Some years ago, I went to the mountains of Colorado on retreat. I saw a deer long before he saw me. He was nestled on a soft patch of grass, enjoying the peace of the quiet forest. I did not want to disturb him. Moreover, he seemed more content where he was. I felt the peace I saw in that scene, a sense of contentment.

The retreat was a time for rest, prayer, and meditation; a time to get away from the stress of everyday life. I remember being very stressed out when I arrived. The company I worked for was in danger of going out of business, and I faced the prospect of losing my job.

But just like the deer I saw, I sought out a place of contentment. The Bible tells us that stress does not mean we cannot find contentment. I have learned that the way to be content in every circumstance of life is to rely on God and the strength God provides.

The Psalmist reassures us that God provides us the rest we need, he leads us beside restful waters; he restores our soul when we are depleted. In a world that changes daily, we will find peace and contentment in the presence of God.

Fr. Terence Belcher
Director of Spirituality
SHC of Palm Beach

My almost three year old niece, Lola, takes my head into her little hands when she wants to speak to me while I hold her resting on my hip. Those little hands come up and press into my cheeks and she positions my face so that our eyes meet and she is certain that I can hear her.

When she does that, I am reminded of the scripture that God so loves and if He “does” for and takes care of the birds of the air (Matthew 6:26), how much more will He do for His children who love Him. I truly don’t think there is anything I would deny Lola if she asked me–so precious, so earnest, so attentive to what she is trying to convey and wanting to make sure I understand just what she is asking.

So I envision myself putting God’s glow into my hands and positioning His face just in front of mine. And we talk, and He listens and He smiles and we are together and nothing frightens me and blessings arrive.

Tell Him your thoughts, your deepest hearts desires. Tell Him what scares you, ask Him for help in any situation. Be specific. Tell Him what you need. He is listening.

Lord, you are magnificent, I tell Him today. Because He is and I feel like telling Him this. And then I ask: bless all our people and their families with protection, healing and the favor of plenty. Amen.

Love to all,

Dianne

Dianne Timmering, EMBA, MFA, CNA
Vice President of Spirituality
Signature Consulting Services, LLC

I am sometimes in awe of the great gifts which God gives us. My wife’s uncle – my mother-in-law’s brother – passed away peacefully late last night with most of his six siblings (one is out of the country at the moment) as well as all of his children and many of his nieces and nephews all present.

And upon hearing the story of how everyone was together with him as he took his final breath – I could only marvel at God’s great gifts to us all – family, friends, love and most importantly life itself.

Our time here may be brief, but it does indeed shine so very brightly thanks to God’s great gifts.

Stephen Bowling
Signature HealthCARE
Director Of Spiritual Initiatives

I grew up on a farm around many different animals. By far the most labor-intensive of these were the sheep which required much work and patience. The sheep had to be checked every day; the individual sheep would wander away from the flock and get lost. One of us had to go the field and bring the wandering sheep back to the flock.

Throughout my weekend travels as Bishop of my denomination, I am considered as a shepherd to our Churches. For many years, I have done confirmations, baptisms, first communions, ordinations, weddings and funerals. I am working constantly to bring the lost and forsaken to God. I have learned over the years that being a good shepherd requires patients and kindness.

We humans are like those difficult, wandering sheep – the ones who need so much care and tending. We are the sheep who get lost so easily, we need to be rounded up and brought back by a caring shepherd. As spiritual directors, chaplains, and pastoral care workers God calls us to lead, to bring those who are hurting and lost back to the fold.

God loves us enough to look for us and bring us home; God loves us enough to send us a good shepherd who with patience and kindness calls us to himself.

Fr. Terence Belcher
Director of Spirituality
SHC of Palm Beach

Our daughter was in the emergency room, bleeding and dying. They advised us to say our goodbyes and they moved her to another room for us to do so.

I felt so helpless, this couldn’t be happening . . . my baby was only sixteen! What could I do? I found a room and then fell face down and cried out to God.

I asked God why he would give her to me, only to have her die? I was her dad, but I could not fix this. I could not answer her cry for help. Why? God please don’t take my baby, I cried. Where was my faith? Like Peter, I was sinking in the storm and I cried out . . . and it was then that I suddenly felt God’s peace. His hand touched me and told me it would be all right.

