We don't write papers, we build scrapbooks
We don't write papers, we build scrapbooks
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Last weekend, my wife and I visited our daughter and son-in-law in Nashville, Tennessee. They’ve lived there now for over two years. Last year they bought a house on a quiet street in a nice neighborhood. A couple times a week, several of the neighbors will bring their lawn chairs and gather in their driveway and sip ice tea and share everyday stories of their lives. It’s a curious thing - kind of like Mayberry in a way, only not so much. A few weeks ago, a flash flood ravaged their nei...
Happy Mother’s Day everyone! In honor of our mothers, today’s column is about children. The old adage says that children are to be seen and not heard. Really? Show me a child not making noise, and I’ll show you a child who isn’t feeling well. I’ll take a rambunctious, happy child any day of the week - including Sunday. Some of the simplest words Jesus ever spoke are found in Mark 10:13-16: “People were bringing little children to Jesus for Him to place His hands on them, but the disciples r...
Escalators never break down. When they quit, they become stairs. Not long ago, I was traveling in a strange town when I had a flat tire. I knew it was flat because the low tire light was flashing on the dash - then it started beeping at me. I breathed a prayer asking God for help and limped into a gas station where I aired it up. I couldn’t hear any hissing noise so I decided to travel on. A short while later, the light came on again. I pulled over into a parking lot and decided God had p...
Sometimes things happen in a person’s life that are difficult to understand, difficult to process, and difficult to resolve. Everyone reacts to adversity in different ways. Sometimes one’s burdens become more than they can bear. I believe that’s what happened last week with Dave Determan. I knew Dave as a friend. He worked on our family dairy farm for several years and we worked together on a daily basis milking cows in close quarters. We stayed in touch when he and Connie moved to Darli...
When you fly on an airplane the flight attendants come by with their little cart wanting to sell you snacks and drinks. My wife and I don’t buy any because we figure seven bucks for a bag of Cheetos and a Diet Coke is simply not money well spent - not to mention the unhealthy aspect of it. But that doesn’t mean the guy next to me feels the same way. He went ahead and bought the snack pack. To be completely honest, those Cheetos looked good - real good. He must have noticed me eying them bec...
A key ring is a handy little gadget that allows you to lose all your keys at once. Everybody likes donuts. When our children were small, we would enjoy an occasional box of donuts from the day old bakery. We don’t do that anymore for a couple of reasons: 1) Whereas when we were younger we could eat all the donuts we wanted and it made no difference on our waistlines, that is no longer the case. 2) The day old bakery closed its doors for good not long ago. So we don’t eat donuts like we used to,...
“When Jesus’ followers saw what was going to happen, they said, ‘Lord, should we strike with our swords?’ And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear. But Jesus answered, ‘No more of this!’ And He touched the man’s ear and healed him,” (Luke 22:49-51). It’s’ midnight in Gethsemane. Jesus has been praying alone. In the distance one can see the flickering lights as a group of soldiers led by Judas crosses the Kidron Valley. Everything happened so quickly...
No one will ever win the battle of the sexes. There's too much fraternizing with the enemy. Sometimes I just sit down at the keyboard and a blank screen and start typing to see what develops. Today is one of those days. I watched a movie with my wife the other day that was rather touching. Usually Hollywood doesn’t move me much, but this one did. Morgan Freeman was the main character. It was about an old, grumpy author who was confined to a wheelchair. His wife had died six years prior and he w...
The story is told of the Irishman who went to his local priest for help regarding his marriage. He told the priest that his wife was a holy terror at home. She was incorrigible. She was like a volcano ready to explode at any moment. She would fly off the handle and curse up a storm. The parishioner asked the priest if he would be willing to come home with him, and give his wife a stern talk. Although the priest was at first very reluctant to wedge himself into the middle of a domestic dispute...
Our first cell phone was a bag phone for the car. At that time our kids were little and we were taking a cross country trip and it just seemed like a good idea to have a phone in the car. I remember the first call I received. It was from our hired man. He was calling just for the fun of it to see if worked. We talked for three minutes and when the bill came, it was five dollars per minute. It was a big deal having a phone in the car. A couple years later we traded the bag phone for a full...
People who wonder if the glass is half empty or half full miss the point. The glass is refillable. Today’s column is dedicated to the characters who stand out in my life. When I was a kid, for reasons I never inquired about, my parents befriended a criminal. His name was Jim. I remember we prayed for him on a regular basis. He was in jail at the time and when he got released, the whole family rode in our station wagon to the jailhouse to pick him up. Dad went in the front door of the jail and r...
My wife and I just got back from a little vacation. We were gone for ten days. It was during that cold snap where it was below zero everyday and it snowed a lot too. We missed it all, but when we got back to the airport, we found our truck buried in snow - literally buried. There was a snow drift that started on the ground behind the truck and filled the truck box and went all the way up over the cab. I didn’t have a shovel so I brushed it off with the scraper brush as best I could and we h...
