My Dad, like many Dads, had many good stories to share with my family (he also had some bad Dad jokes). He told wonderful stories about his childhood, his time in military service, his courtship with my Mom, and many other events of his life. And I was intentional about making sure I had heard every possible story my Dad cared to share before he passed away.
My good Dad stories make me think of a Dad, in the Bible,…
“Worry is like a rocking chair, it will give you something to do, but it won’t get you anywhere!”
-Unknown
How many of us can honestly say we are worry free and not preoccupied with the “what ifs” and the worst-case scenarios of life? Or how many of us, who say we live in a worry-free zone are really worry warts who dignify worry by calling it something else like “concern”?
On my first birthday, I was…
Every year I read through the entire Bible from the table of contents right through to the maps in the back! And each year I follow a different plan to accomplish that reading. In 2024, I am following a chronological plan in which the reading of the book of Numbers began a few days ago. Numbers is that one book of the Bible that probably has the greatest potential to derail most from continuing on in their year-long quest of reading the entire Bible….
My parents and I took many road trips to South Carolina, over the years, to visit my brother’s family. One of the more scenic parts of our drives was always found near the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia with its “blue” mountains and beautiful flowers and trees. And every time we passed that area, my father would look out at the beauty and say to my Mom, “Glor, who made that?,” to which my Mom would say, “God!”
Recently, while visiting…
My biggest takeaway from a few years of piano lessons, is that my piano teacher, Bea Thomas, and her husband David, ate potatoes for dinner every Tuesday night. I knew this, because at some point in my Tuesday afternoon lesson, Mrs. Thomas would interrupt my scales and rendition of “Dan, Dan the Piccolo Man” and yell to her husband, “David, honey, turn on the potatoes!”
My Dad was greatly disappointed when I decided to pause my piano lessons, which by the way, had…
Today would have been my Mom’s 97th birthday, but she missed it by two months. If she were still with us, we would have celebrated Mom with cards, flowers, gifts, and of course cake! However, since she is with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we have found a unique way to celebrate Mom today. Some of us have donned big hoop earrings because Mom, also known as GG, liked hoop earrings that were on the larger side. Some have gone to visit her graveside…
Faithful friends and loved ones have been checking in on my family and me to see how we are doing since Mom’s passing a month ago today. My standard answer is typically one of two replies – “I’m doing fine until someone asks me how I’m doing,” or “My grief ebbs and flows but God’s grace sustains.” You may know how that is. One moment I look at a picture of Mom and I smile with warm memories, and then another moment I look…
Every family has their traditions, and dragging out saying goodbye after gathering at my parents’ home was one of ours. When one of our visits came to an end, we would start by giving what had become known as “The Vasso Goodbye”. Our goodbye began in the downstairs den, worked its way to the main floor kitchen, into the living room, then by the front door, outside the front door, on the driveway, at each car, and then ended with a final wave to…
Labor Day is a holiday dedicated to honoring the contributions and achievements of the working class. It is a day to recognize the value of labor and the dignity of work. Typically, Labor Day marks the official end of summer and the full return to school hallways. However, from a biblical perspective, Labor Day is more than a day off heralding the end of summer and the looming fall season. In a world where our identities are often tied to our professions…
Hurricane season is in full force today on the east coast of the United States. Tropical storm Idalia, after making landfall as a powerful Category 3 storm in Florida, continues to barrel through Georgia and the Carolinas. She certainly knows how to shake things up as she spurns flooding and tornadoes on her way to eventually moving offshore later on August 31, 2023.
While hurricanes do not directly cause people to shake, their fierce winds, heavy rains, and storm…
I remember shopping for back-to-school clothes a couple of weeks before the start of a new school year. While uniforms were the standard dress code for my elementary and high school years, students were permitted to wear “regular” clothes during the first two weeks of school until the weather cooled and wearing uniforms would be more temperature comfortable. Wearing a uniform eliminated the pressure of impressing others and wearing the latest fashion trends while attempting to dazzle my classmates with my clothes.