Terrie's Tender Touch

I have always been considered by my husband (and children) to be on the picky side when it comes to restaurants, hotels, or even general places we would go for entertainment. It would not be unusual for me to go to a restaurant, perhaps get seated, and then determine that the establishment was below my "standard" for "acceptable." I always think that if I am going to pay for something, than it should be worth the time and investment. The thing about "standards" is that they are individual because what may be acceptable to one is not acceptable to another. For example, I am not comfortable with most restaurants that have the name "pit" in them. Not because of the name, but because most of the ones I have visited have been just that "pits." My husband on the other hand usually looks around and says, "I don't see anything wrong with it." Is he wrong? No. Am I wrong? No. We have our own standards and there is no law t...

Today is Good Friday - Easter is this Sunday, and it will be the first time since 1979 that we haven't had any of our children with us for the holiday. We are spending the day today with our oldest son and his family, and then on Monday we will spend time with them again, as as well as with our daughter and her family; we're making the best of it:) One of the things that has been on my mind is making sure that our kids are taken care of for the holiday...I know, I know they are all grown, married, and have their own children - but a mom never stops being a mom! Thankfully the two that live close to each other are spending Easter Day together. Yesterday I read a "tweet" from one of my sons as he was happy that one of his converts had been baptized, has been faithfully attending church, and has begun attending a discipleship class. I was blessed as I read it, and then further blessed when I saw that our other son responded to his tweet expressing his shared happines...

This morning in my Bible reading I read Luke 5:16 which says, “And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.” It caught my attention because yesterday I saw how that the Holy Spirit led Jesus to the wilderness – today Jesus withdrew Himself to pray there. I started thinking about “wilderness” and as I mentioned yesterday – I thought of a barren place, a lonely place, a sad place. Today, I saw it differently – I saw it as a place of refreshing – a place to get alone with God…and it didn’t sound so bad; after all when I get alone with God and know that I have been in His presence I am strengthened and refreshed; I have joy and peace. (play on words intentional = p's in the wilderness:). I looked up the word wilderness in the Bible and saw that it is there 294 times! The wilderness is by definition a barren dessert – but it is also a place suitable for pasturing sheep – aha…that’s why I found it for so many applications – “Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that ...