Don't Grow Weary

Every New Year is filled with resolutions. It is the one thing guaranteed to happen and I am pretty sure that losing weight is the number one resolution. Losing weight is something that I have been involved in since 1989. My goal I would rather describe as working at being a proper weight based upon height. When I was a freshman in high school I weighed 205lbs. Not sure who started the ritual of listing the weight of football players, but that type of information is something that folks like to use in announcing a football player still today. Describing folks by their weight only works if you are in the NFL and if you paid me millions of dollars I wouldn’t care either. My largest size ever was a 48 waist. I still have a couple pairs of jeans that I look at from time to time to remind me of what I have accomplished over time. My weight loss plan has been a long journey and it is a road I am still traveling. For some reason or another I love potatoes and bread and those two items I just haven’t been able to totally eliminate from my diet. There was a time that I drank many a soda but over the years I have been able to continually eliminate those with one exception. For some reason or another when I go to my parents home I find it very difficult to not drink a RC or Squirt. There is something about goals, plans and commitments that are just not easy. As I think about resolutions, and losing weight I am thinking about the good feelings that come from results. There is no substitute for hard work. Sacrifice is the requirement to achieve and change comes from the dedication to make things different. Growing up as a child I remember well the choir from the First Free Will Baptist Church in Warren, Michigan. Each Sunday they would sing “Each Step I Take”. It sounds probably way too simply but the true is, impressions can often be long lasting and I have never forgotten the Christian lessons of that song. In my journey as a Christian I have looked down the long road of life many times. I have looked for the proper turns and watching for the sharp curves in life too. Learning to take one step at a time is a great way to being a long journey. One of the lines from “Each Step I Take” says, I know He leads the way. One of the great things about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is the confidence that comes from learning about Him and that He will lead. The big issue with this truth is that most of us want to be the leader and not the follower. With all that I have written in this column there are many things that could be taken away and implemented in our lives that could make a real difference. For one, as a Christian I have learned that journeys can be both long and short. For the long haul there must be a real commitment and if we continue to push and strive Galatians 6:9 will work just fine. “Don’t grow weary in doing good, and in due season you will reap if you faint not”. 2013 maybe the beginning of your journey are just another mile. No matter the situation, make it count. Until then

Making the Calendar

Every year there is one thing that we are each guaranteed to use, a calendar. I was recently in an office supply retail store and standing at the calendar section I was totally amazed at the options one has to choose from. There were calendars for your desk with a month at a view that could be used as a desk cover. This type never worked for me. I always cover them up with paperwork, books and my “stuff” and so that style doesn’t work for me. Options for calendars include those that sit up on a desk, hang from a wall, and those that you can carry in your pocket. And calendars today are filled with information to the point that I discovered there are options for information too. Your selections include calendars with positive quotes, thoughts or a scripture verse for each day or month if that has your fancy. There are calendars with the birthdays of movie stars, but there is no address for sending a card. I guess the thought of knowing it’s a celebrity’s birthday and maybe yours too would provide some extra excitement for the day if you were a big fan of the celebrity. There are the historical calendars that provide all the moments that happened on a particular day in history. Those are quite interesting I have discovered. I was reminded of all the things I had lived through in my life time that I had forgotten already. I see the value in those calendars if you love history for sure. Deciding which type of calendar to select for your use must include the purpose of the calendar too. My parents in their business have long given to customers pocket calendars. I’ve heard people throughout the years talk about putting their monthly bills in those pockets and how much they like those calendars. Of course all the calendars I have talked about are real calendars----ones that we can hold in our hands. I am not even going to talk about electronic calendars. They are everywhere to select from. I have a calendar for my gmail account, one for outlook on email, one with the office computer. The best thing about electronic calendars is that if you have the correct application or program, you can sync all your calendars together, now that’s nice! Looking at all the different options and styles of calendars I was struck with this thought while looking at a birthday calendar that highlighted the birthday of Benjamin Franklin. He was born on January 17, 1706. Just looking at his name there were lots of things that began to come to my mind. I thought of him being a Founding Father of the United States, after all he signed the Declaration of Independence. He was a writer and loved science. Figuring things out captured a lot of his mind and time. He enjoyed completing experiments and to his credit, invention after invention. Most famously he is after all the father of electricity. Looking at pictures of him wearing glasses I am reminded that he created bifocals. (Thanks Mr. Franklin, I am wearing mine as I type this column) Thinking about all the things I knew about him and was reminded from simply looking at his name I thought what do people think when they see our name? There are some facts of Benjamin Franklin that are lessor known. He was the 10th son of his father, who by the way had 17 children in all. His father was a soap maker by profession and had wished his son Benjamin to be a minister. That didn’t happen because of the cost of education, but that didn’t stop Benjamin from making a difference. Not sure what our individual answers are about what people think when they look at our names written down. I hope for sure it can be said that we made a difference with what we had, where we were. If we each get that accomplished in 2013 I am quite confident that would be a good start to being remembered. It might not get our names printed in a calendar, but I am sure it get our names written on the calendar of those we did make a difference for. Until then

2013 is the perfect time

Week #2 of the year 2013 is already trotting down the calendar road at a record pace. There is an expression that I am confident we have each heard spoken before. “Time stands still for no one”, sounds famous and often used, but the expression is difficult to credit to any individual. Robert Frost said “Time and Tide wait for no man, but time always stands sill for a woman of thirty”. I think I shall leave that interpretation to you the reader. Who wants a controversy this early in the year? There is an account in the Book of Joshua, Chapter 10:12-13 where the sun and moon stood still until Joshua and the children of Israel were able to defeat the Amorites. Scripture in the Bible also says that there was never a day like that before it, or after. Personally I love a sunset and sunrise, and many times I have wished I could have caused that moment to stand still. The best I could do was simply to take a picture and pray that I was able to capture the moment. My camera skills are not the best even with all the modern technology. I think if I write this next statement folks will classify me as “old”, but there are too many options and settings for me to really figure out. The Polaroid age was a good time if you think about it. Especially once the built in flash was invented! Now that was something. No more photo bulbs to put into our camera, it is hard to have even imagined that, before it happened? When Joshua in the Bible called out to the Lord and the sun and moon stood still that was an unimagined moment too. With time racing already in 2013 what would you like to capture if you could? A sunset, a moment of laughter, a spoken word or maybe a gesture you would like to take back? How about a conversation that you were never able to finish or an experience you would love to repeat. It is easy enough to list the situations we wish could be changed, but think on the positive side of time and the opportunity we have to create new memories. This next effort could be the perfect step in helping things become balanced and at least capture a new moment, even if for just a little while. In 2012 I had selected 2 Peter 1:3 as a verse of scripture to focus upon and memorize. This has been my practice for several years but this year, 2013, is going to be a little different. During this Christmas Season while singing “O Holy Night” at church I had a moment that I want desperately to re-create. The moment was a feeling and a thought of what would happen if Christians took to heart the words, “His law is Love and His gospel is Peace”. The actions of Jesus Christ himself should be all that we as Christians need for motivation to the cause. I am not sure what moment in time you wish that could be commanded to stand still but I am confident of one thing for certain. 2013 is the right time to see our moment of opportunity and as time continues to move, each day another opportunity to give someone their moment to remember as remarkable and you a part of it! Until then