One Bad Apple

It’s been really difficult to have an opportunity to write for the FiveMinuteFriday.com challenge this week. Although I’ve been retired for 2 weeks now, I have been super busy. A big reason for that is our fault because we put a contract on a new house after living in the same home for 28 years to be closer to our daughter and her family. Between packing up to declutter and getting our home ready to sell, it has been tough to find the time to write about this week’s word- spoil.

Friends have been asking me how I’m enjoying retirement but to be truthful, I can’t really say because of everything that has been going on. I will admit that the past couple of days I have allowed little issues to spoil what has otherwise been a good day. Take Friday for instance. I loaded up the car with stuff to take to a storage facility close to our daughter’s home. It routinely take a little less than a hour for the journey depending on traffic. That morning I breezed through a portion of Nashville that can be congested but made every single stop light without stopping and the traffic was light on the interstate making the trip in record time. Noticing that the interstate for the return trip was at a standstill for miles in both directions, I choose to take state highways instead enjoying the trek along the Cumberland River. My wife had several errands for me to run. The first few went off without a hitch. Then the other shoe fell. I returned to the car after purchasing several collections of boxes. I need to explain here that my key fob for my wife’s SUV has not worked for a while. My wife insisted that I replace the battery even though I had previously done so with no success. True to form neither the locking nor unlocking function worked but apparently the panic button did, although only intermittently. I must have brushed that feature removing the keys from my sweatshirt pocket. The theft deterrent alarm began sounding preventing me from starting the car. Having no idea when the button would choose to work, just when I thought I had stopped the alarm it would begin again. After 15 frustrating minutes, I nearly called my wife to bring her keys. Before giving in, I got in the car, banged the fob, locked all the doors, waited a moment, unlocked the doors, opened them, exited the car relocking all the doors, walked away sure the alarm would sound at any moment, walked away, and then returned to the car unlocking it with the key. The sound of the car starting was sweet relief. The rest of the day had no issues but I continued to reflect on how that one incident spoiled the day. The next morning I made another run to the storage facility once again it was smooth sailing. I emptied the car quickly amazed at the ease of the trip. As I went to exit, I discovered that the buttons on the keypad were frozen. Nothing seemed to unstick the device. I did the only thing I could think of by cupping my hands over the keypad blowing on it. I was worried that I would be trapped inside the storage facility fence. After several moments of giving CPR to the Keypad I grew frustrated letting this glitch spoil my good mood from my early morning trek. Now that I’ve time to stop and think about it why did I allow a couple of brief moments in the grand scheme of what otherwise had been a fruitful, productive, and even enjoyable days.

It is so easy to lose sight of all the blessings that God bestows upon me and let little things spoil my attitude. The glitches in my day were really nothing more than small bumps on my journeys this weekend. I forgot all the good things that had happened and focused on the bumps. Those things really didn’t spoil anything and just gave me stories to laugh about.

Psalm 144:15

¹⁵ Happy are the people with such blessings.
Happy are the people whose God is Yahweh.

Secret Stash

My grandmother was a sweet, caring lady but she was notorious for keeping a secret stash in her bedroom of snacks. She would sneak into her room when the urge for her favorite snack would hit. It wasn’t that she was being selfish but she had 10 children plus a bunch of grandkids and if she left them out for the entire family to consume her secret stash would quickly disappear. She wasn’t trying to deprive anyone. I enjoy snacks as well as the next person but with all she had to deal with such a large family, she deserved to have special treats just for herself.

God, the Father, doesn’t keep a secret stash only available to a select few. He offered His absolute best by sending His Son. The religious elite were determined to only offer salvation only to the privileged few. Jesus said that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life. He desperately wants all to consume all He has to offer. In another place, God tells us to taste and see that He is good. The plans He has to offer us are to give us hope and a future.

Psalm 34:8

⁸ Taste and see that the Lord is good.
How happy is the man who takes refuge in Him!

2 Peter 3:9

⁹ The Lord does not delay His promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.

