10 of My Favorite Things About Summer

I’m a fan of summer. Perhaps you love summer, too. While I enjoy something about every season, summer remains my top pick.

Since enjoying this wonderful season is well under way, a top 10 list seems in order to share my favorite things. 

We’ll start at number 10 and countdown to my number one favorite thing.

(10.)  Reminiscing of childhood.

Reflecting on my childhood stirs a mix of good and not-so-good memories. Yet, when I think of summer, I remember fun and laughter and joy-filled moments. Memory lane reminds me of playing outside with my sisters and cousins.

Preteen and teen years meant days spent at the local swimming pool and the first time I jumped off the high dive. Another memory leads to number 9. 

(9.)  Catching lightning bugs.

Called fireflies or lighting bugs, these winged insects start appearing in June and are seen lighting up around dusk and nightfall. Recently, my grandson Foster spent the night. So I recreated this childhood favorite with him by catching lightning bugs and putting them n a mason jar. He insisted I do the catching while he cheered, “Go, Mimi, go!”

(8.)  Connection and Community Events.

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7 Ways to Relentlessly Seek God

When we relentlessly seek God, it radically transforms us. And the enemy knows it. So he uses the world’s distractions to keep us from God.

It boils down to a constant spiritual struggle.

Like how living in this world clashes with not being of this world. Or, the ongoing battle between our flesh and spirit. Also, the conflict between our old self and our new self in Christ.

These struggles put us at risk of distractions that pull us away from seeking God. Instead, we look to our own desires and what the world has to offer. 

But it’s nothing new.

Throughout the history of the world, the history of God’s people, and the history of the Bible, the choice always stood in place. Either seeking after God or seeking something else. 

And “something else” includes everything from people and things to idols and self-worship to fame and fortune.

Look at Romans 3:10-11, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.”

Still, Acts 17 reminds us how God made the world and everything in it. Futhermore, He made all mankind to live on the earth. Why? 

“That they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are indeed his offspring’” (Verses 27-28).

So how does the Bible describe seeking God?

(1.) Seek God for who He is.

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The Toughest Lesson God Wants Us to Learn

I’m excited to introduce an author friend, Chip Mattis. I know you will enjoy his words about dads and an important lesson we learn from our heavenly Father. Chip recently released a children’s book reflecting the love of a father for his little girl, Under the Dancing Tree. I purchased it for my grandchildren and will discuss it more at the end of this post.

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There is one undeniable, incontrovertible truth when it comes to children: they don’t sit still.

My wife is the standard for self-control. Even when she was little, she couldn’t sit still. Crawling into bed with her parents one night after a nightmare, she tossed and turned.

“Be still,” her dad said.

So she went rigid and eventually fell asleep lying flat as a board.

My son can’t sit at the table very long. He likes to sit up, kneeling one leg on the chair and standing on the floor with the other. Or walk around the kitchen some. Or lean on the table and hover both feet off the ground. It’s both bothersome and funny. 

“Sit down and chill out, man.” 

My daughter squirms in her seat, delaying eating her food. She flips her head around to look at me upside-down. Then she’ll stretch way out under the table to play footsie with my wife. 

“Baby, sit still.”

My kids’ restlessness at the dinner table is ridiculous.

Learn to Be Still: When I’m Restless

But the truth is, I’m no different. I’m just as restless. It might not be a dinner table restlessness where the wiggles need to get free. It’s a spiritual restlessness, a feeling that if I sit still I’ll fail, I’ll miss something. The feeling of anxiety that I’m supposed to be doing a particular thing at a particular time. The sense of not wanting to displease the people I love or, worst of all, displease God.

But in each of those moments of restless anxiety, there is God my Father, assuring me I have nothing to fear. Through each stage of my life, God is tending to me like a garden, pruning where I’ve grown wild, watering me when I’m dry, shining on me when I’m cloudy. 

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10 Reasons God’s a Faithful Father

Before we discuss characteristics of a faithful Father, I wanted to share something exciting.

While I’m blessed to have contributed to several published anthologies and books, along with devotions and articles, this week CBN published my devotion on their website’s devotional section. I’m so grateful for this opportunity, and give Jesus all the glory and honor for using me to reach others. The devotion link is at the end of this post.

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Loving. Caring. Faithful. 

These words pop in my mind when I think of fathers.

And if you know anything about my story, you know my earthly father abandoned me for part of my childhood.

When my dad reappeared in my life, he was a self-proclaimed atheist. He held no belief in God, much less the idea of a heavenly Father who loves us and never leaves His children.

Yet, after sixteen years of praying for him, my dad finally believed in God and accepted Christ as Savior.

Dad passed away in 2010. So, I’m always a little tear-filled, a tad heart-broken, and a bit soul-grieved this time of year. 

Because I miss so many things about my dad. I miss his presence in my life and talking to him. I miss making him a lemon pie on his birthday and Father’s Day. Oh, how I loved him.

Still, I have the honor and privilege to celebrate three fathers every year. My biological dad in heaven, Gene. And my first stepdad, Wendell.

Wendell helped raise me, and he loved me and cared for me exactly the same as his own biological daughter (my younger sister). I still get to see Wendell on occasion, chat with him by phone, and love him dearly.

Both of my earthly fathers will always have a special place in my heart. But, as we honor fathers this month, I also want to highlight my heavenly Father. He’s the third father mentioned, but first in my life.

As we celebrate fathers this month, it reminds us of God's love and care for us as our heavenly Father. #fathers Share on X

10 Reasons God’s Always a Faithful Father

(1) He adopts us.

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