Festsgrber's Xanga

Aren't we all...

Sun, 02 Jul 2006 05:30:50 GMT

Video Code provided by VideoCodeZone.Com

And so it goes...

Sun, 07 May 2006 17:35:55 GMT

So another day and not much to say. The Kentucky Derby was incredible. Barbaro looked like the second coming of Secretariat. The festivities surrounding the race pale in comparison to the actual race. How many things can you still say that about? This is truly an incredible event, not one of those made for TV productions that the actual event is usually anticlimactic.

Now sure if I will ever tire of the Triple Crown races. For a series of events that the total time might be seven minutes, spread out over about a month, I really enjoy it. Not sure but I think the last triple crown winner was Affirmed in 1978. It seems like Alydar finished second in all three races. That was a rivalry unmatched in horse racing history.

I was able to finish my laundry. Not sure of the total load count, but all my clothes are clean except what I was wearing yesterday.

I expect to have a good day today. Not sure what I will do for lunch. I may attend a SS Planning meeting. Red Lobster might be a better choice. I have a $5 coupon but I can't print it out. Hopefully my mom can get it to print out.

...........

OK, went to Red Lobster for lunch. I had the Atlantic Salmon, grilled, with a sweet and spicy glaze. It was very good.

Church was good. I was volunteered to teach the next chapter in our study. I think the person doing the volunteering was selecting people based on his being selected to teach the last two chapters. One of the chapters he taught was titled, "Salvation Through Sex." I sensed a touch of bitterness. I think I would have been better selected to teach the fourth chapter. It was something based on the Far Eastern religions. I could have watched some old reruns of Kung Fu or The Karate Kid to prepare. The chapter I am teaching is called, "Salvation Through Science." I will not be confused as a scientist any time soon. Not sure what I could be confused for. I know a lot of things confuse me. At work I am confused for a lift truck driver. Too bad we don't have a chapter titled, "Salvation Through Lift Truck Driving." I am pretty sure there won't be lift trucks in heaven. And since we don't take any of our baggage to heaven, there won't be a need for lift trucks to move our luggage around.

That kind of reminds me of a joke. A guy walks up to an airline ticket counter and ask for a ticket to Phoenix and for his luggage to go to Toledo. The person working the counter tells him that they can't do that. The guy ask, "Why not? You did it last time?" Maybe we go to heaven and our baggage goes to hell? I mean one way or another it will burn up anyway.

I think my afternoon will be best spent taking a nap. We will have some out at work tonight, so I should have enough to do to keep me busy for the whole eight hours.

How did this picture get so fuzzy?

Sat, 06 May 2006 12:23:50 GMT

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

--Rudyard Kipling

Some days nothing comes easy. It is like I am in a fog. I have no clear thoughts and clarity is something I hope for but it is just beyond my grasp. I hate those days. Yesterday was one of those days.

I had some things kind of on my mind. Well, I say on my mind, but I couldn't concentrate. I was aggravated about something stupid. I think it might have shown. I am no Rock of Gibraltar, but I rarely show any emotions or what I am thinking. I had been meditating on a couple of verses and little tunes, but nothing would stick. I could not focus. I usually daydream when I am doing stuff, but I am focused on the task at hand and subconsciously, I day dream. Make sense?

So it was like someone sprayed some no-stick solution on my brain and nothing could get a grip. Get the picture? I was basically scatterbrained. I may be just a dumb old southern boy, but I can usually concentrate on simple things.

So then I just tried to pray. I say tried. I couldn't even do that right. I was in a cloud of confusion. So there I am, riding around on my fork truck, trying to pray amid chaos. I am rambling on about how I need peace and wisdom and understanding and feel like I am just repeating myself.

Then it struck me. The problem wasn't that God wasn't listening. The problem was that I wasn't listening. Psalm 46:10 ring a bell? NIV and KJV start off with 'Be still and know that I am God...' NASB translates the first part 'Cease striving and know that I am God..." My basic understanding at that point without any background in Greek or other abilities to get a deeper understanding of the verse came down to this: Shut up and listen.

In my simple ways, I sometimes can make things so complicated. I am my own worse enemy. Amazingly, when I stepped aside and moved the focus from inward to outward, I was able to see things a little more clearly. There was a popular bumper sticker that claimed, "God is my Copilot" implying that I may physically be behind the wheel, but I am going where God leads. Maybe it should have said, God is my Navigator.

