The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
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Life is changing, there’s no way around it. It changes each day. Sometimes those changes are small and incremental, while other times, they are a wham, bam, thank you, ma’am, knock you off your feet, welcome to your new reality kind of change. Sometimes, you’ve known the change is going to happen. You know you’re starting a new job, a new venture, moving to a new place, starting school or finishing school. Sometimes, it comes without warning. A new boss has arrived and is...
John Adams, supporter of American independence and a representative for Boston at the First Continental Congress, felt that, after America gained independence from Great Britain, July 2nd was the correct date on which to celebrate American Independence Day. July 2nd was when the vote for independence took place. July 4, 1776 was when the Declaration of Independence was officially signed. Thereafter, Adams would reportedly decline invitations to appear at July 4th events in...
Q: I watched a documentary in school about the "tales" of the Bible and the afterlife. The one that bothered me the most was the lie about there being many roads to Heaven and that because Hell is a fictional place, there are no roads to this awful place. Most of the students believed the documentary over the Bible. Didn't Jesus speak of Hell often? - T.R. A: Many answers about life after death are deceiving and will lead people right into Hell; the very place they are told...
In 1988, Charles Kuralt discovered a story of heroism that would have disappeared from history were it not for the determination of a former Russian prisoner who vowed to thank the men who saved his life and the lives of many of his comrades. During the 40 years of the Cold War, Dr. Nikita Aseyev kept the names of the American soldiers safe and close to his heart. Kuralt was in Moscow to cover the Reagan-Gorbachev Summit when the stocky Dr. Aseyev bulldogged his way into the...
Q: Why do people resent the message of Christians today that Jesus is the answer? Surely they cannot believe that the world will ever find a way out of the mess that the world is in today. - D.D. A: The world is in unending conflict. Lawlessness is in conflict with the lawful. Intrigue and dishonesty are in conflict with truth and honesty. Intolerance is at odds with tolerance and human understanding. Lust and pleasure are in conflict with propriety and purity. Godlessness is...
Last weekend was my annual trip to Whitehall for the Copper K Fiber Festival. This festival holds a spot near and dear to my heart for many reasons. The first is that it is the festival that began my career as a fiber arts instructor. Six years ago, they gave me a shot at teaching a felting class, and as they say, the rest is history. It’s considered a destination fiber festival at the historic Copper K Barn. The grounds are beautiful. The barn, a perfect venue, and they e...
There’s been a lot of uncertainty in my life as of late. A lot of things going on with family, other things going on with friends, and even in my business. There are things I can control, and those I can’t, and still those I wish I could. In this uncertainty, I’ve actually been able to gain some clarity, though. I’ve gained clarity about some of the people, some of the “things,” and some about myself. In gaining the clarity about myself, it occurred to me that there are s...
Q: I'm a Christian but I disagree with the teaching about the narrow road -- a rejection of all that is exciting about life. I can still be a follower of Christ but take part in all the world has to offer, right? - W.C. A: When American astronauts astonished the human race with their spectacular first visit to the moon, they took Apollo 11 on a very narrow trajectory through space. Now suppose the NASA control center in Houston had received word from Apollo 11 that the...
According to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission, more than 15,000 people were treated for fireworks injuries in emergency rooms in 2020. In addition, injuries and deaths from fireworks increased by 50 percent between 2019 and 2020. Forty-four percent of those injuries were burns, 30 percent involved the hands and fingers and 22 percent affected the head, face and ears. USCPSC data also indicated that 15 percent of injuries affected the eyes. The majority of...
Something occurred to me this past week that I thought I would share with you all. As most of you know, I knit (among many other fiber-related activities). I knit small things and large things; items for myself, but mostly gifts for others. I knit at home, in the car (only when I’m a passenger, I promise), out on our deck, and when I’m out, even in the bar. I find the process soothing, sometimes challenging, occasionally frustrating, but most of all, when I’m done, it gives me...
Q: My grandparents are products of the 1960s and they were all in, and still are. I have taken a different route and am a Christian. They keep giving me their books about self-empowerment and say that the Bible supports this ideology. I have read parts of these books that seem unbiblical. - M.B. A: Humanism has taken on the form of religion; glorifying self and taking God out of His rightful place. Humanism is the worship of self. A London magazine carried a story that said, "No more subtle enemy has ever faced the Christian...
Over the past several weeks, there has been something missing in my day-to-day life. Not a person, not a place, not even something to be bought. My heart was feeling heavy, and trouble seemed to be around every corner. I found myself getting frustrated easier, sharp words coming more quickly, and the judgmental side of me in overdrive. I’m normally a pretty happy person, but glancing back at the past few weeks, possibly even the past couple of months, I can see clearly now, I...
