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October 26, 2021

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You know, there's something about a princess. I know our granddaughters growing up, boy they sure thought so. They got princess everything, the dolls, the sheets, the tiaras. We probably got most of them for them. You get the picture. But, you know, our granddaughters weren't that unusual. So many little girls, from lots of generations, have grown up with dreams of being a princess. And look! What's at the center of Disney World's Fantasyland when you go there? Well, of course, Cinderella's Castle.

October 22, 2021

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Our kids always loved that amusement park ride where they get to drive those little race cars around the track. I guess I should put the word "drive" in quotes. Oh yeah, kids grab that steering wheel and they do their NASCAR thing as the car speeds around that track at this eye-blurring 3 or 4 MPH speed or something. I could hardly blink! But driving, well that's kind of an overstatement. See, that car is attached to a little rail, and it's going to go where it's going to go, no matter what little Miss or Mr. NASCAR does at the wheel. We won't tell them this, but they're not really in control at all.

October 21, 2021

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Stonewall Jackson, the famous Confederate general. His mommy didn't name him that by the way. He was actually Thomas Jackson. He earned the name we know him by in the first major land battle of the Civil War, the Battle of Bull Run. The Confederate forces were overwhelmed. They were retreating that day - except for a group of Virginia soldiers commanded by General Jackson. They refused to give ground, with their general, mounted on his horse in the thick of the battle, inspiring them to take a stand. Well, another Confederate officer yelled, "Look! There's Jackson standing like a stone wall!" Well, Confederate forces rallied that day behind Jackson and his Virginians, and they ended up routing the Union forces that day. And from that day on, Tom Jackson was Stonewall Jackson.

October 20, 2021

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I think barbers ought to get, like you know, honorary degrees in psychology. They end up listening to everyone's problems and oftentimes they end up giving counsel. Every once in a while I get to hear some of a barber's feelings, and that's when you kind of get the psychology degree. You see, we sort of turn the tables, or the chair as the case may be in the barber shop.

October 19, 2021

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Someone finally started looking at us Americans and realizing that a bunch of us are a whole lot bigger than we ought to be. I don't mean we're too tall! No. Well, look, I know what the weight battle is all about and I know it's hard, and I know your weight has nothing to do with your worth. But it can have something to do with your health. I guess all the talk about our weight and our health has even affected some of the fast-food restaurants - who might conceivably have something to do with the "widening of America." Oh, they're changing. They're trying to have healthier offerings and reducing fat and sodium. And then, not too long ago, they got rid of something they had started. Remember the "supersizing" thing? We'd go in and they would ask you after you'd placed your order, "Would you like to supersize that?" They might as well have asked, "Would you like to supersize you" in many places? Well, guess what? Now there's no more supersizing.

October 18, 2021

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I once met a man with a painful illness, and actually we were in a very beautiful place. He owns a charming inn and it's furnished in every room with this great antique collection. It's quite a place to stay. Let's call him Art. Now, his inn is probably one of the most highly praised inns in the country, and it's not just another place to stay. I mean it gets rave reviews in every tourist book you read.

October 15, 2021

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When I consider today's young people and even my own kids when they were teenagers, I realize that their generations are about to lose some of civilization's greatest wisdom. Some of those old clichés that we were told, well, maybe they've never heard. How about this? "Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." Well, we have to make sure they get that wisdom. Or probably not, huh?

October 14, 2021

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I used to think that the more I got on planes and went places the easier it would get. Wrong! It always got tougher to be away from home.

October 13, 2021

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Where is Malaysia Air 370 and its 239 passengers? Boy, a few years ago, that question obsessed people around the world and in the news day after day after day. I can't remember a time when so many nations (I think there were something like 26 at some point) mounted such a huge search-and-rescue effort across such a wide swath of the world. It was incredible. Why? Well, to search for and, if possible, try to save the people who were lost.

October 12, 2021

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Ah, sunset! It must be one of the favorite times of the day for photographers and for couples going on a romantic walk. Actually, for just about all of us. I've had the privilege to see the sun sinking beautifully into the horizon of the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, over many of America's majestic mountain ranges, the flaming desert sunsets, and even from many parts of this world. It just doesn't matter where you are on this planet, sunset is just plain beautiful.

October 11, 2021

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It was April in the mountains of the West, which means you can experience any or all of the four seasons in just one trip. We'd recently started our journey in warm temperatures, but by the time we hit that mountain pass, it started to snow - I mean the thick, big flakes kind of snow. You know what? Actually all of us started singing Christmas carols - even though it was just a few days before Easter. We were racing a deadline, so the snow was a mixed blessing. It was incredibly beautiful, but it was almost blinding at times, and it made our trip slower; it made it more treacherous. And then we saw it - this thin line of sunshine between the bottom of the snow clouds and the tops of the mountains ahead. We were excited because that was our future.