Each Friday I participate in the FiveMinuteFriday.com challenge to write for 5 minutes on a prompt word. Today’s word is consume.

Total Waste of Time

The old saying goes that “you can’t judge a book by its cover” but far too often it happens way more times than it should. I’ve been guilty of doing it as well as it being done to me. When I was a freshman in college, I walked into the recreation center where 4 guys were playing pool. To be honest they were not very good but their confidence was much greater than their skill. One of the guys had to leave so they needed a fourth person to play. They asked if I wanted to play but a bit of an argument occurred over who would be forced to be “stuck” with me. The loser was none too happy to be my teammate but we won for the break. To say that I was more than a little bit angry to be prejudged on my abilities was a major understatement. They were unaware that I grew up with a pool table at home. I’ll admit that I got lucky on the break and put a ball in but after that, I ran the table and correctly called my pocket for the eight ball. I laid my cue stick on the table and said something along the lines to my partner of “sorry you got stuck with me”. I strutted out of the room like I just won a billiard championship.

One other example of assuming something was a waste was with my 11 year old son at the time. We had spent time at Jekyll Island where one of our favorite pastimes was scouring the beach for treasures after high tide. We had gathered some unique shells already when we approached a rather large tidal pool. I spotted something at the far end and gave my son the opportunity to claim it. Being an almost teen, he knew everything and said that it was just trash and a total waste of time. Despite his reluctance, I waded through and picked up a $20 bill. He suggested I give it to him anyway but I reminded him of his statement. I think I did use it later to buy pizza for the family.

God, the Father, has the uncanny knack of using individuals who the world and sometimes even themselves consider a total waste of time. Moses stuttered. Gideon hid in a pit from his enemies. David was an afterthought when Samuel was looking to annoint a new king. Jesus chose the most unlikely rag tag band of disciples to spread His message. Even Paul who wrote so much of the New Testament would have been the last person in the world expected to do so. Jesus also reached out to lepers, adulterers, and other society throwaways. It is no less true today that absolutely no one is a total waste of time to the Father.

Ephesians 1:4-5

⁴ For He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight.^[a] In love^[b] 5 He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ for Himself, according to His favor and will,

The Far Side

As a kid, we would visit my Dad’s side of the family and I thought my uncle’s and aunt’s homes were far apart. We would take a short cut through the woods because it was so far walking on the main road. I remember visiting the same homes as an adult and walking along the road because I wanted to avoid areas where ticks were prevalent. Much to my surprise, the actual distance between the furthest two homes was probably way less than a mile. It wasn’t like they had moved any closer together, it was that my perception of the distance had changed.

It never ceases to amaze me how often people think they are so far apart. As divided as the US seems to be, we are not as far apart as we sometimes believe. It’s just from our perspective, the distance seems too great to ever be bridged. When you take the time to talk with someone, it’s surprising to discover that you’re not nearly as far apart as you believed. About 4 years ago, our family took a trip to New York City. We rented a Airbnb out in Brooklyn and took subway rides to tour the city. Our family is about as WASP-y (white Anglo-Saxon protestant) as possible and we were definitely in the minority in the area in which we were staying. One evening we had attended a play and then got dessert at Serendipity, the “famous” ice cream shop, so it was very late riding the subway back to our rental. Our stop was the last on the line so the car emptied out the further out we went. My wife, my two adult daughters, and myself shared the car with an African American woman and her two elementary aged daughters. The mom moved to the opposite side of the car perhaps because we were different from her. Both of my daughters relate well to kids and started talking with the girls. It wasn’t long before they were singing old Girl Scout songs and playing games together. The Mom relaxed and we began talking together. Their stop was the one before ours and her girls begged to stay on through ours. The Mom smiled, told her girls to say goodbye to their new friends, and then hoped that we would enjoy the rest of our trip. Both she and I discovered we may look different but we were not so far apart with the bond that my girls formed with hers.

