"When the human race has once acquired a superstition, nothing short of death is ever likely to remove it." ~ Mark Twain

It's Wednesday, May 13, 2026, and, I'm glad that it's only Friday the 13th we need to worry about because the last time I checked we get a 13th in every month of the year. You know I'm just kidding around because any kind of superstition is contrary to our faith in God. I remember working with a fellow who told me his dad, a strong believer and a deacon in his local church, how, his dad would do almost anything to avoid any kind of contact with or nearness to a black cat. Woah! Confession time. Because of our conditioning, our upbringing, and, any other cultural influences, the thought does come to mind whenever one of those black silky creatures crosses in front of my car. Only for a micro-second but it does happen, it really does. I knew others that had frequented fortune tellers and even changed their schedules when told to. I think it is well established that after the shooting of President Regan, his wife, first lady Nancy, she actually consulted some kind of medium for fear that someone else might try and shoot him again. Truth is, we people are pretty fickle, don't you think? Including yours truly, but, God has an answer to our quirky but often misguided ideas. He does. He really does. The Apostle Paul writing to the local assembly meeting in Philippi, Greece gave, via Holy Spirit inspiration, these words to those folks and by extension to each of us, "And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you." The Letter to the Philippians, Chapter 4, Verses 8-9, as rendered in the New Living Translation NLT. 

 

Believe me when I say I'm not being critical of the fellow's dad who would drive for blocks to miss coming in contact with a black cat, or others trying to use the stars to direct their lives. I was pointing out the fact that each of us have our own fish to fry, so to speak, and, if you had been raised up like me, you would see exactly the meaning of that Southern saying. Let me be more clear, I've got a full time job getting the boulder out of my own eye instead of being critical of the fellow with a miniscule splinter in his eye. (Matthew 7: 3-5)  In fact, according to Jesus, if I do get myself in a right position I just might be able to then help the brother with the splinter. That quote above is from Dale Carnegie. I read one or two of his books. They were helpful to me in the work I was involved in especially in being able to communicate and interact with others. As an aside, I did have a local representative from the company he founded that wanted me to do an in-house program tailored to my staff. They did want to do that, very much. Very much. And, when he came in to talk to me about it he was overloaded with Dale Carnegie techniques. So much so, I was pretty much worn out when he left the building. I, being a procrastinator at heart, always put off making a decision about having his program. I can still hear him and seeing him waving his arms and laying it on thick about all the results I could have attained. If only. I bet it would have been a good thing too. That was back in the early 1990's, so, as they often say, that ship left the port a long time ago. Y'all find something in today's visit that will help you and let it be the Scriptures I shared because they will never let you down. They never will. They won't, ever, no, never, ever! Amen.

Proverbs 19:21 (ESV): "Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand."

We unlocked the secret word of the day and it turned out to be Tuesday. And, that it is, on this May 12, 2026. I thought it might be a good day to try my hand at a little levity to lighten us all up a bit. Okay. Here we go: Why was Cinderella so bad at playing soccer? Because she kept running away from the ball. ~ What did the horse say after it tripped? "Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t giddy-up!" ~ RIP, boiling water. You will be mist. ~ I ordered a chicken and an egg online. I’ll let you know what comes first. ~ What does corn say when it gets a compliment? "Aw, shucks!" ~ (Just so you know you do have the ability to use the electronic hook to get me off the stage, it's called the skip function. FYI) ~ What’s red and bad for your teeth? A brick. ~ What’s Forrest Gump’s password? 1forrest1. ~ What do you call a pig that practices karate? A pork chop. ~ What do sea monsters eat? Fish and ships. ~ Why do seagulls fly over the sea? If they flew over the bay, they would be bagels. ~ One to honor my alter ego, the jolly old elf himself: If athletes get athlete’s foot, what do elves get? Mistle-toes. ~ Okay. I know. These were not as funny as maybe others. They came from a listing of corny jokes on the Good Housekeeping website. My point? Well, let me tell you what the greatest to walk on planet earth, excepting Jesus, of course, none other than Solomon himself, where he either observed this or catalogued it via Holy Spirit inspiration, from the Berean Standard Bible, Proverbs 17:22 "A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones." I am reminded of the children's song, "If you're happy and you know it, then your face should surely show it." We all need to lighten up and smile more. I will be honest here: I actually practice smiling beginning in November in order to present myself as the jolly old elf. Problem? I should smile more. Like, most of the time. I should. I really should. 