October 8, 2021

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I don't think this is a surprise to anybody, but high school athletes are pretty impressed with their own bodies. You know, they lift, they work out, they admire their new build, and they compare how much weight they can bench press, and how fast and how far they can run. And that's fine. But the problem is you begin to think that manhood is that physical strength. Well, listen, manhood goes way beyond that. But men of all ages, not just high school athletes, seem to believe that conquest is what shows you're a man: the conquest of a woman, of a goal, of a competitor. Actually there are some very little boys in some very big bodies, and there are some people we might call wimps who are really in the winner's circle. See, we might be missing what manhood really is.

October 7, 2021

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Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen! Recognize that? Well, maybe not. They were reporters of The Daily Planet newspaper in a city called Metropolis. At least according to the story of the "man of steel" called Superman. He was, according to the old Superman TV show, "faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound." (I've got to calm down here.) He had been sent here as a baby from the planet Krypton by parents on a dying planet. And he came to earth with, as the announcer used to say, "powers far beyond those of mortal man." So when Lois and Jimmy faced a situation that no normal person could possibly resolve, they would invariably say those words that always precede an amazing solution, "This is a job for Superman!" (I'm okay now.)

October 6, 2021

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Our dog, Missy, was easily entertained. We just threw her a plastic bottle. That was accidentally discovered one day when a two-liter soda bottle fell on the floor in the kitchen. She pounced on it, grabbed the bottle in her mouth, and shook it viciously. You could tell from three rooms away she was fighting with one of those bottles, because she'd throw it in the air and then she'd try to catch it with her nose. And then it ended up bouncing all over the kitchen. Are you imagining this? You should have seen her ten minutes later. She's sprawled lifelessly on the floor - a blob of fur, totally exhausted from that fight with a plastic bottle. It's amazing how much energy she put into a battle that didn't matter.

October 5, 2021

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Actually the TV news report was a little amusing. These individuals came into the store, waving a piece of paper indicating they had just won a free DVD player, and they were coming to claim it. What they didn't know was that notice had been mailed by the police to their last known address. See, these people were wanted, but they had disappeared. But when they checked their mail, they had news of having won that DVD player. The amusing part came when the police arrested them on the spot as some of them were actually laughing at what they thought was a joke or some kind of a TV stunt. It was no joke. They were going to jail.

October 4, 2021

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Ten pounds, ten ounces! Our grandson was born and weighed in at that weight. Man that's a lot of boy! Just ask his mama! And even though he wasn't our first grandchild, there was still something breathtaking and amazing about the arrival of a new person in this world, isn't there? I couldn't help but think of when his daddy was born. I was there in the delivery room when he arrived, and I'll never forget what the doctor said. Now keep in mind, this is a doctor who's, well, seen thousands of deliveries over a long career. As I held my newborn son, the doctor said, "You know, this is the greatest miracle known to man." He got no argument from me.

October 1, 2021

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A visit to a Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream Shop - that's one of life's simple pleasures. We used to have one near our house, and the kids always enjoyed going there as a treat. And we'd look at all those unusual flavors and then we'd have to make that stressful choice: which one shall I get? Well, several years ago I was in a city to speak, and the committee member who picked me up stopped by his store with me on the way back from the airport - his Baskin-Robbins store. It was closed, so he took me in, pointed to all the cases of ice cream with all those great flavors and said those mind-blowing words, "Take whatever you want!" Oh boy! Not just a single little scoop of one little flavor; it's all available to you, boy! Go for it!

September 30, 2021

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I've got a lot of friends in law enforcement, and usually they don't show a lot of emotion. But the Cleveland police chief said, "Yes, law enforcement people do cry." I think some of them did when three women, missing for a decade, were suddenly found alive several years ago. They'd been imprisoned. You might remember it, a nondescript house by a man who kidnapped them years before and endured living horrors that we may never fully know.

September 29, 2021

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Somewhere in the Fathers Handbook, I think it says the father gets to carve the turkey, or the ham, or the roast. And I don't mind; I feel very fatherly when I get to do that, very manly sitting at the head of the table with my super carving knife. But I have observed this phenomenon. Often I end up with an empty plate. See, sometimes at a large dinner gathering, you've got someone who loads up their own plate, starts chowing down and shortstops all the food where they are. Ever notice that it all seems to pile up sometimes in a corner and it doesn't get moved past there? I mean, they're satisfied, so some of us end up with nothing in our corner. Some lucky guy has it all in his corner. Now, what's fair is that you take what you need and then you pass it on to others who don't have any yet. That's how this system works. When you've got plenty. it's just real easy to forget those who haven't been served yet.

September 28, 2021

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October is really beautiful in a lot of parts of the U.S. It's fall; it's the time, as I told my kids, that the angels come out at night and paint the leaves red and yellow and orange. Pray for my kids. Forget the angel part. The trees really do put on a fantastic show of color in the fall, and spring isn't bad either. I love that fresh green of spring's new life. But in between fall and spring, there's this long stretch where the trees are just basically colored "dead." Well, not all the trees. There's life all year long; there's green all year long. They don't lose their color, however dead and barren the rest of the world around them may be. Hello! They're EVERgreens!

                

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Hutchcraft Ministries
P.O. Box 400
Harrison, AR 72602-0400

(870) 741-3300
(877) 741-1200 (toll-free)
(870) 741-3400 (fax)

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