Once, twice, three times a lady

What's the definition of a lady these days?

During our bible study last night the subject of Lionel Richie's song "Three times a lady" arose in connection with a bible lesson about Ruth as an example of a young virtuous woman. When adults and youth were asked their definitions of a lady there were striking contrasts: Adults spoke of integrity, chastity and discipline. Youth spoke of tasteful dress, not being ghetto and education as standards. Adults said a lady would not accept gifts from a man; youth quickly said gifts could be accepted if they were not stolen. Youth never associated chastity or integrity as a criterion; they focused more on public appearances.

It soon became obvious that the definition of a lady has changed for this generation. The youth were on the verge of saying that being a lady may be best but ladies are not popular because ladies don't sport visible tattoos, dress sexy, flirt or engage in the fun of gossip. They say being a lady is a downer but it is more respectable.

The Isley Brothers asked the question, "Who's that lady?" and the bible points us to Ruth: A Lady by virtue of her loyalty to her husband, personal integrity and sense of decency in all matters.

Ruth 3:11 says, "... for all the city of my people doth know that thou art a virtuous woman."

Lionel Richie put it this way, "She's once, twice, three times a lady."

Regardless of age a true lady has three characteristics: A sense of responsibility, virtue and decency in all matters.

She's three times a lady.

A place with free health care

There's a place with no health care worries!

The whole country seems to be divided over the health debate. Yesterday, The president signed into law a bill that will make sweeping changes in the way the nation responds to health care issues. Some like it; it seems that the overwhelming majority of the nation does not like it. The debate continues as people yell at each other, break out windows, threaten Congressman and prepare to campaign against the Democrats who voted for the changes.

As the debate continues, health care remains out of reach for millions who won't be covered by the new law either.

The frustration makes us all yearn for the time when health care won't be a concern or a need for that matter. Is there such a time coming? Is there a place free of health care concerns?

The bible renews a promise to all believers that in the kingdom of heaven there will be no health issues such as: arthritis, cancer, Alzheimer's, high blood pressure, heart failure or any of a thousand maladies. There will be no sickness at all.

Symbolic of this health care victory will be a tree that will sprout leaves that heal the nations. It'll be symbolic because there will be no sickness.

Revelation 22:2 says, "In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."

The best part about what's coming is that there will be no monthly premiums, denials for pre-existing conditions or increasing rates.

It'll all be free; paid for by the blood of the lamb.

Between frigid and hot flashes.

I nearly froze Sunday, it's scorching hot today!

The weather is really strange. Sunday it snowed in March; not enough to stick but nevertheless it snowed in Louisiana in March. The next day it was 65 degrees. Today it was 75 degrees. Natural phenomenon is highly unpredictable. It seems that all of us are constantly swinging somewhere between frigidity and hot flashes. We don't know whether it will be hot or cold. There are earthquakes, wars, and even if not real wars there are rumors of wars. The ice cap is melting and things are getting topsy turfy. What does it all mean?

It could mean that we are getting close to the last days.

Jesus said in Matthew 24:7-8 "For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows."

It looks as if scripture is fulfilling itself. The closer we get to the fulfillment of biblical prophecy, the more unusual occurences we can expect. We should prepare.

Until then keep your coats ready for one day and your swim trunks ready for next. We don't know what each day will bring. However, we go forward, knowing whose in charge.

Our God has the whole world in His hands!

The free toothpick sample was tasty

I almost filled up on the samples..almost!

After worship yesterday, my wife and I went to Walmart to get a few items. There was an attendant who offered shoppers free samples of a tasty chicken recipe, bathed in a delicious sauce. The sample was on a toothpick. I tasted the sample, walked around and returned for a second sample, then a third. I liked the samples so much I finally bought a box for myself.

I think that was the whole idea of the samples; to get customers to tryout a product with which they are unfamiliar. Hopefully, they would like the sample so much they would buy the product. It worked.

That's the way it is with God and the wonderful joy he brings to our lives. There are many who do not understand the happy life we live as Christians. It's a life that does not need the world's artificial sweeteners such as booze, drugs and loose living. They won't know unless they trust God for themselves. Just one taste and they will never turn back.

There is a bible verse in Psalms 34:8 that says, "O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him."

Just one taste and we will want more of the abundant life he promises.

