#sundaysolutions

Sleep, a good night’s sleep, is an all-too-elusive capacity for me. I aim for seven good hours per night and maybe, just maybe, I’ll achieve that goal two nights out of seven. When my allergy is active, I take Nyquil; this cuts the nasal draining and the resultant cough, but I also sleep deeply. Aleve PM is the favorite go-to during non-allergic cycles. However, I am skeptical about taking two many over-the-counter medicines with acetaminophen, since that is an ingredient in many pain-killing products and it is easy to overdose by taking more than 4000 milligrams per day (combining a sleep aid with a pain aid with an allergy reliever). Too much of a good thing has been linked to liver damage.

I’ve discovered that a combination of natural activities, plus heightening my Vitamin B intake, seem to be helping. To bed as much as possible by 9:00 or 9:30; since I am an early riser, this is not a problem. No late-night television watching or computer work; something about the glare from the screens interrupting the normal activity of the melatonin in our system that helps us sleep. A warm bath at night is desired, although I am generally too tired to participate in this relaxing soporific. Deep breaths—25 at least—in and out, in and out, slow my mind down, and I have been trying simple eye-movement exercises, scanning from the left to the center to the right, then back from the right to the center to the left. These seem to quiet my brain; don’t ask me to explain, but it has something to do with crossing from the left brain to the right and back again.

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Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Certainly, it’s understandable that my son Randall, having driven a 26-foot moving van from Phoenix, AZ to Indianapolis, IN and finally to Atlanta, GA without mishap, was not eager to drive another one again. Having visited his storage locker to make a few runs to the new apartment with his Jeep hatchback filled with boxes, it was obvious that the alley leading to his unit was narrow, crowded with spaces rented out for trucks and boats. Backing a 26-footer into that had been a daunting task the first time to unload his belongings, salvaged only by the fact that one of the moving crew had some experience driving vans and navigated the narrow passage. If another renter decided to park a car while he/she gathered items from their own lockers, it would be an impossible task.

On Thursday morning, we moved eagerly out of the cheap hotel where we had stayed for five days into the never-been-lived-in apartment with its lovely and restful views of the wooded ravine between the unit and the club house toward the front of the complex. No furniture to speak of as yet, just suitcases, some clothes in boxes, computers and files. After clicking the car through the electronically controlled gate, we drove over a little bridge into a more wooded area—a little like a welcome transition point between busier and quieter worlds.

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Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

The Gifts Despite Neglect

After being gone for three weeks helping one of my adult kids through a life crisis, I walked through my sadly neglected garden. I could hardly bear to check it out. It has been left on its own this entire summer—few vegetables planted, no weeding done. I observed neglect rioting all over this 3/4-acre spot. A gardening friend asked me last year a question I have often asked myself: “How much garden is too much garden?”

Obviously, too much garden is the one you can’t take care of yourself after the friend who came up seasonally from Oaxaca, Mexico was unable to make this transit due to the cancer occurrence in his wife. Cirilo lived with us from March through October, and in return he did the lawn and gave me two hours of free gardening time. Then when he had extra hours, I hired him to do the rest. After his brilliant maintenance, last season, the garden looked mature and brilliantly beautiful. Due to physical problems this year and family distresses, I have done nothing—literally nothing in the yard.

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Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Lost With a Dead Engine

Those of us who live in large metropolitan areas go to great lengths to avoid rush-hour traffic. We work hard not to travel from 6:30 to 9:00 in the mornings and from 3:30 to 6:00 in the early evening. Flights in and out of Chicago are booked not according to our convenience but in order to escape spending unnecessary time trapped in bumper-to-bumper gridlock. So I decided to leave the house at 3 p.m. to catch a 5:30 flight at O’Hare Airport. That should give me enough time to park and take the tram to the terminal.

We had our 2002 model Mazda Protégé 5 tuned up, and after I hurried away for an earlier trip out of town, I came home to discover I had left the dome light on. Naturally, we charged the dead battery; I drove it around and everything felt fine, but on my way to O’Hare, early enough to avoid rush-hour traffic and taking a highway I usually didn’t drive to the airport but that skirted late-afternoon drive patterns, I noticed there was a little hesitation in the acceleration and a puff of exhaust fumes that I could see out my rearview window.

Click here, to learn more about this article.

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Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

There are many Christians who are so “down in the dumps” that they actually believe that God has abandoned them.  In fact, that’s one of the reasons that they have to be encouraged to “Dare to Dream Again!”  The reality, of course, is that just is NOT the case.  That’s why it is sometimes necessary that you make a concentrated effort to Discover God’s Present Involvement in Your Life.

The question is, of course, how do you Discover God’s Present Involvement in Your Life? The answer may be so obvious that it is over-looked – - the way to Discover God’s Present Involvement in Your Life is to Go on a daily God – Hunt!  Usually, that “hunt” is conducted “after the fact” where daily life occurrences are concerned.