Thoughts while snowed in during April in Wisconsin

Snowed in today. It is April 15. Crazy weather. This would be a blizzard in any month. We have 16 inches on the ground since this storm started. It is the third or fourth time it has snowed this month and another storm is coming in to hit on Tuesday.

It’s also Sunday. Last night many churches, including mine, announced that they would be cancelling services today. I can’t remember this ever happening. Snowed in.

Snowed in on a Sunday, what do you do?

My pastor communicated via both our Facebook group and personal emails that he had a challenge for us:

Friends, due to the winter storm we have made the difficult decision to cancel ALL of our services tomorrow in Wausau and in Stevens point. We don’t want anyone driving in the weather that is expected, and during a snow emergency you cannot park on the streets.

In lieu of church my assignment for you is this:

As a family, share breakfast together, and then say a prayer together asking God to guide your day and your week, and then have each family member tell of a passage of scripture that speaks to your heart during this time of your life, and why. And then after a time of discussing this, you can sing a hymn or a praise song together. If you live alone I would encourage you to journal this same thing…what is a verse or a passage that speaks to your heart right now and why? If you do not have a verse that speaks to you, maybe before breakfast make a goal of opening up your Bible and finding one.

My Snowed In study – Unoffendable

As my husband, Bill, and I had breakfast, we decided to start a study on YouVersion called “Unoffendable.” It begins with this:

“STICKS AND STONES”

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.

How awesome would it be if that statement were true? Oftentimes it is far easier to heal a broken bone than it is to heal the wound caused by something someone said that deeply offended us. One of the top killers of our happiness is an offense. One offense has the ability to ruin your whole day, week, month, year, or even life.

We talked about this verse:

Words kill, words give life;

they’re either poison or fruit—you choose. Proverbs 18:21 The Message version

Harming people with our words

In today’s world, we have many more opportunities to harm people with our words.

Sometimes we are only venting on Facebook but we don’t realize how far those words can go when they are out there. You can say you have privacy settings but they don’t protect you. The best protection for privacy is watch what you say. Everywhere.

You assume your friends all think like you but I can guarantee they don’t. On any given day you can offend someone and you may never know you offended them. Many people never comment back when offended. Instead, they don’t comment, unfriend you on Facebook, and disconnect from you in real life.

Don’t you have the right to say what you want?

Yes, but “Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit—you choose.” For me, I choose not to vent on Facebook, yes, even about the snow. 

Many people say the Bible has no value to today’s life. I beg to differ. This verse is in my Todoist list as a regular rotation because I need the reminder:

Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God’s righteousness doesn’t grow from human anger. So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life. James 1:21 MSG

If you are in a job search or planning to look for a new role anytime in the next 5 years, you might watch your words. Positive networking goes further both in person and online. Amazing how everyone remembers the person who spews negativity and anger longer.

I coach job seekers to accent their value through every part of their job search. While writing resumes, LinkedIn profiles, and cover letters, I help you through consultations using Zoom as our video connection to write collaboratively. Find out more here.