I have a whole box of those chicken pieces now. Now that I have my own I don't have to walk around in circles and eat from a toothpick!

When I turn 99, it'll be fun

He turned 99 and looked well.

I attended a birthday party for a man who turned 99 years old yesterday. He was surrounded by his wife, all of his children, all of his grandchildren and great grands; all in the same place at the same time. He was alert, walked in the room and was fastidiously dressed for his 99th birthday photo. It was an inspiration.

It made me wonder about my 99th birthday. That'll be in the year 2048. Things will have changed then. I hope to be of sound mind and still planning for the future, obviously not mine, but those of my grandchildren and beyond.

What is more important than a long life is living a productive life. We should show God's love everyday, help the poor, show the lost the error of their ways and challenge injustice in high places. At the end of the day, we will be blessed.

Psalms 41:2 has a word of promise to those keep doing God's will despite advancing age, "The LORD will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies."

As for my 99th birthday party, I think I'd like some lemon ice cream and a slice of butter soaked, home made pound cake.

After that, I'll get on my wristband computer, call up a digital visual screen and begin plans for my 100th birthday!

A house full of junk

They accumulated so much junk in their homes they could not move around!

I watched a CNN news report yesterday about people CNN called hoarders. For some strange reason these individuals feel the need to accumulate what can only be described as junk. One man could not get to his kitchen, see his sofa or climb a stairway in his home because of junk. A woman ate her food in a small junkless space in her living room because the rest of her spacious home was filled with items she picked up on the side of the road, at rummage sales and Goodwills. Their homes were filled with junk..in every room, including their bathrooms!

They all have a disorder that prompts them to collect junk. They can't help themselves.

Most of us may not be hoarders but we do allow junk to accumulate in our lives. Our junk may be leftover baggage from a prior relationship, bad habits, impure thoughts and hatreds, jealousies, etc. As the years pass the junk accumulates quickly. Soon our junk overwhelms us, suffocates us to the point that we can't really live.

Jesus said in John 10:10, ".. I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."

Those who truly follow Christ accumulate those things that will contribute to the abundant life. It means we get rid of the junk and start to really live.

As I watched those hoarders on CNN I thought about my closet; I have some junk to throw out too!

I couldn't find the light switch

The seat was laid back and the music was throbbing, but worse of all, I couldn't find the light switch!

My son borrowed my Expedition to make a short trip out of town; he left me his 2005 Ford Escape. Last night when I got in his SUV, the seats were laid back and the music was on a 1970's groove jam station that blasted as soon as the motor turned on. For about two minutes I fumbled around in the dark looking for light switch. (In the Expedition the lights automatically turn on when its dark). My hands felt in all the usual places unsuccessfully. I finally found the switch on the steering column when I expected the windshield wiper to be. Click! Lights!

There are many people who are fumbling around looking for lights. They are looking in all of the places that custom says should allow them to see clearly, move higher and lead happier lives; but they are fumbling. Drinking, gambling, sex, and greed based ambition are all located where the light switch should be, but they can't shed any light on what's really important.

In John 8:12 Jesus said, "I am the light of the world, he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have light of life."

There is no need to fumble in the dark if we follow Jesus. Where is the switch that will turn us on to him? He's only a prayer away!

I'll give my son his Escape back today; it's OK but at least in my car, the lights know when to come on!

She buys 100 lottery tickets every day!

It was hard to believe, but yesterday I watched a woman purchase 100 lottery tickets at one time.

The line at the convenience store was long and patrons were getting restless as we waited for the machine to print one hundred .50 cent lottery tickets for a woman who patiently waited, then handed the cashier a $50 bill. She was excited. Apparently she won $2,500.00 the night before and averages between $3,000 and $4,000 a month playing the "Pick Four game."

She explained to the attendant that she buys 100 tickets a day, spending about $1500 a month. The odds are in her favor she says, and so far she has doubled her money. She uses the first $1,500 she wins to pay for the next month.

She has no job. She plays the lottery for a living and on a good month clears about $2,500 a month. She says she never has a completely losing month, but there is always a chance.

I smiled as I watched her and thought about the millions of people who take chances with their salvation in the same way. In a cruel game of spiritual Russian Roulette some gamble on their salvation, rejecting Christ and refusing salvation; hoping to gain eternal life by chance.

