Do we agree that Virginia is the best place in the U.S. to take school field trips? When our nephew came from England to stay with us for a while, our first move was to take him to Fort Story for the First Landing Cross and commemoration of the Comte de Grasse blockade of the British fleet, then to Jamestown Island and the Yorktown Surrender Field to complete both of those stories! Our liberty and freedom as Americans are very precious to us. Yet, more precious by far are

Where have we gone . . . and what have we done . . . how have we become so far removed from an accurate concept and relationship to God, the transcendent Creator of all that exists? We have made our perceptions of the Creator to be the definitions of His person and design; we have made our word-definitions of our "translations" of His written revelation to be the authorities over His original words in the languages He chose for giving that revelation to humanity . . . what h

When Pastor had us pray with the TBA teachers during our indoor picnic last month, some of us covenanted with our specific teacher that night to pray for her class all year long. Some have done the same with specific teachers since then. The idea is that we pray for the school in general but having a specific face of a teacher and students in front of us for the year personalizes our prayers, too. Then next year, we choose another teacher and do the same all year again! I

91 children, at last count, started TBA on Monday. We believe God will increase our number of students in His timing, but we also consider the spiritual growth of those 91 children that is happening right now. 91 unique human beings, sent to their parents and then to us by God. 91 souls that may already belong to Jesus or may still be too young to understand or may be holding out for some reason. 91 children who can follow Jesus with all of their hearts, expecting great t

As our church and our school join hands to pray this year, let me ask a couple of questions. Can God do something amazing this schoolyear? Will He? Are we willing to ask Him to do it? There are many examples in history of Christians who expected amazing things from God and boldly requested them, thanking Him for the results. Let's join together to do that.

It is now approximately 45 minutes till our school, Tabernacle Baptist Academy, gathers together around the flagpole to launch a new schoolyear with prayer. This is done around our national symbol in order to show gratitude that God has granted us a country with freedom of religion. Here we can attend school in a place where He can be taught at the center of our curriculum. Here we can express our adoration for the true God, the triune God, in our prayers. Here our childr

Dear Father, As we move into the last weekend before a new schoolyear starts at TBA, we pray for families who may be using this weekend for last minute shopping, to hit our beautiful local beaches, or to do some family travel. You have created a beautiful world which we still can recognize as beautiful, even after we have marred it over some millennia. You have created families. You have created our ability to create lasting memories of times we spend with our loved ones.

As a new schoolyear starts, dear Lord, help us to remember how many times in Your Word You tell us You are doing something new! Not only are You doing something new this schoolyear, but You are doing something new each day in it. There is no day on earth when You say to Yourself, "I think I will send them the same old routine." If we think that is happening, our eyes are blinded to Your magnificent work. You are drawing people to Yourself in salvation. You are growing pe

My neighbors took what I think is the best pic ever of our Capitol this weekend. I publish this to encourage us about the many blessings (Pastor mentioned them yesterday) that we have inherited as people born or naturalized in the U.S.

Whenever the Bible speaks of water in the desert, especially when Jesus stands at noontime telling the woman of Samaria that He is the water of life, I go back mentally to these images in the deserts of Utah. This was below the hotel window where we stayed two nights in Moab. Moab is almost entirely enclosed by a natural red rock wall that now has several roads along it (and at least one that goes over the top and comes down at Arches National Park). The whole area was an

I hope we all have at least one same gender friend who, along with our spouse, is allowed to speak truth into our lives without us getting offended. Kimberly and I were roommates in college. Next year we will celebrate fifty years of friendship. What a gift of God that she and her dear husband just retired in Williamsburg. This is us in Smithfield on Tuesday (she was on the Surry ferry just hours before the funnel cloud came up the James River!).

To turn off AI responses and summaries in Gmail, you must disable the Smart Features and Workspace smart controls in your account settings. Desktop Steps Open Gmail on your computer. Click the Gear Icon (Settings) in the top right corner, then click See all settings. Stay on the General tab and scroll down to the Google Workspace smart features section. Click Manage Workspace smart feature settings. Uncheck or toggle off Smart features in Google Workspace and Smart features i

Team USA, it was a good run until it wasn't. I still love soccer/football because of the man to whom I am married and I will follow this series to the end because it is fun and exciting. However, the way I was yelling at the television last night showed me something really valuable about which God and I had a talk this morning. Idolatry of the heart. Yes, this is only a game and I need to remember that. But really, anything that would make me as angry as I was last night

The day before my birthday, my bestie took me to Monticello for the first time. It was super hot but we had a great time. Thomas Jefferson, it turns out, has three accomplishments recorded on his grave. Being president was not one of them. The Declaration of Independence is the first one, the religious freedom clause for Virginia is the second (copied by other states and ultimately the federal government itself), and founding the University of Virginia is the third. If y

As I watch 40,000 Scots leaving Boston after a couple of weeks of World Cup celebration there, I can feel the sadness of both the Bostonians that they are going and the Scots that they have to go onward. I am reminded of when I was a teen and would feel lonely after staying up all night at a slumber party because all of a sudden a really fun crowd was gone and I was left with my own thoughts. And I can entertain myself easily because I love to read but it is still hard to s

Before Noel and I started driving out west, I had only ever been as far as Colorado, where I lived for six months of Navy Intel School back in the day. I had flown to California numerous times, but never driven through the desert to get there. Now that I have been in the desert, I love the desert. It is beautiful in Arizona, between Phoenix and the Grand Canyon. It is lovely throughout the entire state of Utah. It is stunning in a desolate way along U.S. 50 from Ely, Neva

Has anyone who does not follow car racing heard of the Bonneville Salt Flats? We had not. Wish we had taken a picture but we did not see a good stopping place on I-80 for almost 100 miles as we gaped at these completely flat, ghostly white plains that began in Nevada and continued almost all the way to Salt Lake City, Utah. Apparently they are very related to the Great Salt Lake in Salt Lake City but they made me think of Lot and his family, especially his wife. Places on

Nothing could have prepared me for Utah, as I will admit we drove into it with minimal knowledge of its topography. It has five national parks, two mostly mountains from down below (Arches and Zion), two mostly canyons from above (Canyonlands and Bryce Canyon), and one oasis running between two desert mountain chains that was settled by ten Mormon families who had to constantly flee flooding at various times of the year (Capitol Reef). The whole state could be a national pa

There is nowhere quite so wonderful as my very own recliner an hour after our return from a 19 day trip. So much exhaustion has set in that I am going to just praise God for our safe travel and call it a night. Later I will post some more photos Noel took of God's wonderful creation out west. The trip was roughly in four parts: a southern route out west, the Mighty Five Utah National Parks, three days at Lake Tahoe, and the northern route back, including visits with Joey a

Two different cities and two different attitudes. This morning we woke up in Cheyenne, Wyoming. On our way out of the hotel, a young woman started to board our elevator as we were waiting to exit. She was in her pajamas and around 20. I said, "It is better to let people off first, hon." She said, "I have to get to work." I noticed she looked like she had been crying so I let her go first. Later I was convicted that she probably needed to know that I prayed for her jus