Even as believers, we can sometimes think that we are far apart with different worship styles, music choices, which translation of the Bible along with a million other things but as long as we remember to keep Jesus the main thing the distance between us is not a big deal.

1 Corinthians 8:6

⁶ yet for us there is one God, the Father.
All things are from Him,
and we exist for Him.
And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ.
All things are through Him,
and we exist through Him.

Each Friday I participate in the FiveMinuteFriday.com challenge to write for 5 minutes on a prompt word. Today’s word is far. With apologies to Gary Larsen, I usually enjoyed his comic strip but sometimes I found the far side wasn’t nearly as far away as I thought.

Just Say My Name

Tim Hawkins, a Christian comedian, has a bit talking about weird grandparent’s names. My Mom and Dad were Grandda and B. My Mom didn’t want to be Grandma so it started out Momma B and was shortened to just B to everyone. When I discovered that my daughter was expecting, she and her husband asked what I wanted to be called. I was fine with just plain old Grandpa because I figured it would be easy. Hawkins is correct when he talks about grandparent’s names becoming whatever the child can say. I have been trying to get my 2 year old granddaughter to say my name, Grandpa, with little success. I have previously written how since she was an infant I tend to make a clicking noise with my tongue to get her attention. As my granddaughter has progressed linguistically, she mastered Momma and Dada. She can plainly say my other daughter’s name and even our dog’s. Despite my many attempts to get her to say my name, when asked who I am, she would make a clicking sound with her tongue. I stated that she must be speaking the Bantu word for Grandpa. I guess that’s on me. My sweet little girl has really expanded her vocabulary recently calling my wife G ma which is at least in the neighborhood so I was excited when my daughter and granddaughter visited me at work a couple of weeks ago. My wife was up in Indy taking care of our other daughter and her new baby so this visit was to help alleviate some of my lonesomeness, I think. What ever the reason I proudly showed off my granddaughter at the hospital where I work. I enjoyed spending time with the girls as we shared lunch. The food was in styrofoam boxes so after we were done I jabbed the plastic knives in the top for disposal. My daughter said, “Violent!” to which my granddaughter immediately repeated, “Violent!”. To say I was surprised would be stating it mildly. I looked my little angel right in the eyes and said, “Wait a minute. You can say violent but you can’t say Grandpa.” Without missing a beat, the little skunk clicked her tongue at me and smiled. I figured that I better figure out how to spell it but to my relief my daughter has informed me that I may have graduated to G Pa. We’ll see.

I wonder if God the Father ever gets frustrated at me when I fail to say His name. Far too often I tend to think that I’ve got this when I really don’t. He hasn’t gone anywhere. He is there waiting. I don’t mean to say that He is a magic genie ready to grant my every wish. It’s more like He is there to walk beside me when I struggle. He has the power and there is nothing I can face that He hasn’t dealt with. I just need to call on His Name for help.

There are other times when I ignore His prompting to say something He wants me to say. I’ve missed opportunities to share with someone when the time was right because, like my granddaughter at times, I just refuse to say it. I’ve made a million and one excuses but I know that those were opportunities missed. As a believer, I need to be always be ready and willing to proclaim His name when prompted.

Philippians 2:9-11

⁹ For this reason God highly exalted Him
and gave Him the name
that is above every name,
¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus
every knee will bow—
of those who are in heaven and on earth
and under the earth—
¹¹ and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,^[a]
to the glory of God the Father

Each Friday I participate in the FiveMinuteFriday.com challenge to write for 5 minutes on a prompt word. Today’s word is say.

Can’t Quite See It

My wife is a sewist or maybe it’s a seamstress. I’m pretty sure sewer isn’t right. Which ever it is, she sews. In our almost 37 years of marriage, I have learned way more about the art of sewing than I ever imagined. I’m not completely lost when she talks about something on the bias. One thing that completely baffles me is a sewing pattern. My love cuts out the various pieces which I have difficulty picturing how the jumbled up pieces could ever be turned into something wearable. On a rare occasion, she will call me up to her sewing room to help fit a pattern onto a piece of fabric that is just barely large enough. I make a suggestion but usually she’ll inform me that the pattern piece can not go in that direction, which probably indicates that I don’t understand bias quite as well as I believe. It never fails that she will take what appears to me to be a confusing disjointed mess into something beautiful that people have difficulty believing that she made.