Some of my confusion was concerning direction. I was trying to force things to go in the direction I wanted them to go. I am slowly figuring out that maybe I need to go in the direction God wants me to go. Or better yet, Maybe I need to be willing to the the person God wants me to be, then He can use me where ever I am. Maybe He wants to use me where I am. Maybe He wants to use me somewhere else. It comes back to the Jonah thing. I may be where God wants me, but am I what or who He wants me to be?

So I found peace through the back door. I quit chasing and just kind of sat still. It wasn't that God moved. I was a gyroscope and I was able to allow God to slow me down. Some how everything stopped spinning and he helped me put my focus back on being the tool instead of the carpenter. Sometimes you are the hammer. Sometimes you are the nail.

I am sure I will trip, stumble and fall along the way. Be patient. It is like I am driving on a fake ID. It looks real and I may seem like I am the one in control. But I can't even figure out how to unfold the map.

In the end, I had a really good night at work. I had breakfast with a couple of friends. I am doing laundry and I am a bit sleepy.

By the way, the situation that was aggravating? It is so petty that I am disappointed that I even gave it enough thought to be an aggravation. There are a couple of other things that I am sure will work together for good. It is not my nature to force things, most of the time. Did I mention that it is Derby Day?!?!?!?

Have I mentioned we are all crazy?

Thu, 04 May 2006 12:41:12 GMT

Some people wear it will, others don't. We had a safety meeting at work this morning. It was about a 20 minute meeting crammed into 45 minutes. So during the Q&A time, people were stretching the questions and repeating and doing all they could, so we wouldn't have to go back to work. One guy is notorious for asking questions that show a remarkable lack of intelligence. Now keep in mind that my medical knowledge is limited to whatever I can find out on WebMD.com. This particular meeting is a safety meeting. This guy started telling a story about when his wife was in the hospital. The nurses kept coming in every two or three hours taking blood. Day and night, they took his poor wife's blood. Then she got more sick and had to go to the ICU unit and they had to give her more blood. Well, it was obvious to him that the reason she had the turn for the worse was that she had low blood! I understand blood pressure and white blood cell counts. Those are blood measurements that can be low. But would low blood be a reason to get your blood level topped off and back up to normal levels? Is there a dipstick that can be pulled out and it has a line that says, "Add one pint," and where would that dipstick be? I hope I never get low blood. It sounds serious.

I work at a plant that makes paper products. We make boxes for bakery items and donuts and garments. We even make boxes for Baskin Robbins cakes. We get the occasional paper cut. In the worse case, I would hope at least someone could apply a tourniquet before I got low blood and died. Did I mention this sounds serious?

The main topic of our meeting was lockout and tagout procedures. The idea is to make sure all forms of energy or eliminated so repairs can be done. If a machine suddenly started up with an arm or leg in or under it then low blood might happen every quickly. Or maybe low blood might be a minor problem at that point.

I might finally get my hair cut tonight. It is about time. The guy who cuts my hair has been busy. I bet I will get a few stories along the way. I can't wait.

Still not sure about work tomorrow night. Early word is we won't have to work. Early words are usually wrong. The rest of the plant is working. Time will tell. One guy graduates from a local seminary with some type of a Master's degree in Bible. He is looking to leave in four months or so for China. He has considered several missionary boards and he has pretty much decided on one. He has been asking my advice. Is that scary or what? Last night he even said I brought a couple of good ideas he needed to consider. If I am any type of a source of wisdom he has bigger problems than asking me for advice. I hope all works out for him. We had breakfast one day with Doc. I told him that Doc was on the boards of a couple of Missions and he might have some advice. Now that is a source of wisdom.

If you want wisdom from me, I should probably just read you a passage from Proverbs. May is a good month for a chapter in Proverbs a day since it has 31 days. I like the way I can figure out where I goofed up. Hindsight is 20-20, especially through the lens of Proverbs.

I think I may have some resolution to my Amazon.com order situation. I posted an email asking the where and why and got a courteous reply. So I will receive my stuff in the next couple of days.

I am looking forward to having the last work night of the week tonight. This weekend will be a big laundry weekend! I can't wait. Maybe I have anticipation issues?

