A Dozen Ideas for Welcoming Fall

Standing on my screen porch leaves me no room for denial: Fall is here. The leaves are changing and the slant of the sun is altered. A sigh accompanies me as I reach for the afghan and sit down to snuggle up with my coffee.

But wait a minute! As I access my attitude, I remember that change invigorates me, so I have every reason to anticipate a fall season filled with joy and excitement. Six family birthdays dot my calendar, a reunion of like-minded friends awaits me, and the opportunity to reconvene with my growth group beckons.

Granted, not everyone shares my enthusiasm. Sometimes a mist of melancholy marks the move to autumn. If you find it hard to release summer (or even if you welcome the change) perhaps these ideas will encourage you as we, along with the calendar, make the transition:

1. Hang a multicolored fall wreath on your front door.

2. Go apple picking with a group of friends and invite internationals to join you on this all- American outing.

3. Do a word study from the Scriptures on the seasons of life.

4. Purchase Aspen Mulling Spices for your hot cider.

5. Take a day alone with the Lord and thank Him for His blessings this past summer.

6. Watch the football movie, Remember The Titans.

7. Consider, as the foliage changes, if there is one personal change you would like to make – in routine, in reading, or perhaps in reaching out to a neighbor.

8. Pull out tasty fall recipes. (i.e. apple pie, morning glory muffins, football chili, or my son-in-law’s yummy pumpkin pancakes from New Hope Mills)

9. Walk down nostalgia lane, and recall your first day of 1st grade. Then, jot a note to reconnect with a former classmate.

10. Visit a pumpkin farm with a group of children. Be bold and try the corn maze.

11. Look over the opportunities starting up at your church and ask yourself, “Has God carved out a space for me in a group, on a committee, or with a volunteer project?”

12. Treat yourself to a bouquet of fall flowers, and each time you look at them pray, “God, thank you for this season of fall.”

Bonus Idea: Remember! Starbucks serves their pumpkin cream cheese muffins only at this time of year. Meet a friend for coffee and celebrate friendship this fall day.

Living With Eternal Intentionality®

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

What do you look forward to with the coming of fall?

What do you find difficult?

Of the Dozen Ideas for Welcoming Fall, which would you like to consider for yourself?

Please join the conversation and share your own idea. Your thoughts bring a rich contribution to the discussion.

Get It Right When Your Thinking Is Wrong

A recent situation brought me face to face with the life-giving power of right thinking and the potential destruction of wrong thinking. An individual before me wrestled with a wrong thought pattern that threatened to derail her and her group. Thankfully, she managed to realign her thoughts and live a robust day.

However, this encounter provoked reflection. A simple illustration reveals the heart of my conviction developed over years and years of engaging with this topic.

Wrong thinking lurks menacingly to destroy personal and relational happiness.

If lost on a dark road on a stormy night, aware of my erroneous turn off the interstate, would I just keep driving down the wrong road in the mistaken direction? No! Rather, as soon as I located a safe spot, I would STOP, turn around, head back, and enter the on-ramp for the correct highway.

Wrong thinking lurks menacingly to destroy personal and relational happiness. Yet how often do you and I make a timely effort to STOP and turn around? Over time I have learned to recognize warning signs and make course corrections as soon as possible. So, here are three suggestions I use when awashed with wrong thinking.

1. Acknowledge my circumstances

For a few moments, I pause and calculate my circumstance. Facts, perceptions, and realities all go into my summation.

2. Acknowledge my feelings

Personally, I enjoy the ability to feel deeply, but not when my feelings are destructive. While the way I feel is valid (to me), I know that the way I feel may not be healthy or even accurate.

So, once I acknowledge my circumstances, I then acknowledge my feelings.

After thoroughly calculating circumstances and feelings, I know at this juncture, the time has come to acknowledge God.

3. Acknowledge God

He wants desperately to involve Himself in my life on every level, in every relationship, and through every situation. His resources are available, but as Ney Bailey says in Faith is Not a Feeling, “I must choose to believe God’s promises over my own personal feelings.”

