{"id":1257,"date":"2014-02-27T03:02:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-27T03:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/2014\/02\/27\/winter\/"},"modified":"2014-02-27T03:02:00","modified_gmt":"2014-02-27T03:02:00","slug":"winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/winter\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
I\u2019d like to write something for you, brothers and sisters in Christ, to encourage you and bring you hope and help you make it through this long, long, brutal winter.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

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As I write this, it is snowing once again and the forecast calls for more high winds and sub-zero temperatures. And, yes, the media is again using that phrase that resounds in my psyche like chewing on tin foil while shaving my head with a cheese-grater.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

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Polar vortex, indeed…<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

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Oh, I know spring will come. It has to. God promised it would:<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

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While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.\u201d (Gen. 8:22 ESV)<\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n

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And there are plenty of verses about patience:<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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Rejoice in hope, be patient<\/span> in tribulation, be constant in prayer. (Romans 12:12)<\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n

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Not to mention one of my favorites, even though I am not very good at it at all.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

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Do all things without grumbling or disputing, (Philippians 2:14)<\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n

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I had a conversation with my daughter about winter and being happy.  <\/span>She related a Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index that was brought up recently in a class she is taking.  <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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Number One on the list of \u201chappiest\u201d states in the nation was: North Dakota.<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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This was followed by South Dakota, Nebraska, and Minnesota. Iowa was also in the top ten.<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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Hawaii was number eight.  <\/span>In fact, Hawaii was the only state in the top ten that was a \u201cwarm\u201d state. All the rest were states that are most definitely in the Snow Belt. <\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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There were sub-categories in this study also. Topping the list in \u201cEmotional Health\u201d was Alaska where people go without seeing the sun for months! And the highest \u201cLife Evaluation\u201d index came from Nebraska! <\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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I\u2019ve been to Nebraska. That\u2019s why I put an exclamation point at the end of that sentence. Trees <\/i><\/b>find Nebraska boring.<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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Obviously, how we gauge our quality of life has little to do with the physical climate. The study gave credit to increased job opportunities as the reason for North Dakota\u2019s top ranking but <\/span>life evaluation, emotional health, work environment, physical health, healthy behaviors, and access to basic necessities were also part of the data used in the assessment.<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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Maybe winter isn\u2019t so bad after all. Maybe winter makes us appreciate spring even more.<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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Song of Solomon, Chapter 2, is widely accepted as a conversation between Jesus and the Church (the bridegroom and the bride) when they are united together for eternity. Here are verses ten through twelve:<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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My beloved speaks and says to me:<\/span><\/b><\/span>
Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away,<\/span>
 <\/span><\/span><\/sup>for behold, the winter is past;<\/span> the rain is over and gone.<\/span>
The flowers appear on the earth,<\/span> the time of singing <\/span><\/sup>has come,<\/span>
and the voice of the turtledove<\/span> is heard in our land. <\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n

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I think I\u2019m going to go make a snowball, put it in my freezer, wait a few months, and (in Christian love) give it to the very first person who uses the phrase, <\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHot enough for ya?\u201d <\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Praise<\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable\u2014if anything is excellent or praiseworthy\u2014think about such things.  <\/span>(Philippians 4:8 ESV)<\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/o:p><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019d like to write something for you, brothers and sisters in Christ, to encourage you and bring you hope and help you make it through this long, long, brutal winter….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-21 18:24:01","action":"delete","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1257"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1257\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}