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Tue, 02 May 2006 11:56:48 GMT

I never can figure out these fonts, so I use the trial and error method. I have had a good couple of nights at work. Sean is back at work. His wife had their 3rd child, so he has been off for almost two weeks. Cute pictures. Jim was out last night. He had court yesterday with his son. I added him to my prayer list. Jim is just a really nice guy. He works a 2nd job at the North River Corner Market and the lady there serves very good breakfast foods. One of these days, I will have to get over to try one of her sandwiches. Her name is Fedora and This morning I ask Fedora if she was going to be open next Monday. She ask why and I reminded her it was her birthday. She said it was just another day. I saw her smile though, so I am pretty sure she was glad someone remembers. She also smiles when I tell her the food is good and I always thank her after I pay. She can be a bit gruff, but she really is a sweet lady. Jim is a good guy also. They have a lot of regular customers and he knows how each and every one like their particular order and he fixes everything just so. One lady calls in her order from the bus. Then she hops off of the bus and picks it up. When Jim isn't there, the other people don't know every peculiarity and things don't go as smoothly. The lady who calls from the bus always get a couple of drinks and Jim always goes back to the cooler and gets everything ready. Sometimes the little things make the biggest difference. Jim does a lot of the same things at work. He really helps the shift go smoothly. We missed him last night.

We had a good crowd at Amigo's last night. There were five of us and the discussion was pretty funny. It was a very relaxing time and I really enjoy the time together.

I am pretty sure I will sleep well today. I am fairly tired. I slept well yesterday, but I believe I could have slept longer.

I had a good discussion last evening before I went to Amigo's. Sometimes it is good just to talk things out and a fresh point of view helps keep things in perspective. There are some things I would like to see happen in a certain way but sometimes what I want isn't the most important thing. I need to remember that the important thing is seeing people you care about happy. Sometimes I do foolish things and usually end up regretting them later. Every now and then, I do something that is good and I enjoy the satisfaction of knowing that I might have a part in seeing someone else happy.

As I left Amigo's last night, I ran into a friend from the Czech Republic. I was sad to hear he is going home in June, but I am happy for him. We worked together at the hotel. He did security/maintenance and I did the front desk duties along with the night audit. It was usually the two of us on duty and that was it. Every now and then there was a housekeeper on duty, but usually it was just the two of us. I always enjoyed talking to Marek and we had a good working relationship. We even had Thanksgiving dinner together last November. He plays tennis with Doc's son-in-law Ben. Ben invited Marek for dinner and it had been almost a year since I had seen him. He lives at the hotel and he is always on call. He would work 100 hours some weeks. It sounds like a lot, but he was working here to make some money before he goes back to his country. A lot of our discussions were about Hockey, Tennis and general English. He was taking an English class when I first started working at the hotel. I was able to answer most of his questions, but then I have spoken English most of my life. He will be missed. If I ever get to his country, I will have to get him to interpret for me.

The Reds won last night. Life is good!

Sleepless Blog....

Sun, 30 Apr 2006 08:45:49 GMT

I doctored this picture I found somewhere along with the ad. I thought it was funny. I sometimes use this when I post comments on here.

This has been a good weekend. I was able to talk with someone who is becoming a good friend. This particular friend challenges me in several ways to think and consider things in different ways. I feel that is a good thing, even the thinking part. I am sticking to my story of just being a dumb old southern boy.

Have I mentioned Vidalia Onions are in season? I hate onions on my father's side of the family. It is genetic. Actually, I get it from my father. That is as far back as I can trace my onion-hating-lineage. We were at Red Lobster the other night and my dad doesn't like things with spices on them. We had to order some non-garlic bread. Then he had to have half of his lobster pizza without basil. This is the man who thinks hominy is wonderful. Paper and water have more flavor. He calls it his sensitive palate. Whatever?!?! We also get a basket of regular bread when dining at Red Lobster.

Back to the onions. The core was removed. The onion is wrapped in aluminum foil. A little bit of Dale's Seasoning is added along with butter. The pepper is sprinkled all over and the foil is tightly wrapped all around the onion. Then the onions are placed in an old foil container from bread and it is placed on the lit grill. First thing on the grill and the last thing off of the grill.

We also had grilled salmon and twice baked potatoes. I think the bread was by Mrs. Shubert's. I had Coke with my dinner. This was topped off with a doughnut. I know my role by the way. My contribution was melting butter in the microwave. This was to dip the grilled salmon. I actually put the butter in some cups before I melt it. That way we didn't have to go to the microwave to dip our salmon in the butter that would have been in the bottom of the microwave if I didn't use cups. I think of everything!

