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In Psalms 46:10-11 it says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.” I would like to take some time to talk about these two verses and see what I can discover and then pass this onto you as you are on your life journey. Let’s learn together and see what will happen. To make a long story short, these verses are talking about the fact that when th...
Sadly, mass shootings have become a regular occurrence in our world today. We have people lobbying for gun control and Government leaders promising to offer solutions to prevent such horrific acts of crime. Mass shootings are nothing new, they have been happening in one form or another since the beginning of time; by way of sword, spear, bow and arrow or cannons or bombs. We can go back into history and remember the massacres at Wounded Knee, Sand Creek, and in Canada there...
All the broken fathers who fell short of what we needed and all the faltering mothers who chose their own needs over ours, they follow us, long after we've moved past them, into adulthood, into our own parenting, into our relationship with God. It is the first failing we own, our inability to heal our parents' brokenness. Before we even form a sense of ourselves we know, somehow, we've failed because our existence isn't enough to make them whole. Our portal into this world,...
After a lifetime of musical achievement and political accomplishments, Colville Tribal Chairman Jim Boyd has walked on. Seven Native American Music Awards, including one for Lifetime Achievement, crowned a career that spanned concerts, movie soundtracks like 'Smoke Signals" and numerous CDs. Native America mourns the sudden passing of this civic leader, who passed away at the age of 60. Prior to his passing, Boyd shared his insights into his love of family, service to his...
Recipient, Congressional Gold Medal In 1942 when the United States faced a critical shortage of pilots during World II, U.S. war leaders instituted a program that was, at the time, quite radical. To free male pilots for overseas combat duty, they instituted the Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). Over 1,100 in total, all were civilian volunteers receiving no military benefits such as back pay or death insurance. Shortly after graduating from high school, Ola Mildred...
At the end of March 2016 I attended a one-day conference in Winnipeg promoting First Nations Christian Writers. There were many Aboriginal people from all across Canada. It was an extreme encouragement to all in attendance. One of the guest speakers was Les Stobbe from North Carolina. He has many years’ experience in the world of editing and literature review as an editor and literary agent. His talk was encouraging to me because it focused on all the “God Moments” in his l...
The other day I heard an interesting story on the radio. A father and his son were sailing a homemade boat that they had worked diligently on together. The boat managed to drift away from them in the quiet waves and was distancing itself more and more until it became unreachable. The young boy was greatly concerned and asked his daddy what they could do to save the boat. The father began to pick up stones and throw them in the direction of their fragile treasure. As the...
I’ve liked this Proverb since I was in my twenties, because a motherly friend gave me the book, Apples of Gold, to encourage me through some maturing times in my marriage. I still remember reading these words: “Some women are so busy trying to make good husbands that they forget to make good wives.” I had to refocus a couple of things. Words fascinate me. I like word paintings where “wildflowers” and “meadowlarks” fill a “meadow.” I enjoy imaginative words like “kaleidoscop...
Every morning I stand on my porch and toss peanuts to four squirrels that live in the trees in my yard. The squirrels listen for my door to open and scurry out of the bushes and climb down from the trees and come and sit in a line and wait for me to toss each of them a peanut. This morning I only had one peanut left in the bag and I tossed it into the yard expecting the fastest squirrel to grab the nut and run with it. Instead the four squirrels got into a fight and while...
If you’re going to care about the fall of the sparrow, you can’t pick and choose who is going to be the sparrow. –Madeleine L’Engle “So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to Him than a whole flock of sparrows.” –Matthew 10:31 (NLT) Charlie Brown, the comic strip character identified with the underdog, probably because he always felt like one. In one scene he was building a birdhouse when the cynical Lucy came by. “I’m building it for sparrows,” Charlie told her. “Fo...
Named one of the Top Fifty Women in Oklahoma Was Founder and President, Indigenous Democratic Network Attorney and member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, Kalyn Free founded and was president of the Indigenous Democratic Network, known throughout Indian Country as INDN's List, the only political organization that recruited, trained and funded American Indian candidates and staff and mobilized the Indian vote throughout America. It was the only political organization that...
GOD MOVES THROUGH OUR WORDS I want to share something that happened to me as I read Becky Kew’s “Do You Ever Wonder Why?” in the Jan/Feb 2016 issue. Becky wrote about Daisy, a horse that fell into a well and could not get out. When I read that story, it totally convicted me. It made me cry, something I haven’t done in a while. I mean the kind of cry that one may do when the Holy Spirit moves upon them. Needless to say—I was moved. Like Daisy, I fell into a well too. The difference between Daisy and myself is that she fell...