 

As some young people would have said at one time: How lame is that? Well, the Tick-Tock generation of today do actually have a way today to make their point and mock the now ancient to them term. They do it this way, "Lame-o". In a way they may not realize it but they are in a backhanded sort of way paying tribute to the language used by their parents or grandparents, but, they would not like to know that. Ha! Oh yeah, that reminds me of something I wanted to write yesterday. The doctors at Kelsey Seybold are now using, with patient permission, an artificial intelligence app to record the conversation between them and their patients. That application will evaluate the content and then it will produce a detailed assessment and a final report. We will reach a time when we will not be able to recognize "Is it live, or is it Memorex?" (Notice: dated reference from a 1970's TV advertising gimmick. Look it up.) We most likely are already there. According to Elon Musk, his company now uses a helpline response no longer staffed by real people but the people calling can have an interactive conversation with the artificial intelligence robot on the other end without knowing it is not a real person. The caller can no longer tell. I just hope we have not reached the thought expressed by the comic strip character Pogo on a poster from 1970 in recognition of Earth Day: "We have met the enemy and he is us." Only time will tell and since mine has run out for today, join me next time where you will no doubt hear the words of my wife, "You are not, I hope, going to share any more jokes anytime soon, are you?" I will give that some consideration. And, as we all know and I affirm, how God is the answer, period. Amen.

"Joy is a spiritual element that gives vicissitudes unity and significance." ~ Helen Keller

Good morning and welcome. Running a wee bit late on this Monday, May 11, 2026, and, I do hope y'all are all doing well. I had a start of the day appointment with the Nephrologist, a kidney specialist, and I just returned here at the ole blogger ranch, at 9:30 a.m., Central Standard Time. The kidney specialist pretty much, and I use that in the broadest sense possible, said that I was in reasonably good shape for the shape I am in. I told you before how getting lab work with everything marked as abnormal makes one a little apprehensive, but, as she told me, those numbers are generated on a blanket basis and that's why we need someone like her to help personalize them for each individual. I'm reading between the lines a little but here's the crux of the matter: If I keep taking care of myself in terms of my diabetes I should be okay until I die in terms of kidney failure issues. Sorry if that is shocking but when you are a diabetic for over 20 years and you will soon be 80 years young, the facts are the facts. So, that's why I was running a little behind. I can say this about yesterday. We had a wonderful Lord's Day Service at our local assembly, Mims Baptist, Conroe, where we not only recognized Mothers Day but we heard a very clear message from God's Word delivered from our Pastor, the Doctor Jerry Chaddick. We also had great music from our choir where I was throwing in my ten cents worth and we had wonderful comradery and fellowship in our life group, or, some right remember it as Sunday School. We came home and while we expected to have our three boys show up to honor their mom, we ended up with a great surprise in some of the others who came. There's nothing like seeing family especially when some live a good distance away from us. This gathering made the wife of my youth over the top happy and it made a wonderful Mothers Day experience for us all. (The photo represents less than half of our entire clan and we look forward to a day soon when they all can gather, like, maybe my 80th coming up in August. Just a hint.) We thank God for His provisions. Amen.

 

There's a whole lot of 'despite' in my testimony because of the many times I have not been who God wanted me to be, however, His mercy is great and His forgiveness is real. The photo reflects another year for our boys, Chris, Jimmy, and Rodney, as they came to once again honor their mother. I have spent a fair amount of time trying to digest the meaning of the kind of husband I should be: "Husbands love your wives in the same way Christ loved His called out assembly, the Church, and He showed that sacrificial love by giving Himself up for His Church." That, of course, comes from the letter to the Ephesians, Chapter 5, Verse 5, but, I rendered it in my own amplified way in helping me better understand the application to me. I don't believe I took any liberties in putting the way I did but no matter how you slice it, hey, it's a huge responsibility that we husbands have and since the example involves the Cross, well, it's also a big deal. It is. It really is. I mention it because of the example our Lord set in His love and how we as husbands are called to strive to love our wives in the same way. Yikes. Can I get a witness? Yikes. That's not a Bible word but it really does hit me where I live. If we are going to demonstrate a Godly walk as a man, as a husband, and, as a dad, we are going to have to do it His way. We are. We really are. I still have a ways to go, but, when I do have my heart right and my head screwed on right, I work on doing my best to reflect that clarion call as stated in that verse. Okay. Time to say farewell for now and may God bless each one, real good. Amen. 

Proverbs 31:28–29: ~ "Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: 'Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.'"