The potatoes were baked. Then the middle was cleaned out and mixed with sour cream, cheese and butter. The the middle was put back in the potato shell and bacon pieces were sprinkled on top. Then the potatoes were cooked some more.

The salmon was marinated in Dale's Seasoning for an hour or two. Then it was grilled for about twenty minutes or so.

Do not be mistaken. I arrived at around 6:40 and the salmon had already been marinating and the potatoes had been baking. The food was being placed on our plates at 9. I know not to rush the cook. I had a couple of doughnuts so I didn't digest an intestine while I waited patiently for dinner to be served.

The cook felt like the salmon was a bit overcooked, but I thought it was perfect. It didn't crumble and fall off of the fork when dipped in the butter. Each morsel was savored.

This is probably my favorite dinner. We had a discussion about ice cream, especially Extreme Moose Tracks. Instead of a vanilla type ise cream, Extreme Moose tracks is in a Chocolate ice cream. The cook and his girlfriend said it was too rich. Too rich? That is like too much money. Can't happen! Next time I will have to take some ice cream and we shall see if it is goes with the meal.

So there is my review of dinner. And the food was almost as good as the company. The real treasure was the friends who shared this evening with me. We had other discussions that were very interesting. I will just say that things are pretty simple. I think I can see things as they are and I try not to over analyze. I was able to talk about some things with my friend's girlfriend and I hope she realizes that some things are just as they are. Nothing more or less. I think she is discovering what is normal. One person's normal is another person's chaos. If you can understand that and see things in their proper perspective, then you might be able to find a common ground. I am not saying that it is easy, but it can happen. It just takes some work.

I will close with this thought: There is nothing better than the encouragement of a good friend.

-Katharine Butler Hathaway

Friday, April 28, 2006

Fri, 28 Apr 2006 20:35:40 GMT

Ok. Where did this peace come from? I knew I might hit a few bumps in the road today. I tossed and turned a bit, but when I woke up, I felt totally refreshed. I prayed for the ability to respond to a particular situation in a way that would be pleasing to God. Amazingly, I think I handled the situation well. Through nothing that was in my ability I have an inner calmness. I know where this peace comes from.

Without going into any details, I was expecting a certain amount of what could become turmoil, but it hasn't worked out that way. I know what is needed and what the expectations are and I will do what I have to do.

On a lighter note, Thursday when we left work we were told we wouldn't have to work Friday night. I cleared my calendar. I take that as a bad sign. Inventory is this weekend and that means counting for people all day Saturday. They make this much more complicated than it has to be. It is counting, pure and simple. With three shifts and different levels of competency, the warehouse can become a mess rather quickly. As expected, 3rd shift gets to work Friday night to straighten up the warehouse for inventory on Saturday. Like I said, it is pretty simple. Try and put like product together and in an order that will be easy to count as quickly, efficiently and correctly as possible. I think it will be easy money. We know what to do. We will do it.

Also, I didn't get to play softball last night, but I have two games tonight. Hopefully the games will be over early enough so I am not rushed for work. I like to get to work a few minutes early and sit and relax and do some reading. I prefer 25-30 minutes before the shift begins. I like the calmness and serenity before the chaos that is 2nd shift. We seem to always get address some details that may have been overlooked by the shift before us. It is kind of expected. Fortunately, I know not to let this dictate my attitude or demeanor for my shift.

I think this is probably something that I can only give credit to my dad for. He is the epitome of unflappable and steady. I have the good fortune to have a lot of friends who have set a good example for me. My dad is probably the best example of Christlikeness for anyone.

I was watching a program on TV and the young lady being interviewed was saying that they had a lot of rules and regulations because they were raised in the church. That got me to thinking. I didn't have a lot of rules and regulations because I was raised in the church. I had a minimal amount of rules and regulations and those I did have were for my own good and safely. My parents were probably trying to protect me from myself more than anything else. They knew my friends. They didn't always know where I was but they knew who I was with.

I don't ever remember my dad getting mad or losing control. He had plenty of reasons to probably want to kill us. I am pretty sure the poor choices I have made have nothing to do with my parents. I take full responsibility for my own stupidity. I was allowed to suffer the consequences and somehow I survived. I wish everyone could know my dad. He has always set an excellent of what it means to be a Christian and have a daily walk with Christ. I know several preachers, Sunday School teachers, missionaries and other people who are in a full time ministry. My dad has never had what we would call a Christian vocation. His day to day life was his full time Christian service. Anyway, I wish everyone had a dad like my dad. The world would be a better place and a lot of people wouldn't need psychological help! Ok, I probably need psychological help, but it isn't because of my dad!

