Hey all!
I hope you are enjoying your coffee!
For Bible Study Fellowship, we are focusing on the book of Genesis and new beginnings. It’s very apropos to my life right now as we are about to move states, and both my husband and I are embarking on side careers. It will be a new beginning in many ways for my family.
So what are your beginnings? And will you approach them faithfully like Noah who obeyed God implicitly? Do you have the patience to let Him show you the way in His timing?
Hey all!
So I keep forgetting about the last Sunday of the month, and this month, Leap Year threw me off, so now it’s the first Sunday of the month coffee chat.
All day yesterday, all I heard was “You get an extra day.”
Leap year exists because the earth orbits the sun at 365.2421 days. Rather than program in a fourth of a day every year, we just add one year every four to even out the days and keep the seasons in the correct months and the days on schedule.
Many ancient cultures would just add whole months when the years and seasons got out of sync. The Romans first had a 10-month calendar with a winter period that would change every year. As things became unaligned, January and February months were added in, but the years were still off. It feel to the consuls (the rulers) of Rome to fix the situation, which of course they did to suit their own political agenda.
By the time of Julius Caesar, something had to be done. He redid the entire Roman calendar, which is the one we follow to this day. When he was in Egypt, which, at that time, held the library of Alexander, a library that contained most of the world’s known knowledge at that time, Caesar saw how the Egyptians added ina an extra month every so often. Caesar, along with Sosigenes of Alexandria decided to make it easier with one day every four years. They picked February to add that day to since that was the month the Romans always tweaked to make up for “lost time.” In 46 BC, Caesar had to add in two extra months to balance out the calendar, so in 45 BC, the Julian Calendar was born with Leap Year or day added day every four years was born.
The Gregorian CalendarHowever, since the earth’s rotation is .2421, this still makes the days skewed. So, by 1500 AD, enough time had passed that the calendar was off again. This was annoying to the Roman Catholic church since now Easter was off. Tradition holds that Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox. By 1500 Easter was off by roughly ten days. Thus, Pope Gregory XIII modified the calendar once again, one which kept Leap Day but eliminated it on centurial years not divisible by 400 (1700, 1800, and 1900 were not leap years, but 2000 was). Thus, it’s not quite every four years a Leap Year is added. This Gregorian Calendar is the last change to the Western calendar as we know it today.
Do note that the calendar will have to be modified again, but only once every 3,030 years, so we won’t be affected by this.
Fun Fact: Those born on Leap Day are rare. There are only about five million people alive today born on a Leap Day with the chances of being born on Feb 29th at 1 in 1,461. They are called Leaplings, and while it may not be fun to skip your birthday, it would be fun to be in an elite group.
Back to my point: it wasn’t really an extra day. It’s not like I’m going to live an extra day. It was more just a day to live.
Now, back to my coffee…
Hey all!
Today’s theme is the seasons. I love fall, which I believe most of us do. The colors are beautiful, the cooler weather is welcomed by all, and the seasons signal the coming holidays, which most of us enjoy.
However, there are also seasons in life as well. For a lot of us, we go from childhood through young adulthood and into the marriage years. Then, we have kids, and the seasons of our lives change as they change. They grow up, and you go from caretaker to advice-giver almost before you know it. While some of us lament these changes, it is the cycle of life, just like the seasons, and it is what makes life interesting.
I encourage you today to appreciate where you are at in your cycle, whether you’re in college, having a baby, or kissing your grandkids. The past is gone, and all we have is our future. Embrace it, and make the most of it!
God bless, and enjoy life!
Hey all!
It’s so good to be back in BSF, back in God’s Word, and learning about the early church. So far, we’ve seen Pentacost, the advent of the Holy Spirit upon us and in us, and Peter stepping up his game. Coming up, Stephen and Saul/Paul.
The theme of this coffee chat is time. Time is limited for all of us, and as you get older, it only seems to go faster and more compact. What you do with your time is so important to God, whether you think of it as such or not. Ask yourself these questions:
I encourage you all to pray about how you use your time and how better you could be using your time. You only have so much time to complete God’s purpose for you here on earth. Don’t miss your chance.
