Today is Sunday and it's cold and snowy...

I'm trying to keep a positive attitude.  It has been winter here for quite a long time.  We are still in the thick of it.  I was thinking about that groundhog this morning.  4 more weeks of this, he said.  Well, anyway.  
I'm buried in work.  It is tax season and that is what I do and who I am for several more weeks.  Although this continued gray weather is rather depressing, I might just feel bad if it was beautiful outside and I had to spend all of the daylight inside, attached to my desk and phone and copier.  I don't mind what I do.  Matter of fact, it is fun to see people once or twice that you only see once a year.  You catch up with them and what their family has been doing.  How the kids are growing.  What the dog likes to do for fun.  Where they have traveled or what trip is in the future.  It is a fine way to extend your circle of friends.  
One day this week, I visited with an older lady, then a man who has lost his wife after many years of working and waiting for spending their golden years together.  There is a loneliness that I can't fix.  But I can sit for 5 or 10 minutes and catch up on their lives.  I can let them know they matter and that someone wants to hear their stories.  They are still serving a purpose.  After I was done, I said to Scott, why don't more people take a little time to visit and connect?  It costs me no more to be kind and listen, then to brush them off and be about their way.  A smile is not really harder than a frown.  Why do people think that kindness is a choice?  Why isn't it just a requirement?  Is it really so hard to ask a child about their shoes or backpack?  Maybe ask someone if they are reading a good book?  
In my next career, I think I'll just be the lady that checks in on people to see what they are doing.  Reach something off the top shelf.  Retrieve something that rolled out of reach under the dresser.  Sort through the mail and throw out the junk.  Read aloud the note in small print that brings a smile.  Rock the baby while someone does a task that requires two hands or a bit of no interruption time.  What is the job description for this? 
 Today I was asking my Sunday School class if we are too smart compared to Old Testament people.  Do we argue our way out of doing what we should because we know too much?  Or do we know just enough to get us into trouble?  Why did those guys refuse to bow down to King 
Nebuchadnezzar's statue, even knowing their punishment would be a trip through the furnace?  Do we have the devotion to do that today??  Why ?
I read The Prayer Box this week.  It was good.  It was really good.  It might just be a good way to get into more meaningful prayer time for me right now.  Lisa Wingate.  Pick it up and read it.  You won't be sorry.
Have a great Sunday night.  I'm heading out to Bible Study in a few.  Loving that group.  There are 12 or so of us every Sunday night.  We have a lot of information available from all sides of the table.  I learn and am entertained all at the same time.  At first I was disappointed that a few people didn't show up, but you grow to know and love the group you are with.  Maybe after summer, when we start back up, there will be different people.  But we will grow to know each other and be comfortable bouncing thoughts and ideas off one another and growing in understanding.  That's what it's all about.  The more you learn and grow, the more you hunger to have more. 

 
 Blessings to you all this week...