So I get to work this weekend. I get to play softball tonight. Vidalia Onions are in season! Life is good!

I hate when I know what I should do, but I would rather not...

Wed, 26 Apr 2006 12:08:41 GMT

Sometimes the hardest thing to do is the right thing. Background first. There is a guy I work with who is leaving in a month or two to take a pastor position. This particular guy seems to go out of his way to make people not like him. He makes it easy. He comes in at 2:30am when we work overtime.

Most of the guys on my shift come in early also. Most of the 2nd shift guys stay over. Our shift leader has been in shipping for over 10 years. Needless to say, he is very effective at getting us in position to get the most work done as efficiently as possible. I appreciate that. I think one of the reason's the guys on my shift like to come in early, because something funny usually happens.

Last night we came in at 6:30pm. 2nd shift always acts like they are surprised to see us. We knew we were coming in early Monday evening before the 2nd shift guys even left. No need for surprise. Anyway, a couple of first shift guys who had worked over were still there. Around 6:45, we still hadn't started working and the 1st shift leader said we were already 100 pieces behind 1st shift. I told him that wasn't too bad since they had been there 12 hours at that point. When he came in this morning, I told him how far he was behind us and reminded him that I had to cover for a 2nd shift guy who went home early. During that time I wasn't able to pick any pieces.

Anyway, back to the future pastor guy. When he came in, we were at a part of a load that wasn't the best work, He got to do that part of the load. We left for lunch and when we returned we all could tell he had gone through everyone's assignments to see what we had to do.

Right when I came back from lunch, he came up to me and said he was going to raise holy #&!! because it wasn't right that he got the worst part of the load. He then started talking about how he wasn't getting overtime and he wasn't going to take it. I just sat there and listened. Finally I got away to get back to work.

At first I got kind of upset. I ask one of the other guys if there was any trouble. He told me there was a little.

I just got back to work and was wonder what would be the best approach. I was kind of caught in the middle and that was not where I wanted to be in this particular situation. I was praying for wisdom and calmness as well as peace. I knew there wasn't anything to say that would help the situation.

Surprisingly, a couple of hours later he came up and apologized for his behavior and his outburst. I was caught a little off guard. I just said that I wasn't the complaint department and I don't think any of the work he got was anything that didn't have to be done by someone. That is my attitude toward work. They don't give us work that doesn't have to be done by someone, even the worse stuff. So I try to take the good with the bad and help other guys when I can and just generally have a good attitude and encourage the guys I work with. A few minutes later, we crossed paths again and he ask me if he could use my comment about not being the complaint department. I said sure.

I don't think this will bud into a close friendship, but you never know. I don't talk much at work, especially when we have work to do. I have yet to get fussed at while at work for working but I have seen people get fussed at for talking.

The hard part was while I was driving around before the apology. I was praying for general guidance. The thing that stuck with me was that I needed to pray for this guy. That was the last thing I wanted to hear. I hate it when that happens! So I added him to my prayer list. I have to smile about it. I am the last person who is even remotely Christlike. I know, baby steps. Any wonder we are given a lamp for our feet. That way we can see to clearly put it in our mouth!

One of these days...

I am not naming names....

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 10:32:27 GMT

But who does this comic strip make you think of? I am not naming names, but....

I have a really good night at work. One of the guys I works with has some stories that are pretty good. It seems like several years ago, he drove to Wisconsin to pick up a girl to be his roommate. That was the first time he had met her. Not sure how they got to know each other before that, not sure I want to know. So he picks up this girl. She pays for everything and they go to the Daytona 500. On the way back he got tired of her mouth and when they stopped for a break on the way back, he left without her. There were other stories that sounded very similar. He was looking at a calendar because he needs some vacation days to drive to Tupelo to pick up another roommate. I may not be that bright, but even I can sense a bit of a pattern here. I wonder where he will leave this one?

Believe it or not, but then the discussion digressed. We were discussing if stupid people provided better stories or crazy people provided better stories. The thing that we kind of based the argument on was trying to decide if people could help being crazy or stupid. We came up with the Forrest Gump idea that 'stupid is as stupid does.' Some people can't help being stupid, but it seems like you can get some medicine for being crazy. Getting psychological help was not a part of this discussion. Therefore we decided that stupid people provided better stories.

