We don't write papers, we build scrapbooks
We don't write papers, we build scrapbooks
Sorted by date Results 251 - 263 of 263
It’s kind of early to be talking about Christmas but it’s everywhere already - especially on the Hallmark Movie Channel. I like an occasional Hallmark movie around Christmastime. I take some heat for that, but that’s ok, I can handle it. I don’t like horror movies - they’re too scary and not real. Nor do I care for the Super Hero comic book movies. Several years ago I watched the original Transformers movie but had to work hard at paying attention trying to keep track of who the good guys were...
If you were given 100 million dollars but the only way you could collect on it is if you continued to work a 40 hour week for the rest of your life, what job would you choose? Life comes at us in all directions. Our day to day experiences are a story in the making. The funny part is that I write a weekly newspaper column and most of the time the people involved in my encounters, have no idea they are part of a bigger story. I go to great lengths to keep the subjects of my musings anonymous so as...
Have you ever felt insignificant, or not important, or like you’re not even in the room? Several years ago, my wife and I visited Chuck Swindoll’s church in Dallas, Texas. Chuck Swindoll is a well-known radio preacher who has been on Christian radio for several decades. In my formative years he was very influential in my life as a young pastor. The Sunday we were at his church he preached for fifty minutes. (That’s 5 - O). Afterwards, I went back home to our church and announced that if Chuck Sw...
Being prepared is one thing, being in all out panic is something else. Around these parts when a big snowstorm is coming people go to the store and buy groceries, they top off their gas tanks, bring a little extra wood up to the back porch, and then brace themselves. If you miss the weather forecast and happen to be in town the day before a storm hits, you can tell by all the extra traffic and hubbub that something is about to go down. Hurricanes are a different story. My wife and I were in Flor...
When I was in high school I used to envy the kids who lived in town because there was always enough people in the neighborhood where they could round up a few of them to play baseball or basketball or whatever sport they felt like playing at any given time. I also envied them because on game nights (real high school games) they would go home after school, eat a little something for supper and then all they had to do was wait around and get ready for the big game. In contrast, being a farm kid,...
When I was in the eighth grade riding the bus to school, my family was the last to get on in the morning and the last to get off in the afternoon. In the morning this meant we only had to ride the bus for about ten minutes, but the afternoon ride home was more than an hour. Few things are more annoying for a rambunctious kid than to have to sit on a school bus for seemingly hours on end every day. It was such a long ride home, that my younger brothers and I decided it was better to walk the 3.2...
A couple of years ago I took my family to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Chicago is a big city. The population density of Chicago is 11,933 people per square mile. There are 4,524,709 vehicles registered in the state of Illinois. By contrast, the population density of Lafayette County, Wisconsin, where I live, is 26 people per square mile. There are 2,130,000 vehicles registered in the state of Wisconsin. One could say one encounters a vast difference when driving from my home in...
Every life is a story. Every story is different. What is interesting to some is ordinary to others. A few years ago a friend from our church suffered a stroke. While in rehab at the nursing home I would sit with him and visit. I watched as he took a child’s toy consisting of a bucket with a lid on it that had plastic cutouts of a star, a half moon, a plus sign, a circle, and a square. His job was to take the objects of those shapes and put them in the correct hole on top of bucket. He would d...
One of the more mysterious entities found in the Bible is that of angels. Who are they? What do they do? What do they look like? Are they male or female? Do they walk, run, fly, all of the above, or none of the above? In the Middle Ages, scholars of the church debated at great length issues like how many angels can dance on the head of a pin? But that is a foolish debate. Angels are spirits, and as such do not occupy space. The head of a pin is the same as the top of a mountain to them. One...
Summer was late arriving this year. Many of the farmers in our area did not yet have all their corn in the ground by June 1. Some were still working around the wet spots in their fields all the way into the third week of June. But that didn't seem to damper the crop's enthusiasm. The seeds sprouted and popped up out of the ground and began to grow with a fervor. I read an article in a farm magazine that said the seed has a way of sensing when it's growing season is short and it "knows" it has...
I had a fun time last weekend. I was one of the morning speakers at The Fellowship of Christian Farmers International Annual Conference held in Dubuque, Iowa. As the title says, this is an international organization made up of Christian farmers from around the world. Their goal is to share the good news of Jesus Christ and they go to the ends of the earth to do just that. They have chapters in Russia, Mexico, New Zealand, Albania and other countries all around the world. They have a ministry...
We’ve been doing a little remodeling at our house. By we I mean mainly my wife and I with help as needed from people with more expertise than we have. Doing any kind of work like this is a very intimidating task for a novice like me. But if it was easy, everybody would be doing it. A few years ago we got a really good deal on a total bathroom assembly which included double sink vanities, an attached linen closet, and a dresser-like vanity. It’s a beautiful arrangement of furniture that was too...
"It's been a long time," the caller on the other end of the line said, "but when I was a kid, my grandmother took me to Sunday School and Vacation Bible School at Martintown Church. I heard all the stories, from the creation of the world, to Noah and the Ark, to Daniel in the Lion's Den, to the baby Jesus, to the crucified Jesus, to the risen Jesus. But I don't know what happened, because somewhere between the ages of 15 and 48, whiskey became my god. I don't like it. I want to come back. (long...
