I loved to read as a child. After listening to the story of "The Black Stallion", I would dream about owning a horse. Then as I got older I was infatuated with Nancy Drew Mysteries. Today I own the whole set. These books are a good read even for adults. My first story memory was a book by Rebecca Springer called Intra Muros, now it has been reprinted and called "Within Heaven's Gates." My grandmother read this book to me when I was a very young child. It was a book about the authors experience of going to heaven and then coming back to earth. I was fascinated. It began my desire to both know and follow Christ. Our early experiences will greatly shape the later perceptions we have of life.

I have a friend who is really terrified of cats even little kittys. I think she was attacked by a kitty when she was a very young. (Now in relationship to perceptions as a child versus perceptions of an adult, what if it had just been a scratch? So many "what ifs". We need to give others permission to feel the way they do. Our past will directly influence our present. I have a friend who refers to her bad past as her BC days, meaning her before Christ days. It is in her mind a then and now situation. God will change a person if they let Him. To me she is very loving, straight forward, and kind. She has experienced God's grace and forgiveness. Concerning God's grace, Joe has often said we all have feet of clay and we are all equal when we stand before the foot of the cross.

1 Corinthians 13 4-7, 11-12

If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn't love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn't love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn't love others, I would have gained nothing.

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

If you want to enjoy a good swim, you will need to cast aside the weights that pull you down. If you want to really see the colors of the countryside, you will be hindered by sunglasses which distort color.

Wishing you a peaceful Labor Day with friends, family, and kind Kitties.

Blessings, Julie