One Sprig at a Time

A Reposted article
by
Dennis Ensor

“The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The next best time is now.”
~~Chinese proverb

When I open my eyes each morning I am greeted by a view of the lush St Augustine grass that fills my front yard. If the sprinkler has been on, the drops that glisten in the morning sunlight just add more richness to the glorious deep green turf spread out before me.… Read the rest...

The Beginning of The End

by Dennis Ensor

20130528_01aI attended a graduation exercise of my granddaughter this past Sunday. My heart felt a little bit of a tug—a feeling of dread at the fact that she is so rapidly growing up and away. She is no longer that helpless little baby girl that I once held in my arms while making silly faces and noises.

What seemed a little crazy about the feeling I was having—that feeling of dread—had to do with the fact that this graduation was not from college or high school.… Read the rest...

THE GOOD NEWS FROM GOD

Article by Dennis Ensor

I am blessed to be able to attend an awesome little church, “Outreach church,” in Central Texas. We average just under sixty-five in attendance each week. We have been blessed in that the Lord has made available to us an awesome little quaint church building that is over a century old, built in 1902. (It comes complete with the creaking wood floors and amazing acoustics for a great song service each week.)… Read the rest...

Depth Perception

by Dennis Ensor

20130326_01aI recently went through a few weeks of eye problems. For some reason I developed a severe case of double vision. Each eye worked fine, individually, but when I tried to use them both at the same time, maximum, headache generating, distortion occurred. Therefore I had to constantly wear a patch over one eye.

The best thing about this problem was that I got to hear squeals of delight when I crossed paths with small children who, upon seeing me, exclaimed with joy to their parents, “A pirate!”… Read the rest...

Are You a Heart Breaker Belly Acher?

by Dennis Ensor

02122013_01aWhen a young friend of mine came home from a mission trip in a third world country, she walked into a room where her sister was in the process of severely scolding their mother for buying the wrong brand of designer socks. That conversation would not have seemed too unreasonable a few weeks earlier. But spending a week interacting with dozens of hungry, half-naked children, who are pretty much trapped in abject poverty for life has a tendency to change one’s perspective about such things.… Read the rest...

Five Strategies to Avoid Discouragement

by Dennis Ensor

One doesn’t’ have to look far to find reasons to be discouraged.  Each of us could list a dozen or more reasons to feel down.  Between illnesses, deaths, financial struggles, relationship problems, wars, crime, politics, drugs, vehicle breakdowns, problems at work and the like there sure is a lot of bad news out there.

These “downers” don’t have to get us down, however. … Read the rest...

Time to Get Out of the Pit

by Dennis Ensor

It’s a simple fact of life that it is far easier to destroy someone’s confidence than it is to build it up. Studies have shown that children must be praised at least seven (or as many as forty-eight) times to offset just one negative remark.  What’s up with that?  You’d think it would be one to one.

Perhaps it has something to do with the way we tend to internalize praise and criticism. … Read the rest...

Coffee

by Dennis Ensor

12112012_01I love coffee. It doesn’t taste very good, and I only drink about ten cups a year, but I love it, especially the aroma. I know that sounds crazy, but that’s just me.

I decided to make a cupful this evening, which was not easy for this coffee-maker-challenged individual. And, as usual, the results tasted bitter, a fact which always surprises me.… Read the rest...

Overcoming the Overwhelming

by Dennis Ensor

Life’s daily struggles can overwhelm us if we aren’t prepared to take them on. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We can be bigger than the things that overwhelm us. I’ve tried to use four keys of understanding to keep my life moving forward in difficult times.

1. Relativity
I consider my problems in comparison to those being experienced by others in the world.… Read the rest...

George’s Prayer

By Dennis Ensor

17 Mark this: Unless you accept God’s kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you’ll never get in.”
Luke 18:17 (MSG)

It’s been four decades since I heard George’s moving prayer.   It came about in the early seventies when I was a counselor for the high school boys at Camp Blue Haven, near Las Vegas, New Mexico.

George was an orphan, a scraggly little fourteen year old. … Read the rest...