Q: It is hard to watch the breakdown of our nation and to hear the talking heads pontificate on the changes that have taken place in society, particularly the pride in living without religious trappings. Why do people resent the power of God but devise idols that can only feed their greed for power over others? - I.W. A: Mankind is innately religious. He must have a god of some kind, and he plays with the gods of his own fashioning. Someone once said, "The power of a nation or a civilization will be weighed not in missiles...
Q: Is it true that people find different ways to God? - P.C. A: People come to Christ in many different ways; your experience won't necessarily be like someone else's. This is not to be confused with the fact that there is only one way to salvation and that is through Jesus Christ. He is the only way of salvation (John 14:6). Some conversions are sudden and dramatic, a radical change from one way of living to another. Some people are convicted of sin in church or at an evangelistic meeting in a basketball arena. Others find...
We all have a to do list of some sort. Many of us are ruled by all of the things we have to get done, and often one thing becomes more urgent and knocks something else off or down a rung on the list. I have worked, lived and planned many things in my life with to-do lists. They are my task-master of everything that needs to get done. If I don’t write things down, I sometimes don’t remember. Heck, even when I do write things down I don’t always remember. My other half says...
Yeah, this one should prove to be a little controversial, but maybe that’s what we need. A calm, explanation and an opportunity for dialogue that helps. Here’s to hoping… So as almost everyone knows, there was a leak last week from a Supreme Court Justice that indicate a possible overturning of the infamous Roe v. Wade ruling from 1973. Immediately, there was an uproar from women feeling they were losing their right to a choice. Personally, after doing a little more resea...
Q: Is God like us or is God basically a vapor or something that is in the atmosphere? - G.W. A: God isn't made of atoms or molecules; He isn't part of the created world. He exists in a wholly different realm. Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well that "God is Spirit" (John 4:24). Because He is a Spirit, God isn't limited in any way. He is far greater than the material world (which is one reason we aren't to worship idols or nature). We cannot confine Him to one place,...
I may not watch the news, but that doesn’t mean I’m not informed. Most of my friends who do watch the news hadn’t even heard of the destruction of our food processing and distribution plants. Those who do know and have been paying attention are very concerned. For those of you who may not have heard, right here in the United States, several of our food supply chains and distribution centers are being destroyed by fire, explosions and planes crashing into their build...
There’s been a lot of talk lately about gender, gender identification, choosing a gender, sexuality, biology, how it affects our kids of today, and the age they or their parents should be deciding how they “identify” themselves. Can I please just say, “What the hell?” Seriously, what is this world coming to? In some states it’s now legal for a parent to authorize a surgical procedure to change their child’s sexual anatomy by the age of three. I don’t know about you, but...
If you’re breathing, you’ve heard about the recent Oscar Awards fiasco involving Chris Rock and Will Smith. Photos of the punch and the constant talk of it have it front and center, over everything else. Even those who didn’t know these individuals squared off, and don’t care, have no choice but to hear about it or see it, over and over and over again. In my opinion, the Oscar Awards is an elite show, with elite status people, dressed up to look good in front of the world t...
I grew up in a very small town. I was five years old when we moved there in 1975, and the population sign read something just over 1,000 people. That same population sign as you enter that town, now an incorporated city, reads 113,381. It doesn’t really matter what the population is, I still have many of the friends I grew up with who still live there. What does matter is remembering the way, and the people I grew up with. And let me tell you, thinking back on those m...
Holy cow! In the last ten days we’ve seen the start of a war, the release of Pfizer court documents regarding the COVID vaccine side effects, and our little town of Lincoln is fighting and divided over a community master plan. Pile all of that onto two years of a pandemic and isolation and we have the makings of a sad and hostile environment. Never in my life did I think I would see the day that we’d be faced with another world war, and a time when people would be wor...
Todays triple threat is chronic pain, chronic fatigue and depression. Each can present by itself, but invariably where one is the others follow. In the US alone 20 percent of the adult population suffers from chronic pain and 30 percent of those are over 45 years of age. Chronic pain can be caused by any number of ailments such as Rhuematoid Arthritis, Transmandibular Joint Dysfunction, brain injuries, or even a car wreck or sports injuries. The number one treatment for each...
Just last week I thought spring had arrived. The weather was unseasonably warm and sunny. I had that lighter feeling, the one I get when spring is about to take hold. Even though earlier than normal this year, it made me think I was ready tell the cold dark days of winter goodbye. What I forgot is that we hadn’t even had second winter yet. You native and long-time transplanted Montanans know exactly what I’m talking about. For those of you new to Montana, well, buckle up, we...
Next week, we’ll celebrate Valentine’s Day with all the mushy cards, candy, flowers, and more. Not that there’s anything wrong with any of those things, it just seems to me that rather than having a specific day to show those important to us that we love them, it’s really something that should be shown to those we love every day of the year. Like my last column, where I expressed that we should or could be celebrating everything, big and small alike, we could be showing...
