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Happy Easter!

4/12/2020

During these tough times with the coronavirus pandemic, I'm so thankful for the chance to be able to worship my Lord and Savior through online video conferencing, prayers, reading the bible, and other methods. My church had online video conferencing this morning. The focus was on the truth of the resurrection of Jesus. My cats were able to attend. They heard the voices of new people, saw images of these people on my laptop's screen, and heard the music of a worship service.
They actually loved the experience. Worship services always add to my knowledge, and having a different kind of Easter is memorable in so many ways. Knowing the truth of Jesus's resurrection also helps me and others to feel happier, stronger, and safer.

Helping on Palm Sunday

4/5/2020

I know from looking at palm trees that many of them look strong, some appear average, and a few of them look weak. My drawing of a palm tree in this blog posting is not super great. No matter how strong or weak my palm tree and each of its branches are, I’m just so happy to be alive, to be able to connect to my God with prayer, and to lay a palm branch of faith before the feet of my Lord. I also love being able to help others by making some small donations to my church and other non-profit organizations. Even a little bit of weak help is still helpful.

Praying Thankfully on Thanksgiving

11/28/2019

On Thanksgiving, I'm always so thankful to God for the many positive parts of my life: my family, pets, friends, author events, and jobs as the Writing Center Coordinator and Adjunct Faculty member at the Community College of Rhode Island. I also have all of the essentials of life: lots of good food, a small inexpensive home that's easy to clean, a car, lots of credit-card debt, still lots of student-loan debt, and enough money to pay my most-important bills. I love being able to pray at least twice a day: once in the morning and once at night. While I often ask for too much while I pray, I sometimes also apologize for asking. I also try to include something I'm thankful for in every prayer.

Healing According to God's Way

7/4/2019

One of the greatest miracles to ever happen in my life was referenced in one of my earlier blog posting comments. I still love to think about this miracle and remind myself that, when I pray, even if I want everything to happen according to exactly how I ask for help, sometimes a better possibility exists. Here is the commentary that describes that miracle from a Sept. 14, 2014 blog posting on my mayflowerdreams.com blog page (http://www.mayflowerdreams.com/blog/many-good-thanks#comments):

When I was in my early twenties, I experienced a wonderful miracle that happened after I slipped and fell down my front stairs. My left ankle was seriously sprained or broken. The pain was so bad that I couldn't move. I was sprawled on the sidewalk and didn't know what to do.

Then my one-year old son, who was still inside the apartment, started screaming. I was in so much pain that I couldn't even crawl up the stairs to see if he was okay. I prayed to our Lord for help. After praying, I looked around--I was expecting that someone would come by, see me, and call an ambulance. However, noone was there. Instead, my ankle suddenly stopped hurting. I stood up, got my son, and went grocery shopping.

In the next hour, a couple of strangers asked me if I was okay. They even pointed to my ankle. Even though my nylons were ripped, and my left ankle looked really bad, my ankle felt completely normal. It wasn't numb; when I walked, touched it, hopped on it, and did other activities, my ankle felt normal.

Several of my relatives saw my ankle and wanted me to see a doctor, but I was scared the pain would come back. Over the next few weeks, my ankle gradually returned to looking normal. No scars were left, and the pain never returned.

This was a miracle that I couldn't deny. I couldn't tell myself that I had just imagined some kind of temporary pain because, for several weeks, I could see the injury. Other people also saw the injury.

I am so thankful for the way God healed my ankle. I found out miracles not only happen, but God decides how they will happen.

Writing with Religious Elements

5/11/2019

I love writing with religious content because the writing experiences, including the research, help me to become more educated about my own faith and many other faith-related topics. For example, I've been reading about, thinking about, and writing about these and many other topics:

the bible's content
the Pilgrims
Rev. John Robinson, one of my ancestors and the pastor to the Pilgrims
Roger Williams
the history of religion
religious practices in different countries
religious holidays

Easter Sunday, April 20, 2019

4/21/2019

   Easter is one of my favorite holidays because of the resurrection of Jesus. This resurrection lets me know that we also will not just die, but we'll have eternal life through our belief in Jesus. I love knowing that Jesus also was not just some kind of an invisible spirit: he did such things as eating food, being visible to disciples, etc. I believe that we also will have some kind of form when we arrive in Heaven.
   The cover of Holidays Amaze obviously has Easter eggs as a part of its design. Holidays Amaze has a great Easter poem on pages 21 through 28: "Sticking Together on Easter." This poem has a story about an Easter egg hunt on Easter Sunday. The children in this narrative talk about Jesus and his life, as well as finding some really nice surprises in their Easter eggs.
   Here is the ending of the poem, which is on pages 27 and 28 of Holidays Amaze:

   "A circle of children and teachers did form
   around the Jesus statue with prayers so warm
   that they melted moisture within the stickers,
   creating dampness falling down from the stickers
   to the ground and forming a tiny pond
   where Christian friends with each other could bond
   to join with Jesus stickers from Easter eggs
   to walk on circular ponds with stable legs."

