Once, I used liquid soap as face moisturizer — but only once and by accident — honest! Did you ever slip and fall in a place that you travelled on a regular basis? Yes, that's me again. It resulted in this six-month travail with a broken arm.

These are silly mistakes made by real people, but only by mistake. We weren't paying attention to the job at hand.

Jeremiah 5:21 – Hear this, you foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear. (NIV)

I'm thinking of those who deny the truth of the Scriptures.

Galatians 3:1 – You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. (NIV)

Translation: How easy it is to close our minds to biblical truth. We are so accustomed to picking and choosing what we want to believe. To say that we want Jesus but take only part of Him is to crucify Him afresh. I say — pay attention, folks! Pay attention. Read and study for yourselves and find the whole truth.

Prayer: Lord, remind us to pay attention to the truth of the Christ, for it is real, and we have been mindless long enough. Amen.

I was asked to write about the lessons that I learned while I was living with a broken arm. Here is one prayer that I prayed in various ways through my trauma, based on today's verse:

Lord, I grasp for You now … where before I only reached. Now, I grip feebly the hand that You so freely offer … because You welcome me, clinging to You! I cling to You; Your right hand upholds me.

You see, my right arm was broken, and God offered me His. My clinging did not depend on the strength that I had but on the strength that He is! My clinging did not depend on my arm but on my clinging. While clinging means to hold onto something with arms or hands, it also means:

• to adhere to something by sticking to it or staying very close to it;
• to refuse to give up a belief or tradition that one has grown fond of or used to;
• to have a strong emotional attachment to somebody.

And so, I clung. I pray that You cling to Him, too, no matter your weakness … for He is our strength.

Isaiah 40:29 – He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. (NIV)

Prayer: Lord, we cling, we cling, and we cling some more. Amen.

I was wrong, of course. Life went on in a new direction, highly supported by others who drove me where I needed to go.

Our life's road is not ended when things change, but it may be detoured in one direction or another.

I admit that it may be the end of the road as we know it, but that only allows room for more possibilities.

Think about the caterpillar. It surely feels that life as it knows it is over, but then it blossoms into something more.

Friends, grab onto God's new direction with everything you have in you, for there, real life is. "What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly." – Richard Bach

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us." – Helen Keller

Romans 5:3-5 – Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. (NIV)

Prayer: Lord, help us not to give up on our lives, because You are in charge, and You never give up on us! Amen.

We are all just too fussy. One friend throws out leftovers because she is tired of eating the soup or stew or roast. Another one buys too much and then throws out the overload.

Do you spend $200 a week on food? Think about what you may be throwing away: $100 in cash every week.

We are all guilty, and our current celebrity cooks and authors are partly to blame. My mom used to make chicken broth by cooking vegetable bits and chicken carcasses in a big pot of water. We ate the bits and parts for supper or they became part of a giant pot of soup. A popular Canadian magazine just gave a recipe for chicken stock but they threw out all the veggie bits and bobs and kept only the juice. See what I mean?

God is not a fan of any kind of waste.

John 6:12 – When they had all had enough, He said to His disciples, Gather up now the fragments (the broken pieces that are left over), so that nothing may be lost and wasted. (AMPC)

Ephesians 5:11-13 – Don't waste your time on useless work, mere busywork, the barren pursuits of darkness. Expose these things for the sham they are. It's a scandal when people waste their lives on things they must do in the darkness where no one will see. (MSG)

1 Corinthians 15:58b – Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your work in the Lord is never wasted. (NCV)

Prayer: Lord, help us to find ways to waste not and therefore want not. Amen.

One of our local churches has a "Blue Christmas" service every year. I haven't yet been able to get to one, but I presume that it is for people who are sad during the holiday. I think that when people are feeling sad, more sadness will not perk them up. I know this from personal struggle.

There are lots of blue Christmas things to blue us up some more. Just word search, and you will find blue ornaments, trees, presents, songs, and yes, even blue menus, all presumably designed to leave us breathlessly blue.

