Good News

Adrienne Lee, The Good News Rev

Posts Tagged Adrienne Lee

Spinning

Feb 21

Posted by admin in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

I have always been a fitness enthusiast and have belonged to the same health club for 20 years. It is a large club that offers top-notch fitness equipment, indoor and outdoor tennis courts, squash, racquetball, an Olympic size swimming pool and a host of group classes. I have taken advantage of many of the classes and it has been interesting to watch the class offerings change as certain fitness fads have become more popular; high and low impact aerobics, step aerobics, Pilates, cardio kick-boxing and more recently zumba and spinning. I have participated in many of these classes through the years and some I enjoyed a lot….others, not so much. For me, spinning falls into the “not so much” category.

Spinning classes take place in a fitness studio on stationary bicycles. They are vigorous workouts set to high-energy music where the instructor guides the class through varying levels of exertion. To spinning enthusiasts it is a great workout. To me it’s just a bunch of sweaty people in a little room going absolutely nowhere. Obviously I’m not a fan. It’s not that I mind exertion, but I prefer to move – to go somewhere when I exert. So I would rather jog or powerwalk or ride a bicycle outdoors so that I can see my progress.

For me – and people like me, trusting God and walking by faith can be as challenging as one of those spinning classes. We love the challenge and the adrenalin rush of exertion, but want to be able to track our progress and arrive at our chosen destination.  However, I have learned that God works differently- His ways are definitely nor our ways. As a firm believer that faith without works is dead, I’m a doer. So there have been times in my life when I’ve peddled furiously, expecting to arrive at a particular outcome, only to have circumstances turn out quite differently; or not change at all. At other times when I thought I should be moving, God has directed me to be still…and just let Him be God. And to my surprise – and delight – He has always worked things out, often far better than I even expected; exceedingly, abundantly better. So I’m trying to work at being still; to practice a lifestyle of stillness – which is really tough for a “worker-bee” like me. But it really is the best way. So even though I still pedal my little bike, I’ve learned to place it on the back of God’s truck and let Him drive. After all, He knows the way…..

Tags: , ,

Do You See What I See?

Oct 7

Posted by admin in My Blog | No Comments

“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”  ~Anaïs Nin

 

“As far as the Moon is concerned, he is always full.”  ~Terri Guillemets

 

We judge others by their behavior.  We judge ourselves by our intentions.  ~Ian Percy

 

“Is the glass half empty, half full, or twice as large as it needs to be?”  ~Author Unknown

 

These are a few of my favorite quotations about perspective. Each person sees things differently – out of his or her own eyes. Our beliefs, our experiences and many other things can shape our perspective.

I had a very practical reminder of this fact recently. One of my friends is launching a new business and she asked me to take a look at her web site before it went live. Since she lives in another state, we spoke by telephone as we walked through the website and tested each link together. Although the content and overall design was quite good, I raised a few questions about formatting. I mentioned that the he alignment on some of the pages was so far right that it overlapped the right border. But for some reason, she did not see it.  I also noticed the color of the footer, black, seemed a little dark. But for some reason she did not see that either. She saw the footer as blue. How very odd! Even though we were looking at the same pages, we saw different things. We went around and around trying to figure out what the problem was. Eventually we realized that we were on different types of computers (she was on a PC & I was on a Mac) with different sized monitors (hers was 19” and mine was 15”), so the content was displaying differently. After our call she went back to her web designer and asked her to redesign the site so that it displayed the same way for all platforms and mobile devices.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , ,

Why, oh Why Can’t I

Aug 22

Posted by admin in My Blog | 1 Comment

“If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow why, oh why can’t I?”

These lyrics are from “Over the Rainbow”, one of many delightful songs from the movie “The Wizard of Oz”. In the song Dorothy sings of a magical land where “dreams really do come true.”  Childhood is a time of vivid imagination when it is easy to believe that dreams can become reality. Santa Claus, Candyland and chocolate factories can seem quite real. As we move into adulthood we realize that they were just childhood imaginations. But even as adults we continue to have wishes, hopes and dreams. Those dreams provide hope and propel us toward great accomplishments. They can also be a source of frustration as long as they remain unfulfilled. Things that seem so easy for some people are like an impossible dream for others.

With so many human beings on the planet, the things they hope for can vary widely. If you asked 25 different people what their dreams were, you could get as many different answers. However, some of their dreams would be similar – good job, a nice home, healthy children. Having children can be one of life’s greatest joys. There is nothing quite like the feeling of seeing your baby’s first smile, or watching him take his first steps. While many people have experienced these joys, for others parenting seems like an impossible dream. These are people who struggle with the challenge of infertility, the biological inability of a person to contribute to conception.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , ,

Oh Baby!