Welcome to another beautiful day in someone's neighborhood. I think we are supposed to have a stormy day here, on this Friday, May 8, 2026, but, as they tell us, the sun is still shining even if we can't see it. And, more importantly, The Son, He is watching over us each and every day. Amen. This upcoming Sunday we will celebrate another Mothers Day. I've said in the past and I will say it again because I'm the one who has been there and done that with the moms God surrounded me with during my sojourn here on the planet: Not one of them were perfect but all of them were born again and striving to be faithful to God and their families. I have known plenty of people over the years who were not privileged to have these types of moms in their life, therefore, that gives me even more reason to praise God because He knew what I needed. He did. He really did. Happy Mothers Day to my wife, mother of our three sons, the moms who gave birth to our 11 grands, our grand moms who gave birth to our 11 great grands with one great grand on the way, and also to all moms who happen to read today's episode. My prayer is that each of you will be blessed for your many labors of love. Amen.

That last photo is of my sweet mom, (1924-2017), in the top one that's yours truly sitting with her, I was 7 years old and I treasure the last one because I was reading to her a passage from God's Word as she was recovering in the hospital. Until next time, may God be with 'you all', (As the Apostle Paul said in the letters to the Romans, the Corinthians, and, the Philippians, or, maybe he meant 'y'all'.) and may He meet every need, in Jesus Name, Amen.

"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in." — Greek Proverb

Inquiring minds may want to know: 231 days until Christmas Day which falls on a Friday this year.

Welcome one and all to another gathering of the blog reading world, coming to you from my wee piece of real estate to wherever you happen to be, via the world wide web, social media, or email. Welcome. Today is Thursday, May 7, 2026. That makes it another day for us to be thankful we were able to get up and embrace the opportunity to breathe air on the planet. I have mentioned several times about how our current government executive administration are going ga ga over our country being energy self sufficient. To the average person at the pump that adds up to absolutely nothing, period. I did a bit of research and found out why they are touting this energy self sufficient line of promotion. Well, it goes like this. If, we as a country export one barrel more than we import, that means we are energy independent. We have actually been that way since around 2019 with some hiccups along the way. Again, exporting more than we import is probably a good thing, but, it just doesn't resonate with energy consumers because the price of fuel has literally impacted nearly all products and services in our nation. There are many reasons why we claim to be energy independent but we cannot refine our own crude in volumes enough to serve the fuel requirements we have. Okay. I've beaten this one down, but, it still causes me some grief to see this parade of people sounding off about how we are energy self-sufficient. Obviously, we are not, and, we are reminded of this every time we fill up. We are. We really are.

 

The old peoples choir at our local assembly convenes today after a few months break. We are looking forward to this gathering of the gray haired singers. My joke. They call it the Legacy Choir to take the sting away, however, maybe they will not have us stand as much as we do in the regular choir because some of us aren't able to jump up like we did a few years back. Yes. I know the joke. How long have you had a weak back? Oh, since about a week back. Ha! My legs no longer want to obey the signal my brain sends to them. Get up! You hear me? Legs: Give me a few seconds to think about it. I will be consulting with the rheumatologist in late June and maybe she will be able to provide me with some help. Why not use the cane you bought a couple of years ago? That's a great idea but I think I will continue to keep that in reserve. These difficulties come under the heading of mobility issues. Oh well, even if I have some trouble getting up off the chair, believe me when I tell you how blessed I feel to be able to get up at all. I am folks. I really am. Today, the over the hill choir will be preparing patriotic music for when we visit the hospitals and other venues like we did last year. It should be fun. And, look on the bright side. If something were to happen while we are singing at one of the hospitals, bang, zoom, we would be in a good location. Right? Until next time, don't forget to remember to give God the glory. Why? Because He deserves it. He does. He really does. Amen.

"Actions prove who someone is, words just prove who they pretend to be." ~ copied, unattributed

I got up this morning feeling fine, I got up with heaven on my mind, and, the song goes on and on. That's not a bad way to start Wednesday, May 6, 2026, or, any other day in my opinion. You do notice that I do have 'my opinion'. It shows up quite often here on the electronic page emanating from the ole blogger ranch. I've heard all my life about folks who are so heavenly minded they are no earthly good. And, while I clearly get the sense of what is said, I'm not sure I've actually ever met anyone that fit that description. I think I've mostly run into folks too much like myself, so earthly minded, it's a wonder God has made us fit for heaven. But, that would be me and my experience. Perhaps you've seen it differently. Now I'm sure that I am well aware of what a hypocrite looks like. No. I didn't ask you to bring me a mirror, but, I do agree that's how you could see one. All people I've known, even the most dedicated and spiritually minded, well, they had some chinks in their armor just like me, and, yes, just like you. Now there are some who are just out and out scoundrels. They use their church association to abuse or take advantage of others. I grew up around some like that. They were deacons on Sunday and come Monday at their place of business they wouldn't think twice of tricking any unfortunate soul. I know. I've got enough in my own life to say grace over, but, taking advantage of the downtrodden, that's pretty nasty stuff. It is. It really is. When we give off the wrong picture of what a true born again believer looks like, well, it confuses and causes others to get a distorted view. I, sadly have been there and done that. I can tell you this. When you get yourself rebuked by a lost person who reminds you how your actions are out of line with your profession, yikes, that hurts even now, just thinking about it. It reminds me of that fellow who was a believer but he took up with his stepmom and the Church was silent, therefore, the Apostle Paul told them that fellow had done something that even those in the pagan world would not tolerate. (Read about it in 1st Corinthians 5) The person who rebuked me was seeing the story I was living and it did not match what he thought Bible people were all about. My point: People are watching. They are. They really are. 

