Month: July 2025

Walking is good for the soul. You can think deep thoughts while you walk. You can carry on a meaningful conversation with a friend. You can listen to music or your favorite podcast. You can take an important phone call. All while getting some much needed exercise and fresh air.

Running, biking and resistance workouts are also great forms of exercise, but you can’t send a text message while you’re doing bicep curls. You can while you are walking (although it does take a little practice). Walking can also help your general mood. Getting a smile and a friendly hello from other walkers tends to lift you up.

So go take a walk. It’s literally a breath of fresh air.

The most important day of your life is today. You have been given this day to accomplish something. Everything you have done in the past is done and in the past. You are not guaranteed tomorrow. None of us are. The only sure thing you know is that you are here today. You have this chance to love, to care, to minister and to serve.

Today is a day we have never seen before, and will never see again. You will never get this day back. Once it is gone you are another day closer to running out of days. You may not be able do anything momentous or dramatic, but do something important. It’s the reason you’re here. The reason you opened your eyes and got out of bed.

Don’t take days for granted just because they are all the same. What you may think of as routine is actually opportunity.

Culture never stays the same. It is constantly evolving. For example, in the middle part of the twentieth century smoking was considered elegant and even attractive. Movie stars such as Clark Gable and Betty Grable would stylishly light up a cigarette and puff away during an emotional scene. There were ash trays in every living room. It was okay to smoke in somebody else’s house. TV game shows were sponsored by tobacco companies, and consolation prizes were often a carton of cigarettes!

Flash forward to today. Smoking is banned at most all public places. Packs must contain a warning from the surgeon general. Even those who smoke admit it is a terrible habit and wish they could quit. Far from elegant and attractive, smoking is now broadly judged as disgusting and dangerous.

But it’s important to remember that, even though culture evolves, morality shouldn’t. Right is still right, and wrong is still wrong. Don’t let the fundamentals of godly living go up in smoke.

Are you feeling down and depressed? Sometimes the reason we get to feeling sad about our lives is that we set the bar too high for ourselves. It’s easy to do in this age of social media, where everybody else seems to post about how wonderful their lives are. You can fall into thinking that everybody has wonderful friends and exciting experiences except you. What’s wrong with me? Why is my life so routine?

You need to give yourself a break. Your blessings are your blessings. They may not be the same as those of other people, but they are there. Focus on gratitude. Make a list of things you can be thankful for. You have more than you might realize.

It’s not a competition. You don’t have to achieve somebody else’s life to be happy.

It’s funny how the human mind works. I can remember places I went and things I did when I was just a child, but I can’t remember what my wife told me to do this morning. I can name almost all of my high school teachers, but sometimes I can’t recall why I got up and walked into a room. Some memories are burned into your brain and you think about them all the time. Others disappear almost immediately and can’t be retrieved.

Maybe the reason we have difficulty remembering little things is because we weren’t listening closely enough to begin with. Most of us have lots of stuff to think about these days, and it distracts us from focusing on the task at hand. We can’t absorb it because we never took it in.

I’m going to try to do better at really hearing what people tell me. It’s never too late to work at becoming a better listener.

I enjoy sitting in my screened-in porch and watching the wildlife in my backyard. On a typical morning, the yard is alive with a variety of colorful birds, loudly chirping and feeding. Squirrels, chipmunks and rabbits peruse and frolic on the ground. We have had deer and even a blue heron pass through.

The other day, an enormous hawk flew in and landed on top of our birdfeeder pole. I had never seen one that close-up. He looked so majestic and powerful, with that huge curved beak, and long sharp claws. He surveyed the yard looking for prey. I couldn’t help but notice that, suddenly, the entire property was completely vacant and silent. All the other creatures got word the hawk was around, knew they were in danger, and knew to hide and not make a sound. They had the good sense to protect themselves from evil. Finding nothing to attack, the predator flew away. After several minutes, the other wildlife cautiously returned.

I hope we all can be as good at recognizing evil and protecting ourselves from it.

I’m sitting on my screened-in porch watching the birdfeeder pole in the backyard. There is a squirrel on the ground at the base. He desperately wants to find a way up the pole to the birdseed. The easiest way would be to simply climb the pole, which he tries, only to be frustrated by a baffle. He climbs a nearby tree and crawls out on to a limb to see if he can jump to the pole. It’s a little too far. He gets up on his hind legs and leans on the pole, trying to get it to shake so that the feeder will fall to the ground, but the pole is grounded too deeply to waver.

I don’t want him to get into the birdseed, but I can’t help but admire his determination. He’s still out there, plotting his next move. He’s not whining and complaining about his problems. He’s doing something about them. He’s trying stuff. All kinds of stuff. When he fails, he just keeps trying.

We could learn a lot from a squirrel.

Spending time with young grandkids reminds you of some of the fundamentals of human behavior. We are born into this world with a nature of complete self gratification. Watch toddlers play together with toys. They are extremely possessive. They want what they want. They’ll fight others for what they want. Sharing and taking turns does not come naturally to them. It’s only after an authority figure teaches them to share, and then praises them for it, that they will learn the concept.

When you think about it, that process continues throughout life. I have learned so much from observing humble, honest and optimistic people. They just seem happier. More content. It makes me want to be like them. Makes me want to try to set that example for others. Especially for my grandkids.

Who will be watching the example you set today?

I was driving through a little town the other day when I saw a sign advertising a palm reader. Palmistry is a form of divination which claims that the lines in your hand can tell you about your character, personality traits, and even predict your future and the length of your life.

People pay palm readers money to do this. To each his own I guess. I don’t have to read your hand to predict your future. Here is what is going to happen to you: You will reap what you sow. The way you treat others is the way they will treat you. You will live until God decides otherwise, and then you will be accountable to Him for your life.

Really, what else do you need to know?

Don’t be stressed. I know that’s easy to say, harder to do. But chances are you are stressing out about something over which you have no control. When you think about it, it’s kind of pointless to do that. If you can’t control it, whatever is going to happen will happen.

Plan for the possibilities sure. Prepare for the unexpected, absolutely. But try not to stress out about it. Life is like the weather. You can’t make it rain, you can’t cause the temperature outside to rise or fall. You just have to wait and see what happens, and then adjust to it.

You’ll get through this, whatever it is. Meet the challenge. Attack it head on. Do your best. Then relax and be at peace. We know who is really in control.