Acts 4:12 reminds us that there is "none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." We should not take a chance on anything else.

We won't get to heaven by lottery and we can't devise a strategy to gain admittance. We must accept Jesus, repent from our sins, and live for him.

The lady who bought the lottery tickets says she has a fool proof plan for guaranteed income without working, but there is no guaranteed way to get to heaven without Christ.

"I'll never kiss a frog!"

"I'll never kiss a frog!"

Those were the words of the heroine in the new Disney movie, "The Princess and the Frog." It tells the story of a black girl in New Orleans who had big dreams of finding prince charming and business success, but they would required her to kiss a frog to find her prince. She began the movie adamantly saying she would never kiss a frog.

It was a children's movie. Since we have grandchildren, my wife and I previewed it last night, in preparation for for the numerous times we will probably have to watch it as they watch it over and over again. Among the ideas the movie subtly passed along is to never say what you won't do because often you must do the unthinkable to succeed.

Life is that way too. We often have to "kiss the frog" to climb the ladder that reaches to our dreams. Many have said they would never work for a certain company, never go back school and never perform certain tasks, only to change later, especially when it became obvious that "kissing the frog" was the only way.

There are some who are trying to get to heaven without Christ. There are no ways Him. Jesus said in John 14:6, "no man cometh to the father but by me." Many have pledged that they will never be a Christian, never go to church or believe in God.

Like the movie however, they'll find out that when it comes to divinely anointed dreams, you must "kiss the frog."

The princess found out that when she kissed the frog the first day of her abundant life began as a beautiful princess.

Those who accept Christ have it even better. He promises eternal life and abundant fruitful living by faith.

Thank God for faith, that means we claim heaven and the "happily ever after" but we won't have to kiss any real frogs!

My pork chop is on the grill!

"I can't go, my pork chop is on the grill!"

That's what one of my scouts told me last night when the whole troop moved out at 7 p.m. for an evening activity. The pork chop had all of the prospects of being a great meal. The coals were just right and the chop had just begun to sizzle on one side. The aroma was filling the air feeding anticipation as hunger pains churned.

Yet, despite the time an energy he put in preparing that pork chop, the call still came, "We have to move out, now!" Perturbed, the scout pull the pork chop off the grill and joined the procession.

Life has a way of calling us away to answer to higher orders. When sickness, tragedy or the unforeseen occur neither waits for an opportune time; they simply burst in uninvited. It doesn't matter what we are doing or how important it may seem, when life interrupts we must change our plans.

And when God calls us into his service or redirects our path we will stop whatever we are doing and follow that call.

In Mark 1:17 Jesus said, "Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men."

When God calls us into service or even if he calls us home, we won't have time to think about it; when he calls we will answer.

That pork chop looked tasty on the grill, but there was a higher call.

Pork chop or no pork chop, when God calls we must answer.

I went camping in a suit and tie!

I went camping in a suit, tie, and spit shined shoes!

I've been a Boy Scout leader for 43 years and in that time have encountered a chest of memorable occasions, among them are the times when I've had to go to camp a wearing suit and tie. Yesterday was one of those occasions.

Our troop scheduled to leave for camp on Sunday at 1 p.m. however, we had an unusually long worship. After fellowship and handshakes ended it was 11:45 a.m. before I left the church. There was no time to change because there would be 40 scouts waiting at 1 p.m. So, I showed up ready for the journey to the campground in a blue pinstripe suit, monogrammed blue and white shirt, cuff links and spit shined shoes.

My wife had packed changes for me, but that would be later. For the rest of the day I built fires, pitched tents, and cooked a delicious Hamburger Helper meal over the campfire, still wearing my necktie.

I'm sure it looked strange to anyone who may have seen me.

In a larger sense those involved in Christian ministry do many strange things and often undergo many strange experiences to reach out to others. It comes with the territory.

1 Peter 4:12 says, "Beloved think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you; as though some strange thing happened to you.' That means we really shouldn't be surprised at anything we have endure, anything we have to do or anyplace we have to go to reach others for Christ.

It may seem strange to others, but we shouldn't feel strange.

I have two more days to go with these youngsters, I won't look strange today.

Yesterday however, I was a sight to see.

The time changed on me

The time changed today, I almost missed it.