As the song by Billy Hayes and Jay Johnson goes, the singer is blue because he is without his love at Christmas, while presumably his love is experiencing a white, happy Christmas.

The chorus is all that saves me from despair:

You'll be doin' all right,
With your Christmas of white,
But I'll have a blue, blue Christmas.

That Christmas of white, oh, that Christmas of white … Thank God for the Christ who makes my Christmas a Christmas of white.

Isaiah 1:18 – "Come now, let us reason together," says the Lord. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool." (NIV)

Prayer: Father God, we thank You for the promise that someday we will be with You forever, and with our loved ones once more … through the blood of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

"A waste of time," whispers the little voice in my head. "You must vacuum, dust, write something, or cook a meal … anything but read."

The truth is that reading is a necessity. Reading exercises our brains and reduces stress while increasing our personal knowledge and vocabulary. Memory is strengthened as we deal with plots and subplots and work to keep all the characters straight. We learn analytical thinking skills and improve our focus and concentration.

Of course, we have to ask what we are reading. Is it worthy of our time, or would we be better off vacuuming? Jesus often prodded His listeners to read by asking questions like this:

• Have you never read what David did that time when he and his men were hungry? (Matthew 12:3 GNT)
• Have you never read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple violate the sanctity of the Sabbath [breaking it] and yet are guiltless? (Matthew 12:5 AMPC)
• Have you never read that He Who made them from the beginning made them male and female? (Matthew 19:4 AMPC)
• Have you never read, "From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise"? (Matthew 21:16 NIV 2011)
• Have you never read in the Scriptures: "The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone"? (Matthew 21:42a NIV 2011)
• But as to the resurrection of the dead — have you never read what was said to you by God? (Matthew 22:31 AMPC)

What would Jesus say to Christians today? Studies have shown that Christians are now woefully ignorant of the Scriptures. Consequently, they are being taken in by so many of the world's touted standards. Even Christian denominations seem to be adopting policies contrary to biblical standards. Would Jesus not be saying to us, "Have you never read in the Scriptures … ?"

So, enjoy your read with Jesus, and ignore the voice of guilt screaming, "This is a waste of time." Time with Jesus in the Scriptures is always well spent.

Prayer: Lord God, You always have time for us. We promise today to take time for You. Amen.

Vena Poole was totally British, even though she became a Canadian citizen years ago. I wonder how she is taking to her new citizenship in heaven. I hope that they serve high tea there!

At one time, Vena and her husband Ronald sailed a ship, The Lillian, on the west coast of Canada. They navigated the coast carrying supplies and the good news of Jesus wherever they landed.

Vena was able to ring the cancer unit bell denoting the last of her chemotherapy. There, everyone celebrates with those who ring it by applauding and cheering and wishing them well. Vena had little experience with such adulation, so she waved and saluted her audience exactly as Queen Elizabeth would have done. It was indeed a regal moment.

You will find these stories in her books and in her 94 devotionals on the presbycan.ca website. Vena wrote and published four quite successful books and was working on another one about a family in wartime Britain.

Vena would want you to know the truth about Jesus and then pray the prayer following.

Jesus is the Son of God. He died on the cross just for you, just for me, to pay the price for your sin and mine.

Romans 1:4 – By being raised from the dead he was proved to be the mighty Son of God, with the holy nature of God himself. (TLB)

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, I do believe that You are the Son of God and that You died on the cross to pay the price for my sin. I believe that You rose from the dead and that You're alive right now. Please come into my life. Forgive my sin. Make me a member of Your family. I now turn from going my own way. I want You to be the centre of my life. Thank You for Your gift of eternal life and for Your Holy Spirit who has come to live in me. Amen.

Now, if you've prayed that prayer for the very first time, you'll want to tell somebody. Vena would be most delighted to meet You in heaven and possibly serve You that high tea!