Conference Minister's Corner - 11-11-2025

My husband Brad’s birthday is at the end of October. And rather than declare just that day for his birthday, he has, for as long as I’ve known him, declared the entire month of October as his birthday month. Fortunately, for me, he doesn’t expect a gift every day, but he does rave continually about how wonderful his birthday month is: how beautiful the weather is, how wonderful the colors of the trees are, or how nice the autumn rain is for the one or two days it rains. And he’s right. October is a spectacular month; year in and year out. I don’t know too many of us living in New England who don’t like October.

My birthday is in November. My birthday month is always, always cold and rainy. I don’t claim a birthday month; it’s hard enough to have a birthday in November but given the weather (did I mention cold and rainy?) why would I claim an entire month of this?

It’s easy to be grateful for a beautiful, crisp day, fall day. Try being thankful for a cold, rainy, raw to the bone kind of day. Or month. It’s kind of like giving thanks to God or praising God during only the good times and when good things happen to us. That’s easy! It’s much harder to thank God and give God praise during the hard times. And yet...that’s what we’re supposed to do (or what we can learn to do.)

One of my favorite quotes: “Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass; it’s about learning to dance in the rain.” Fine-uh (As my kids used to say). So I will do my best to embrace November and the winter and everything else that follows and I will do my best to give thanks to God for the good and the not so good that will be sure to come my way. And when I fail (and I will) and when we fail (cause we all stumble) may God give us what we need to get up, dust ourselves off and try again. Happy November Everyone!

See you in Church,

Pastor Linda