I am rather old-fashioned in some areas of my life, which I do not intend to upgrade to current standards. I do not believe in changing something unless it really needs to be changed. A crazy phobia is going around these days suggesting that if something is old, it must not be any good and if it is new, it must be good.
I think old Solomon was right when he said, “there is no new thing under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9 KJV).
So, I am never intimidated by some new gizmo or gadget that comes down the line. One of the things I have no intention of upgrading is in the area of giving credit. I believe in giving credit where credit is due. After all, I need all the credit I can get these days.
If somebody does something that blesses me, I am beholden to give them their due credit. I am under the opinion that if I give enough people enough credit that one day I just may be able to cash in. Read the rest of this entry »
It was one of those weeks where, if I accomplished anything that delicious slice of information has completely eluded the tiny gray cells floating in my cranium. It is not as if those little gray cells had anything else to do.
As I suffused my weary body into my La-Z-Boy chair, I knew I was tired but I could not figure out what I had done during the week to make me this tired. After all, it did not seem like I had accomplished anything of significance this week. I was trying to do something, of course, but I had absolutely nothing to show for it. What was I trying to do this past week?
A verse of Scripture began haunting me as I thought about this. “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin” (James 4:17). What was I supposed to “doeth” that I did not get around to “doething”?
Of course, there was that funeral I had this past week. Unfortunately, I opened my book to the wrong page and begin the funeral by saying, “Dearly beloved we are gathered together here to unite these two in holy matrimony.”
Holy macaroni! Read the rest of this entry »
God does not make grandmothers like He once did. At least not like MY grandmother. Grandmother never trusted such things as banks with her money. Someone once told my grandmother, “If you would put your money in the bank, they would pay you interest.”
With a confused look on her face she responded, “I have enough interest in my money, nobody else needs to bother about it.” That was that!
After my grandfather died, my wife and I had the opportunity to take Grandma out for supper. It was a delightful restaurant and we thought it would be a real treat for her. More than once, I had to keep her from getting up and serving coffee to the rest of the people in the restaurant. After all, she did that at the church suppers; why not here? “I’ve got two good legs,” she protested.
Then came time to pay the check and the waiter brought the check and laid it in front of me. I immediately took a credit card out of my wallet and laid it on the check.
I could tell Grandma had never seen a credit card before.
“Put that away,” she said. “I believe that man wants you to pay for our supper. Don’t you have any money?”
Read the rest of this entry »
Every year somebody, who does not really have a life, comes up with words that should not be used during the New Year. I am not sure where this started but it just goes to show that there are a whole lot of people who do not have much to do.
Topping the list this year of words not to be used is the word “amazing.” Allegedly [which I think is one word that should not be used this year], 1500 people voted to ban the word “amazing.”
I think it is rather amazing that out of the 312,867,000 people living in the United States, 1500 people tell us what not to say. Who are these 1500 people? What do they have against the word “amazing?” Have they ever seen anything that was actually amazing?
Of all the words I would like to see canceled during this year, “amazing” is not one of them. Read the rest of this entry »
An old year is fading and a new year is upon us again. Each year I go kicking and screaming into the New Year, and not because I am against change. My pants pocket is full of change.
I simply cannot remember to change the year on the checks I write until May. By the time, I remember the correct year I have forgotten to make deposits into my checking account. I need a reality check, which with any luck will not bounce as high as my checkbook.
That is not the only reason I hesitate going into a new year. The biggest reason has to do with the mistakes I made during the old year.
Looking back over the old year, I worry that my blunders were not as bad as they could have been. Did I make all the gaffes I possibly could? Did I fill my quota? What is my quota, anyway? Read the rest of this entry »
Forgive me if I have said this before, but, “Happy New Year.” It may be the epitome of redundancy but I have given this greeting for 60 years and I mean it as sincerely this year as I have all the years preceding.
The first few years of my life, I had no teeth and so all I could say was “Goo-goo, daa-daa.” It meant the same thing. This year I have all of my teeth but I am not certain how many more years.
The way we start life is the way we usually end life, with no teeth and drooling all the time with a silly grin on our face.
Why is it so cute to have a toothless drool at three months but rather disgusting when you are 93 years old? Read the rest of this entry »
Although I may look a little stodgy on the outside with a few gray hairs blossoming on the top, I still know how to celebrate, and this is the time of the year to do that sort of thing. I love a good Christmas celebration.
For the last few years, I have never had to check my calendar to know when it is time to celebrate the Christmas season. It seems that the Thanksgiving turkey always gives rise to what I shall refer to as the Holiday Turkey. No sooner is my Thanksgiving turkey resting snugly inside of me when the Holiday Turkeys begin their assault on Christmas.
Do not let this get out, but I love it. Read the rest of this entry »
Is it time to get out of the house? For many years first thing in the morning I had coffee with a friend. The cappuccino was strong and frothy and the barista and I were on first name terms but what was even more delicious than the coffee was … the talk.
What is it about talking that is so incredible? God gave us humans this incredible ability to communicate in words. Using that ability is vital. As I would sit with my friend we would share our lives. We would review the past – sometimes yesterday, sometimes events from long ago and how they affected our present. We would discuss the present – what was going on that day or that week. We would put into words our hopes and fears for the future. It was a safe place to share.
Sometimes we would whisper our woes. Many times we would discuss our kids or more likely our failures as a parent! But what was important is that we shared – the good, the bad, and the ugly. Read the rest of this entry »
A few summers ago I flew into the south of Egypt and took some R&R in a little beach town on the eastern shore of the Sinai Peninsula. One night, I set off to climb Mt Sinai. I say “one night” because climbing it during the day was out of the question – it was just way to hot. That night my respect for Moses grew enormously. As we struggled up this mountain for 2 or 3 hours and climbed the infamous final 700 steps we arrived at the summit. It was still very dark and an enterprising trader aged about 10 offered to rent us a blanket for a $1! We wrapped the blanket around us, tried to get a little sleep and waited for the dawn. As the sun rose our jaws dropped at such incredible beauty. The sun penetrated the darkness and vanquished it everywhere. The desert mountain vista from 7,497 feet up was extraordinarily beautiful.
I felt it was an incredible achievement and returned to my beach hotel excited by all I had seen and done. However I suspect that Sir Edmund Hilary and his sherpa Tenzing Norgay would have smiled at what I thought was a great achievement. In May of 1953 they became the first pair to set foot on the highest point on earth, Mt Everest at 29,029 feet. Out of the 6 billion people on the planet only just over 3,000 have ever set foot on that pinnacle. Read the rest of this entry »
All of us have leadership within us. You don’t need to be a president, prime minister or high flying executive to exercise leadership. There has been so much written on leadership that my purpose in this little article is not to try and teach you some fancy theory or practice but rather to suggest that you have the courage to let what is in you come out.
I believe in two things (well actually I believe in a lot of things but I have just two to prattle on about in this paragraph!) I believe in life long learning. Every day I try and read 10 pages of a good book to feed me and listen to 15 minutes or so of good audio to inspire me. I passionately believe I will never be done with learning. Do you feel that way too? Secondly, I believe that my leadership skills can always use a little stretching. After 30+ years of leadership in a variety of contexts I still feel as if I am only just beginning. Read the rest of this entry »
CWAHD.com
was designed to assist dads in their quest for a work at home job or business.
The idea for this website actually came from my wife. Since the creation of
her website for Christian Work at Home Moms, 