On the Internet you can choose to be anything you want. It's strange that so many people choose to be stupid. Over the last few months, I’ve grown to love the sound of horns honking. Since we started parking lot church last April and kept it going all these months later, we begin and end each service with the people in the parking lot honking their horns. It is a festive celebration. It’s also the way we communicate. I stand on the front stoop of the church and say: “Good morning Every...
A friend of mine bought his wife a world map and gave her a dart and said, throw this, and wherever it lands - that’s where I’m taking you when this pandemic ends. It turns out that they will be spending two weeks behind the fridge. This past Tuesday I had a toothache so I went to the dentist. I said: “I think I have an abscessed tooth.” He took x rays and said: “You gave yourself a proper diagnosis, you’re going to need a root canal.” I said: “Thank you. I’ve been diagnosing my own illnesses fo...
People often say we need to learn from history. People also say that “history repeats itself.” As of late, there are certain forces in our culture that want to cancel our country’s history and reinvent it to be what they think it ought to be. I like history - especially firsthand history from the first and second centuries in the days of the early church. Those people suffered for the cause of Christ, many, if not most of the writers of the New Testament died early deaths because of their faith...
Sometimes it’s the little things that make you happy. It’s been a fun week. Our son’s birthday was Sunday and we had a nice Facetime chat with him that evening. We asked him what he got for his birthday and it was the usual T-shirts and such. We asked him what his wife got him and he said “a giant Lego set.” Turns out she gave him a Lego car to construct, and when it is done, it will occupy about ¼ of their kitchen table. He was working away on that while we talked and it took me back to wh...
Whenever someone comes to me for counsel, we meet and discuss the situation and talk about whatever their struggle is. As you know I am a firm believer in the Bible - and I follow its teachings to their logical end all the way down to how it applies to the very soul of man - and apply them to every aspect of our lives. That is not always the easiest thing to do, especially when we have our own ideas on how to handle life thinking we know more than God knows. Once upon a time, I was mentoring a...
It’s been a topsy turvy several weeks. This election has left many scratching their heads and some with a giant knot in their gut because it appears an injustice has occurred. Maybe so. Many of us are frustrated and disgusted by the inconsistencies that took place on November 3rd and the media’s lack of interest in investigating and reporting it. On the other hand, some people are thrilled by the outcome. I’d be lying if I said I was not disappointed. So where do we go from here? Well, first...
“Merry Christmas!” A couple were in a busy shopping center just before Christmas. The wife suddenly noticed that her husband was missing. Since they had a lot to do, she called his phone. "Where are you?” she asked. “You know we have lots to do." He replied, "Do you remember the jewelers we went to about 10 years ago, and you fell in love with that diamond necklace. I couldn't afford it at the time, and I said that one day I would get it for you?" Little tears started to well up in her eyes and...
Christmas is weird. What other time of the year do you sit in front of a dead tree and eat candy out of your socks? Ten things Jesus never said: 1. You've gone too far to be saved. 2. I'm so disappointed in you. 3. This wouldn't be happening if you were a better Christian. 4. There are some people you don't need to love. 5. Everyone should believe and act the way you do. 6. It's all up to you. 7. There are some people you don't have to forgive. 8. You've missed My will for your life. 9. I've...
I used to own a 1965 International Harvester Scout. Back in the day IHC not only made tractors and farm equipment but they also made SUV’s. The Scout was one of the original SUV’s. I picked my Scout up as an exchange for working for a farmer. It was a red two door, with a removable top. It had a three-speed transmission and four cylinder motor. The farmer used it around his farm for chores and such. By the time it caught my eye, it had seen its better day. I asked him if he was interested in...
I came across an organization this week that I had never heard of before. It’s called “The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.” Since 1947, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (heretofore referred to simply as the Bulletin) has portrayed on its cover what is called the Doomsday Clock. This clock registers how close the world is to nuclear apocalypse by the proximity of the minute hand to midnight. A group of nuclear scientists meet in Chicago twice a year to weigh both positive and negative facto...
Life on earth is very short. The Bible says: “With the Lord a thousand years are like a day,” (2 Peter 3:8). In other words, as God sees life on this earth: ● Abraham was born on Wednesday. ● King David was born on Thursday. ● Our Lord Jesus was born on Friday. ● The middle ages flashed by yesterday, and our generation will have passed before this service is done today. ● If God should let the world continue, another 30 generations will have passed by tomorrow morning. On that scale, a life...
You know, being a kid was great. Being a grown up is hard work. As a kid we played some and we worked a lot. Being a farm kid meant we worked hard and we did everything the old fashioned way. I started driving a tractor when I was about six years old. I drove the baler where we went in low first as slow as we could go with just enough throttle so the plunger wouldn’t jam on the baler. I knew how to throw the lever to shut the PTO off and I knew how to push in the clutch and brake to stop the t...
I’m not sure where, on the calendar of life, middle age begins and ends, but my kind and loving brother said to me a couple months ago: “You walk like an old man.” Did you know there’s a word for the phobia of growing old? It's called Gerascophobia. I didn’t know they had a name for such a thing but I should have because there are phobias for everything. Here’s a common phobias list: acrophobia, fear of heights; aerophobia, fear of flying; arachnophobia, fear of spiders; astraphobia...
