Thanksgiving Warm-Ups!

While the national news is a bit dour this week, I’M finding lots of good news! And it’s teaching me something. But first….the “lots of good news” part!

Right after “Fridays with Phyllis” last week, I was delivered a very spiffy car for the weekend. This, because at the Anderson Hospital fall auction my husband bid on a “Full Spa Service” for my 6 yr old car. Such a generous donation by Newbold BMW in O’Fallon, IL! For supporting the hospital, we drove a 2011 BMW- 5 series while my 2005 non-BMW was transformed! Fun and amazing, but the highlight for me was their client advisor, Lance Tulacro. His upbeat take on business, cars and life itself gave me more of a lift than the wheels he delivered! When I returned the car, he didn’t do the buying squeeze. He knows he has a great product. He knows I know he has a great product. It was simply, “If we can ever help with your car needs, call us!” So now I’m handing out his biz cards! And I didn’t know I even WANTED a BMW until I drove one!

At the same auction I lined up 6 sessions with a Personal Trainer. Oh my goodness. It turns out we have a CORE that resists workouts! This fabulous training I’d only read about, I NOW want to maintain, with or without a personal trainer.

It just gets better. My good friend Kathy Rule of Cabott Cheese and Dierberg’s cooking demos..set up a delicious b’fast with our daughters at Rue Lafayette. Over the world’s best hot chocolate we rejoiced in God’s goodness. You’ll understand why when you catch the W2W show at womantowomanradio.com called “The Girl with 3 Hearts.” Kathy’s daughter, Angela, was born with a defective heart, had a heart transplant at Barnes Hospital at age 12 and then another at age 30! It’s a miracle story right down to Angela’s 7 mo old Karsten who snuggled us at Rue Lafayette!

During this yummy interlude, I heard a man’s voice call out “Mom!” and turned to see if it was my son who lives in the UK! I mean seriously…do we ever stop that knee jerk reaction? His mom turns out to be Arceli, the owner of Rue Lafayette café. We laughed about my reaction to her son’s “Mom” call as she shared how when he was 4 he called her some special name just in the grocery store, so all the other moms wouldn’t turn around. Sharp kid, that Pablo, who now cooks at the café and is in training to be a paramedic. You’re doubly safe eating there!

Then I hopped into MY like-new car, thanks to the Newbold Spa, and heard a KFUO visit with songwriters Joan Voges and Dr. Paul Schreiber on “Law and Gospel” about how they compose such beautiful music to glorify God.

That morning I’d picked up some tips from Paul Clayton’s chat with a Dr. on nutrition that included a call-in question from Dr. Bob Weiss of the Bio-Ethics Chair at Concordia Seminary. Not to mention the always insightful “Meyer Minute” and the spiritual-musical encouragement from Rev. Mark Hawkinson. All of this, meantime, overrides the bad news of the day with good news.

But it wasn’t all grins this week. When I learned cartoonist Bil Keane died Nov 8, at 89, after 50 years of cartooning, I thanked God for his unique gift of making us laugh at ourselves to smooth the rough edges of the human condition. Bil was my guest on a Father's Day Special titled "Dads Who Pass It On."

Just remembering that visit at the mic reminded me how glad he made you feel just to be alive, even if you’d burned the toast that morning! After the interview, he faxed me a personal cartoon I treasure. “Family Circus” daughter “Dolly” holds a radio that’s blaring and says to her little brother, who’s trying to listen in, “No Jeffy, you can’t listen. It’s 'Woman to Woman'!”

In a week of disturbing news reports, I found this Biblical advice to be true…”Good news gives health to the bones!” Christians have the best Good News in what Christ did for us, so bad news doesn’t have to drag us down. Do what you can about it……and look for good news. A bit of my good news this week is a spiritual tweak on my not realizing I wanted a certain car until I’d driven it. As I drove away in my own, 93k mile sparkling clean car, it occurred to me that I didn’t realize I wanted to hang out with Jesus until He found me, forgave me and called me His own! It’s kind of a warm up for Thanksgiving. Take some time between now and then to find your own good news source and give health to your bones!