Grandma's Gleanings
Words and Thoughts from Grandma
In a hospital in Seto City, 20 kilometers northeast of Nagoya, Japan, on an ordinary day in July, a baby girl was born…and God saw. A world away, in a rural Pennsylvania home, a family was yearning for the seemingly impossible, a new life to be added to their growing brood…and God saw. And …
On January 26, 1945, Audie Murphy and approximately 40 U.S. troops sat shivering in a frigid, snow-covered field near Holtzwihr, France. Those battle-weary soldiers had been ordered to hold a vital roadway until reinforcements arrived, but the promised relief was slow in coming. When 250 German troops and 6 tanks emerged from the woods, …
This has been one weird winter here in western Pennsylvania! The past few days have been short sleeve/flip flop weather…downright balmy…tempting us with thoughts of spring. Our outdoor kitties are contentedly sprawled out on the deck, taking in every warm ray of sunshine. I’m sure that even one or two confused crocuses were tempted …
We have all succumbed to the temptation to keep on clicking, even after the pump has stopped, indicating that our gasoline tank is full. If we could just squeeze a bit more into the tank, some extra miles, would that not be worth it? But when all the facts are taken into consideration, that …
The words are similar, yet distinct. When we express compassion, we are displaying sympathy, pity, and concern for the misfortune and suffering of another, but empathy is the ability to personally understand and relate to someone else’s feelings and situation, to vicariously experience the pain personally, stand in their shoes, so to speak. As …
No two people have ever been found to have the same fingerprint; ponder that thought for a moment. Identical twins, who can share the same DNA, cannot duplicate each other’s fingerprints. Fingerprints develop from the ridge patterns on the tip on each finger. Those papillary ridges form pressure on a baby’s tiny fingers while …
Would you be surprised to find that New Year’s resolutions date back as far as the ancient Babylonians? Their celebration of the onset of a new year was a twelve-day festival, at which time they would choose a new king and make promises to their gods to insure favor during the coming year. Julius …
If you come down just a bit on the sale price, I’m confident that we can cut a deal. Hey, I’m willing to negotiate, let’s cut a deal. Maybe we can get together and cut a deal, let’s talk. The lawyers cut a deal that left me with the car, but she gets the …
He was perhaps the greatest American ultra-runner of the 1920’s, yet his rags-to-riches story is relatively unknown. Born in Finland in 1893, this top-rated cross-country runner immigrated to the United States at the age of 18, serving in the merchant marines during World War I. During his three-year tour of duty, he would complete …
I had warned my students so often that I was weary of hearing the same exhortation over and over and over again. Our small, church-school employed as their curriculum an Accelerated Christian Education format, designed for independent work by way of individual packets of learning, or books, referred to as PACE’s. When a student …
It is a type of right-of-passage at our Christian school, a ritual signifying a transition, a transition from those carefree high school years, through the threshold of graduation, and into the world of adulthood. And as is the tradition every year, one section of our school’s yearbook is dedicated to our outstanding senior class, …
Games of my childhood were so simple compared to the high-tech world that today’s children have accessible to them. We didn’t have ipads, video games, or even color televisions. Summer days were passed riding bikes, taking walks in the woods, singing silly jump-rope songs, competing in a mini-tournament of jacks, or playing a neighborhood game …