"A characteristic of the normal child is how he or she doesn't act that way very often." ~ Author Unknown

Handful on purpose!

Good Tuesday morning here on this February 24, 2015. The other evening when I stayed with our eldest in honor of the women of faith shindig, well, I forgot to mention the handful on purpose that became a surprise blessing to me. When I arrived there and knocked on the front door, well, well, well, here comes our little great grand Madi girl to welcome me. She was there on a surprise visit to her Maw Maw and Paw Paw and her Great Grand Poppy could not have been more happy to see her. I had been exchanging notes with her mom, our granddaughter Tiffany, about when we might be able to schedule her to come and visit us. We missed her at Christmas time and we were not able to be at her birthday party, so we had begun to be ready for the great grands to spend some time with that girl. She is a little character. At five, she has more energy than you can shake a stick at. And, she is funny. She is the youngest in our clan and the closest we have to the pitter-patter of little feet. At any rate, the wife and her sleepover gang enjoyed all their special time together, you know what I'm talking about, all that lady bonding stuff where they all bawl their eyes out, and, when you think about it, I didn't do so bad either. In fact, I kind of thought it turned out to be a pretty decent women of faith conference.

Back in the day I always wanted to do the pen pal thing with someone from some far flung place across the globe. I never got around to doing it. Today we have Facebook. I have a number of running dialogues with some interesting folks from the Philippines. They are native missionaries there and we stay in touch using the private message feature. While I have never met these people in person, it is very heartwarming to converse with them as they share their day by day dealings. One of the things we all know is how that everyone, no matter where they are from, face issues and challenges in their lives. Illness, financial stress, family concerns, and a host of other situations impact their day just like they impact ours. In addition to that messaging opportunity, we also have a sizable family messaging set-up so that we can keep in touch with our greatly distributed clan. When a prayer request is identified within our family we can let everyone know about it using this utility. I know there's plenty of bad stuff that gets posted on Facebook. Some of it ought not to see the light of day. Much of it is posted by people who should know better. (My opinion.) At the same time there are the positives that can be experienced, like the ones that I mentioned, that I am very thankful for.

I know many of you who read my blog are prayer warriors as well. I am seeking prayer on behalf of my wife. She will be undergoing some surgery at the end of next week to repair some gastroesophageal reflux problems that have bothered her for many years. The surgery itself is called routine. However, with my wife, she has an inherited gene system that rarely ever meets the definition of routine. We are thankful they have a surgical procedure mapped out and we anticipate her full recovery and then she can go back to eating those things she loves perhaps better than most. Like a big plate of sliced homegrown tomatoes. That was one of the first on the list to quit and one of the last she finally had to set aside. If all goes according to plan she will be in the hospital overnight and we appreciate your prayers on her behalf. This lady is a remarkable woman. Since her retirement from her day job, she has flung herself into a variety of ministry oriented endeavors. God has blessed as she has reached out to many different folks. I hear about how that folks who are together for a long time begin to resemble each other in their elderly years. So far, best I can tell, she has no interest in having a beard so I doubt seriously we will ever favor each other that much. Sorry to disappoint but we have to go with the flow. You too? I thought so. Do the best you can with it and Lord willing I will see you next time. May He provide is my prayer. Amen. ....More later.