Sharing Faith at Church

2/14/2019

I love to go to church nearly every Sunday for these reasons:

When I go to church once a week at the same time, my neighbors know that I'm going to church every Sunday. This is a way to share my faith.
Even when I'm really busy, I want to let God know that I'm taking time out of my busy life to worship him.
Positive and/or negative events are always happening, so I'm thankful to be in an environment that can help me to pray.
Church is always a positive experience. I love the music, prayers, and the sermon, which all help me to learn something new every Sunday.
Supporting one or more churches is important, so the services done at churches can help people who want to get married, people who need a minister to conduct a funeral service, people who need prayer, and/or people who need other kinds of help.

A Forevergreen Christmas

12/25/2018

Every Christmas, I especially love to think about my Lord and Savior: Jesus Christ. Because of His sacrifice, many Christians have been given eternal lives. People might ask me how I know this to be true. My answer is that, for many reasons, I know there's a very loving and helpful Christian God. To be with God for eternity means to be in heaven, which will be wherever God is located.

"A Forevergreen Christmas" is the poem on page 89 of Karen Petit's book of poetry: Holidays Amaze, published in 2018 by WestBow Press. A larger version of this poem is included in the blog for Holidays Amaze (http://www.holidaysamaze.com/holiday-blog).

How Do I Know There's a God?

12/8/2018

I often tell people that I don't just believe in God, I know there's a God. I've often asked myself how do I really know there's a God? Here are some of the many reasons why I know this to be true:

Miracles. My life has included many miracles. Just a few weeks ago, while driving, I screamed because I thought a large speeding SUV was going to hit me. I thought my life was over. I don't remember ever screaming like that before. I had a green light and the SUV had a red light. Thankfully, my car's brakes worked really well--in a miraculous way--they boomed a couple of times. My car then paused, the other driver swerved--or was swerved away from me, and then my car moved forward safely. After driving a block, I pulled over to look at my car. I was worried the booming might have been one of the other cars hitting mine. My car, in addition to myself, was 100% safe.
Many miracles. Too many miracles have happened to too many people to claim that miracles are just some kind of coincidences. Many miracles have happened to me and to the people whom I know. Here's just one of many examples: Years ago, my father had a miracle happen when he was driving down a hill one day. The road had some ice on it. He knew a miracle was happening when his car stopped at the bottom of the hill.
The bible. This book's logical connections among its different chapters could not have been written by different people all by themselves at different times. The writers of the different chapters had to be writing what God wanted them to with some kind of help from God. The bible really is God's word and is evidence of God's presence in our universe. Often when I read the bible, the words are ones that have meaning to me personally and help me to live a more positive life.
Prayers. God always answers my prayers in ways that He thinks are the best. Sometimes these answers are exactly what I have asked for, and sometimes the answers are ones that are even more logical.
Darwin's Theory of Evolution. This theory might explain some of the process that God used to create our world, but logically, how could so much beauty and so many differences just have happened without direction, shaping, and creation by God? How could such things as the sun, moon, earth, water, atmosphere, mountains, valleys, zebras, giraffes, elephants, fish, cats, dogs, plants, . . . have just created themselves and then evolved all by themselves?
Love. To feel any kind of love is to know that reality is not just what can be seen with our eyes and heard with our ears. God gave us love not just through our creation and ability to feel love, but also with His son's life and sacrifice for our sins, so all true Christians can have eternal lives.
Souls. I was with several of my family members when they left our world to be in God's hands. Because of these experiences, I'm certain our souls live in our bodies and then leave our physical bodies.
Many believers. In the past and the present, there have been many believers in God. Logically, why would so many busy people spend some of their time doing such things as attending church, praying, and reading bibles, unless there actually is a God?
More reasons. There are many more reasons why I know God is a reality. Some of these reasons are shown in the content of my books, and some are shown on the blog pages for my books.

Thanksgiving and Other Prayers in Holidays Amaze

11/22/2018

Holidays Amaze has four prayer poems, including "A Prayer Poem on the National Day of Prayer," "A Prayer Poem on Memorial Day," "Many Good Thanks: A Prayer Poem," and "A Prayer Poem at a Wedding." "Many Good Thanks: A Prayer Poem" was initially published on my "Many Good Thanks" blog page for Mayflower Dreams; this poem is still online with other Thanksgiving items at: http://www.mayflowerdreams.com/blog.
Holidays Amaze also has prayers and references to praying in some of its other poems. For example, "A Maze Poem: A Maze of Choices for New Year's Day" has these lines in one of the maze's boxes on page 8:
   "God always answers
   all of our prayers,
   so praying can help
   with our lives' repairs."
In reality, God always has answered my prayers. He answers them in the way that He thinks is appropriate, which is sometimes in the way that I request and at other times in a slightly different way. Whatever happens, though, I am always thankful to have my prayers heard and answered.
   Especially on this Thanksgiving Day,
   I'll enjoy the chance to read and to pray.