Thoughts and Jots--Blog Archives

Tribe of Taylor--June 2018 On the first day of Christmas break I went to the car wash. At the end of the process where the attendant wipes down the car, I rolled down my window and said, "Merry Christmas! Here's an invitation to a beautiful Christmas service if you and your family would be interested." And of course, there was a generous tip sticking up out of the tract-invitation. The attendant smiled and said, "Thank you very much, ma'am!" And that was the beginning of Christmas vacation. People are gifts. I was up until 11:00pm on December 21st doing the gift-wrapping while music played. Norman used to be summoned to the dining room to help me with this task. Now I am learning to do it without his help, but I still have the funny memories of watching him wad up the ends of the wrapping paper in his signature "Norman H. Taylor" style. He used a lot of tape on the ends of those wads. The English language fails to describe how much I miss...

If I had ten dollars for every time someone commented on how "courageous" I was for handling the changes I've experienced in this past year, I could buy a year's supply of Dunn Bros coffee beans. Truth: I am not so courageous, and neither are most people. "Press on" is an operating system, not a character quality. Fact: Numbness resembles courage, and allows people to do things as if they were robots.  Courage is a real thing, but if I've had any courage this past year, God graciously flooded me with it to complete the next task.  And the next. Like deciding whether or not to move. And then deciding to say "yes" to the move, which resulted in a sold home. And then teaching a conference in Texas, flying to Minnesota, sleeping in my Minnesota home for one last time and then boarding a flight to Florida all within days . Days . Saturday night I was flying from Texas to Minnesota. Sunday night I was saying "farewell" t...

When I woke up for the first time in my new town, I said to myself, "Where am I?" Now mind you, this is not really a new thought for me, as I often wake up in conference hotels and wonder which state I'm in (other than the state of confusion). But now, I was really wondering about this strange bedroom with the lovely little armchair next to the closet. I didn't recognize a thing in the room, and that's when I remembered... ...I've moved. February 2018 My new hometown doesn't feel at all like home, but I will give it time. It took months of prayer for the Lord to lead me to even consider moving, which eventually led to a position as editor for the Joyful Life Sunday school curriculum at Abeka Books in Pensacola, Florida. Decision day was January 31, 2018. And then a whirlwind. And then a huge moving truck. And then I boarded a flight because in the process of planning this move, I had forgotten all about...

Sitting at what I was sure was the world's longest left-turn signal, I suddenly realized that I was being impatient for no good reason. After all, I was only waiting to turn left and then right...into the gas station. Not exactly like being late for an important date! Wait hate. Many of us struggle with it, and the impatience is making life unnecessarily miserable. Why do we hate to wait? I have some theories and good guesses, but it is possible that one of the biggest reasons why we can't even tolerate driving in a lane with a slow car in front of us is because we've been trained by our culture to expect everything instantly. Have you ever been "that person," driving and yelling "Move over, Pokey Joe!" even though your windows were closed and that other driver couldn't hear you? Tap. Swipe. Send.  Wait-Hate is learned, and this impatience is very costly. Instead of praying and allowing God time to provide direction and confirm...