The Pastor's Perspective

     If you have had kids for any period of time you know that sometime getting them to do something is like pulling teeth. I have three kids of my own and I learned really quickly what my father and mother had to go through with me and my two brothers.      I have found that there are a couple of common responses when you try to get your kids to do something. No matter if it is asking the kids to feed the dog, or take out the trash, or clean there room. There are a number of responses that you might get. You might hear "I did it last time" as they point to their siblings who they claim never have to do anything. You almost always get the eye roll, that is if they lift there head up from their phone that they are glued to. Then there are those rare, almost supernatural moments where they get up and do exactly what you told them to do. At least that is what I am told.      However, many times when you  ask your kids to do something and th...

    Back in the early 1930's there was a sheep rancher in the remote mountains of Idaho who loved to play his violin and listen to the radio. He loved to listen to one of the only stations that would come through clearly, which was located in California. He would try to play some of those songs on the radio, and sometimes try to accompany them from time to time. It was a source of great joy for the rancher.      As the rancher played his violin, the violin started to become out of tune and no longer sounded the way it should. He tried to fix it time and time again but it was always either a little to sharp or a little to flat. He had no way of getting his violin in tune because he did not have a tuning fork with that correct pitch.      As the rancher thought about his dilemma a thought occurred to him. Perhaps this radio station in California might be able to help him out. So he sat down and wrote a letter to the radio station, informing them of ...

    I believe that many of us love to be in control. No I don't mean to be a boss or own a company per say. What I mean is simply this, all of us want to feel like we have a say in what happens with our lives. We want to manage our own life and think that we can make our own decisions. We don't like it when we are told what to do, or even worse we are told what we have to do. However, if are made to feel like it is our idea, not only will we do it, but we will do it putting all of our energy to it. Why? because we like to feel like it was our idea, our decision. We want to be in control.      Nothing has taught this better than my experiences with teaching my two daughters how to drive a car. To be forced to sit in that passenger seat with no breaks, no steering wheel has stretched both my faith, and challenged my patience. There has been many times as my daughters have started to learn to drive that I have pumped the imaginary breaks on my side of the car....

     Someone once asked an elderly Christian woman what her favorite scripture was.  Without hesitation the elderly woman said "It came to pass". The person responded 'Out of all the passages of scripture why that one?"  She smiled and said "Because it does not say it came to stay"      There are some days so wonderful and so joyful that you wish time would stand still just a little longer. There are moments in life you wish you could return to, or repeat because they were wonderful experience's in you life.      A few Sunday's ago me and my wife went out and ate at Cracker barrel and beside us was a family with a small child. The mother laid out a place mat for the child and put a bib around his neck. The mother gave the boy some mashed potatoes and a hand full of cheerios.     Both me and my wife were reminded of when our children were that age. We remember with fondness of how cute our kids were when they were that litt...

    There once was a man who one day decided to go to church. This man was not really religious. In fact this man had not darkened the door way  of a church since he was a boy. However one of his co-workers who he was good friends with had invited him. So the man decided to go out of respect for his friend.      The man sat there as the service went on. Nothing unusual went on that day. They sang songs and some of them the man remembered from childhood memories. The preacher preached on what it meant to truly surrender to Jesus Christ. The preacher shared how to be a true follower of Christ will mean a great deal of changes and hardships that you will have to face.      As the sermon drawn to a close the pastor bowed his head and prayed a simple prayer. The pastor prayed "O Lord, you know we can trust the man that died for us" The prayer was simple, but it was the one thing that got this man's attention.      As the man headed ...

   It has been 4 years now since we had to deal with COVID and the "New Normal". Since that time we have endured a great many changes. Now some of these changes were good, and some were not.      For me one of the positive changes has been me using Amazon Prime to purchase various items online. Prior to COVID I had never used Amazon prime and rarely did I purchase items online. I never really felt the need to use it. However with the demands of social distancing we were forced to use more online shopping options. Since that time I have been using Amazon prime for a variety of reasons. I have bought everything from coffee, tools, and even some country ham.      If you have ever used Amazon prime, or you have ever bought anything online, or even the Shopping Home Network you know that it will take a couple of days before your item's arrive. Normally it will tell you when you can expect your items to arrive at your house.      Now ther...

