I just had to share this with everyone!
ONE OF THE BEST POEMS IN THE WORLD
I was shocked, confused, bewildered,
As I entered Heaven's door.
Not by the beauty of it all,
Nor the lights or its decor.
But it was the folks in Heaven
Who made me sputter and gasp--
The thieves, the liars, the sinners,
The alcoholics and the trash.
There stood the kid from seventh grade
Who swiped my lunch money twice.
Next to him was my old neighbor
Who never said anything nice.
Herb, who I always thought
Was rotting away in hell,
Was sitting pretty on cloud nine,
Looking incredibly well.
I nudged Jesus, What's the deal?
I would love to hear Your take.
How'd all these sinners get up here?
God must've made a mistake.
And why's everyone so quiet,
So somber - give me a clue.
Hush, child, He said, they're all in shock.
No one thought they'd be seeing you..
JUDGE NOT.
--
Remember...Just going to church doesn't make you a Christian no more than standing in your garage makes you a car
I hope that everyone will take at least a few minutes this weekend to remember those who gave their lives for this country. Try to get to a Memorial Day service in your area if you can. It's the least we can do.
They who gave their lives for us deserve to be remembered for their sacrifices!
“Heroism is latent in every human soul... however humble or unknown, they (the veterans) have renounced what are accounted pleasures and cheerfully undertaken all self-denials; privations, toils, dangers, sufferings, sicknesses, mutilations, life-long hurts and losses, death itself. For some great good, dimly seen but dearly held”.
--Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain,
| This is pretty funny: For those of you who hunt deer, want to pat deer, or anything in between....this is too funny! Names have been removed to protect the stupid! This is an actual letter from someone who writes, and farms. : "I had the idea that I was going to rope a deer, put it in a stall, feed it up on corn for a couple of weeks, then kill it and eat it. The first step in this adventure was getting a deer. I figured that, since they congregate at my cattle feeder and do not seem to have much fear of me when we are there (a bold one will sometimes come right up and sniff at the bags of feed while I am in the back of the truck not 4 feet away), it should not be difficult to rope one, get up to it and toss a bag over its head (to calm it down) then hog tie it and transport it home. I filled the cattle feeder then hid down at the end with my rope. The cattle, having seen the roping thing before, stayed well back. They were not having any of it. After about 20 minutes, my deer showed up -- 3 of them. I picked out a likely looking one, stepped out from the end of the feeder, and threw my rope. The deer just stood there and stared at me. I wrapped the rope around my waist and twisted the end so I would have a good hold. The deer still just stood and stared at me, but you could tell it was mildly concerned about the whole rope situation. I took a step towards it...it took a step away. I put a little tension on the rope and then received an education. The first thing that I learned is that, while a deer may just stand there look at you funny while you rope it; they are spurred to action when you start pulling on that rope. That deer EXPLODED. The second thing I learned is that pound for pound, a deer is a LOT stronger than a cow or a colt. A cow or a colt in that weight range I could fight down with a rope and with some dignity. A deer-- no chance. That thing ran, bucked, twisted, and pulled. There was no controlling it and certainly no getting close to it. As it jerked me off my feet and started dragging me across the ground, it occurred to me that having a deer on a rope was not nearly as good an idea as I had originally imagined. The third thing I learned, the only upside, is that they do not have as much stamina as many other animals. A brief 10 minutes later, it was tired and not nearly as quick to jerk me off my feet and drag me when I managed to get up. It took me a few minutes to realize this, since the blood flowing out of the big gash in my head mostly blinded me. At that point, I had lost my taste for corn-fed venison. I just wanted to get that devil creature off the end of that rope. I figured that if I just let it go with the rope hangin g around its neck, it would likely die slow and painfully somewhere. At the time, there was no love at all between that deer and me. At that moment, I hated the thing, and I would venture a guess that the feeling was mutual. Despite the gash in my head and the several large knots where I had cleverly arrested the deer's momentum by bracing my head against various large rocks as it dragged me across the ground, I could still think clearly enough to recognize that there was a small chance that I shared some tiny amount of responsibility for the situation we were in, so I didn't want the deer to have it suffer a slow death, so I managed to get it lined back up in between my truck and the feeder - a little trap I had set before hand...kind of like a squeeze chute. I got it to back in there and I started moving up so I could get my rope back. The fourth thing I learned!!!! Did you know that deer bite? They do! I ne ver in a million years would have thought that a deer would bite somebody, so I was very surprised when I reached up there to grab that rope and the deer grabbed hold of my wrist. Now, when a deer bites you, it is not like being bit by a horse where they just bite you and then let go. A deer bites you and shakes its head --almost like a pit bull. They bite HARD and it hurts. The proper thing to do when a deer bites you is probably to freeze and draw back slowly. I tried screaming and shaking instead. My method was ineffective. It seems like the deer was biting and shaking for several minutes, but it was likely only several seconds. I, being smarter than a deer (though you may be questioning that claim by now) tricked it. While I kept it busy tearing the bejesus out of my right arm, I reached up with my left hand and pulled that rope loose. That was when I got my fifth lesson in deer behavior for the day. Deer will strike at you with their front feet. They rear right up on their back feet, strike right about head, and shoulder level, and their hooves are surprisingly sharp. I learned a long time ago that, when an animal -- like a horse --strikes at you with their hooves and you cannot get away easily, the best thing to do is try to make a loud noise and make an aggressive move towards the animal. This will usually cause them to back down a bit so you can escape. This was not a horse. This was a deer, so obviously, such trickery would not work. In the course of a millisecond, I devised a different strategy. I scre amed like a woman and tried to turn and run. The reason I had always been told NOT to try to turn and run from a horse that paws at you is that there is a good chance that it will hit you in the back of the head. Deer may not be so different from horses after all, besides being twice as strong and 3 times as evil, because the second I turned to run, it hit me right in the back of the head and knocked me down. Lesson six... Now, when a deer paws at you and knocks you down, it does not immediately leave. I suspect it does not recognize that the danger has passed. What they do instead is paw your back and jump up and down on you while you are laying there crying like a little girl and covering your head. I finally managed to crawl under the truck and the deer went away. So now I know why when people go deer hunting they bring a rifle with a scope so that they can be somewhat equal to the Prey. |
Finally!!! It's baseball season! Man the long cold winter is finally over and it's time to play ball! I am a lifelong Cardinal fan and after last year's disapointing season, I am ready to see them win again. I really think they are going to surprise a lot of folks this year. I was beginning to wonder about the pitching staff but who knows? I really think there will be some pleasant surprises there as well. Maybe I am just being a fan! We will know in a few months.
