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We met this couple at a conference we were attending. They were telling us about how just the day before, a storm had blown in across the lake while they were down at the beach.
All of a sudden they noticed all these Monarch butterflies that were unable to go against that wind.
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Bart Simpson has been around now for 25 years. He still looks like a kid, but he's been around for 25 years on TV. Maybe you've managed to avoid the Simpson family. You've probably been doing more important things, and it's perfectly fine, maybe even good if you've avoided them. But just in case you've been occupied in other ways, the Simpsons are this cartoon family that soared to popularity through their primetime TV show. And their lovely son? Oh, man, as they came on, he was all over posters, shirts, and mugs. You can still find him all over the place.
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As 1986 ended, a lot of commentators were looking back at the greatest moments of the year, and some of the most tragic moments too. And they all mentioned a player named Len Bias. At 22 years old, he was the number one college basketball star in the United States. He'd been drafted by the then champions Boston Celtics. He had a 1.6 million dollar deal to do commercials. Newsweek Magazine said, "They were the best days of his life."
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There's no joy quite so joyful as that of an expectant mother. She talks all the time about this new life she's carrying, and she tells everyone about "my baby." That is unless she doesn't want to carry the child any more. If she happens to be considering an abortion, she and all those involved in the process suddenly demote "my baby" to "the fetus."
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Well, Spring is tornado time, and in this past Spring there were some that just missed our area –killer tornadoes. The lives and places devastated hit a little close to home this time.
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Okay, I've got to admit this. When something's wrong with our car, you're not going to usually find me under the hood. I'm not really that good at that, so I head for the gas station. Now, Dave has worked on our car for years, and he does a very good job. So I would tell Dave the symptoms of what seems to be wrong with the car; the noise, the starting problem, or the loss of power. And then Dave talks back to me. He tells me what he thinks it might be, what he thinks it might cost and how long it might take to fix it. What do I do? Do I say, "Thanks, Dave!" and then chug away in my ailing car? Well, duh, no! I leave it there.
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It had been a while since my wife and I had been able to have a vacation. In fact, it even took a few all-nighters to get us to a point where we could leave responsibly. But we did! It was a bit unusual for a vacation, because almost always there had been at least one of the three kids with us. But our daughter was married, our oldest son was involved in full-time ministry, and our youngest son was in college. It became a vacation like the pre-children days a very long time ago. See, for most of our year, the needs of our children shaped our daily schedules and the needs of many people. And most of our vacations we had to factor in what the kids would enjoy. We planned a lot of vacation days around them, as you probably have as a parent.
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I was on a typical wall-to-wall schedule, and old man winter wasn't cooperating. I was traveling with my wife and we were slipping and sliding through this major snow storm to get to our flight at the airport. We heard on the radio that flights were being seriously delayed. I told my wife, "That airport's going to close. I know it is." So we made a last-minute decision. We called Amtrak. They had two seats left on the train, and we diverted from the airport to the train station.
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Our firstborn - our daughter - was only a few days old when I first called her "Princess." She's been my princess ever since. I cannot imagine the agony of having her snatched from her school and taken who knows where.
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Our son-in-law is pretty used to the scenery in Wheaton, Illinois. He lived there until he graduated from college. But one day he saw something sort of new that got his attention. He and my daughter were driving along, and my son-in-law pulled up to this stop sign on the street that he'd seen hundreds of times. He looked at the street sign and he said, "Hey, you know, I'm used to that sign being dull. It's not supposed to be that clear. I can really read it!" You want to guess why it suddenly had a sharpness to it that he didn't remember? Same sign; it hadn't changed. He just got his new glasses.
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You know it can't be good news when someone yells, "Everybody out of the water!" That's exactly what I heard the day I was in the water at the Jersey Shore. My first thought was Jaws. And since I didn't have my shark repellent, I got out pretty quickly.
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It is just an unforgettable experience to visit the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Everywhere you go in Haiti there are children. Their needs are tremendous, and they're doing what they've got to do to try to meet some of those needs.
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One of the milestone days of any kid's life is the day they get their driver's license. It's usually cause for great excitement and celebrating. It's been about a century, I think, since I first got my driver's license for that horse and buggy. But not long ago, I was a teenager again, celebrating getting my license. No, I hadn't lost it. The law didn't take it away. No, my license had expired, and the motor vehicle department had mailed my renewal form when my wife and I were on the road during a time of extended ministry.
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Let's face it. I was overweight. I was! I was 210 pounds by high school at 5'8". Now, how did that happen? Well, I'm blaming it on a cowboy hero of that day. Yes, it was Hopalong Cassidy's fault.
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The idea of teamwork in a marriage isn't really that tough. For example, my wife prepares a meal, which is better than me preparing it because the Bible says, "Blessed are the merciful." So, what do I do? I clear the table and I rinse the dishes. I also eat, but that's not such a bad deal.
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All eyes were on Mom. That would be my wife. See, we had just taken our daughter to college 800 miles from home. Her two younger brothers were also with us. Overall, we were pretty impressed at the way the college seemed to think of everything that might concern a parent. Actually, it seemed like they had all the bases covered.
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In his senior year, our son got a dog; a little shih tzu named Missy. Now our son went off to college and the dog stayed with us. So in the midst of our wall-to-wall schedules, we got to take care of Missy, too. Now, she was a fun dog, I have to admit that. She was smart, responsive, and she also needed food and water, and walking, etc. Now, I know a dog is man's best friend. In this case, Aunt Vicky, my wife's sister, was this dog's best friend. She was so faithful in caring for Missy's needs; especially when my wife and I were traveling or gone early or late.
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I have a pastor friend who lives in a beautiful spot in the country. And he sees things there that I couldn't see where I lived for many years in an urban area. Like the bird life there was pretty much limited to sparrows, and there were a few rowdy crows, an occasional robin or blue jay. Oh, yeah, and then the parrot in our kitchen. But my friend, he was able to see and still is, all of those things with one of the classiest birds around-the hummingbird. You've seen them probably doing their amazing hovering thing and flying from one flower to the next. And they're always attracted to the most beautiful things in the yard. Now, my friend also gets to see one of the un-classiest birds around too-the buzzard. I mean, here's this amazing contrast. You've got the hummingbird and the buzzard flying over the same ground. But the hummingbird sees the meadow; the buzzard sees the carnage.
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Look, it's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it. And the bank does their part; they send you that photocopy of all the checks that you've written in the last month. And you get to compare those with what you've recorded in your checkbook. Don't you look forward to doing that? You get to participate in the necessary evil called balancing your checkbook.
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My wife has enjoyed a search for her roots, you know, as we have time. There's one particular relative on her father's side that was really giving her a hard time. He's not alive any more, so he didn't mean to. But we followed the trail that went back to her great-grandfather, old Herbert Alonzo.
