Happy 50th Birthday to our Jimmy!

Another milestone day in our neighborhood today. It's Monday, April 30, 2018, and we are recognizing our middle son's 50th birthday today. Many know that our Jimmy has not had an easy life. Saddled with a serious bipolar condition with many side issues, he has been disabled for a number of years. Yet, he has hung in there, and today he joins his older brother Chris who crossed that 50 threshold three years ago along with his baby boy, Rodney, who will be there in three more years. Our Jimmy can count his blessings, and it especially includes his four children, Jimmy Jr., the twins, Alesha and Amanda, and Alexander Benjamin. We hosted a family reception last Saturday afternoon to honor him for this occasion. It was a wonderful celebration. We do pray God's daily provision into Jimmy's life and we wish him a most wonderful 50th Birthday. Our love, mom, and dad.

I'm not sure it is a milestone but today also has on its plate, this being the 2,800th published episode of my daily blogs. I think my Paw Paw Mac said it best when he used to tell me that he worried about me. "When will that boy ever come up for air?" He did think that I talked a lot. I suppose the 2,800 proves him to be a prophet of sorts. I do appreciate those who read them each day. I know some who read each day's offering with their morning coffee. I do get comments from time to time. While I will be the first to admit they often end up being a tangled mess, I do thank those who in my formative years taught me a little about reading and writing. I started to include arithmetic but I was afraid someone might ask me to prove it. As of today, I've accumulated 209,000 page views where someone accessed one of my blogs. Some 110,000 of those came from within the United States, another 22,000 were from Russia, and 7,800 came from the United Kingdom. Others were scattered in various places in the world. I've never promoted my blogs and never sought any type of advertising whatsoever. I do send them out via email to some 40 folks each day. The rest, as they say, is in the eye of the person landing on it, either intentionally or by accident. I wish I could have retained all the stuff I had in mind to write about, but, often they got away from me before I remembered to remember them. Here's a thought. Wouldn't it be wonderful to someday meet up with someone who landed on my blog, read something I wrote about our Savior, and later put their faith in Him? That would be a blessing! Amen.

Like most things in life, no time to dwell on number 2,800, we turn the page and move on. I think maybe I predicted something that I see happening. Everything is so turned upside down in the current political world we live in, it is having the impact on most ordinary folks to just look away. While I do try to keep up some, I'm not nearly as plugged into all that is happening like I may have been in the past. I'm not sure who gains an advantage as things have become increasingly more crass, crude, and classless. But, you can bet that gain is a part of the equation. I know what some say. It's always been this way. But in today's climate, it has become clearly seen out in the open. Slimy. That does have the impact of turning some folks off. The bad news would be for the wrong people to take advantage and while we were not paying attention, they end up taking over. That is a possibility. I read something the other day saying that if the people who voted last time sit this next election out, well, the other guys will have accomplished their objective, because, with both houses of Congress under their control, they can put an end to most everything the administration is attempting to do. That includes the good stuff, like reform and changing the status quo. Meanwhile, their strategy is to make sure the ugly gets uglier each day. Some predict this gutter emphasis approach may backfire. You might end up with a situation where the gutter people have become worse than the stuff that turned everyone off in the first place, therefore, it might not end up going the way they think it will. Have I confused everyone as much as I have myself? I'm pretty good at that. My last word here, be offended because the stuff going on is about as offensive as I have ever seen, but, at the same time, let's not take our collective eye off the ball, that is trying to drain the swamp. I don't have time to explain that, but, most will know what it implies. Enough for a Monday. Happy Birthday to our son Jimmy, and may we all find ourselves seeking God on behalf of our nation. Amen. ....More later.