Petals from the Basket

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The Joy of Giving

The Captain’s Corner

I had the blessing of wonderful Christian parents who taught me early on the privilege of giving to God. With a weekly allowance of one dollar, I would receive ten dimes from my dad. He would say, “Put one dime in the offering at church.” Later, when I trusted Christ as my personal Savior, Christian giving was already a habit in my life.

Airline flying was a lucrative profession. As my income increased, my late wife and I joyfully increased the percentage of our giving to the Lord. Even though our income was steady, there were uncertain times. For example, during the fuel crisis of the 1970s, I was faced with a possible layoff (called a “furlough” within the industry). We decided that we would just keep giving. Thankfully, the furlough was cancelled.

Later in my career, the pilots (along with all employees) were asked to take pay cuts to help the airline. This we did. And once again, we just kept giving. Thankfully, the pay cuts ended, and we were returned to our previous salaries.

About six months before my mandatory retirement at age sixty, my pilot pension was terminated by the bankruptcy court to help bring the airline out of bankruptcy. I had no idea just what my retirement income would be—if anything at all. However, we just kept giving, and God just kept supplying our needs, just as He promised in Philippians 4:19 (NASB): “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

God also promises to supply the gift and bless the giver. “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed” (2 Corinthians 9:8, NASB—for further reading on this, read 2 Corinthians, chapters 8 and 9).

Do we give in order to get from God? No. Do we give to get a tax deduction? No. We should give from grateful hearts, because He gave His Son to die for our sins and “gives us richly all things to enjoy” (1 Timothy 6:17, NKJV).

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Joe Henderson, Brenda’s husband, is a retired international airline captain and now blogs in
“The Captain’s Corner” on a regular basis.

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By Petals from the Basket | October 28, 2017 | Bible Reading, Ideas, Life Changes, The Captain's Corner |

Cleaning Day

My mom cleans her home every Thursday morning. Like clockwork. And it shows. Her home is always ready for guests, and it always feels freshly cleaned. She keeps it tidy and “touched up” throughout the week.

My home is clean. But I found that adopting my mom’s Thursday morning routine didn’t work for me. Too often, Joe and I would be running errands, be out of town, or be helping someone somewhere on Thursdays, and my housecleaning would be the thing to get put on hold. I like things clean, but I confess that I’m also a piler, a (true) perfectionist, and a procrastinator—not a good combination! So I had to adopt a method that worked for me. More about that later.

As I grabbed my dusting cloth this morning to start on the family room shelves, it hit me that sin and dust are clearly first cousins. They both enter our homes and lives subtly. They both need to be dealt with before they grow in their scope. They are both among the things we too often try to hide rather than take care of.

James 1:15 (NASB) states all too clearly: “Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.” It’s this vicious cycle that always needs to be dealt with—before it has a chance to overtake us and move to the next stage.

So let me jump back to the topic of cleaning and share the method that works for me, because it mirrors my daily “heart cleaning” in God’s Word.

For me, if I can do a little each day, my house feels like it’s in a perpetual state of clean. Then, if I miss a day, I can simply get right back on top of things the next day. So, for example, on Mondays, I do all the bathrooms. On Tuesdays, I vacuum and dust the upstairs. On Wednesdays, I do the living room and family room. On Thursdays, I clean the kitchen and dining room (since that’s generally when we grocery shop, and I can get the food put away as part of my kitchen-cleaning routine). And so on….

Every now and then, I do a deep cleaning, spending a little more time working on those areas that I may have inadvertently neglected or that only got “lightly” cleaned at other times.

My spiritual cleaning is the same. I daily seek the Lord and ask Him to cleanse my heart of the sin that is there, because I don’t want it to form roots and overtake me. His mercies are new every morning for a reason! I need them daily!

And yes, every now and then my heart needs a deep cleaning too. Sometimes sin builds up, becomes “comfortable,” and begins to overtake my thoughts, my words, my actions. That’s when I have to pause and spend extra time with the Lord, willingly praying the words of Psalm 51 to Him:

Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
    blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
    and cleanse me from my sin!
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
    and renew a right spirit within me.

—Psalm 51:1–2, 10, ESV

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to my cleaning and make sure I’m not using blogging as a procrastination tool that keeps me from getting today’s…er…yesterday’s…dusting done!

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By Petals from the Basket | October 26, 2017 | Bible Reading, God-and-I-Time, Ideas |

Of Training and Spiritual Growth

The Captain’s Corner

In my thirty-six years with the airline it seemed that I never stopped training. There was initial training (when I first hired on to fly). There was recurrent training (at least once a year and often twice a year I went to ground school and flight-simulator training). If I changed airplanes, I received transition training (equipping me to fly that particular kind of airplane). All of this training was for the purpose of providing me with knowledge, checking my knowledge, and reinforcing my knowledge to fly safely and to handle any emergencies that might arise.

One thing was sure: my life with the airline was neither stagnant nor routine—always changing and challenging, always equipping me to grow in proficiency and professionalism. While some flight crews complained about all the training, I looked forward to it. It sharpened my skills, increased my comfort level with the aircraft, and gave me confidence.

In a similar way, our walk with the Lord involves growing, exercising our spiritual knowledge, learning, testing, and training.

“But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18, KJV).

Christian growth should not be stagnant. Scripture speaks of our new birth by faith in Christ as our Savior. It also speaks of our spiritual growth:

“Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation” (1 Peter 2:2, NASB).

Babies should grow both physically and mentally. Likewise, Christians should grow. But how do we grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ? The Word of God is “milk and meat” to the new believer. Reading, studying, and hearing the preaching and teaching of God’s Word strengthens us spiritually. As believers, we learn how to live, how not to live, how to serve God, and how to discern truth and error. All of this helps us to grow in grace.

Our airline training involved time, directed study, repetition, and review of facts. The training helped us to grow from novices to professionals. Christian maturity (learning and moving forward in our walk with God) is both needful and necessary. No one should remain a spiritual baby, simply feeding on “milk” due to being sluggish about his or her spiritual growth. (See Hebrews 5:11, Amplified Bible.)

People who are growing spiritually spend time in the Word of God and apply the Scriptures in their life experiences to help them discern between good and evil and to follow God’s will in purpose, thought, and action.

“But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:14, ESV).

Most of our airline training was in a classroom. Where is God’s classroom for Christian training? It is best found in a Bible-teaching and Scripture-preaching local church. Hebrews 10:25 (NKJV) states: “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching.”

So as we used to say in the airline, “I’ll see you in training!”

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Joe Henderson, Brenda’s husband, is a retired international airline captain and now blogs in
“The Captain’s Corner” on a regular basis.

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You will only receive e-mails from us when a new post appears on the blog. Click here to subscribe.

By Petals from the Basket | October 7, 2017 | Bible Reading, God-and-I-Time, The Captain's Corner |

Gearing Up to EXPRESS Gratitude

In 2002, I launched a little blog on another website. Blogging was relatively new, and I was learning right along with every other blogger out there, but I loved expressing thoughts and ideas to those who were willing to read them! It was on that blog that I first began a “Thirty Days of Gratitude” each November. No, the general concept wasn’t original with me, but I took a slightly different approach—not just focusing on gratitude but emphasizing the importance of expressing that gratitude. The response was quite honestly overwhelming and prompted me to carry the annual tradition with me when I launched Petals from the Basket several years later.

So why am I posting about this in September? As my husband is outside preparing the house for the cold months ahead, I am reminded that November is literally just around the corner. This “gearing up” post is plenty early so that you have time to purchase a copy of my book Petals of Gratitude and join us this November for our annual month-long focus on expressing gratitude.

Yes, we should be and must be thankful every single day of the year! That’s why there are currently many popular books on the market that encourage readers to list things they are thankful for. However, as I stated above, the goal of this book is to help us set aside a specific amount of time to focus on the habit of expressing that gratitude.

My first posting for “30 Days of Gratitude” on the Petals from the Basket website was in 2012. It was such a reader favorite that I did it again in 2013. However, in 2014, life happened, and with caring for my father in his last months with Parkinson’s disease, I didn’t take the time to continue the annual tradition. But “30 Days of Gratitude” returned in 2015, culminating in the publishing of this book.

“Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20, ESV).

Will you join me in working through this little book during the month of November? We’ll go through the book together, and there will even be giveaways and special incentives throughout the month!

Click this book cover to order your paperback copy of the book. 

Click this book cover to order your copy of the book for Kindle. 

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By Petals from the Basket | September 27, 2017 | Books, Events, Thirty Days of Gratitude |

New Book Available!

Joe and I are thrilled to share with you that over the course of the last month and a half, God has enabled me to complete a Bible study book for women that is now available on Amazon! Choosing to Change when Change Happens is a 7-lesson Bible study book for women, following the life of Moses and his journey toward a greater knowledge of God. To God be the glory!

Click on the book cover below to order your copy or to read more about the book.

By Petals from the Basket | September 14, 2017 | Books, Events, Family, Friends, Life Changes |