Flash Cards (08/17/2026)

My husband was cleaning out his desk downstairs this week when he came upon my Hebrew flash cards. His desk used to be one of my desks, and I guess when it exchanged owners, I didn’t clear it out completely. He brought them to me to see if I wanted to keep them. They are over 30 years old. I looked through them, then admitted that if gone this long without searching for them, they probably weren’t among my essentials.

They’re sitting on my rolltop desk now. And today, as I give that space its much needed monthly sift, shift and purge, they will go in the trash bin. But it got me thinking (yes, I am a natural ponderer who savors moments and searches within them for discoveries and lesson). What have I lost sight of in my life? Are they just the non-essentials? Or are there essentials that I’ve set down for a time and then forgotten to pick them back up? Like the stuff on my desk top today, I have to admit it is a bit of both.

Just this week, during morning prayer, I came to the realization that I’d let my prayer journal slide. Initially, it was a crazy schedule and lots of early morning demands in an extremely busy period. But as I sat and pondered that, I realized and admitted to myself and the LORD that those were just excuses. And Saturday morning, my prayer journal entry was the first in a week, but four pages instead of one. Yep, you guessed it. Pondering the Hebrew flash cards question brought me to the prayer journal issue. My LORD and Savior is very clever. But this lost sheep is getting used to being hunted; I give thanks for it daily.

Our lives, don’t you find, are so hectic in this modern world. How many of us have set aside something and then forgotten to retrieve it because the waves of today just kept moving us along? We who seek to follow Christ are called to stay focused, to stay close enough that we can follow – that we can see what He’s up to and so we can hear his words. It is essential to our journeys. As we go about our day, let us hold tight to the essential relationship without which nothing truly makes sense and seek meaningful ways and times to keep it strong and grow it.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.