Jul 30

Posted by admin in My Blog | No Comments

Do you remember the first time you gave your baby a bath? I do, and it was a momentous occasion for my husband and I. As first time parents we were eager to do everything exactly right. We’d read lots of parenting books and armed with Apgar scores and a ton of advice from family and friends, we brought our baby home launched into the adventure of parenthood. We sterilized everything, and carefully controlled noise levels and temperature in our home; yes we were fanatics. If only we could have seen into the future we would have known just how “durable” the little fellow was; that he would survive stitches, broken bones and a eventually a dorm room that looked like a waste dump. But we were novices so we followed our pediatrician’s advice and gave him sponge baths for the first few days. Then the big day came. After I put a little lukewarm water into a tiny tub my husband carefully lowered our little miracle into the water. Much to our surprise, he drew his arms and legs up, let out an ear-piercing wail and let us know, in no uncertain terms that he did not like this new experience. I suppose it made sense. After all, in the course of a very few days he had been taken from the shelter of a warm, cozy womb and thrust into a bright noisy world. And now we’d immersed him into another totally new environment; water. We laugh when we think about it now, but at the time it was quite traumatic for all three of us.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , ,

No Strings Attached

Jul 18

Posted by admin in My Blog | No Comments

“Adam and Eve ate the first vitamins, including the package.”  ~E.R. Squibb
Imagine what it must have been like to eat the fruit and vegetables that grew in the Garden of Eden. There were no bugs, no worms, and no pesticides, just perfect produce. Eating healthy was not a struggle, it was the norm.
 
Unfortunately, in the 21st century we do not have access to that quality of produce. So eating healthy is a conscious choice, something that we have to work at. Since healthy eating is one of my goals, I make it a point to buy organic fruits and vegetables that are grown locally. My family enjoys broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, collard greens and their favorite vegetable is green beans (also known as snap beans, haricots verts, string beans). 
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , ,

Package Deal

Jun 23

Posted by admin in My Blog | No Comments

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there…

No doubt, you are familiar with this Christmas poem by Clement Moore. I remember my mother reading it to me when I was quite small. I must admit, not every detail of the poem made sense to me. My mother did not sleep in a kerchief, my father did not sleep in a cap and I had no clue what sugarplums were. But it did paint a nice picture of Christmas morning, which for us children was all about the gifts. We would tip into the living room early on Christmas morning and find that it had been transformed into a wonderland of beautifully wrapped packages of all shapes and sizes. We could hardly wait to tear into them to find what was inside. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , ,

Truth Decay

Jun 13

Posted by admin in My Blog | No Comments

In recent weeks I’ve paid several visits to my dentist for treatment of a tooth with a deep cavity that had to be crowned and may still need a root canal – not my idea of a good time. This experience caused me to do quite a bit of research about tooth decay.

What is tooth decay and when does it occur? It occurs when your teeth are frequently exposed to foods containing carbohydrates such as starches and sugars like soda pop, candy, cake and even sticky fruits. The primary options for treating tooth decay are filling, crown, root canal or extraction. The goal of treatment is to preserve tooth structures and prevent further destruction of the tooth.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , ,

Let It Go

May 31

Posted by admin in My Blog | 1 Comment

“To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.” ~Lewis B. Smedes

Have you ever been hurt, offended, cheated or misused? What is the worst thing that has ever happened to you? Unfortunately, life can be rough and anyone who has lived more than a few months has experienced hurt of some kind or another – physical, mental, emotional, racial, religious, sexual, relational… the list goes on and on. If we were seated in a room together we could share stories that would have us all in tears.

So what is the solution? How do we survive life’s inevitable injustices? There is no easy answer, no magic pill to make the hurt go away. Each of us must find the path toward healing in our own way. Here are excerpts from stories of people who have suffered greatly and found ways to begin their healing journeys.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , ,

Mother’s Day

May 5

Posted by admin in My Blog | No Comments

I was driving down the street recently when the traffic came to a screeching halt. As I tried to figure out what was going on I noticed a man standing in the middle of the road waving his arms. When I looked down I could see why the traffic had stopped. There was a mother duck and 6 little ducklings waddling nonchantly across the street. The mother appeared to be oblivious to the danger that they were in she was just taking her babies out for a walk. The ducklings felt completely safe just following their mom. The mother-child bond is amazing to observe.

As we celebrate Mother’s Day, I am reminded of the great lengths that mothers go to in order to nurture and protect their young.  This applies to human mothers, but animals also make extraordinary sacrifices for their offspring. Here are a few examples:

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , ,

Home, Sweet Home

Apr 21

Posted by admin in My Blog | No Comments

“He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.”
~John Wolfgang von Goethe

“The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.”
~ Maya Angelou

 “The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home.”
~Confucius

“A house is made of walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams.”
~Author Unknown

Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz nicely summed up these quotes about home when she said, “There’s no place like home.” What is a home? Home is a safe place, a comfortable place, and a haven from the outside world. I was blessed to grow up in a warm, loving home. I had an experience at an early age that taught me to appreciate it. My parents, who worked for the same company, were offered positions at a plant in another part of the state. So they began the process of relocating our family from southern to northern California. Part of the process involved them going to find housing. Since I was 5 years old and my brother was only 2 years old, they left us with a family friend for what seemed like forever.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , ,