{"id":6565,"date":"2026-08-04T17:34:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T22:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.flcssc.org\/wordpress\/?p=6565"},"modified":"2026-08-04T17:34:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T22:34:24","slug":"ponderings-from-pastor-patti-august-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flcssc.org\/wordpress\/2026\/08\/04\/ponderings-from-pastor-patti-august-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Ponderings from Pastor Patti &#8211; August 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"\"><p>Back to School.<\/p>\n<p>I hope as your summer is winding down, that you don\u2019t find your schedule more full than ever with all those last little trips to get away or shopping now for school supplies and getting ready for the mad rush to get everyone ready to get back into the learning mode.\u00a0 While nature still beckons us outside to enjoy all the sounds of creation, don\u2019t forget to take a few moments to breathe.\u00a0 Breathe in God\u2019s goodness\u2026breathe out all the distractions.\u00a0 Draw yourself closer to God.<\/p>\n<p>Acts 17:27 \u2013 <em>[His purpose in all this] is that they should seek after God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him\u2014though he is not far from any one of us.<\/em> (NLT)<\/p>\n<p>God beckons us to breathe in all the freshness of nature\u2026to seek God, and to grow into a deeper relationship with Him.\u00a0 God beckons us to live into our baptismal promises.\u00a0 This verse from Acts, chapter 17 can be a very good reminder for us\u2026that God has a purpose and presence with us.\u00a0 He is never far from us, and He beckons us to draw near to Him.<\/p>\n<p>As we go through this month of August, it is the Council\u2019s challenge to implement ways we can experience \u201cwelcome\u201d here at First.\u00a0 See if you can identify how they are carrying out this challenge as we finish up the summer readings from Genesis and enter the fall season.\u00a0 As your kids\/grandkids prepare for school to begin again, I challenge you to find ways to \u201cwelcome\u201d others as you shop and prepare.<\/p>\n<p>As you finish up your summer activities, take time to breathe in God\u2019s awesome nature and rest in God\u2019s goodness.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Blessings in your journey,<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Pastor Patti<\/p>\n<p><u>\u00a0<\/u><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Back to School. I hope as your summer is winding down, that you don\u2019t find your schedule more full than ever with all those last little trips to get away or shopping now for school supplies and getting ready for the mad rush to get everyone ready to get back into the learning mode.\u00a0 While [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8agoY-1HT","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flcssc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flcssc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flcssc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flcssc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flcssc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6565"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.flcssc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6566,"href":"https:\/\/www.flcssc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6565\/revisions\/6566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flcssc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flcssc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flcssc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}