My JourKNEE Back

My skin crawls when I hear the word "hypocrite." Christians, on social media, get accused of being one all the time. Hypocrisy, according to Webster's Dictionary, is "the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform'" The reason I dislike this word being thrown around is that it is used in the wrong way. If we call out something as a sinful act (I will let it up to your imagination to think of any hotly debated topic in America), we are seen as haters of the very people that participate in those sinful acts when, in reality, we love those people deeply. Just like a parent who wants to keep their child from danger, we want to keep these people's souls from what we feel will be eternal danger. I wrote about this in my blog "Caution! Danger Ahead" on May 4, 2025, if you want to go back and read that post.  The second reason I dislike this word being thrown around is because although I att...

I met "J" and "K" (see blog post "Iron Sharpens Iron", 08/31/25) and "K"'s daughter on a trail this morning. It's that time of year when the sun doesn't start to make its appearance until around 7 a.m. and we typically meet earlier. The trail path was peaceful and dark. I could only see what my chest light illuminated which was maybe five feet in front of me. I wasn't scared. Maybe because I am familiar with this particular trail or maybe because I had just enough light to get me to the next step and I knew that as I kept going, the light would shine on the next small section of the path to keep me moving forward. I kept going and as I got closer to my van, the sun was starting to rise. It was a beautiful reward. While I myself am not necessarily a great planner, I do think it is wise to have some sort of idea where you are going in life. I also think that not knowing all the steps beforehand or exactly how you will get there, hol...

All week I knew my Saturday run would be solo. I had planned to go four or five miles as a challenge to myself to go further than the three I've gotten comfortable with. When Saturday morning arrived, of course, my bed was feeling pretty good. I could hear the neighbor's wind chime blowing loudly and knew that the temperature was not only cooler than it had been, but there was also a breeze. The thought of staying in bed crossed my mind but I knew I had to get up. Step one of accomplishing my goal, getting out of bed, was complete. I stepped out the side door into the dark early morning air which, indeed, was cold. I thought to myself that I could just go for the usual three and call it a day. I knew immediately that I would be disappointed if I cut myself short so I ran to the halfway point of where three miles home would be, and I pushed myself to run a mile further knowing I would still have to run home and end at five miles. Step two of accomplishing my goal, going the dist...

Last weekend, my husband and I were invited to a formal event. I don't dress up that often, not necessarily because I don't like to, but because I have some weird self-esteem issues. (I'm working on it!) My daughter and I went shopping for a dress the week before. I had found one that I felt was flattering and comfortable. As I got ready the afternoon of the event, I was feeling pretty good about how I looked. At the event, we had assigned table seating. We had three other guests assigned to our table. One of them never showed, one saw the table she was assigned to but chose another seat while whispering "I'm supposed to be at THAT table", complete with a finger point and side eye, and one young lady who sat with us had made polite small talk but gracefully excused herself to a table of younger guests when she saw no one else was joining us.  There we were at a back corner table, just the two of us. My negative self-talk kicked into high gear. Why do we never ...