Close calls don’t count, do they? A near miss and life goes on. I’m not aware of anyone who hasn’t had a close call at some time in their life. An amateur baseball catcher may just barely miss getting hit with a bat being swung by an amateur batter. Inexperienced climbers may take a wrong…
Tag: Parents
On Spiritual Obedience
Matthew Cowley, a member of the Twelve Apostles, found a picture of a workhorse while serving a mission in New Zealand in 1918. The picture so impressed him that it hung in his office until a week before he died. Before he died he gave the picture to Elder Glen L Rudd. The following poem,…
On Story Time
“Life is like a tale that lives, some life stories are written so vividly that, as you read, you see it’s action filmed upon the screen of your mind. We can’t all be such writers but that should not stop us from sharing our tales of life.” After reading the above, it made me realize…
On Setting Boundaries
We seldom think of how important a person is who cleans the building after the rest of us have gone home for the night. People come in and go out of our lives like two ships passing in the night. We see and may even blow our huge foghorns (wave) at one another but that…
On Drugs
I reluctantly watch the news most evenings knowing there are bound to be some reports of a drug bust somewhere and/or a medical report of some young/older person dying of an overdose. For an old man that has never had a drug problem other than smoking when I was in my teens. That was bad…
On Reputation
I served as a high school counselor for the first seven years of my professional career in education. One of my chores, or more delicately speaking, one of my assignments was to keep the smokers out of the parking lot. I would listen to their sad stories about why I shouldn’t call their parents. After…
On Family Relationships
Boyd K. Packer stated that, “The end of all activity in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is to see that a man and a woman with their children are happy at home, sealed for eternity.” I’m not sure that all members are aware of that message. With all the meetings and activities…
On One Last Time
My sweetheart and I have been together as man and wife for over 61 years, and we both know that our time on earth is drawing near the end. We must know unconsciously, as well, because we tend to say more often, “I love you” and we hug a little longer after prayer each night….
On Creating Oneself
Youth emerge from their infancy pretty much instinctively. With encouragement from parents and other siblings we learn to walk and talk and begin to ‘become,’ with very little or no conscious thought to the process. Yes, we express pride with a gleeful smile or laugh when we can first run and stay upright but it…
On Bearing Arms
I grew up in Minnesota during the depression years and hunting for food was a common thing to do. Dad had a rifle that he used to hunt rabbits with and a shotgun that he hunted pheasants and geese with. We always had some wild meat every week that dad had hunted. The meat my…