if its the last thing I ever do. Not a chance! You cannot out do the doer. You cannot out love, out give, or out anything else you can think of, when it comes to the Father. He happily to report, has you covered. What a sense of wellness, peacefulness, happiness, serenity, and all those other positive feelings one can have, when you finally realize that he is indeed a God of his word. I love you my child, where ever you go, what ever you do know this, that you are special, and that I do now and will forever love you.

At nineteen years old, still at home and in school, I was awakened one night by some strange force. I was sleeping on my back, and when I awoke, I seen this pretty good size ghost like figure circleing the room at the ceiling level. The room was abnormally cold, and the drapes at the windows were blowing around as if the windows were open. Yet the windows were closed, and this was during the summer months. I had not been awake but a few moments, when the drapes ceased their moving around, and then the room temperature shot right back up to the normal level for that time of the year. I was somewhat puzzled and shaken by the experience, but also felt very peaceful and was able to go right back to sleep. That was almost a half century ago. And to this day I have not experienced anything like it since. What was it? You tell me. But my life after that experience seemed to take on a different meaning. I will get into that at another time. Have a great and prosperous day.

Have you ever looked down into a pool of water and had no reflection to show? Ever looked into a mirror and could see no one, not even yourself? I reached that point 20 years ago right after my brother took his own life. We were close and I cannot ever remember he or I having a cross word to say to the other. As the weeks passed by I grew increasingly despondent, until finally at the bottom of this particular journey I just wanted out of this miserable world. While I never actually made an attempt to take my own life, the thought at that time in my life was very strong. Brother took his life on a Christmas night, and on a Christmas day 1 year later while getting ready to spend the day with family and friends, I was standing in front of a big mirror trying to shave and pull myself together. This was my bottom, I fell completely apart, I seen for the first time a broken man, unable to move or even take a step. Seeing myself that way I began to talk with my Creator--Father, if this is the way I am to spend this day--so be it. But if not, I pray for the strenth to pull myself together and get going. At the end of the day, I not only had a good day, but was well on my way to becoming a whole person once again. Thank you Father.

One of my brother-in-laws called me last night to pick my brain about the fishing on a lake in Oregon. Since the wife and I used to live at waterfront on this lake, I spent literally 100's of hours in the boat chasing the illusive Rainbow trout. Toward's the end of our residence on the lake, alot of the times while out trolling it was not uncommon to have one or more boats following me around. The local boat and tackle shop was telling those that asked to follow the little blue boat at the other end of the lake. Fish like people, are not all alike. They have certain likes and dislikes just like us humans have. And if you really want to catch a boat load of fish, obviously you have to give them what they want when they want it. Brother-in-law and a friend of his fished the lake yesterday and did not catch a fish. Bummer! I'll not get into all the details about how you would fish this lake, but the first question I asked of him was--which way was the wind blowing. And the wind yesterday was coming from the wrong direction to catch fish. Their is something very spiritual about being on a beautiful mountain lake chasing mother nature's treasures. This particular brother-in-law is a Baptist preacher--amongst other things, all good of course. Lets see at the end of the day if he and his friend are going to just eat for the day, or eat for the rest of their lives. Remember the story?

at those times in my life when fear was at the forefront, 99% of all that worry was very, very, needless. At the beginning of our marriage my wife occasionally would say--"you cannot worry and pray at the same time." Makes sense does it not? How can you be thinking about an imagined "boogie man" and talking with God at the same time? When you have shared with the Father that which you feel you need help with, right then is the time to leave it in his hands. For if you continue to fret about the situation, then you have not given it completely over to him. Believe me you will have lots of things to fret about, and pray about. So keep at bay things you worry about, by praying about the situation first off, and secondly after you have talked with the Father about it, leave it with him. Do not take it back out of his hands by continuing to fret about the situation. Leave it with him, he is much more capable of dealing with any circumstance than we are. If you say Father take away my difficulties, and then in the next breath you are wondering how on earth you will ever fix this situation, once again you have taken it out of his hands. Father, I just thank-you for this another beautiful spring day, for it is in your precious name that I pray these and all things, Amen.