Earlier this year after learning that both our daughters were expecting, my lovely bride decided she was going to make quilts for both babies. She ordered a particular fabric pattern from Korea. She purchased some material locally. We scourred for just the right fabric in shops in Kentucky, Ohio, and New York. When she finally procured all the different pieces she wanted, she cut everything out and began the process of assembling the quilt. She would ask my opinion but I couldn’t quite see the pattern she was going for from all the different color and patterns of fabric. She bemoaned more than once about mistakes she thought she made. When the quilt was completed, it was beautiful.

My youngest daughter was 4 days overdue with elevated blood pressure so the doctor admitted her to the hospital and began a mild induction on Friday before Christmas. My wife and I were planning on going up Christmas Eve day. My poor daughter labored all Saturday with little progress so a drip was started about noon on Christmas Eve when we arrived after our five hour drive. Our daughter was calm and did great with all the contractions but 24 hours later the labor stalled. She and her husband desperately wanted and planned for natural child birth but consented to a C-section due to health concerns for my daughter. Our grandson was born early afternoon Christmas Day. The baby was healthy but our daughter developed complications. I had to return home for work but my wife remained to help. Mom and baby left the hospital on Thursday but my daughter had to return with a life-threatening issue Friday morning. This was not how it was supposed to happen from anyone’s perspective. It was not following the pattern it was supposed to. My daughter is a godly young woman doing what was right. More than once through the process, I questioned God because I just couldn’t see it, the pieces didn’t fit. Many prayers were said from family, friends, and church family both ours and my daughter’s church. Praise God, my daughter is back home and recovering nicely. I am able to look back now after holding my precious grandson and seeing my daughter recovering but I just couldn’t understand when everything was going on the why of it all. I guess God works a little like my wife’s quilt. He takes all the pieces from experiences and trials of our lives from the different places that don’t seem to make sense or fit together right and weaves them into a beautiful pattern that we may not get to fully appreciate until we are united with Him.

By the way, here’s an image of the quilt. My wife may not want me to have shared it but I’m awfully proud of her and her work even if I can’t always see it in the process.

Psalm 121:7-8

⁷ The Lord will protect you from all harm;
He will protect your life.
⁸ The Lord will protect your coming and going
both now and forever.

Ephesians 2:10

¹⁰ For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.

Each Friday I participate in the FiveMinuteFriday.com challenge to write for 5 minutes on a prompt word. The word for today is pattern. I knew talking about my wife, daughter, and new grandson that I would blow past that limit so sorry.

A Christmas to Remember

The title of this post may cause some to either cringe or cheer, but despite how it sounds it is not about one of those Hallmark Christmas movies that my youngest daughter loves so much. I love Christmas but I don’t really think that I go overboard. My wife may not agree with that statement but I’m not the one who insists our dog wear Christmas themed collars. I will admit that I enjoy certain Christmas traditions. I put on Christmas songs to decorate our Christmas tree. I have also been known to get a little sentimental when placing ornaments that either our kids made or ones like our first Christmas together or baby’s first Christmas. At first, we used to have lunch or late breakfast at Cracker Barrel on Christmas Eve day and the past couple of years we got the family deal from Famous Dave’s. We attend the Christmas Eve Lord’s Supper service at church. We open one and only one gift Christmas Eve. Christmas morning everyone can open their stocking. We then take turns opening gifts starting with the youngest all the way through the oldest. Finally it’s all capped off with Christmas lunch. 

