My JourKNEE Back

For my three loyal readers expecting a new blog post today,  the holidays and sickness caught up with me. I pray you enjoyed family time, celebrating the birth of our Savior. As we close out 2025, allow God to write a new chapter of blessing and mercies that are new every morning in 2026. Thanks for joining me on the journey! I'm on Facebook as: https://www.facebook.com/share/17tYFGt2dU/ And Instagram as: @myjourkneeback.  Install the app to follow my photos and videos. https://www.instagram.com/invites/contact/?utm_source=ig_contact_invite&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_content=zkqej6z

*picture taken at Koziar's Christmas Village (Bernsville, PA) Last week I saw a meme of Mary holding baby Jesus. She was rolling her eyes and the caption said, “Yes, I knew.”, which was referring to the famous Christmas carol “Mary, Did You Know.” Of course I got the humor that was intended, but it didn’t make me laugh. Instead, it made me think about the importance people, me included, give to Mary in the Christmas story. Obviously, she played a very important role in the story of Jesus’ birth. Every person involved played a role of importance. Each person had to have some degree of faith, Joseph, Mary, the shepherds, and wise men. Even the innkeeper had to have some degree of faith to provide strangers with a safe place to stay in his stable. Not one of these main characters in the Christmas story played a more important role than the other. God orchestrated all of it to work together perfectly to fulfill His plan of redemption for the human soul. Christmas and Easter are the m...

My husband and I had the humbling opportunity to help place wreaths at Fort Indiantown Gap National Cemetery yesterday as part of the Wreaths Across America volunteer event that places wreaths on veteran gravesites across the United States every December. This event was started in 1992 by Morrill Worcester who also owned Worcester Wreath Company. They had a surplus that year and he had the idea of placing wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery. You can read the full history at www.wreathsacrossamerica.org . This was our third year helping with the event, after my (step)daddy was buried there in December 2021. I remember driving through after his ceremony and thinking how beautiful the wreaths looked, uniformly placed throughout the grounds.  The day opens with an hour-long ceremony in which each branch of the military is honored, Gold Star families are recognized, several short speeches are given, we sing the National Anthem, ending with taps and a three-volley salute. As an Americ...

I know it's December and in the spirit of the holiday, I should probably discuss all things joyful and hopeful.  "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you". 1 Peter 1:3-5 (NIV) "I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete." John 15:11 (NIV) While I absolutely have joy and hope, there is something else that is weighing heavy on my heart, and I wanted to write out my thoughts about it. So, let's pretend we are out on a run together and I'm just talking to you as we go. Of course, to make it more realistic, you can read it in an out-of-breath and rambling manner which may actually be how this post turns out anyway since I am just going to type as the words come. I have several ...

"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his faithful love endures forever." 1 Chronicles 16:34 (CSB) As this Thanksgiving week comes to an end, it got me thinking about the difference between being grateful and being thankful.  According to the Miriam-Webster dictionary, they are defined as follows: Grateful: 1. a. "appreciative of benefits received; feeling or showing thanks" b. "expressing gratitude" 2. a. "affording pleasure or contentment; pleasing" b. "pleasing by reason of comfort supplied or discomfort alleviated"  Thankful: 1. "conscious of benefit received" 2. "expressive of thanks" 3. "well pleased; glad" After doing a Google search, I found this answer, "The main difference is that thankfulness if often an outward expression of appreciation for a specific benefit, while gratitude is a deeper, more profound and internal state of appreciation for life's experiences." (AI Overview) W...

             PC 📷: Kaylee Geesey I'm having a hard time getting started with writing this week. There are so many ideas swirling around in my head, but nothing is forming together into an organized thought. Sometimes my mind feels like a disorganized pile of words. Even if I can gather thoughts and put them together in a paragraph that makes sense, will the reader truly understand what my heart is trying to share? With nothing significant coming to mind, today I am going to keep it simple.  I met "J" for an afternoon run this week which is out of our normal routine. Her and I usually meet for pre-dawn runs but, this week, she worked her overnight shift six days in a row which meant we were not able to run in the morning. I would either have to meet her for her afternoon run or not see her for a week. I have been pretty comfortable with my runs lately. This day, however, I found myself feeling anxious. We met at a trail. Any trail runners would la...

My kids, ages 23 and 19, and I were discussing how social media has ruined everything. I know there are some positives, but there are so many downsides to its use. Yet, I sit and scroll my phone browsing Instagram and Facebook for the latest news about family, friends and even strangers posing as friends. The song "Image of God" by We Are Messengers starts with the verse, "I woke up with a broken heart in my chest. I couldn't sleep, couldn't get no rest. Weighted down by the heaviness of life, and I, try to shake it flipping through my phone but all it does is make me feel all alone. How could anything that feels so wrong be right?".  I feel like the use of social media, meant to bring us together, only makes us feel more divided. Back in my day (yes, I'm old enough to use that line), before you could get opinions from everyone in the world, the only opinions you heard were from those in your local neighborhood. That doesn't mean everyone you talked ...