Daylight savings time changes on the Second Sunday in March but for some reason, I didn't get the message until about nine O'clock last night. My cell phone will automatically update and so will my computer, but I'll have to set my watch, micro-wave, vehicle radio and everything else that is not synchronized.

That's when I thought about it.

If our lives are out of sync with God, it's possible to miss great opportunities and blessings.

I usually, miss a clock or two somewhere whenever the time changes, but those that are synchronized are always on time. I guess that has a message, too. If I try to do everything myself, I'll miss something and still leave something, but if I stay in step with God; He'll help me to take of things right on time.


Eccl. 3:1 says, "To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the sun." It's good to know that God keeps track of all of my seasons and sets my pace so that I spring forward or fall back in the right season, right on time.

Make it Count

In the movie "Saving Private Ryan" a soldier who gave his life to save Private Ryan grabs him in the collar just before dying and says, "Make it Count."-Then he died.

At the end of the movie, Ryan cries over the man's grave wondering did he live a life that was worth the sacrifice the soldiers made for him to live.

Youth are able to do many things because of the sacrifices of parents and others, but I wonder sometimes, is it all being wasted?

A student who has honor roll capabilities, but does not perform on that level; a person who squanders a talent or another who involves himself in criminal activities; do they all waste the sacrifices made for them?

Adults squander paychecks, gamble away futures and waste countless years on loose living and small expectations. Have they wasted the sacrifices made for them?

Then, I think of how Christ died to save us from our sins and we constantly return to them. Was it wasted on us?

There is a bible verse in 2 Corinthians 6:1 that says, "We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain."

God is blessing us today for a purpose.

Let's make it count.

What Shacking Means

I met a fine couple once who lived together but were not married. They explained that they loved each other but were not ready to commit to each other.

In the interim they enjoyed each other, had sex and shared space. Since neither would commit to the other, they would continue this arrangement with the full knowledge that at any given time one of them would walk away if the chips are down.

I thought about that and wondered at the time lost by two people who were just using each other.

Why would anyone want to be used? Yet, that is what shacking means: Using each other without any promises.

Committment means: If you get sick, I'm there. If you are down on your luck, I'm there.

If you get fat, I'm there. If you are depressed, I'm there.

If you win or lose, I'm there.

If you become disfigured and hard to look at, I'm there.

When you embarass your self and me too, I'm there.

If you are dying in the spirit, I'll love you back to life. If you are attacked, I'm there.

If you are dead broke, I'm there.

People who shack up do not share these attitudes. They use each other as fallbacks, financial crutches, vibrators, and simple instruments of convenience and pleasure, but if things get tough one or the other will be tossed aside.

In a shacking relationship at least one partner refuses to say "I'll be there for you." What they really say is, "If the chips are down, don't count on me."

When your mate refuses to committ, then your mate should find someone else to use as a banker, social worker, landlord, cook, driver, billpayer, vibrator or sperm receptacle.

In plain language: He or she should commit to you or get out!

I told that to the couple.

Six months later they sent me a wedding invitation and a thank you card!

They Pushed God To the Edge

God is back on the dollar coin, or will be soon!

I collect coins, so I found it interesting, like millions of others, that many of the new Presidential dollar coins did not have the inscription “In God We Trust” on their face.

I didn’t notice it until I started getting emails from believers all over the country asking me to refuse the new coins because they left God out.

I checked it out. Sure enough, in 2007 the Congress authorized a series of presidential dollar coins commemorating U.S. Presidents. The design took “In God We Trust” off the face of the coin and put it on the edge or rim along with the words “E Pluribus Unum.”

That caused quit a stir across the country. The internet was abuzz. Most of the emails urged believers to refuse the coins because God had been removed.

Last year the Congress voted to have “In God we trust” placed back on the face of the coins beginning in 2009 as soon as doing so would be practical.

So it appears that we pushed God to the edge and now we’re bringing him back to the face.

That took an act of Congress.

Will it also take an act of Congress to move God one final time? Where?

...To the forefront of our hearts.

I Finally Have My Diplomas

I graduated from college twice and haven't seen my diplomas in 25 years.

When I was young it was drilled into me that I should get a formal education so that I could better understand and appreciate the world I would step into. I was told that a formal education would make it possible for me to take advantage of opportunities that might come to me, especially those where a general formal education was required.

