Days 25 and 26

Sit quietly with God basking in His presence as He changes you from the inside out.

Expect trouble in the world and trust God even when things seem darkest.

Trust is HARD. But trust is GOOD.

Answered prayer in redemptive friendship even in the midst of being struck ill. Still smiling (now that it doesn't hurt to smile) even though I do not feel well).

Heaven's Door Film Review

The film is a bit of a tearjerker. Probably did not help though that I am wrestling right now because of a friend and worried that we will not be able to make things work as friends because everything has fallen apart so quickly-the boundaries, he never seems to have any time any more, we have not seen each other in a long time; how can we make it work? But this little girl has discovered that she has a gift. Riley can heal people just by touching them. But she only heals those who she is supposed to heal. She sees an angel. She thinks it is her grandpa who died. She shows her family what she experienced when she fell out of the tree but tells them that if she helps anyone there will be consequences. Unfortunately, there is a news woman who seems very adamant about getting a story about Riley and her gift. Riley's mom and dad reunite because of Riley. Riley takes every illness from people she heals. Riley's last act is a friend who is in the hospital being treated for cancer. The little girl tells Riley's parents that she knew she was supposed to go and that there were angels around Riley. A blind man also tells Riley's parents to believe. Just as Riley is declared dead, she awakens to the pleasant surprise of her parents. Riley learns though that her grandpa had nothing to do with her being saved from her fall. And her grandma realizes a new baby is coming. Riley's angel was the baby before he was born.

Essentially, this film is about renewed faith, renewed hope, and restored relationships. It is certainly what some may call a story of redemption. I would love to have enough faith to believe that the friendship will survive, but I struggle with this so much.

Dear God, please help me believe. Please renew my faith and trust. And please help my friendship with Tom survive if it's really Your will that he and I be friends. And if it's not, then help me to survive as Tom is the first real friend that I have had and the first person who truly cared enough to take the time to learn about how You created me and how it makes me different yet didn't let it get in the way of pursuing friendship with me. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Thank You God

Thank You God for an answered prayer tonight. And for redeeming the relationship.

I was reading Ephesians 4:26. Thinking, well, the sun already went down, now what? Guess I have to wait until tomorrow.

Phone call.

I had entered prayer that my friend could forgive me for being so demanding today. For being, well, mean.

And that's part of what the call was.

My heart rests easier now though because he reassured me what I already knew. I defended him well. No one tries to judge my friends without knowing them personally.

Ah. Turns out I am so much like he is. How we manage to get along, I will never fully understand, but I am not complaining. As long as I know he's there and that he isn't going to give up on me, that's all that matters.

Turns out he really is a pretty good human model of what God is like. I know, God must be a thousand times better them because God is God and my friend is only human. Humans mess up. A lot. I know I sure do. And not just because I have autism, although that may make things exceptionally magnified?!?

But see, today something else happened. I was frustrated with my friend because I felt neglected. Several reasons. But I didn't throw his slips from the jar into a bag like I did Sunday because of some relatively harsh words. I kept them in there because I had hope today that somehow God would redeem the situation of today.

Funny. I guess in some ways I did exactly what my day 10 devotional said to do: trust God even when it isn't easy. So my little teeny tiny trust in God was returned a thousandfold by an answered prayer? By a redeemed relationship? Okay, God. What's the next challenge You can get me through? My trust just grew another size.

Mr. Popper's Penguins on Redemption

Mr. Popper's Penguins is a delightful family film about a businessman whose father has been away in Antarctica for most of his life. He is separated from his wife and has weekend custody of his two children, a precocious boy and a pubescent daughter who has her own share of drama. It is as he is in the middle of trying to make an acquisition for his company on an old restaurant that he learns that his father passed away and ends up inheriting a penguin which due to a language gap ends up quickly turning into him acquiring six penguins!

His children end up coming over for a birthday celebration with him and his son falls in love with the penguins. As time passes, Mr. Popper becomes attached to the penguins and they to him. Named after characteristics they show, they become like part of the family for him, his wife and his children. He even goes so far as to allow some of the snow into his apartment so they can have a cold environment in which to live. The problem with his attachment becomes evident when three of the penguins lay eggs and after a few more weeks, all but one of the eggs hatches. He then does everything he can to try to get that egg to hatch.

He is in such despair over the egg situation he calls the zoo guard who insists on taking the penguins. What Mr. Popper does not realize is that the zoo guard did not intend to keep the penguins but to ship them off to another zoo. So he and his family ensue on an adventure to rescue the penguins from the zoo. They realize as they are about to leave that one penguin is missing and then see him on the roof. The penguin has been trying to fly and has his one moment of flight due in part to the kite that got stuck to him as they were escaping through the gift shop.

At the end, the whole family takes the penguins and their two babies back to Antarctica where one of the penguins ends up laying a new egg. They vow to make frequent return visits to see the penguins.

This film is rated PG and is one that is sure to be enjoyable to young and old.

Cars 2 and Redemption

I am not that big a fan of the Cars films, but since I had won a couple of vouchers that got both my mother and I into the Cars 2 film for free, I figured what the heck?


I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would.


So as not to give any spoilers, I won't reveal too much of the story line, but this film focused on the friendship between Lightning McQueen and Mater. McQueen had tried to get Mater to conform to being more sophisticated while they traveled the globe for races, but in the end, he learned that friendship is more important than conformity.


I particularly loved the quotes regarding friendship in this film! And of course, one line: "Mater! I'm sticking by you the way you always stick by me."


On a cost-saving note, the film has enough action packed into the 2D version, so save the money and skip the 3D version unless you want to get really dizzy!