  In America we have laws in place that prevent companies from doing what is called deceptive packaging. What this means is that companies can not try to sell a product by keeping back certain information. They have to make sure that the product they are advertising is the same product that they are actually selling.       So if there product is known to be harmful in someway they have to put a warning label on that product so that the customer is aware of the danger.  If there product is supposed to look a certain way, than any of the pictures that they use must accurately represent the product they are selling. If the product is a certain size but they want to use is a close up image they have to put a statement that says that this picture is not the actual size of the product and is used to show the texture of there product.     So why were these laws put in place? Why are companies forced to make these accommodations? These laws are important ...

     Not to long ago the President of the United States delivered his State of the Union Address. This is a time when the president can boast about his accomplishments, challenge his critics, and inform the public about the direction the country is taking. It is broadcast on all the major news outlets, and can be watched on your computer. The goal and the idea is so that everyone can hear what the president is saying, and what the president is doing.      Now I think we could all agree that if the president of the united states wrote you a personal hand written letter telling you about what he had been doing, and the direction he was taking our country. It would be a bit different than the State of the Union Address he delivers to the entire world. It would probably be a bit more personal, there would probably be more specific information.      When we talk about God speaking with us there really are two main ways God does this. The first way...

     There was this boy who was playing outside one day. He was throwing his ball out in the back yard. It just so happened that this boy had thrown a little too hard and the ball landed on top of the roof of his home. The ball rolled down the roof and the boy was hoping that the ball would just simply fall down. Unfortunately however the ball got stuck in the gutter.      Well this was a real problem for the boy and he began to think about what he could do to fix this situation and get his ball back. He looked around and saw a large branch from a near by tree and He thought that he might be able to use it to push the ball off. Sadly the branch did not quite reach the ball.      Next the boy thought about the large ladder in his fathers garage. "Surely it is tall enough for me to use to climb up on the roof and retrieve my ball.      So off the boy goes into the garage to retrieve the ladder. The boy struggled under its weight ...

      It's one thing to get a gift from someone you care about and someone who cares about you. After all who does not like gifts?       However some gifts mean more to us then others do. For instance its one thing to get a Walmart gift card. Yet it means something more when someone intentionally gives you a gift card to one of your favorite shops. Its one thing to get a box of candy, but something else to get a box of your favorite candy. You see it is one thing to get a gift, but it means a whole lot more when you know someone wanted to personalize it. It means more when you know someone did not just get you just any gift, but they thought about what gift you would actually enjoy.       Personalized gifts mean more because you know the individual really thought about you. They mean more because you know that the individual knows you well enough to know what you really like. The person is able to personalize it because they kn...

  Go down the cereal isle this week and you will find several different boxes of cereal that look similar. The color scheme is similar, the nutritional information is similar, and the overall taste many times is similar.  Sometimes the generic brands are just as good and there is little to no diffrence to the taste. (Except for Oreo's! I don't know what they put in those cookies to make them taste the way they do, but the generic chocolate sandwich cookies just are not the same. But I digress.) You see for the most part there is very little diffrence between the cereals except one might say "Honey Nut Cheerios" and the other might say "Honey Nut Scooters".  That's because one of the cereal's is name brand and the other is generic.      Now the generic brands tend to design their product after the name brand product they are mimicking. They are trying to entice you to try there product that they are claiming is just as good as the other only its not a...

    There was this atheist professor who had quite a reputation around campus for challenging new students who seemed to be religious. He often relished the idea of challenging there faith and making them look foolish around their peers.       Well it was the first day of the fall semester and a brand new group of freshmen had arrived. One of these new freshmen just so happened to sit in the very front row of this professors class room and He unashamedly had his bible sitting in front of him on his desk.        As class began the professor gleefully smiled at the young man like a cat ready to pounce on its prey. The professor towered over the student as he asked this young man if he believed in a God.       The boy, a bit taken back, responded with a simple "Yes sir I do". The way the young man spoke the professor could tell he had grown up in a rural area and the professor thought that this would be far easier t...