We were not able to carry a single Christmas tradition this year that I have come.to rely on to “make” my Christmas memorable. My son and his wife were not able to visit from Gulfport due to work commitments. It was my daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter’s turn to spend Christmas at the other grandparent’s home. Finally my other daughter was due in December so travel was out. So…no one was going to spend actual Christmas with us. Since none of the kids were coming, my plans for my “traditional” Christmas went out the window. Our daughter invited us to their home on Saturday to share Christmas with our granddaughter. My wife and I decided to open our gifts to each other Friday which completely a variation of not opening gifts until at least Christmas Eve. In all of my 65 years, I have only once been away from home on Christmas. My daughter who was expecting in December was admitted to the hospital Friday evening. After having Christmas with her sister, my wife and I left early Christmas Eve morning for the 5 hour drive to Indianapolis, hoping that we would arrive in time for the baby’s birth. No Christmas Eve lunch this year. Our poor daughter labored all through the evening. Forget opening one gift. Our stockings remained unfilled on our mantel as she labored until noon Christmas day. Hospital food hardly qualifies as the kind of either Christmas breakfast or lunch that anyone would crave. After almost 48 hours of waiting we finally got to meet our grandson following a C-section. So even though almost everything that I considered important to make Christmas memorable didn’t happen, this Christmas is one that I’ll never forget

Much like the first Christmas where nothing happened like Joseph and Mary expected, our Christmas was so much different than anything we were accustomed but our new baby made this a Christmas to remember.

Luke 2:19

¹⁹ But Mary was treasuring up all these things^[a] in her heart and meditating on them.

 

 

Because of a Baby

The FiveMinuteFriday.com word prompt challenge is taking a break until after New Year’s but I like to stay in the habit so here goes.

We are expecting our second grandchild, first grandson any day now. Since this is my other daughter’s first child, she and her husband have been making all sorts of preparations because of the baby. She has been taking prenatal vitamins and visiting the doctor far more than she would otherwise because of the baby. They have turned their guest room/office into a nursery because of the baby. Gifts have been given and been arriving almost daily because of the baby. They have taken classes to be ready because of the baby. They even had to go and learn how to properly install a car seat because of the baby. My wife and I are prepared to head up to Indy when we get “the call” because of the baby. My son-in-law and daughter are about to have their world turned upside down because of the baby. Their sleep schedule will be affected. They will not be able to leave their place without tons of preparation and a car load full of supplies because of the baby. They will be exhausted and worn out all because of the baby. Despite all the changes, challenges, and disruptions that happen because of the baby, they will forget it all when they hold their son lovingly in their arms realizing that it has been totally worth it. 

As we count down these final days to Christmas, I can’t help but wonder about all the things we do because of that baby that was born in a feed trough so many years ago. Oh there are the things that we believe we have to do like rushing madly about trying to find that perfect gift or cramming everything into our schedules to celebrate Christmas like we believe it has to be done. But those are not the things that really matter because that baby was born. We all have direct access to our Heavenly Father because of that baby. We are no longer slaves to sin because of that baby. God was with us in a human form because of that baby. Even though we were the ones who broke the old covenant, God freely offered a new covenant because of that baby. We no longer have to fear death and can live forever as God intended because of that baby. In other words, everything changed because that baby became the man who paid a price that we could not pay.

I held my two year old granddaughter in my lap Wednesday evening at our family Christmas gathering and loved every moment of it. When I get to hold my new grandson after he arrives, I’m sure I will be overcome with emotion and love because of that baby boy. Because of the way I feel about each of my kids and grandkids, I can’t imagine giving any of them up for any reason. It’s a good thing I wasn’t in charge because the world would be out of luck had it been up to me to make that kind of sacrifice.

Below is a link to a Skit Guys video that’s with checking out if you’ve never seen it that expresses it better than I have attempted.