On that note, as you all know, I’m a writer. If led, I’d encourage you to donate on my sidebar or HERE
It helps me continue to run this site, which does have some costs involved, as well as put in my hours of research for you all!
If you’re not led, no worries. If you are, I thank you in advance.
You all are what makes this site amazing and keep me coming back. I love each and every one of you and pray for you weekly. Please leave comments as you can or feel free to email me. I try to answer in a few days, but my weeks are pretty hectic (I’m praying about my use of time, too)!
God bless you all!
Hey all!
It’s the last Sunday of the month, and today the power of being is on my heart.
Life is taken up with so much busyness that we can lose ourselves, lose our way, and lose our family. Today, I just want to encourage you to put away your screens for a while, and reconnect with the present moment. Spend some time just being, existing, walking in nature, smelling the flowers, watching the grass grow, listening to the birds sing, and being with family.
That’s what life is all about — not how many friends you have on social media.
Hey all!
It’s the last Sunday of the month, and today the preciousness of life is on my heart.
Recently, just two doors down, a neighbor feel into cardiac arrest and died on his front stoop. Rescuers worked for almost an hour to resuscitate him to no avail.
It made me realize just how precious life is, how quickly it can be taken away, and how much you need to love your loved ones because you never know when it will be your turn to return home.
We all know there is a better place, but it’s so hard for us since all we know is this side of heaven on Earth. Furthermore, none of us want to leave our loved ones behind.
Life is so precious; we need to hold it tight.
All of my animals are aging. My Dane had to go to the vet a couple of weeks back (luckily, it wasn’t cancer).
We know death is inevitable, but that doesn’t make it any easier to handle.
So today, love on your loved ones. Tell them you love them. Give them hugs and kisses. Appreciate life while it’s here.
Hey all!
I hope you all are having a fun, restful Memorial Day weekend!
In today’s coffee talk, solitude is on my heart.
I’ve been spending a lot of time alone lately, working out alone and in the house alone, since my kids are now older and spending more time with their friends. I’ve truly enjoyed these days (today is one of those days) where the house is silent, and it’s just me, the dogs, and the cats. And God. He’s always here.
I’ve found these days are great days to reflect on where you’re at in your life, where you want to go, what your goals and aspirations are, are you heading in the right direction, do you need to pivot, and what do you need to do in order to create where you want to be. Self-reflection is something we all need to do regularly in order to check in with ourselves and our goals.
For me, I’ve been thinking about leaving my job and putting my whole efforts into this blog, my other blogs, and a blogging business. I like my job; it’s good. But I am still tied down to a chair for 8 hours a day, and it’s starting to get to me. I like to be able to go on hikes with the kids when I want to, go to the gym when I want to, go to doctor’s appointments during the day, and go to the grocery store when it’s empty.
Furthermore, I work hard at my job, but I’m building someone else’s business. I want to build my business for the next 20 years; I want to do God’s work for me, not for someone else.
That’s been what I’ve been reflecting on lately.
What about you? Where are you at with life, with God, with your family, and with your purpose?
Hey all!
It’s the last Sunday of the month, and today rest is on my heart. I don’t sleep very much. I don’t have a hard time falling asleep, but I do have a hard time staying asleep. However, rest is crucial to so many bodily processes, such as healing and giving your brain the time it needs to process the day.
God showed us how to rest by resting on the seventh day, or Sunday for us now. Thus, it’s crucial for us to rest as well. It may not be on Sunday, especially if you work on weekends. But we all need to rest.
For me, I grab the small moments of rest where I can — whether it’s sitting in the car, waiting for my kids to get out of school, at my son’s flag football game, or petting my dog or cat. Moments of reflection you could say. We need all kinds of rest — physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual — in order to function.
Rest is important. In today’s society, rest is often labeled as laziness. But days of “laziness” where you just recuperate at home are needed for your overall health and well being. So, take a moment today, and rest from activity. Read a book, the Bible, or have coffee with a friend and relax.
And if you have any good tips to share on how you squeeze in rest, leave a comment below. Happy Sunday!