03/18/2019
I don't know about you but I tend to find pennies to be annoying. I was looking at one the other day, which is something I don't typically take time to do. I looked at the front side, In God we Trust, and I thought to myself, I need to give this coin another chance. It actually may have a good purpose for my life.
How often do we walk by a penny on the pavement and perhaps not pick it up because its value is minimal? How often do we receive pennies in change and think that they are not worth keeping so we just drop them in some donation jar? So we typically pass by pennies. What if we gave the penny a second chance?
What if we were to instead pick up the penny and give it a second chance as we pause to be reminded...in God we trust. What if we did this with each penny we encounter daily and understand that second chance reminder to us is that no matter what we are worrying about, read that message...In God we Trust. No matter what we are afraid of...the words are there to remind us...In God we Trust...In God I trust...
I am working to give the penny a second chance. It may not have great monetary value but it holds a message which I have the opportunity to hear multiple times each day if I just give the penny a second chance.
Rev. Patti Napier
Archived Posts
Patience and Trust
Sunday, in my benediction (which traditional folks did not hear) I talked about the Marshmallow Test. The original results of that test with children was that those who could delay gratification did better in life than those who could not.
Gandhi and the Sugar
I wasn’t preaching Sunday, Reverend Jackie Chandler was. And she talked about the power of influence you get when you practice what you preach. This famous illustration came to mind. It fits Jackie’s points quite well. Enjoy!
Not Just for Parents
Our current sermon series is about How To Talk Parent, but it doesn’t require any of us to be parents to appreciate the bits of wisdom OUR parents shared with us growing up.
If Not Higher
Here’s a story I wanted to use when talking about ‘what you do when no one is looking’ yesterday. It’s a wonderful illustration of what Jesus was saying in Matthew 6:1-6—do what you do because of who you want to be, not so that others will take notice and praise you.
The Perfect Church
There is an old joke about the perfect church. We talked just a little about the perfect pastor, but turnabout is fair play. It goes like this:
The Clothes You Wear
Sunday I talked about Joshua the High Priest having his filthy clothing replaced by a cleaned and beautiful garments. I also used the illustration of a boy becomes a dragon—who ‘wears’ dragon scales—and is stripped of those scales in order to be restored to a boy. In fact, I could have done the whole sermon around all the clothing imagery in scripture.
What just missed the cut for Sunday’s Sermon
Naaman’s servants may actually become one of the hidden gems of the sermon. They say, essentially: “If the prophet had told you to do something difficult, you would have done it.”