“As you ramble on through life, Brother, Whatever be your goal, Keep your eye upon the doughnut, And not upon the hole.” ― Margaret Atwood

Good morning and welcome to Friday, June 7, 2019. That vintage photo popped up on Facebook and it helped explain perhaps why donuts are more fattening these days. It also reminded me of how my grandfather used to tell the great grands they should not eat the hole because it could give them a stomach ache. They would eat all around the hole to avoid this malady. The statistics from 2018 indicate there are some 25,000 donut shops in our country and they produced a total of 10 billion donuts that year. This averages out to two or three donuts per month for every man, woman, boy, and girl in our nation. We have a Shipleys near us, therefore, we do occasionally do our part to contribute to the national consumption.

Here's my flashback for today. This paragraph was included in my blog from June 7, 2007: "Our youngest loves to tell about the time my wife had me on a diet and he came around the corner outside the house and found me eating a marsh mellow moon pie. He says I put the entire thing in my mouth and then tried to act like I had not been doing anything at all, but the way he tells it, I started choking with crumbs flying everywhere including out my nose. I, of course, don’t remember this incident that well, but I do know he loves to tell this story and everyone loves to hear it! Part of this is no doubt because people think I am so serious and straight-laced. They like to be reminded that I’m just as human as the next person. That’s one of the things that make remembering the good times special. Life is tough. No one can deny that. Go back and read my earlier blogs about the things that have happened in my family and you will get a good dose of just how tough it can be. However, God is good and one of the things He gives is our memory of times that make us chuckle. Maybe if we spent more time dwelling on them, the other stuff would not dominate our thoughts. Something to think about."

The point of the blog back on that particular day was to remind us all to remember the good things about our past and not to be so focused on the not so good things. I've actually heard about folks who carry stuff around their entire lives only to find out they had misremembered something because it wasn't even what they thought it was. I am not saying we should sweep under the rug the troubles and trials we've had in our lives. Balance. In our family, we had a lot of bad stuff that happened. We had so many tragedies that involved losing loved ones that one well-intentioned fellow told me once that if we didn't all straighten up we would all be dead. Or, at least, I think he was well-intentioned. I hope so. My point? Despite the bad, we had some really wonderful experiences growing up. Even as I am writing this I can think of many times when we all nearly rolled around on the floor because something was so funny. As for me personally, I do wish I would have done many things differently than I did in my past. Life mostly doesn't give us do-overs. However, it does give us new starts and opportunities to build new and better memories. And, best of all, we who have put our trust in God's provision through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, we are forgiven, past, present, and future. And, we will spend eternity with Him forever and ever. Amen. .....More later.