The church I attend had extensive renovations done to make the surroundings functional and inviting. We have a small central stage where a speaker shares God's Word from behind a pulpit. It's a wonderful thing to focus on the Bible and let it speak to your heart. Praise and adoration of the Savior and thoughts of God's greatness, should be the result. As well, hopefully a heart that is changed a little bit more to be like Jesus is also a result. A couple of times I have found...
Many of us Aboriginal people believe in healing. Even if you do not believe in Jesus you probably still believe in healing. That is why many Aboriginal people who are not followers of Jesus go through the way of their ancestors for different healings of some sort. The purpose of this column is not to discuss the different methods people use to obtain healing, but focus on pointing people to see Jesus Christ as their ultimate form of healing. In this life and the one to come....
All the song birds in the forest had stopped singing. They were afraid of a giant hawk that had just moved into the forest and was killing the small songbirds. They stopped singing because when the hawk heard them singing he'd swoop down, grab them with his talons and carry them away and eat them. Only the partridge was safe from the hawk because his brown feathers blended with the dirt and weeds and the partridge didn't sing pretty songs or fly higher than a bush so the hawk...
Life is a puzzle. How many of your puzzle pieces are not quite fitting into the pattern you envisioned? Like with a jigsaw puzzle, I have often looked through my life's puzzle pieces, trying to find the straight edge that completed the frame or that oddly shaped piece that filled in a scene, only to determine that I must have lost it. I rejoice the most over that piece when I find it! I recently went through a medical ordeal that consumed my life for three months. I am...
A few days ago, I was watching a video of a beautiful horse named Daisy. She had somehow fallen in a well. Her back legs were trapped and the only thing sticking out of the well was the front half of her legs, her head and a portion of her neck. She was helpless and without strength to get herself out of the pit she was in. If it wasn't for the backhoe and skilled operator, Daisy would have died. It was amazing to watch as the back hoe lifted such a magnificent creature up and...
My son has been single for 29 years. Since flying from our nest he has kept a fairly clean house, done his laundry and become adept at cooking. Although he does show up at our house often just to gaze into the fridge and drool. But a grown man can only eat so much of his Mother's lasagna before she sends him out to pasture. He lost weight in the pasture and began considering marriage. Before long, he had more dates than a palm tree. They came from online dating services,...
I kept repeating it in my head: Mississippi mud pies, Mississippi mud pies. I encouraged my brain: you know these words; you know how to say them; you can do it. I whispered them to myself: mmmm iissss iissss iipppii mmmud ppiess. A tear rolled down my cheek, and the doctor admitted me. I heard a nurse tell another nurse that they had room for me in the closet. It was a little nicer than that. There were no windows in the little V-shaped room; it had no TV or wall light like a...
I ate a bug—not just any bug. I ate a roach. The memory still makes me shiver. My friend, Francis, was one of those people who just never seemed to get a break. When she was young she was taller than the other kids so she slumped and developed humped shoulders. She had crooked teeth that her parents never had the money to fix and she had to wear thick glasses. I don’t think she ever had a date. She lived at home with her parents until she was 40 and she worked as a teller in...
Faith and words go together like bannock and moose meat. You can’t have one without the other. Many times we treat people that are rich better than the poor because we are trying to get in their good books or we are hoping, we can at some time get a favor from them. Many times, as followers of Jesus, we like to give encouraging words but we don’t always have some sort of action or solution to go with those words and this is a not a good thing. We might feel good about our...
Have you ever listened to people pray on TV or maybe even at church? Sometimes the prayer is all about asking God to give them what they want to make them happy or “blessed”. As shocking as it may sound, this is not true prayer. True prayer is about praying for Creator God’s will to be done. How do we know His will? We need to read His Word! When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, one of the first things He said was, “pray for God’s will to be done here in o...
Isn’t it amazing that leaves turn brilliant yellows, oranges and reds before leaving (or as my funny husband would say, “leafing”) to prepare branches for heavy winter snows? Our Creator even paints dark northern skies with colorful light. I remember nights in northern Alberta when I shivered outside in sub-zero temperatures to watch what looked like red and purple waterfalls plunging to the ground. One night I stood beneath a herringbone-patterned dome pulsating outwa...
Most of us will say we don’t really care about getting gifts for Christmas and that gifts aren’t important and aren’t the true meaning of Christmas. However, I think most of us would like to receive something special. Children are more honest and have long lists of toys and games they are hoping to find under the tree Christmas morning. If we adults were as honest as children and made a long list of things we’d really like, we might ask for a new house, a better car, a big s...
When we grow our own vegetables we cook and store enough of them to get us well into winter, I’m sure you do the same. One year we had a super crop of butternut squash that lasted into late March. That never happened again, but whenever I look at a bushel basket of corn, tomatoes or squash I feel rich, then I snap out of it and remember I’m at a farmer’s market! Some years have been great, others not so much. Even if you process, can or freeze just a few vegetables, they...