So, in 1967 I enrolled in Northeast Louisiana State College as a music major. Over the course of the next eight years that major changed several times: Radio and television, Education, Pre-law, Political science, Speech and Drama, and Journalism.

I didn't have any place to live in my first semester so I hung around the buildings until night and slept on the floors under desks, washing out my two shirts and underwear in the bathroom sink and going to class the next day. I started a little fly sheet and wrote about campus life and sold it to students to pay my tuition and get food. (I'm still printing that fly sheet. It's called the Monroe Free Press newspaper.)

I also enrolled in a seminary in Texas and took correspondence bible courses, too.

In 1972 I graduated the first time and graduated again in 1975.

They gave me two diplomas that I threw in a closet somewhere. In 1984 I stumbled upon them and carried them to be framed. Before I could pick them up the shop closed and my diploma's disappeared.

I didn't have the diplomas but I had the information. Those who advised me in my youth were right, the education I received opened my eyes to the world. The fact that I had a little "edgumacation" made others take me serious and made me see things more seriously.

This year, 25 years after the framing shop closed down, a lady came to my office with a package. She had bought the building used by the frame shop and found my diplomas.

Twenty five years later, I finally have my diplomas.

But what's better, I have what they represent.

One of my birthdays I turned 60

I celebrate three birthdays. On one of them I turned 60 years old this year.

When I was in the care of my father, he told me that my birthday was June 22, 1949. So, those that he paid to care for me arranged birthday parties and other activities celebrating June 22nd as the year of my birth.

When I visited my mother she told me that my birthday was June 29, 1949. She described how I was born on a sofa in the living room of a house at 119 S. 20th Street in the early morning hours of June 29th. She said my father didn’t know what the date was because he wasn’t there when it all happened. Dr. M.J. Foster came to the house and delivered me right there in the living room.

Years later I saw my birth certificate which indicated June 28, 1949 as my birthdate. It was signed by my mother and, of course, Dr. Foster. That means that on every official record my birthday is listed as June 28th.

When I was around my father it was June 22nd and when I was around my mother it was June 29th.

I asked my mother why would she signed a birth certificate with the wrong birthdate on it and she said, “I was hurting. I saw it had the wrong date but I was hurting so bad I just signed it.” She told me to take her word for it, it was June 29th.

As a result I have three birthdays. One of them is the real one.

I'm going to enjoy the 60's. It will be a lot of fun.

I would have enjoyed the other 59 years even more had I known then what I know now.

I would have learned more in school and pursued a higher degree than I obtained.

I would have managed my money and resources better.

I would have spent less time trying to save the world and more with those closer to me.

Those things aside, its been a ball.

I’m generally a healthy person. I take one pill that Dr. Claude Minor insists I take to control my blood pressure.

I don’t have any real worries of my own; most of my worries are about other people. (I’m still trying to save the world and every lost child, I guess).

I can’t wait to see what the 60’s will be.

I look forward to the discounts, AARP, and special treatment that folks in the 60’s get. (I will love to be eligible for Medicare instead of this $755 a month I pay for health care.)

Wow!

So, on one of these days: June 22, 28, or 29th I turned 60.

"This is the day the Lord has made, I will be rejoice and be glade in it."

"This Little Piggie" and a tickle

The more time we spend around our fathers, the more we know about them and in some ways we emulate them.

As a child I never spent more than a week under the same roof with my father, but there were several men from whom I drew inspiration, guidance and nurture.

My father didn't know much about being a father; I suppose he tried. After he and my mother divorced in 1951 he had the task or raising a two year old boy. He had to be a father, without much instruction.

He compensated by paying a variety of people to keep me in their homes during the fall, winter and spring, and sent me to live with his mother in the summer. From time to time I hung out around his cab stand and watched the drivers come and go.

Mostly, I hung around, stayed out of the way and watched. It's what I watched that I learned and remember most from him.

I watched him wear a tie as he drove his cab. I later grew up with a respect for men who wear ties.

I watched him reach for his glasses so he could read; I do the same.

I watched buy two way radios and electric gadgets for his business; I still keep up with the latest technology in my own business.

I watched him read the newspaper from front to back. I later grew up reading the newspaper daily, then owning one.

I watched him save his money, pay his bills and pay others. I later grew up saving my money, too and paying others.

