DAILY PRAYER: Dear Lord, We praise You and we thank You in ALL circumstances and in Jesus’ Name! Amen.
ASTROTURF: [4:48] – Independent journalist Nate Friedman has revealed the link between a professional protester and the Democrat Party’s fundraising platform, ActBlue.
CHARLIE KIRK: CLICK https://www.facebook.com/reel/1157611495924027 to hear him calmly debate an angry, combative young woman on democracy and the value of higher education.
EVERYDAY HEROES: “’You’ll ruin your future,’ my dad said when I told him my girlfriend was pregnant. My dad was loud about it, but rent was louder, so I grabbed night shifts and kept my classes. Emily—then my girlfriend, later my wife—and I rented a tiny place off campus with thin walls and a secondhand crib that creaked when I rocked it. I printed notes at 2 a.m., packed bottles at 6, and pushed Lily’s stroller past freshmen yawning on the steps. A professor frowned at the stroller; I stood in the back and finished the presentation while Lily colored on my handouts. When daycare fell through, I studied in the parking lot while she slept in the backseat, and the dashboard clock blinked. On my graduation day, I held Lily in one arm and my diploma in the other; Emily cried and laughed in the same breath. Twenty years later, Emily squeezed my hand, I held flowers, and we watched Lily cross that same stage.”
LITERACY: I saw a post on Facebook about a “book vending machine” in a school and had to google. I’ve never heard of them before. Kids can buy books with tokens they earn for good behavior. What a wonderful idea!
POST TRAUMA GROWTH: Yes! We had to CHOOSE to USE the trauma to become who we are now. And then we had to work our butts off to make it happen. But for me, the choice was a no brainer. I mean, if you get stuck in mud, would you just sit there forever?! No, you get out and get the help you need to move past it and live again.
PRAYER for OUR NATION: Dear Lord, Fill our leaders with Your wisdom and lead them in justice and truth. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
GRAMMY NOTES: [3:08] – Years ago, my mother decided to make a bouquet of the last roses of the season in her garden and take them to a woman she knew at the local TB sanitorium. When she walked in the door, the woman burst into tears saying, “Today is the 9th day of my novena to St. Therese!”
SHORTS:
CLICK https://www.facebook.com/reel/2278213479300471 to see one little girl’s First Holy Communion. Apparently, nobody told her she was just supposed to take a little sip. ROFL
CLICK https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DeRTd4j6vcQ to see ballet photos with lights. So cool!!
polination.blog 
Hard to know what’s real and what’s clickbait and shady on YouTube (and elsewhere). Fr. Wetta saying he wouldn’t believe the story if he’d heard it made me smile.
This video is in the almost-too-cute so must-be-staged area, but the initial image was pretty cute. The short scene of mom changing the film on her digital video camera was less impressive.
Toddler’s Mysterious Chat with Mother Mary
Once I get any category of video, YouTube throws up a bunch of suggestions, and it’s easy to spend hours down that rabbit hole.
Growing up in the Tulsa area, I was unavoidably familiar with beliefs in Biblical inerrancy and Fundamentalism generally. I’ve never been a Bible “believer,” in that sense. I know too much about how the scriptures we’ve received are full of warts. (Anything touched by human hands.) I enjoy good scriptural studies, though. Don’t know about this one — had never heard of this one before (1:00):
THEY EDITED THE BIBLE! Hidden Prayer Secrets REMOVED from Scripture!
I’m least impressed by those who claim the Bible (and especially someone’s interpretation) has been “proved” because e.g. some archeology seems to substantiate something in scripture. Even that amazing, inexplicable Shroud of Turin for all its impressive detail can’t “prove” that it’s the image of Jesus; that’s all a matter of faith, ultimately. Just as science can never “prove” God exists.
Does God exist? Modern science shows he must, bestseller argues
Apologies for the long windedness. Such are my not-so-humble and unasked-for opinions. To be clear, I was never a materialist and haven’t needed any proofs of Jesus since I read the gospels through many decades back. The search for the whole truth never ends.
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