Have you ever lost a pet? Or better yet have you outlived your pet? If so then you know the empty hole that they can leave. As a pet owner since early childhood, I have endured living beyond their time all too many times. It never gets easier, and you don’t miss them any less. I woke this morning to a quiet house. Well, as quiet as a house with three large, needy rescue pups can be. It was quiet as I did not have the motion detected Hue light come on before I entered our front room. Quiet, without a hungry, sleepy “meow” to greet me under my bare feet. No pitter-patter paw prints across the floor leading me to the kitchen to his bowl. Last evening I placed my furkid kitty of thirteen years in the ground. He had lost his battle with age, kidney failure, and more. I left yesterday morning to go to work knowing he was not doing very well. Before I returned home he crawled into the bed that up until recently he rarely used and went to sleep. Looking as if he had gone peacefully to join all my pets before him. (Yes I firmly believe that animals also go over the rainbow bridge and await us playfully in heaven.) A good fight had been fought. He allowed myself and my wife our own personal moments over the last few days to love on him. We knew his precious time with us was near, we prayed over him, […]

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Dear Dad, I am writing this letter, and I hope it finds you in good health.  That probably sounds strange since we have not talked in many years or perhaps ever. Either way, I wish you only the best today which is different from the way it has been. I have tried to write this letter many times before and never succeeded. However, I do have a few things I would like to share with you, things I think you should know. When you walked away and left me behind, you left more than just a child. You left behind a part of you in me that I have had to live with my entire life, up until now. I doubt I cried tears when you left, at least not over your leaving. Perhaps when the hunger and dirty diapers that kicked in, I likely shed some tears, but they were not for you. I would have to have known you to cry for you, or so I thought. Growing up I got used to being called names like a bastard, I mean you did leave so it was somewhat accurate. Then again are you a bastard when both parents leave? Anyway, I digress, where was I? Oh yeah… As a child, it was uncomfortable never really fitting in. Fights were normal as I always felt alone and out-of-place. Anyone that called be a bas”….” or “son of a b….” , well those were fighting words.  I had parents, but they did not look like me. I had anger […]

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On this Good Friday, I am reminded of a somber moment. A moment where His pain became our gain.
As his pierced hands were nailed to the cross. The spear lanced his side. Our salvation poured out onto the ground on that hill. He suffered a death that no one should endure in order to cleanse the earth of its sin and make us pure.
We are closing in on the end of our forty days of Lent, many of whom can barely hold on a couple more days. Yet He held on, his friends denied him and He still held on. He carried the burden of the worlds’ sin, yet He held on. Even in His dying, as He hung on the cross, He held onto each one of us in his heart.

~ 1 Peter 2:24
Have you died to yourself this Lenten season? Given up your sin and embraced a new relationship with your Father? He will rise again in three days and carry your burdens with Him. Did you give him your sin to take home?
As believers whether Christian or Catholics (not sure why there has been such a hoopla lately on the difference) we all sin regularly. We fail daily and are burdened to carry our own cross. During Lent we are asked to fast, pray and give alms as symbols of

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