I stopped crying and went back to my daughter. There were wires and hoses everywhere and we could hear the beeping of the monitors when suddenly all the readings changed and the nurses came rushing in wanting to know what we had done. We said that we had not touched anything and one of the nurses said that all the readings were normal now. They kept her five days for observation, then said they did not know what had happened but that we could take her home.

They may not have known what happened, but I certainly did.

When I am the weakest then I am strong, for His grace (unmerited favor) is sufficient for me. Cry out to God (pray) in the storm He will take you by the hand.

Jeffery Lane, Chaplain
Heritage Park Care and Rehab

The power of the hand. It moves in every minute, even fidgets in a restless sleep. It occupies the air and space around us. Its fingers direct or count. Those fingers are the spokes of its core, sculpting, reaching for Kleenex, opening a carton of milk, dressing a wound.

Hands toil and wipe tears. They mine the soil and scrub the clothes. They do hard work and they do soft work. They get dry and cracked and burned from the sun. Over time they age and spot. They hold arthritis, and don’t function as freely as before. So one looks at the hand to direct or coax it in one way or another, but it doesn’t go the way it once did.

And so we depend on another’s set of hands–a CNA’s clutch of a toothbrush, the squeeze of toothpaste across the bristles, the gentle handing of it to a resident, positioning it just so, the CNA closing the resident’s frail hand around it so that her dignity is restored as she brushes her own teeth, up and down, up and down, like when she was young, the motion familiar, normal, real.

God bless the hands.

Dearest Lord: We thank you for our nursing team, and their empathetic choice to be one. We thank you for who they are and we thank you for their determined hands of care, hope and love.

Dianne

Dianne Timmering, EMBA, MFA, CNA
Vice President of Spirituality
Signature Consulting Services, LLC

The key to success is to learn how to do what you have been taught and then to believe you can do it. We are never too old to learn new things we just have to have faith in ourselves that we will do what is right. The Bible says He will not put more on us than we can stand so just believe in yourself, trust in God and just see what God has in store for you.

“People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking they can do things. When they believe in themselves they have the first secret of success.” – Norman Vincent Peale

Judy Hensley
Director of Spirituality/Chaplain
Sunrise Manor, Hodgenville KY

What is your definition of prayer? The most common response to that question is “talking to God.” However, the correct answer really should be more like “talking with God.”

Maybe you think I’m being to nitpicky, but there is a huge difference between talking to God and talking with God. Think about it. Conversation, by its definition, requires two-way communication. Otherwise, it’s just one person giving a speech rather than two people conversing.

Maybe you’re thinking that prayers have to be one-way only (you to God) because God never replies. Well, He does reply. But we have to give Him a turn to talk. The next time you pray, don’t walk away until you have given God a chance to respond. The Holy Spirit wants to say something to you, but He won’t interrupt when you are talking, so you’ll have to stop talking and listen.

Prayer involves listening to God as well as speaking to Him.

Jim McDaniel, Chaplain
Morgantown Care and Rehab

There was a line from one of my favorite movies, Becket from 1964, where Richard Burton’s character Thomas Becket says, after a moment of particular divine revelation, “I don’t think that he’s such a sad God after all.” It is a line that resonated with me, revealing part of God’s nature we should always remember.

God’s love can fill us with joy. We remember the times where he is with us, in both the happy and the empty places we might walk, and the power of knowing that He loves us particularly, intensely and unreservedly, is a sublime generator of the feeling of joy within us whenever we recall it.

Stephen Bowling

My wife and I live in Crystal Beach Florida. Every evening people line the shore to see some of the most fantastic sunset one could ever see. The sky reflects the glory of the sun each night in new and glorious way. People stand there in silence and aw staring at this event of nature. In fifteen years I have never seen two sunsets alike and each seems to say look at me if you think this is something wait till tomorrow.

We are all are unique and no one has, is or will be quite like you. Your DNA is unique to you alone. Hebrews 1:3 says we reflect Gods glory. Only you can reflect that part of God that you were created to reflect. Should we not be happy with whom we are if this is who God has made us to be? Now shine with Gods glory and know he will be pleased when you do, because only you can reflect God in this way.

Jeffery Lane, Chaplain
Heritage Park Care and Rehab