Roman 5:17-21

Since by the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

¹⁸ So then, as through one trespass there is condemnation for everyone, so also through one righteous act there is life-giving justification^[a] for everyone. ¹⁹ For just as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so also through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. ²⁰ The law came along to multiply the trespass. But where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more ²¹ so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Round ’em Up

I have been having trouble coming up with original ideas for an early week post but today on the way home from work something mentioned on the radio sparked an idea for something to write about. The announcer was lamenting the disappearance of the various catalogs that arrived in the time leading up to Christmas. She went on to rue her longing for those bygone days after the Sharper Image catalog arrived at her home and her husband circled many high tech/high ticket items. It’s been a long time but I recall the anticipation our kids had for the different Christmas catalogs. The Sears Wish Book was the originator of wants and dreams on the printed page. Our kids would fight over who was the first to peruse a trip into fantasy desires. The catalog that really sparked their imagination though came on the scene a little bit later. I’m talking about the Toys-R-Us Big Book of Toys. They could spend hours scanning the pages and dreaming of all the things that could appear under the tree on Christmas morning. In order to alleviate arguments, we would obtain additional copies from my Mom and my Mother-in-law. As my girls got a little older, my Mom introduced them to the world of American Girl Dolls and that captivated our girls for hours on end deciding on which doll and the accompanying story they wanted to explore. Many nights upon arriving at home, my kids would want to show me all the wonders they had discovered hoping that my wife or I would make sure that Santa was aware of their wishes. Mom tended to go overboard at Christmas while she was alive so she wanted to pick the kids favorite gifts. This was a time that we had Sunday after church lunch at Mom and Dad’s pretty much every week so my oldest daughter would usually take the opportunity to share with B her selections. She would sit on the couch and point out what she had rounded (her phrase). Often there was not too many pages that didn’t have something “rounded” on them. Mom would sit with her, as well as our other two while they narrowed down their “rounded” items. Although I said Mom tended to overdo at Christmas, I believe that all of our kids hold a special place in their hearts for the time they spent sharing their dreams for Christmas with Momma B and I remember those times fondly also.

I got way more sentimental than I thought when I started out writing today. I must have gotten something in my eyes because they watered a bit. I regret that I will not have the opportunity to peruse “wish books” with my grandkids. There is something not quite as special marking something as a favorite on Amazon as “rounding” a dream gift in the Big Book of Toys.

Romans 8:19

¹⁹ For the creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God’s sons to be revealed.

 

Esther 9:19

¹⁹ This explains why the rural Jews who live in villages observe the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a time of rejoicing and feasting. It is a holiday when they send gifts to one another.Read full chapter

What’s in Store?

I loved Christmas as a kid so much so that I always had trouble sleeping the night before. I would lay in my bed imagining what gifts would be in store on Christmas morning. I would like to say that I grew out of it as an adult but much to my wife’s displeasure I would toss and turn picturing in my mind our kids excitement that would be in store for us in the morning. The spiritual gift of giving may not be my primary spiritual gift but it has to be in there somewhere because I love to select the perfect gift and then seeing the response it brings. Last Christmas, my son-in-law, daughter, and granddaughter were with us on Christmas and I was no less excited to see my granddaughter, who was only one at the time and was just as content eating the bows as she was opening the actual gift, experience her first “real” Christmas.

When I attempt to contemplate what’s in store for us as believers it is really far too much to comprehend. Jesus promised that He would go and prepare a place for us so it has to be absolutely fantastic. Unlike the song, “I Can Only Imagine” it’s going to be so much more than I can even picture. If the paving material is from objects that we value tremendously, the Father and the Son have prepared the perfect place for our reunion. Judgement Houses were a big thing in the ’90’s but their portrayals of heaven could only be a poor imitation of what God has in store for us. As exciting as seeing that place will be, it is even more special that we will once again be in constant fellowship with our Creator as He always intended.

John 14:2

² In My Father’s house are many dwelling places;^[a] if not, I would have told you. I am going away to prepare a place for you.

Each Friday I participate in the FiveMinuteFriday.com challenge to write for five minutes on a prompt word. Today’s word is store. Since this is the final challenge of the year allow me to hope all will have a blessed and joyous Christmas celebration.