MIDWEEK MESSAGE #83<\/p>\n
Hello and welcome to Midweek Message #83.\u00a0 I hope your week is going well and you are enjoying these beautiful fall days. This will be one of those \u201crandom\u201d messages. Lots to say but no special order in any of it.<\/p>\n
Some very special<\/u><\/em><\/strong> upcoming events which need your attention:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Life is a highway\u2026or is that a puzzle? I guess that depends on who you talk to.\u00a0 This is more of a personal note to you. Winter comes and it is sometimes hard to get outside. Then again, it might not be hard to get outside; it might be more of \u201cwho wants to go outside?\u201d So we find things to do inside. For close to 20 years one of my winter hobbies has been doing 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles. Whether the snow is flying or it is just downright too cold to go out, I find my relaxation is doing puzzles. One of my favorite puzzles to assemble are train puzzles. I\u2019ve done several Titanic puzzles over the years. I have several Back to the Future<\/em> puzzles. But, and it is a seriously important \u201cbut,\u201d there is only so much wall space. Jo is not as fond of my puzzles as I am so she has said, \u201cNo\u201d to new interior decorating of our walls with jigsaw puzzles. Can you honestly believe she would do that to me? Wouldn\u2019t you just love to walk into a house where all the walls are covered with train puzzles? No?\u00a0 You\u2019re no help. J Anyway, I have over 20 1000 piece train puzzles sitting in boxes. I assembled them, then after she looked at it and grunted, \u201cLooks nice,\u201d I took them apart and put them in Ziploc bags in the original boxes. I am looking for a good home for them. They are trains of all kinds with all different scenes. If you would like to work a jigsaw puzzle as a family or individual, I would love to give<\/strong> them to you. You can take as many as you want as long as you will work them. And here is the kicker: I don\u2019t want them back<\/u>. You can glue them or put them back in the Ziploc bags and save them for another day or pass them along to someone else.\u00a0 And by the way, I do have some already glued that I\u2019m willing to give to you to decorate your walls. J Just let me know and I can show you what I have by texting pictures to you.<\/p>\n With Thanksgiving right around the corner (do I hear some cheering from the student and teaching section as you read that?), I hope you have remembered to take some time to write down what you are thankful for.\u00a0 I can choose to be grateful or to grumble. I can choose to praise or pout. I can choose to count my blessings or complain about what I don\u2019t like.\u00a0 Do you remember the scene in Forrest Gump when he is sitting at a bus stop and offers a lady a chocolate? He says, \u201cMomma always said, \u2018Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you\u2019re gonna get.\u2019\u201d \u00a0Forrest\u2019s momma was right. I love chocolate, but I don\u2019t like nuts in my chocolate. I try to avoid them whenever I can.\u00a0 We are hit from life on all sides. Some things we simply can\u2019t avoid.\u00a0 But I have noticed how much better life is when my attitude is one of gratitude for the simple things God has blessed me with. Family. Friends. Job. A ride on a bike. A night with friends. A good book (or a puzzle). Relaxing with Jo. Eating pizza or ice cream, especially that! J Simple things which to some people mean nothing, but to me screams, \u201cBlessings!\u201d\u00a0 I am grateful for you, my friends. November is an anniversary for me, Jo and Diana.\u00a0 Jo and I moved here in November of 2005. Diana and I started the same time (she actually shadowed MJ a week earlier). So we start Year #17 this month. I am thankful for the prodding wife and the long phone calls with Caleb Petree which started this train rolling.\u00a0 (For those of you not familiar with that story, I will tell it next week in MM#84). I can hear the excitement in your breathing already!!\u00a0 Anyway, back to reality.\u00a0 Don\u2019t wait until Thanksgiving Day to express your thanks to God. Start today. In the meantime, know that I love you all.\u00a0 Have a great rest of the week.<\/p>\n Pastor Bill<\/p>\n P.S.\u00a0 Big congratulations to Caleb Hutchison on achieving his lifelong goal of becoming a conservation officer!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MIDWEEK MESSAGE #83 Hello and welcome to Midweek Message #83.\u00a0 I hope your week is going well and you are enjoying these beautiful fall days. This will be one of those \u201crandom\u201d messages. Lots to say but no special order in any of it. Some very special upcoming events which need your attention: This coming … <\/p>\n\n