"When will You comfort me, Lord."   ...   Psalm 119:82
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Members of a college basketball team from Wisconsin were so amazed at the heroism of a nine-year-old boy who lost his life in a fire in upstate New York that they undertook an eight-hour bus trip to attend his funeral—and moved the boy’s family to tears. Tyler Doohan, a fourth-grader, was asleep when fire broke out in his grandfather’s home near Rochester, New York.  After saving six people he went back into the blaze to attempt to rescue two others, and succumbed to the flames.
         The team at Silver Lake College in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, (sponsored by the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity), inspired by Tyler’s heroism, attended the funeral with the family’s approval, and met the boy’s mother and father.
         “How did it make you feel to put a smile for a few minutes on the faces of a family going through the worst day of their lives?” asked Coach Phil Budervik on the ride back. “One of the players said, ‘It was the best feeling in the world to do that.’ That’s when I knew we had done the absolute right thing. We helped a family and paid our respects to a true hero.”

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"You, Lord, give light to my lamp..."   Psalm 18:29

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Psychiatrist and author Elisabeth Kübler-Ross was known for her book On Death and Dying and for developing the five stages of grief. But she also offered many insights about living, not just dying.  Here are just a few:

■ “The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.”

■ “There is within each one of us a potential for goodness beyond our imagining; for giving which seeks no reward; for listening without judgment; for loving unconditionally.”

■ “People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.”

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Scripture verse for today:
     "Oh that I were in the months past   ...   and my children we        round about me."
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“Hurry!” Matt Archbold told his wife and five kids.  “We’ve got to get on the road so we can sit in traffic.” 

And sit in traffic they did during the family’s road trip to Boston.  To test Archbold’s patience even more, the kids spent most of the ride noisily arguing, laughing, and yelling at each other while playing a game called Robot Apocalypse.

After finally arriving in Boston, the family did some sightseeing and Archbold found himself engaged in conversation with an elderly man who saw his abundance of kids. “My wife and I had seven,” he told Archbold. “Enjoy them. Treasure every moment. It used to be I couldn’t wait until I had some quiet in the house. And now quiet’s all I got. I miss the noise.”

That observation left an impression on Archbold. He wrote, “The next day the kids, my wife, and I got back into the van to go home. We took our time, sang, giggled, and snorted the whole way…It was a great long trip. When I parked the van in our driveway, I sat a moment and thanked God for the noise.”

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Lord, help me to love my family.

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Monday:  January 11
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Scripture verse for today:
.... "In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus."       I Thessalonians  5:18
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During his high school years, comedian Tim Conway suffered a back injury during a football game that left him unable to talk or move.  When he couldn’t stand up, his team members carried him off the field.  A doctor took an X-ray, found nothing broken, and put him in a neck brace for a few weeks.

Many years later, Conway visited a doctor due to back spasms.  As he writes in his memoir What’s So Funny, he was shocked when the doctor told him his “spasms were a residual effect stemming from a broken vertebra.”  Conway insisted he’d never broken a vertebra, then recalled the football incident. 

The doctor explained that he’d likely broken his vertebra, but when his teammates picked him up, his back got stretched out and the vertebra went back into place.  If Conway hadn’t been moved, he may have been permanently disabled. 

That was a watershed moment for Conway, spiritually speaking.  He writes, “Ever since that incident on the football field, which might have altered the course of my life, Jesus and I have stayed in constant touch.  I never stop saying thank you.”

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A thought for today, especially during this season prior to National Elections:
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Scripture reference:  Deuteronomy   chapter 1   verse 13
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... "Provide wise, discerning and reputable persons for each of your tribes ... "
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Thoughts:
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A letter from an 11-year-old girl may have inspired Abraham Lincoln to grow a beard as a help to his presidential campaign efforts.

Grace Bedell of Westfield, New York, wrote to candidate Lincoln suggesting that “all the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you and then you would be President.” She added, “You would look a great deal better for your face is so thin.”

Often, hidden motives can influence our choice for those we elect to lead us. The nation was fortunate in having chosen Lincoln to steer it through the dark years of the Civil War—however much his beard may have influenced the voting.

A better way to select a President or other candidates for public office is to weigh carefully their records, their stands on issues confronting the nation, and their plans to address those issues.

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Lord. be with me in my choices.
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