Radgirl's Portland Playground

I believe that we are all blessed with gifts. Some have steady hands for delicate surgery, some have an eye for creating things of beauty, and others, like me, have the gift of putting things into words. I have always been a writer. From the moment I picked up a pencil, I was creating tales of cats flushing dogs down toilets or some other random calamity. My teachers often entered my work into contests and I would get a certificate or trophy, but that didn’t really matter to me. It was more embarrassing than exciting to have the spot light put on me. To a true writer, writing is like breathing. You have to do it or you’ll die. It’s that simple. What you can get because of it is only a secondary benefit. When I was a little girl, I wanted to grow up and be just like my mommy. I made the same faces she made, I wanted to work at the phone company, and I wanted desperately to read Stephen King books. She’d read them all, and they were stored in a box in her closet. When I was 5,

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for blessing us with this day. Thank you for filling our bellies and keeping us safe. Thank you for the gift of my children and be with them as they dream the night away. Please keep our brothers and sisters safe through travel and work and help heal those who are suffering loss and hardship. There ate so many who don't know your grace and love. Please help us be a beacon in their lives so that they may know your son. It's in His name I pray, Amen.

Did you ever hear about the guy who cried out to God, “Please God, just show me a sign!” just before tripping over a yard sale sign. After grumbling about people putting their garbage in his way, he goes on shouting, “If you would just show me a sign, I would-” and falls over an A-frame sign on the sidewalk and curses it. After getting up and dusting himself off without missing a beat, he then goes on, “All I’m asking for is one teensy weensy little sign!”, then BAB-he runs into a stop sign so hard it knocks him out? It reminds me of a scene in a popular movie called ‘Bruce Almighty’ when he asks for a sign, ignores all of the signs given to him, then ends up on the side of the road in the rain. Do you ever feel like if God would just send you a sign, you would know what to do? If he’d just show you some proof that he does exist, you’d drop everything and start your own ministry, right? The problem is, he does give us signs every day, yet we refuse to see them even thoug

There’s an amazing movie called ‘Facing the Giants’ in which a small underdog football team from a Christian school starts playing by the principals of the Bible and they take on the #1 unbeatable, unstoppable, and dirty playing Giants. If you haven’t seen it, I suggest you log onto your Netflix account right now and add it to the #1 slot. In this epic movie, there’s a scene where a new inexperienced kicker is trying to get the ball between the posts to no avail. The assistant coach then uses scripture to explain that making a field goal uses the same biblical fundamentals, and in the tradition of a southern preacher says, “Now what does scripture say about this? Scripture says wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction. And many that be there find it. Now to us; that's wide left, and wide right. But narrow is the gate and straight is the way that leads to life, and few that be there find it.” He’s talking about Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter by the narro