“It takes three to make love, not two: you, your spouse, and God. Without God people only succeed in bringing out the worst in one another. Lovers who have nothing else to do but love each other soon find there is nothing else. Without a central loyalty life is unfinished.” ― Bishop Fulton J. Sheen

Yep. You did get it right. It is Friday, February 12, 2016, and I bring you greetings from my little workstation here at the ole blogger ranch to wherever you happen to be, via email, or out there somewhere on that big information highway that spans the globe, the internet roadway, that goes from sea to shining sea. Or something like that. Here's a little ditty to honor my Valentine who has been my soulmate, (not sure what that means exactly but it sounded applicable), for nearly 52 years. Life consists of much forth and back conversation. Chit chat if you will. The wife and I have our own way of communicating. I come in from work and through a series of forth and back exchanges, short sentences, grunts, and motions, she gathers what kind of day I had. I typically make my way over to the recliner. She dutifully observes. When I grab hold of the lever and she sees the chair go back she often has a very short response, "Uh oh." A few minutes later she sees that I am now sitting up and she asks if I enjoyed my nap. I ask what makes her think I was napping.
She reports that either they have a new alarm system nearby at our local volunteer fire station or it was me snoring. I never pictured her as a comedy person but she seems to go for it at times. We both laugh. And, we go through similar routines fairly often. I suppose in some ways we have our own version of Fibber MaGee and Molly, Burns and Allen, or Peg and Riley, Desi and Lucy, or maybe even Ralph and Alice. If you don't recognize those that's okay. Some will. I thought about throwing in the Bickersons but we actually don't have that much carping at each other. I didn't say we had zero but certainly not enough to mention. You can look up any and all of those references if you are curious and as I always say: My sweet Valentine, well, she is the greatest and I should know!

Several people talked about how sweet the fellowship was during our time of saying our final goodbyes to our dear Bro. Milton. Country folk. They do know how to surround folks with hugs of love and support in times like this. The fellow who owns our Company here in Texas called over to order some flowers for the service. He has some kin folks who live in Evans, Louisiana. He called a florist where one of his cousin-in-laws works. He told her what he wanted and she asked, "Well, how in the world do you know Bro. Milton?" Everybody knows everybody in a rural community. The response their local fellowship of believers demonstrated in Bro. Milton's passing reminded me of what the Apostle Paul said about how that as members we are a part of one another. When one hurts the entire body hurts. (1st Corinthians 12) Their response was commendable. We who live in a more city environment try to do this as best we can but often it doesn't seem to be the same. Maybe it's the speed of our lives, schedules, and in general the busyness of being perhaps too busy. We will not soon forget how those people went out of their way to love on our grieving family. It was an example that we all can learn from and thank God for. Amen.

You may be wondering about the process that comes up with what ends up on the electronic page each day. Me too. I've been wondering about that for a long time. I know some of what I write about has to be tiresome and maybe even irritating to some but I can't actually do too much about it. I never write to offend but I write from my heart and from my viewpoint. This inevitably will lead to some friction since not everyone sees things like I do. Hey, it's my blog. I'm not making laws here. There was a little old lady once in our Church a long time ago who had as her philosophy that she would always vote for one party and only that party no matter what because her mom and dad did it that way and taught her to do the same. I could not have disagreed with her more but I never even thought about loving her any less for it. The other day when I talked about the humility of Bro. Milton and I pictured many who stand in the pulpit and identify more with Jesus with a whip in His hand overturning the tables of the money changers in the Temple as opposed to reflecting the heart of Jesus as He wept over the hardness of the hearts of those He came to seek and to save. I thought about that. It was what came to me. So I shared it. That might not be well received by some but I felt like it helps to illustrate what I was attempting to communicate. Okay. We are not going to be able to do much about the process but we can pray for one another and seek to love others the way that Jesus loved each of us, sacrificially. Have a great Saturday and Lord's Day Sunday and I'll see you again come next Monday. Lord willing. Amen. ....More later.