 

I have no idea where all that came from except remembering good stuff is certainly sweeter than the bitter things that are, in fact, a part of life. I've been asked before: "You are talking about your life before salvation, right?" I would like to say yes but battling the flesh has been a part of my journey throughout my sojourn here on the planet. Before, during, and after. It has. It really has. But, I am sure each of those who read my blogs have their own battles. It comes with the territory. Right? I hear folks at times saying how they have been blessed to have never been tempted by a list of some of the more well known sinful behaviors. You know. The 'I don't drink, I don't cuss or chew, and, I don't go with the girls that do'. The way I read it from the source of all Truth and it reveals this: Hebrews 12: 1 from the Amplified Bible "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who by faith have testified to the truth of God’s absolute faithfulness], stripping off every unnecessary weight and the sin which so easily and cleverly entangles us, let us run with endurance and active persistence the race that is set before us,..." (I added the bold) My reading of this text says we all have our race, mine is mine, yours is yours, and, things that would tempt me may not tempt you and the same says things that would tempt you may not tempt me. Therefore, we can never brag about how we've never done this, that, or the other because clearly there are the 'other things' that may impact our lives. No bragging. Just begging. Begging for the Lord's help each and every day. In case you wondered, that would be me. May God help us all is my prayer. Amen.

"Funny thing about being older. Your eyesight is weaker but your ability to see through people gets much better." ~ copied

The wife with two of our grands, on her right is our Lexie Dee, and on her left is the Bride-to-be, our Kyleigh.

Happy Tuesday everyone, and, this one finds itself on the calendar as May 5, 2026. When I was a wee little lad I never cared one way or another about what was the exact calendar day. Maybe that changed some when I was in school, looking forward to the weekends. Well, guess what? As a bona fide elderly person, senior citizen, a golden-ager, or, if you prefer, just call me an old timer. (This is when I like to do my very bad impression of Walter Brennan doing his song 'That mule old rivers and me.') It's what I consider to be an old guy's voice, if you must know. At any rate, back to the calendar deal. During my working life of well over 50 years I was constantly dealing with all kinds of times and dates. I did so as a regular routine. Nowadays, as I have stated before, it's mostly, not 100%, but mostly, Church related items and/or doctor's visits. We do try to keep up with and recognize all of children's birthdays, their children's birthdays, and their children's children's birthdays. We do. And, we do our best to keep up with very important events coming up. Something like the wedding of our granddaughter coming in July. The wife attended her wedding shower last Saturday. That wedding will be an important one for me in particular. Why? I will be conducting the wedding ceremony. Wowie! Zowie! I feel honored to have been asked. I will need to make sure I make it to the wedding ceremony on time. I think everyone knows that would be important. Right?

I had ChatGPT assist me in providing the second setting. I did so because I always wanted to be seen as being outstanding in the field. Get it? Outstanding as an expert in the field. Okay. It was a joke. Just forget about it.

Back to the regression situation in older people. Some, not all, revert back to their childhood. Others, not all, have to be taken care of like they were taken care of when they were babies. None of us desire to be in that situation but it is true how our God is Sovereign and He knows best and our future is in His hands. I well remember the wife's dad, Bro. Rawles and his pitiful situation after having suffered a catastrophic stroke. At 80 years old he pretty much lost any and all abilities to function, however, he could still quote bible verses and sing hymns and gospel songs. And, that he did. I heard this conjecture once, when a person in that dire situation continues to honor the Lord, well, that's a slap in our enemy's face. Even that total disabling stroke could not keep my father-in-law from praising the Lord, sharing verses from the Bible, and, get this, he was still able to sing the harmony part on many of the gospel hymns. He may not have recognized his own family at times, but, he never failed to recognize his heavenly Father. Okay. That should be enough for today, but, remember to remember how this is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice in it, and I quickly add this, while we can! Amen.