After worship at Hurstborne Christian Church we held our annual congregational meeting with the usual business of new officers - elders - my darling wife was elected an Elder. I am to be the Evanglim/Church Growth chair.  We approved a record budget and the final item was a 2+ Million building project to be done in three phases.

Everything passed    100%.

It to the BBC News to explain to me why poor Americans vote against their own self interest.

The article is worth reading.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8474611.stm

I have to think about this but it seems to make sense.

Over the years I have heard many people make excuses for why they can not engage life with success. It is a wide range of “reasons” such as Too Young, Too Old, Too Poor, Too Tired, Too Little Time, and Too Much to Do.

Many of  these people squander their potential because of self-imposed limitations.  Their dreams or goals seem too big for what they think they can do. They are told or think that it is only a pipe dream that is actually out of reach. So they don’t go beyond dreaming and never settle in to the piratical planning to reach their big goal. So they become mentally paralyzed and feel that their life is a failure.

The key to fulfilling your dreams is long term planning that involves a lot of short term goals. A woman wrote to an advice column saying, “I would love to get a college degree and teach but in four years I will be too old.” The reply was “How old will you be in four years if you don’t go to collage.”  Today the average life span is more than seventy years and many people retire from one career and retool for a second dream career.  You are never too old to begin seeking your dream. Set your dream goal and then set progress goals to reach it. Chart your progress day by day and over time you will enjoy fulfillment.

Have faith in yourself 

In more the 40 years of serving as a Pastor I have discovered that no mater what you want to do “SOMBODY” is going to object. That is just the nature of the human condition. There are 16 distinct personality types and they can not agree so I came to expect objections.

Several time in committee meetings a good idea would be discussed and some one would say, “Will anyone object to this?” I would answer, “Of course they will!” The trick is to consider what the objections might be and have answers ready to meet the objections.

Love is a strange thing and it can strike with out warning.

You are minding your own business and a new person walks into your life. You can almost hear the twang of cupids bow and your heart melts. Yes a new love has come into your life. Now what do you do about it?

If you and the person you meet are unattached you can enter great joy and let nature take its course in the relationship. This can be wonderful and scary all at the same time. Love is like that  most of the time.

If you or the other person is in a committed relationship [marriage being really committed] then what you do about that love needs to be tightly controlled.  Love happens all the time and it is what we do about it that matters. You can love a lot of people if you put it in perspective and act morally.  You can love good friends of either gender without violating your covenant with your mate or their covenant with their mate. You can enjoy affection without sex but it take personal self control. That control on your libido starts long before you fall in love with other people. You have to know that love will come your way time and time again and you must be ready for it. A love that is out of control and on the sly can bring a lot of pain in your committed relationship.

Our FIre Place

I have been sitting in the living room enjoying this fire and reading an Anne McCaffrey novel.

It has been a good and quiet day.

This is why I kworked so hard splitting wood all Summer 

On the day I was discharged from the US Navy I shouted : “NO MORE LINES” and I thought that was true. In the navy we stood in line for everything; meals, showers, shots, pay and shore leave. We often had to stand in the shot line in order to get to stand in the pay line.

Well that declaration was very soon disillusioned as I have been standing in lines ever since. Reregistration for classes at the University of Texas was a shocker of a line. Checking out at the grocery store, getting money at the bank and even being put on hold on the phone is standing in line. “Your call will be answered in the order in which it was received.”  Don’t get me started on lines at the airport.

About the only place where I don’t ever have to stand in line is when I pray.

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

The opening words of the Declaration of Independence are telling for our times as well. The United States of America has written into the constitution a way of doing those words without the violence that followed the deceleration. Every two years all the House and one third of the Senate are up for reelection. Every four years the office of President up for election. We have witnessed massive political turnovers over and over and the mess just gets worse.

Part of the problem is we want to throw the rascals out for their pork barrel spending but not the one who represents us. That one brings home the bacon. So what are we going to do?

We have an election year coming up. I take my vote very seriously. It may only be one vote but it is one vote. I want to make it count even if it is a protest vote. Let us all take some time to pray about those we vote for. I am not voting for an incumbent in the state and national elections. However I will vote for my self in the Bellemeade city election. Yes I am going to run again for mayor by popular demand. I am trying real hard not to be a rascal.

Most people raise their children one day at a time not really thinking very far ahead. Parents we need to think about the future when those children leave the nest.

Keep your perspective. Babies come into the world and they are the focus of attention everything has to be done for them but that doesn’t last long. Our goal as parents is to raise them to be independent adults. Then we are surprised when that is what they want to be, how-be-it about five years before we are ready for it.

Early on set the example for what you dream for them in their adult future. They will copy you. If you are a loving devoted married couple treating one another with respect, the will copy you. If you hold the law in high regard so will they. If you words are civil and positive theirs will be too.

Today I will spend most of the morning at a funeral for a Fire Fighter who died in the line of duty.