Support fried rice

Our readers clearly have insider information when it comes down to who’s serving up one of my favorite meals fried rice. Now it the time to pick your favorite local restaurants, services, retailers, professionals, establishments organizations, and more through the Best of The Press contest. As you know, we launched this contest four years ago and I am still looking to find more fried rice options. So we need your help. Go to Presspubs.com and start nominating your favorites. Since the contest launched, our readers votes have more than doubled. Best of the press is a real thing. I’m seeing these winners on billboards magazines, newspaper, social media and TV. It is because of your nominations that we drill down this year’s Best of the Press in your community. The nomination period runs from Wednesday, May 3, to Friday, May 19. Check your local contest for exact times and dates. The voting period will run July 12 through Aug. 6, so vote early and often. Unlike elections we want you to vote every 24 hours. With the votes in the Best of the Press, nominees rise up to the top of in their respective categories. As we pull together as a community, please remember our local businesses are in many cases dealing with labor shortages and inflation. Basic materials like napkins, eggs and meat products are still trending higher than normal. Please take this into consideration and don’t let a factor outside a nominee’s control overshadow your vote.

Publisher’s View

God’s undo button

As you know Best of the Press is the laser-focus on supporting our small, local businesses, merchants, doctors, services and dining establishments to name a few. This year we have well over 100 categories. Voting is expected to grow again. Please help our local businesses by casting your votes. Check out our online ballot and begin selecting your favorite choices from best celebration or festival to the best local sports team and everything in between. The first time you use the website it will ask you to register and provide an email address. We do this to ensure people vote only once per day. Happy voting and we look forward to celebrating ourBest of the Press winners.

Has any parent had a freshman from college return home for the summer? Do you have words of advice? My wife and I spent an entire meal talking through the summertime scenario. Both kids will have an expectation to be working and saving. We hope one can secure an internship while the other will pick his work between summer school and summer camps. While sitting with my parents for dinner, I asked for their recommendations, even though I was raised by them and watched two of my three siblings struggle and suffer. I thought I surely knew what they were going to say. It would sound like that of Jean Shepherd in the famous movie “The Christmas Story.” I could totally see a list created for every day—make sure they are in before midnight as nothing good happens after midnight, the early bird gets the worm, make sure they wake up at a certain time, make sure they finish their chores no matter what time it is, demand it’s done if you ask, make them pay for gas and groceries, do laundry, help around the house and kitchen, and maybe many would have to pay rent. But what came out of their mouth was nothing of the short. It was as if I knew nothing about parenting. They said treat her like an adult and leave her alone. So, if you see me out doing all the yard work, filling up all the cars at the gas station, it’s okay. It’s going to be alright. It’s only one summer.

Carter Johnson is publisher of Press Publications.

If you’ve ever had to fill out extensive paperwork for a loan or insurance claim, you know what a process it can be. You pray that there won’t be any glitches and frustrations to disrupt you as you attempt to interpret what is needed to complete to the task. What happens when you hit the wrong button?

Terrifying at best. Devastating at worst. Frustrating all around. All your hard work lost in a moment. And yet, within the digital realm, there are backups and redundances built into the system that allow for documents to be resurrected, saving us from having to start all over again. That is, if you know what to do.

On almost any computer, if you hit Ctrl + Z, the shortcut brings us back to where we were. In a dire situation, hit Ctrl Alt Delete and the reboot brings us back to the last time we saved the project. We have an undo button to get us back online.

Wouldn’t it be nice if life had an undo button?

When we are frustrated with our children and lash out with a harsh word- hit the undo button and boom- a fresh opportunity to be a better parent. Or when we are distracted and back your car into tree- click and here’s your chance to be more aware of your surroundings. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to click a button and everything was okay again?

As the women arrived at Jesus’ tomb early that first morning, uncertainty, fear and grief hung heavy in each step. They showed up to the tomb to deal with the dead, while still reflecting on Jesus’ last three years of teachings about loving one another and being faithful to God. They had witnessed miracles and healings. Everything that they saw in Jesus, now seems to have disappeared in moment. If only there could have been another way to be saved from our sins instead of Jesus being arrested, condemned, tortured and finally, dying on the cross. Unfortunately, an undo button isn’t an option for humanity.

And yet, arriving at the tomb, they experienced a literal, earth-shaking moment that resets the world moving forward for all time. An angel appears. Jesus is not there. He is alive! Suddenly, the despair and anguish of losing everything at the cross, suddenly shifts. The despair is replaced with joy! And the joy is doubled as they come face to face with the Risen Lord himself. Enfleshed. Animated. Alive. God’s plan for saving humanity from the power of sin and death wasn’t lost at the cross.

In fact, at the cross, God hit the greatest undo button ever! Undoing the power of sin and death which separates us from God and each other. Undoing our mistakes and inviting us to live again! We might not have an undo button for our lives but we have a God, whose love, incarnate in Jesus, has the power to undo our mistakes and set us right once more. The tomb is empty! We are forgiven! Thanks be to God!

Ivy Huston is the pastor at Living Waters Lutheran Church in Lino Lakes.

QUAD COMMUNITY PRESS | LETTER GUIDELINES

• Limited to 350 words.

• Submissions must Include a full name, address and daytime phone number for verification.

• Letter writers must live, work or have another connection to Press Publications coverage area.

• Letter writers are limited to six letters per year and at least four weeks must lapse between publication. Exceptions may be made for rebuttal letters.

• Due to space limitations, letters that don’t address local issues are not guaranteed publication.

• Repeat letters by the same writer about the same subject matter will not be published.

• Submissions containing libelous or derogatory statements will not be published.

• Submissions containing facts not previously published in the Press must be accompanied by factual verification.

• All letters are subject to editing.

• Deadline is 5 p.m. Wednesday of the week prior to publication.

• To submit a letter, e-mail it to quadnews@presspubs.com, fax it to 651-429-1242 or mail or deliver it to:

Publications

White Bear

MN