Individuals who have learned to turn wrong thinking into right thinking experience a different and dynamic quality of life.

These suggestion I offer here are not a formula but a process; not a recipe but a recommendation. Why? Because I am thoroughly convinced that individuals who have learned to turn wrong thinking into right thinking experience a different and dynamic quality of life. I long for you and me to stand in their ranks.

One of my favorite passages of Scripture offers a great place to begin the journey of traveling on the right mental interstate:

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you (Philippians 4:8-9).

Living With Eternal Intentionality®

“What do you think?” is actually a loaded question, isn’t it?

How would you evaluate your spiritual journey regarding right thinking?

What helps you to transform your wrong thinking toward the right direction?

Who has been a spiritual guide for you in this developmental process?

God Met Me in My Communist Kitchen

Looking out the kitchen window, only the dim streetlight illuminated our surroundings. In Kraków, Poland, night descended early these cold winter evenings, and the darkness reinforced our sense of isolation.

Peering into the cold night, I searched for Larry’s bundled up figure. His return home—our upstairs space in the house we shared with a Polish family—marked the end of another grueling day in cross cultural living.

At long last, his form emerged trudging up the hill.

As he walked in the door, he left behind the demanding life of language study, and climbed the stairs, to engage fully as husband and dad. Within the context of our clandestine lives behind the Iron Curtain, our upstairs nest and our evening routine provided a cozy feeling of safety and security, albeit it fragile. Ironically, this season of our lives would be looked back upon as one of the sweetest in our marriage.

After tucking our little one into her bed, Larry and I sat down at our table. A pot of steaming black tea and a simple meal of bread and cheese awaited us. If the line waiting outside the meat store had not been too long, there might even be salami for our open-faced sandwiches.

The shortwave radio stood nearby like a sentinel on the windowsill. In these frigid days of the Cold War, isolation from the outside free world, forced us—as part of our safety protocol— to rely on the radio and BBC for news of world events.

Our forbidden possession sat hidden on the floor during the day. But for clear reception, we carefully brought it out at night, and reverentially placed it on the ledge. Then We. Held. Our. Breaths. The Communist government menacingly sought to jam the reception, thus we never knew for certain if the signal would come through.

On this particular evening, using only my thumb and index fingers, I delicately turned the radio dial. Going back and forth (forth and back) I painfully listened for the faintest evidence of a verbal lifeline to my familiar world far away. Yet, only the painful screeches and shrills of the government’s jamming mechanisms shouted back at me.

Touching the dial with the deftness of a butterfly, I made one last attempt.

But I refused to give up. Leaning over and leaning in, I prayerfully begged the ionosphere to have victory over the Communists. Touching the dial with the deftness of a butterfly, I made one last attempt.

Then, wouldn’t you know! The Hand of God—not BBC, not Voice of America, not Radio Free Europe—broke through to deliver the shocking, booming voice of our dearly beloved Bible teacher, Dr. Manford G. Gutzke! This is the voice of Manford G. Gutzke and you are listening to The Radio Bible Hour. With that familiar introduction, marching right into my Communist Kitchen through our illegal radio, Dr. Gutze launched into teaching one of his spiritually rich lessons from the Word of God.

Don’t ask me how it happened. Don’t ask where it originated. Never again did we hear Dr. Gutze; never again did we stumble upon the station. But for one night, with one voice, for one couple on Kingdom assignment behind enemy lines, God broke through with spiritual nourishment for their needy souls. Thank You, Sweet Jesus.

No, never alone, No, never alone, He promised never to leave me, Never to leave me alone. (Anonymous hymn lyrics)

"I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).

“My God shall supply all of your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19 NKJV).

The will of God will not take us where the grace of God cannot sustain us. I know; God Met Me in My Communist Kitchen.

Living With Eternal Intentionality®

When has God surprised you with the reality of His Presence?

What were the circumstances?

What Scripture describes your situation?

My Communist Kitchen: I am studying Polish with my notebook and tape recorder, and my little girl is studying English with her Richard Scarry dictionary.