effort to get the leaf blower out and use it.
• Sometimes the extra work to get the right tool for the job makes the entire process go better, and does a better job, than simply settling for what is convenient.
• Words are a lot like that.  It is often easier, but less effective, to use “pat answers” and empty words than it is to take the time to find the right words to say.
• It was cold outside, so once the walks were cleared I was very happy to get inside to a nice mug of hot coffee before starting the inside cleaning.
• There was an extra issue I had to take care of before I could start either the outside or inside work, so I didn’t have much time to warm up with my coffee before needing to get the cleaning and prep done.
• Sometimes the unplanned things of life become more urgent than the planned things and we just have to make the most of whatever time is available.
• Once the building was ready for the day I settled into my Monday morning time with God as we worked on the prayer guide for next week.
• With Valentine’s Day in the middle of next week, I thought I would do something focused on love and was surprised to discover that while I had previously written a prayer guide about our response to God’s love, I had not yet written one about the love we ought to have.
• So, the morning was spent in God’s Word and prayer as I looked at some of what scripture has to say about the love we ought to express.  I eventually narrowed down the six daily topics I needed and was able to write, format, and schedule the prayer guide to be published on Sunday.
• With the morning gone, I headed out to have lunch with a friend who needed some encouragement.
• After resting a little in the afternoon, I headed to a funeral visitation to offer our condolences to a family.  While there is sadness in saying goodbye, the family is well aware of the eternal reward their loved one has now received.
• Back home for a quiet evening, I sat down to write today’s page.  Snow is in the forecast again for the overnight hours, so I’ll try to head to bed early so I’m well rested for the day ahead.
• Today’s photo is one I took before leaving home this morning as the moon hung brightly in the crisp early morning sky.