“Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” ― Albert Einstein

It's Friday and I know it's a day many are excited about. They even thank God for it. That's right. I hear it all the time: Thank God it's Friday. Or they might just greet you with TGIF!. And while it is a well known cliche, we all would do well to be serious about being thankful if we have a job and we are able to get up and go each day. I do understand the sentiment behind this anticipation, therefore, I send out to each of you a hearty hello and welcome here on this November 8, 2013. My wife has been doing some work trying to deal with the clutter we have accumulated over the past nearly 50 years. I am all for it. Until. I always get nervous when she begins to name off the stuff she is discarding. Hey, wait a minute, I might just get down to those 29" waist trousers. Someday. Who knows? That broken twenty year old radio might could be fixed. I've been planning on looking at it when I get time. How long? Not that long. Just twenty years give or take a year. And so it goes. Most of it really is junk but when it has been a part of your life for so long, even though you haven't seen it in years, it does make it difficult to just throw it away. We really are a funny lot. Don't you agree?

I don't like bullies. I don't know of anyone who does. However, times are changing. When I was a kid growing up bullies were a part of life. They were mostly overgrown boys who liked to pick on smaller kids. Sometimes they got what was coming to them and sometimes they didn't. Yet, I don't believe that anyone ever came close to a thought of ending their life because they were being picked on. That's the big change. Kids today have tools to attack other kids. Often they go after their character and their appearance. The result has seen way too many that have chosen to end their lives. That's sad but also a startling development. I'm not sure all these programs they are pursuing is the answer because it sounds like they tend to overreach and may even try to solve problems that don't exist. Now we have the spectacle of bullying in the NFL. What? I would have thought professional football is a sport based on bullying. A special investigator has now been engaged to find out what happened on a team where a competitor chose to leave the sport because he was being bullied. One more time: These are some very strange times we are living in!

A kid's perspective on all this can be refreshing. I was sitting across from a 10 year old girl at the table at our Church pot luck this past Wednesday evening. I asked her how things were going. She said she was sure glad they were doing the anti-bullying program at her school this week. I told her that sounded like something that was good. She said she liked it because it caused them not to be giving so many tests. I thought that was pretty insightful. From her vantage point, the anti-bullying campaign helped to temporarily curtail the test bullying she typically has to deal with each week. Out of the mouth of babes. You just have to love children. They put it together and then tell it like it is, as they see it. I've tried to do the same this past week in our daily visits but it's time to say farewell for now. I do hope that you and yours will have a great Saturday and Lord's Day Sunday. I will seek to show up on this same station come Monday, Lord willing, of course. Amen.       .....More later.