I love those words. “Your life is about to change!”
Your experiences will dictate how you receive those words. Are you thinking “Oh, no! Here we go again!” or are you excited, looking forward? Experience and your reality of the past determine your understanding and capture of a future. But often your reality is not the reality of heaven. And it is heaven and its dictates that are crucial to living a supernatural life in Him. Continue reading Your Life Is About To Change
I have noticed a phenomenon that concerns me, not for religion’s sake but for the fact that I desire a higher quality of living in people’s lives. It is that of seeking alternatives to God and His provision.
When I came into the kingdom of light, my health was not high. I had gone through times of severe depression which led to obesity and the related side effects. I took medicines like candy and thought the fix remained on the aisles of the local pharmacy. When I became a believer I had my eyes opened to the scripture found in the book of 1 Peter. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. Continue reading Where Do You Turn?
Well, the Christmas season is in full swing. And even if the use of the word Christmas is politically incorrect, I am still enjoying a lot of it. It is less than a week until Christmas. As I have said in the past I would be lying if I was to tell you I am not excited. The idea of having all my children and grandchildren and maybe a friend or two over is so cool to me. This year we have “let up” on the presents except for the grandchildren to help out some other folks and that is just fine with me. I also broke the “Ann Lander’s rule on Christmas letters” to my clients and readers. So, far ALL the letters were thanking me for being a voice, not listening to Ann Landers and thinking about them. Besides no one would ever take me to be PC (politically correct) anyway.
As I write this I am listening to Christmas carols. The fire is going in “my mind” and the Christmas lights are going. The only thing missing tonight is the voices of the grandchildren. And maybe a hot chocolate with my wife.
Last night I visited some awesome lights!
I am thankful for those who have written me and said “I was going to skip the… tree, Christmas, etc., but you have inspired me.” YAY! Continue reading The Christmas Past
Because I had done so much snow removal and lawn cutting there were various neighbors who thought I could be helpful to them. One of them was an older man originally from Putney Vermont. His name was Ben. He and his wife were confined for the most part to the chairs they carried around. They would move the chairs from one section to another in their yard.
Their yard was like a mini farm. Behind the house were strawberries and blackberries. On his porch the refrigerator carried eggs and produce and people just left money in the coffee can. Across the street was his chicken coop with geese, ducks and chickens. And a garden.
As his and his wife became more disabled he needed more and more help. He asked my parents if I would come work for him. They said “yes.” I loved money so this was an easy thought process. He would pay me a $.50 a day to come down in the morning and evening. Each morning I got up and raced down the road. Taking the two 5 gallon pails up to his house, I would need to get 2 pails of water to take down to the chicken coop. In the garage I would get their feed out and scatter it to the yard for them. I would grab their eggs and take the basket up to his house and wash off the eggs. Putting them in cartons, I would then head back to make the school bus. I did the same in the afternoon. Continue reading Working On The Little Farm
My first endeavor was probably snow shoveling and lawn mowing. I lived in a community in Northford Connecticut. A rural community my parents lived on a former dairy farm. I shoveled driveways and sidewalks. Most people paid between $2 and $5 for the work. Sometimes we got multiple snows and I collected well. Tips often included cookies and hot chocolate. When we got the tractor with a snow blower everything was $5-$10. I loved the snow.
I put a small tray out my window. Salt sat in the tray and a wire connected it to the buzzer/light in my room. Snow would fall. Snow would melt. Circuit completed. Buzzer would ring. Preparation to be out early ahead of others would begin. Continue reading My First Job Growing Up To Work
Chicken Little I am not.
Chionophobia- Fear of snow
I get nervous when people start calling for safety over sanity. Have you ever read the warning labels companies are forced to affix to a product? All that “research”, legal mumbo-jumbo and added paper costs you money. These are but a couple…
When I was a child I had a friend. A year older than me I met him through school when I moved to the small rural community. He and I had a lot of similar hobbies and interests. Recently I was reading about his death.
The topic of his death came up in a Facebook thread I had been looking at. Someone was complaining about the past. About school, about teachers and parents. As I watched what I realized was this person was looking for a wrong to be righted.
My friend did not just die. He died many years ago. Over 40 years ago. The people on the thread wanted to extract justice from people who were dead. People who had done things to them. To others. Continue reading A Friend Falls In His Life
Prior to my encounter with Christ some 20 years ago in a grocery store, my life was to say the least, pretty chaotic. Part of that lifestyle left me with a trail of broken relationships. Even skipping some of the wrongful parts of my life, I always seemed like I was moving on to a new relationship. Even coming into Christianity I was still unraveling many of the characteristics that caused me to “lose” relationships.
But I soon learned the value of retaining relationships. In part because Christ was “doing a work” in my life and godly men and women were participating in my growth. I am thankful for the participation of these folks. Continue reading Beware Of How You Treat Others
This morning I woke, coming out to the living room and sat here for a moment. A quick rehash of what might be accomplished today was on my radar screen. And then I looked at the floor. Four very empty children’s chairs. A part of me sees the prophetic in the picture. That if you “build” it they will come. The chairs had been moved from our destroyed home in Springfield. My wife and I had cleaned them up and put them on the floor. The first thing my grandchildren did upon arriving last night was go to sit in them excitedly.
There is something about the preparation for a child or children that excites me. These four empty chairs and a table suggested my love for them, hospitality towards them. I never look at those chairs or the pictures of my children without thinking of my love for them. Without uttering a prayer. (There is a large piece here for people. Do children feel welcome?)
Emptiness is a target for the love of the Lord. Do you feel empty? God can fill you up. Continue reading Empty Chairs – An Opportunity For Blessing
When I was a child my parents hired a babysitter. Her name was Mrs. H…And she and I did not see eye to eye about many things. She was a short, very overweight person. She thought my brothers and I were “hell on wheels” and would speak with her Polish accent in short bursts of rules.
Because of the way she treated me she was often the brunt of my growing sense of humor and general boyhood thinking.
One day I caught a frog. (Her husband taught me!) A rather large frog. You cannot catch a frog and not plan on doing something with it. I decided to put the frog in the toilet in case my dad would let us cook it. What I did not count on was Mrs. H using the bathroom while I contemplated what to do. I was in the closet getting something to put it in, when she walked into the bathroom (A very large country bathroom with a closet on one end and the toilet on the other.) In the process of her opening the door, she closed the closet door. At first I thought it was one of my brothers. But then I heard her humming to herself. I looked out the key hole to make sure. And sure enough, it was her and she was going to use the toilet. Now nothing could be seen from the keyhole, because of the positioning of the toilet, behind the bath tub. And she was very near sighted, so she did not see the frog. A few moments later thought the frog jumped and so did she. She was screaming in Polish and English and whatever other words meant “Help!” I was laughing so hard as I saw her head around the corner, I nearly needed a toilet.
She ran down the stairs looking for me. I decided to head out the window at the end of the bathroom and wait on the roof for my mom to come home. I have to tell you, by now I was in hysterics. It was so funny in my head that I just wanted to see her. So, I climbed down the old lilac tree (The one my brother fell out of when we were playing hide and seek in the dark on the roof.) and looked in the kitchen window. There she was with my brothers lined up, yelling at them to find me. I was rolling. The upshot was, my parents came home and it was all they could not to laugh as she told them of the horrible thing I had done. I didn’t get in trouble…that’s what counted that day.
Over the years I have thought of the things I have done and didn’t get caught. Despite the “not getting caught” part, I have still felt badly. No, I couldn’t change things, but I often wonder of the things that might have been, had I not done the wrong thing in the first place.