It seems like there will be inventory this coming weekend, so there is less chance that we will have to work. Not really sure what that means. I think it means that the chances are that 3rd shift might work, but not 1st or second because there will be counting going on. Stay tuned on that one.

Amigo's tonight at 7:45. Trying to accommodate everyone. Not sure if it will make me run a little late for work. I hope is does not make me leave later than I like to leave. We shall see.

The speaker was very good yesterday. Last night was really good. It sounds like his idea of 'Reality Discipline' is a way of teaching kids to consider consequences that they might not like and therefore changing their behavior. It also seems like it teaches parents to consider the cause and effect of the child's behavior and react accordingly. It was very good stuff.

First Softball game Thursday night at 8:30. This might make me late for work, so I might have to miss. I hope we don't have too many late games.

Time for bed and I hope I sleep better than I slept this weekend!

(Fill-in-the-blank) without Relationship leads to Rebellion...

Sun, 23 Apr 2006 17:49:48 GMT

Ok, the service today was really good. The speaker reminded us that we will forget 82% of what he said within one hour after he was done speaking. He had two points. So if you forget one point, that leaves another 32% to forget, which is 64% of his second point. So I have also forgotten more than half of his second point as well. I tried to pay attention, but my brain is so tired, I probably forgot more than that. I guess the 82% was some type of national average and I am probably a good distance from that average. I remember that during those standardized tests in school, I was always in the two percentile. So anyway, where was I this morning?

Oh yeah, church. I admit I don't remember exactly what he said, but if you were there, feel free to correct me. I think the basic idea was how we can be Jesus to other people. He made the comment in an illustration about leaving your Bible at home. Any idiot like me can figure out he wasn't talking about leaving the Book we call the Bible at home. He was talking about living out the principles of the Bible in our lives. Whatever it is, rules, religion, politics or however we express ourselves, we should find ways to minister to others through our actions.

The message was a perfect compliment to an idea we touched on in Sunday School. We aren't perfect or complete. We can only be complete through the work Christ does in and through us. We talked about how pride goes hand in hand with insecurity. We have nothing in us the can give us a consistent reason to feel good about ourselves. The whole self-esteem idea is part of the problem. We can temporarily feel a sense of accomplishment for some of our good deeds, but we will follow our good deeds up with an act that ends up with our feet in our mouths or some other evidence that we have stumbled. Compared to Christ, we should realize that we have no self-esteem. We have done nothing worthwhile. We are so concerned with ruining a kids' self esteem and their sense of self. We want to raise kids who think they are miniature gods. We want them to feel good about themselves and who they are. Then they can grow up and be full grown gods. Without realizing we are imperfect, we will never realized we are lost and therefore our need for the Savior. Shouldn't parents model that unconditional love of Christ in loving their kids even when they mess up?

That goes back to the main topic of the study in Sunday School. We aren't god. That is where the discussion begins. The utopian, humanistic and other ideas presented by the world are flawed. The welfare idea is a way of saying that your problems aren't your fault. During the 1930's when the programs came about that was probably true. Lots of people out of work and no way to provide without government assistance. The programs were supposed to be temporary. Now they have become a way of life. We discuss how the church needs to step up to the plate and meet people's needs. This is true, but that is still a bit too corporate. What are we doing individually?

Some of the ideas in the Bible lead me to believe Jesus leaned toward a socialist system. When we encounter people with problems, we should count on the Spirit's guiding to help meet those needs. In meeting people and their needs, we can show them the love of Jesus and it will probably go a lot further in showing them the truth.

A week or so ago, I mentioned my friend who works with an older gentleman who drives him crazy. I reminded him that if he helped meet the needs of his partner then there would be someone to help meet his needs when he is older. I don't want this to sound humanistic, in that everything repeats itself or the idea if we don't know history then we are doomed to repeat it. (That is a lie told by history teachers. We need to know history to learn from past mistakes and good ideas) The cyclic idea means we don't need God since things keep going in a circle and repeating. I am referring to the principle God will take care of us. God will provide for our needs since he provides for the little birds and aren't we more than the little birds?

Did I wonder down a rabbit trail? I enjoyed the message today. Simple. Practical. And to revisit the idea presented by Charles M Sheldon in his classic book In His Steps, 'Are those the steps of Jesus?'