I also think the Royals will do pretty well this year as well. I think they have one of the best pitching staffs they have had in several years. They have a pretty good offense and again, I think they are going to catch some folks off guard.
My predictions are: STL 92-70 KC 86-76
It's been a few days since my last entry...time just got away from me. I have been trying to keep up with the primaries. I really get into the elections. It's great seeing more and more people get involved with the election process this year. The young people really seem to be getting into the spirit of it as well. I think it is very encouraging!
I just hope we can stay focused on the issues...and I need to make a point here. I think it was shameful the way the past two presidential elections were run. We were at war then as we are now. Yet instead of focusing our anger and our attention at the enemy we seem to go at each other with a very real hatred. A hatred for fellow Americans. It was though the two major parties were at war instead of the US vs the terrorists. And to me, that is what's scary.
I have to say that the enemy must just sit back and laugh when they see us fighting each other!
Anyway, that's what I think...
Here it is, another Monday morning! Ralph Nader has just announced his candidacy...as usual. I think he just playing the role of "spoiler". he knows he doesn't have near the support to win but he can sure cyphon votes from another candidate...possibly John McCain.
You know, I can't help but wonder how this election or any election for that matter, would turn out if we all just voted with our convictions. I really believe it would be a whole different ballgame!
I really think we as Christians need to vote as our beliefs dictate. There are milliions of Christians in this country...at least thats what the polls tell us...yet we can't seem to get together on the vital issues.
If we would only stand together then you would see some real change! I believe that Christians should vote as Christians! That's what I think!
Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation, to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.
John Jay
It's Sunday and we are getting ready for church. Not an easy task for a large family! A friend of mine sent the following to me this morning. I thought it was very appropriate and decided to include it in today's entry.
Some times you get a message that is very timely and I believe this is one of those times. Who know's? Maybe someone else will find encouragement in this as well! Anyway, that's what I think...and hope!
FW: WHY GO TO CHURCH?
It's Friday morning...already! This week has gone by so fast. I love that the weekend is almost here but I can't help but wonder where the week went.
Hopefully, I will be able to get together with some folks and finish work on my book project. We are putting a book together to honor our local veterans. I have been working on it for almost three years and we are finally beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
We have gathered some amazing information and stories. We have photos and biographies going back to the civil war and beyond.
It's been great meeting with the veterans and their families. I just think there is so much more we can and should do for mthe folks who served, fought and in many cases died for this country.
It's a shame that in many cases these same veterans are still fighting. They are having to fight for the benefits promised to them so many years ago!
The following is one of my very favorite quotes and it pretty much sums it up:
"A man good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to receive a square deal afterwards..." Theodore Roosevelt
There will be more on this later, God willing. That's what I think!
As I said in my first blog, I will be talking about a wide range of subjects and I'll tell you that the weather here in the midwest is one of the major topics of the day. In fact it has been all winter long! It seems as though this year we are having at least one storm a week.
That storm may be snow or rain or freezing rain or sleet or any combination of those. In fact a couple of times we have had "thunder-snow". Conditions were just right that we had thunder during snow storms.
Now, I'm not complaining as I know that folks in other parts of the country have had it a lot worse than we have. There have been tornados in south Missouri and through the southern states nas well.
Today it's in the teens and it's snowing! Yes, our weekly storm is here. Yet, to keep things in perspective take a look at this photo I got from a member of our MP Association based in Alaska.
Until next time, that's what I think.
Well, this is my first real blog. I started to do this a couple of times but I never got to serious about it. I will talk about everything from sports to the local weather! As a Christian I will also discuss topics that I think are important to other Christians. As a veteran I will address those issues of concern to other veterans. As you can see there is no limit to the topics!
With the primaries in full swing I think we will see a lot of discussion here. I don't know about you but I always looked forward to the big elections. I think all Americans should take a real interest in the election process for many reasons.
First of all..it's not every country in the world that enjoys a true democratic process. The right to vote is just one of those hard earned rights that we as Americans all too often take for granted. It's a shame...a lot of American's fought and died to pay for this right!
Well, I think this will do for a start. Anyway, that's what I think.
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