Mental Health Monday

Bucket List + Outhouses + Criminal Minds + Peace

One of my New Year's resolutions for 2020 is to avoid political content in my Mental Health MON blogs. Might as well start today.

BUCKET LIST

On FRI 12/20, Lois & I crossed an item off our bucket list when we enjoyed a Christmas concert by Mannheim Steamroller in Grand Island. It was wonderful. Here is a list of my favorite songs. You can access these performances on YouTube.

• Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
• Hallelujah
• Angels We Have Heard on High
• Faeries
• Carol of the Bells
• Deck the Halls
• God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen Rock

THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE . . . MICHIGAN

"The ACLU is defending 14 Amish families in a dispute with local officials over outhouses." USA Today 12/20

CRIMINAL MINDS

"A suspected robber who face-planteD into a Pizza Hut door before fleeing has been arrested thanks to the DNA evidence he left behind, police say." --ditto

"Police say a man who had just been released from jail helped himself to some presents under a Christmas tree in the police department's lobby--only to find out they were fake."  --ditto

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

"But, what kind of peace does God bring if it is not the peace that ends wars and strife among human beings and with the created world? We begin to find answers in the advent of Jesus, and his death and resurrection. 

"First, the peace that God brings in Jesus heals our estrangement that results from sin. The apostle Paul writes: “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). This is the “gospel of peace” (Ephesians 6:15); God is “making peace by the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:20). 

"Second, the peace that God brings enables us to have peace within our hearts because of our reconciliation with our Creator and his Spirit at work within us. It is the well-being that comes from reconciliation with God. 

"Third, because we have peace within, we can pursue peace with others—friends and enemies—alike. Indeed, the apostle Paul marvels at the new unity between Jew and Gentile when he writes, “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, (Ephesians 2:14-15) . . . 

"We, too, can take heart, no matter where we live and no matter the government we live under. God has come near to us in Jesus and established a government that is available to us as we walk in fellowship under his rule. In Jesus, we have a Wonderful Counselor, aMighty God, an Everlasting Father, and a Prince of Peace." --Margaret Manning Shull, Slice of Infinity