“Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts; See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

– Psalm 139:23-24

When I first heard the word “prioritize,” I thought someone had made it up. Soon, however, this addition to my vocabulary began rolling around my tongue like somnambulate, syzygy, and other authentic words I just hadn’t heard before. But other words, even those that are familiar to me, often take a long time for me to understand.

“We two kept house, the past and I . . .

Through all my tasks it hovered nigh,

Leaving me never alone.”

– Thomas Hardy

For some reason, my age group perhaps, I’m hearing of more and more people this year who are facing Christmas alone.

“Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

– Matthew 5:16

In 1971, when my husband’s military assignment changed from Vietnam to Fort Gordon, our reunited family was about to move into our first-ever newly built home. I had been to Georgia a few months earlier, found a nearly completed house in the Idylwilde Subdivision in Evans, and had the pleasure of making all the interior décor decisions myself. That was another first for me.

“Honest criticism is hard to take – particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger.”

– Franklin Jones

In this, the periodic season of dart-throwing, wall-to-wall campaigning and downright nastiness toward office holders or those who, by the grace of God or their own egotistical fortitude are trying to take their place, I can’t help but remember what it was like when, on a much more miniscule scale, my short stint as an organization president was handled with similar mis-care.