Great Gifts 2 Go

Are You An Abigail? Meek, Gentle, Humble Creature of God You may be asking yourself, “Abigail?” Yes, that’s right, Abigail. We meet Abigail in 1 Samuel. She is married to a most despicable, barbaric cad, Nabal. “His name was Nabal and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband, a Celebite, was surly and mean in his dealings.” (1 Sam. 25:3 NIV) Nabal is brutish whereas she is intelligent and beautiful. She possesses both brainpower and loveliness. Abigail puts both to work quickly when she learns from her servants of Nabal’s crude responses to David’s messengers. “David sent messengers from the desert to give our master his greetings, but he hurled insults at them.” (1 Sam. 25:14) Upon hearing of this distressing news, Abigail gathers offerings and races to intercept David. She does so without telling her husband. As David and his men of four hundred descend toward the camp of Nabal, Abigail intercepts, armed with “tw...

Train the owner? Many would look at you as if you had lost your mind. Why train the owner? Well the answer is simple. In today’s society many people view their pets as disposable and are expecting the perfect pet. I am here to inform you that there is no such thing as the perfect pet. I know many of you are thinking that Fluffy or Snickers was just the perfect dog, almost human in fact. But think really hard to when Fluffy or Snickers first moved in…is it coming back to you now? The first night of anxiety, the first potty accident, and the first pair of shoes chewed. Granted, the good memories exceed the bad ones, but the bad ones are still there, therefore, not perfect. But you were able to work through those mishaps and bad manners to cultivate a pet that, in your mind, was perfect and had carved a specific place in your heart for eternity. Many people do not understand that to own a dog is a huge responsibility and to make it a socially acceptable canine is an even bigger res...

As I walked into the threatenly dark, silent room, my blood started racing through my arms and legs. My stomach began tying itself up in knots. I felt as if someone had closed an enormous fist around my stomach. I silently watched the lifeless figure lying on the cold steel table. The oxygen was being pumped in and out of her lungs, in and out, in and out, over and over again. A monitor with thin red zigzag lines, beeped rhythmically. There was a maze of what seemed to be hundreds of tubes, running across her face and down her arms. She looked so helpless and weak. Her once vibrant, rosy complexion now seemed sallow and translucent. Her beautiful sky blue eyes that sparkled like the sea on a bright summer day now sparkled no more. Instead, they merely stared blankly at the ceiling. As scalding tears skated down my face, I felt my arm moving towards the plug. I knew what was happening, but I could not stop it. I felt my fingers close around the icy god. My eyes moved ever so slowly ...

What’s a woman to do in a society that is still male-dominated? That is the question that every woman who desires to get ahead in her respective fields has asked. I know that it is a question that has plagued me since being passed over for a promotion at a local community college. I was passed over for a position that I had been training for two years. That promotion was given to a male employee who had been in the department for under a year. When asked the reasoning for the choice, my supervisor explained that the male employee had something extra to bring to the table. Since that disappointment, I have had the shades ripped from my eyes and I see the struggle that women endure in the workplace. Oh, sure, we have our "equality". If earning less money for the same position, being unable to better our position in a company and being made to feel as if we should still be bringing the coffee and bagels instead of participating in the lively meetings. Searching for a posi...