Eager Expectation

The first dog I can remember was named Smokey. I am not sure what happened to Smokey. He simply faded out of my most ancient memories. I don't recall anything specific about him, other than the fact that I owned him and now I don't.

The second dog I owned was named Smokey (Or Smokey II, if you will...). He ran away more times than I can remember, but always came back. At least he came back everytime but the last time. The last time he got away was the last I ever saw him.

The third dog I owned was named Norman. I picked him out of the pound, all on my own, while my parents were away on vacation. More than once a day he would knock over my little sisters and make them cry. Then he chewed a piece of siding off of the garage and made my dad cry. (Actually, he didn't really cry. It was sort of like a pot of water coming to a boil.) We got rid of Norman, which is a funny story on its own, but I don't have time for it here.

The fourth dog was named Sophie. I am not going to lie to you, I loved Sophie. She was a good dog. She was run over by a Ford Explorer (front and back tire) and survived. She taught me about loyalty, despite treatment, she gave me great practice with parenting, and she showed me that I had an anger problem. We had to give her up because of our busy schedules.

The final dog came by way of a Christmas present to our children, and a friend of my wife's. His name is Milo, and I have to say that that I have grown fond of this dog, though I swore I would get attached. What is more important, and what has inspired this post, is the dog's fondness to me.

To be sure, he will eagerly await all of us to arrive home at the end of the work day, but once I arrive, he becomes my shadow. He will follow me room to room and find comfortable spots that are as near to me as I will allow. The picture shown at the top of this post is a picture taken when I was gone on my trip to Charleston. My wife sent it to me, telling me that is how he had been sitting throughout the night.

I am not putting too much into the thoughts and sentimentalities of dogs, but I have to say that it paints a great mental image to our own eager expectations of Christ's return. Do you sit at the window, anxiously awaiting Him? Is the one thing you want, to sit at His feet? Are you yearning to be His shadow?

He which testifieth these things saith, "Surely I come quickly." Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
Rev 22:20 (KJV)

The Seed and The Soil of Education (New Learning Project Part 1)

(This is my entry for the first part of my project for my New Learning course that I am taking.) Introduction Corn Fields in Illinois I have lived the majority of my life in the Midwest: mid-state Illinois to be specific. Where I live, farming is everywhere. My grandparents and great-grandparents on both sides of my family were farmers. My dad grew up on a farm and owned farmland, well into my own adulthood. But, even if it wasn’t in the family, I still would have been surrounded by farming. You can’t go more than a mile outside of my city’s limits without encountering miles and miles of fields. Most of our highways, and even interstates, are located between acres of farmland.

This too shall pass...

Gam zeh ya'avor (Hebrew) "This Too Shall Pass" Welcome! According to Google Analytics, this is by far the most visited post that I have ever written. If someone comes here from a search engine, most of the time they are looking for " this too shall pass quote " or simply " this too shall pass " on Google or one of the other search engines. I am sure that most of the time visitors are looking for the originations of this quote, but I have to wonder, why is this quote on people's minds? Why are they pondering the passing of events? Here is my thought: It is probably because most of us have realized that the adult life is much harder than we ever imagined it to be. There is more pain and more sorrow than we had ever imagined as children, but we have learned that time keeps ticking. And as time continues to flow things pass. In fact, even the really big things and the really hard things will still pass. If you are here because you are thinking ...

The Minnesota Crime Commission wrote:

Every baby starts life as a little savage. He is completely selfish and self-centered. He wants what he wants when he wants it: his bottle, his mother's attention, his playmate's toys, his uncle's watch, or whatever. Deny him these and he seethes with rage and aggressiveness which would be murderous were he not so helpless. He's dirty, he has no morals, no knowledge, no developed skills. This means that all children, not just certain children but all children, are born delinquent. If permitted to continue in their self-centered world of infancy, given free reign to their impulsive actions to satisfy each want, every child would grow up a criminal, a thief, a killer, a rapist.

HARMLESS THOUGHTS

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