Failing to pause can get you in all kinds of trouble. In a recent email correspondence that involved six other people, I failed to place a comma in a sentence. It was one of those times when it totally changed the meaning of the sentence! It was actually quite amusing, but I should have paused with a comma. My failure to do so was picked up on immediately by my witty friends. Thankfully world peace was not at stake, or…
During the course of the past several weeks I have done three funerals for three ladies ranging in age from 69 to 89. Interestingly enough they had one thing in common. Each of those ladies “ran off” to get married when they were 17 years old. It was difficult to secure a wedding license in some states at that age. At least two of my above mentioned friends took off for Oklahoma, so they could get married. What was the…
I am going to sound like an English teacher today. And if you are like me, all of my memories of English teachers are not fond. I hope you will tolerate my brief soapbox that I feel compelled to stand on today. In the end, we might all benefit! I think everyone should have a reading list at the beginning of a new year. I resisted such structured way of reading for a long time, because for years I received…
When I was a small child, we played some great hide and go seek games in the basements of our Wisconsin homes. Partially finished basements coupled with stacked boxes made for ideal hiding places during winter time playing. Years later a group of teens taught me to play an advanced version of hide and go seek called “sardines.” Hiding is fun for little kids and even teenagers, but it can lethal for adults. Adults are notorious for hiding behind the cover of…
In a few months, Jeff Jeffries will start recruiting camp counselors and support staff for Royal Family Kids Camp. RFKC is a camp for abused and neglected children ages 8-11. Most of the kids that we host each year are in foster care that has been ordered by Child Protective Services of Texas. All of the children have been severely abused in some shape or form. Serving on the staff for a camp of this nature is no easy feat….
I am really not into delayed gratification, but I do see the value of plugging along on an effort consistently. I have wanted to be able to speak Spanish for quite some time now. But learning a new language requires a tremendous of discipline and hard work! Last spring I took a Conversational Spanish course at Tarrant County College. That was helpful. And then I attempted an online Spanish grammar course over the summer. I dropped that class! Summertime is…
I might as well go on and confess now… It IS a holiday weekend. Maybe that will serve as a sufficient excuse. Well…here goes: I watched a chick flick with Jan last night. Actually as far as that particular genre of movies goes, this one is a good one. We watched Fried Green Tomatoes, which was released in 1991. I saw it in the movie theater that year and liked it then. Jessica Tandy is brilliant and Kathy Bates does…
Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.” -W. T. Purkiser 27 year old Ryan Grant has been a running back for the Green Bay Packers since the 2007 season. Grant played college ball at Notre Dame, and began his professional career with the New York Giants in 2005. He has indeed been a standout for the Packers. In 2008, he broke two franchise records during their game…
I read a great tribute to a coach from a former player this week on a friend’s facebook page. She made the following comment regarding her experience with this gentleman: He’s the best coach I ever had. For every one thing that he told me to work on, he told me three things I was doing well. What a great observation! Come to think about it I wish I had read that about 22 years ago, when we found out…
This week is a not a bad time to take inventory. I am not thinking in terms of the kind of inventory that a retailer conducts annually. Retailers count the number of items on a shelf. This week would be a good time for us to count our blessings. There are obvious things for which we should express gratitude. And then there are not so obvious. Yesterday I preached a sermon entitled: “I Don’t Feel Like Being Thankful.” In that…