I watched him buy a dinner, eat half of it and save the other half for the next day. Believe or not, I often do the same.

I watched him buy Ford automobiles. I do the same.

I watched his attraction to high yellow women; he married two and had two children by another one, but one died.. I married only one, had four children by her, but one died.

I watched him attend church on occasion. I became a preacher.

I watched him become an old man, now I'm the age that I considered him old.

He never rode me on his back and played horsie. He rarely had time to do foolish, father things with me. We never went on trips, had vacations or rolled around on the floor in fun. We rarely laughed together.

I mostly watched, then learned most everything else from the other fathers he paid to care for me.

I remember what they taught me but there are two pictures that loom in my mind. They overshadowed the memory of all the other surrogate fathers I have had.

I remember him playing, "This little piggie with my toes" and tickling me in the side to make me laugh. I remember those two things. They have been amplified to be more fun in my memory than they probably were, but I remember them.

I have his sense of independence, business acumen, and tendency toward frugality.

I look like him, so do two of his grandsons and one of his great grandsons. Some of them have some of his traits, too.

I don't know what my own sons will remember about me, you never know what lingers in the mind. I have never asked.

Every Father's Day I don't think about what my father did not do for me or labor on what it might have been had I been a better son and he a better father.

What I choose to remember is, "This little Piggie" and the tickle in my side. The other memories will fade in time.

He never knew how to be a father. I never knew how to be a son.

His grandsons and great-grandchildren should be proud of him. Whatever he was, he now lives in them.

It probably wasn't important to them, and may have been forgotten, but when all three of them were very small, I played "This little piggie on their toes" and tickled them in the sides, hoping they would have at least two fond memories of my feeble attempt at fatherhood

I swept, she scraped

I saw a small group of people erect an entire church building in just 24 hours, complete with carpet, furnishings, baptizing pool and electronics.

When saw it on the evening news my wife and I were so excited about the prospect of something like that happening that we put on tennis shoes, grabbed a vacum cleaner and went to join in the fun.

A small Pentecostal Church in Sterlington, La., with only 30 members, received help from the United Pentecostal Church and a swarm of volunteers came to erect a church for them in just one day. It's part of something the Pentacostals call "Church-in-a-day." In which others help small churches get started.

It was an amazing thing to see. Carpenters, bricklayers, cooks, electricians and just plain folks from all over the country converged on little Sterlington at 7 a.m. Friday morning, facing nothing but a concrete slab. By noon, they had the frame built. By mid afternoon the roof and shingles were in place, along with electrical wiring and air conditioning.

My wife and I were the among the handful of locals who were present. We're not Pentecostal, we just saw a wonderful thing happening and decided to pitch in. We were asked to help clean the floors for the carpet. I pushed a broom and my wife handled a floor scraper like a pro.

Just as promised, in 24 hours they built a church.

I sat and listened to friendly conversations, everyone addressed as "My Brother or My Sister." There was spirit of fellowship in the air. For a few hours there was a heavenly atmosphere, all races, ages and varying denominations all working together for a common cause.

We watched and talked about what we saw and pondered what would happen if more people would do a little less lip service and little more real service without the thought of being paid or recognized?

There is a bible scripture in Nehemiah 4:6 that says, "So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work."


The North Pointe Pentacostal Church is up now. They had a mind to work.

They are having their first worship in the new building today.

I was glad to be a floor sweeper in the project.

See video.

I saw the roses this morning

Across the street from my house, my neighbor has several rose bushes that bloom this time of the year. They are beautiful.

Apparently the roses have been in bloom for quite some time but I hardly paid them any attention. This morning I focused on them and appreciated their beauty. They have always been there, brightening up our street, I've just been so busy that I did not see them.

Life can get that way sometimes. We can be so busy that we don't see the little things that make it enjoyable. It's great to see the forest, but the real joy is in the trees.

We worry about paying bills, getting ahead, making money, succeeding and many of the other details of what we call life. In the meantime we often miss the simple joys all around us: friends, family, and a plethora of little things that are important but often go unnoticed.

While I saw the roses today,I sat still for a few minutes and I also heard the birds singing and the wind rustling through the trees.

They've all been there all the time, I just didn't notice them.

Song of Solomon 2:1 says, "I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys."

Sometimes we get so busy, we miss HIM, too.