Author: kenlassblog.net

Just had my most recent physical exam. My blood pressure was a little high. I have to cut back on salt. That’s a problem. I love salt. I crave it. I put it on everything. I’ve tried the “no salt” versions of many of my favorite foods. They taste like cardboard. This is going to be hard.

I need willpower. Lots of willpower. So I’m going to the source of all power. I’m praying hard for the ability to change my eating habits. So far, I’m hanging in there. I just might be able to pull this off!

What challenges are you facing today? Are there things you need to accomplish in your life that you find too hard or overwhelming? You need willpower too. You can do this.

Go to the Source for help.

Here’s a thought for you to ponder. If you had to give up one of your five senses, which one would you choose? Sight, hearing, smell, taste or touch? A friend recently posed this question to me, and it really sent me deep into contemplation. Each one plays such a vital role in the richness and enjoyment of life. The moment I decided on one, I would change my mind after reflecting on the joys that particular sense supplies.

It brought home to me that I am incredibly blessed to still have all five. They all work together in intricate ways. Psalm 139 is certainly correct when it states “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

I know many folks who have lost one or more of their senses. Instead of being bitter, it seems to make them appreciate the ones they have left even more. There’s a great lesson to be learned from that.

It seems more and more athletes are giving all honor and glory to God when they are interviewed on the field or on the court after a game. Did God help them win? Does God pick a side? What about the players who were praying on the other team? Did God ignore their prayers?

I suspect God doesn’t care who wins the game. But He does love it when He is acknowledged by His people as Lord and Savior. He knows who His disciples are, and it wouldn’t surprise me if He creates circumstances that provide an opportunity for His followers to proclaim Him. We should learn from these examples.

We may never have a sideline reporter hold a microphone in front of us on live TV, but we all have opportunities to give God the glory in our own circles. We don’t have millions of people watching us, but those closest to us are, and our witness just may make a difference in their lives.

My brain still works. It just works slower than it used to. I will see someone I know, but the name does not come immediately to mind. I just have to try to relax. Wait for it……wait for it……ah! Yes, there it is! The name will pop into my head.

Sharon will give me a task. If I don’t do it right away, it will slip my mind. Hours later, I will remember it. Sometimes Sharon will have already done it by then. That never ends well.

Your mind is a machine. Just like any machine, it needs good care and exercise. Try to get enough rest, try to reduce stress and worry (easier said than done I know), and make that brain work a little each day. Read books, do crossword puzzles and word games, write letters, calculate a budget. Do something that makes you think, think, think!

You can’t expect your brain to function as sharply as when you were a young pup. But you can definitely keep it from turning into mush.

Of course, it just makes sense that you get better at something when you practice it. The more you do it, the more comfortable you become with it. It works for golfers, tennis players, athletes of any kind. It works in the business world. Most people get better at their jobs the longer they perform them.

It also works in your faith life. Developing a routine of kindness, unselfishness and servant ministry doesn’t come naturally to most of us. It’s a bit awkward at first. Takes us out of our comfort zone for sure. But you will find the more you build your life around the needs of others, the better and more at ease you will become with it. And it will add a dimension to your life that might be missing.

Everybody has a time when they hit their first golf ball, swing at their first tennis ball, go to their first day at a new job. Do something kind and unselfish today. It might feel a little scary, but so was the first time you drove a car. You got used to that, right?

My ten year old granddaughter was so excited. Her parents had finally given in to her begging to have a hamster for a pet. She picked out her favorite at the pet store, helped to select the cage, the bedding and the food. She couldn’t wait to get the little critter set up in her room so she could watch it climb ladders, run in its wheel and munch on its food.

What she and her parents didn’t realize (and neither did I), was that hamsters are nocturnal. They basically spend all day buried under their bedding and only become active at night. The little girl was deeply disappointed after spending hours staring at nothing but the hole in the bedding where the hamster had burrowed in for the day.

Sometimes things just don’t turn out the way we expect them to. Disappointment is inevitable, but it doesn’t have to linger. Shake it off, pick yourself up. Move on. Within a few days my granddaughter had moved on to other interests. Mom and Dad wound up taking care of the hamster. Now THAT was unexpected disappointment.

I had a birthday recently. I turned 75 years old. Wow. 75 years. God has blessed me with three-quarters of a century on this earth. Harry Truman was president the year I was born! I was here before computers, the internet, mobile phones, and cable TV.

What a journey it has been. Terrific highs and terrible lows. Through it all, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has pulled me through. Hard to imagine I could have navigated through the roller coaster of life without Him.

You have been on your journey as well. You’ve had joy and sadness, peace and worry. We all need a stabilizing force. An unchanging standard to cling to. It’s right there in the Bible. Get into it every day. It may not heal all of your pain, but it will show you the light at the end of your travels.

We spend too much time looking at screens. The average American spends nearly seven hours per day watching some sort of screen. It might be your phone, your computer, your TV or even your smart watch. Many must look at screens in their jobs.

It’s not good for us. It can cause eye strain, disrupt our sleeping pattern, and give us anxiety. It can also lead to weight gain, even obesity. Makes sense that the time we spend watching screens is time we are not exercising or burning calories.

I confess I am a little nervous telling you this, because you read this blog on a screen. Medical folks say we should try to limit our screen time to between two and four hours per day. I hope you will use one minute of that time to continue to read my blog. I’ll keep them short.

When I was a child, we had just one TV set in our house. My parents insisted on watching the Lawrence Welk show on Saturday night. I hated it. Having to listen to all that old, corny music, and Lawrence’s broken English. But Mom and Dad reveled in it. They would tap their feet and even sing along. It took them back to their heyday. It made them very happy.

Now, some 65 years later, those Lawrence Welk reruns are still on the air. Even more surprising, I find myself watching them. Not because I’ve come to like the music, but because it brings back precious memories of my sweet parents smiling and full of joy. They are long since in heaven, but I still picture them reminiscing in their recliners. I miss them so much.

So much of what I am today is because of them. They left me with wonderful memories. I hope I can do the same. I hope we all can.

They call us baby boomers, but what we really are is the ‘Tweener generation. My parents never used a computer or the internet for anything their entire lives. My children and grandchildren use computers and the internet for everything, and their lives are deeply connected to it. I am the transition link. I know just enough to be able to turn on a PC and surf the internet. I can send an email or a text message. I can buy a pair of pants online and order food from an app.

Oh, and I can post these blogs. That’s about it. Beyond that, I have a deep distrust of the cyber world. I don’t like banking or paying bills electronically. I put little credibility in anything I read on social media unless it’s from a friend. Even then, sometimes you don’t know if it truly is your friend, or a scammer disguised as your friend.

I’m a bit worried about our young people. They have sold their privacy to the internet. My daughter says I’m just afraid of what I don’t understand.

She’s right. We all should be.