Month: November 2025

Have you noticed that tribute bands and performers have become all the rage in the entertainment business these days? Of course, impersonators of Elvis and the Beatles have been around forever. But now just about every rock star band from the 1960s and ’70s has tribute bands touring the country. You can find copycats of the Beach Boys, the Bee Gees, Abba, Michael Jackson, the Four Seasons, Bread, and many more.

It doesn’t seem to bother audiences that they are not watching the real thing. They just enjoy the music and the memories it brings back from their youth. Nothing wrong with that. But given a choice between seeing a tribute band, or seeing the actual band, everyone would prefer the real thing.

Many things in life can bring you temporary joy. Just be sure you don’t mistake them for the real thing. The source of eternal joy. God is always the ultimate rock star.

I read something fascinating recently. The article said your brain can’t tell the difference between reality and imagination. That’s why children can become so engaged in playing with toys, why dreams can frighten you, why martial arts experts can deny pain. Golfers are trained to visualize the ball going into the cup. In football, field goal kickers try to see the ball going through the uprights before they kick. The article said you can control much of your reality based on what you want to imagine.

I’m not sure about all that, but I do believe that happiness and peace are a choice. If you constantly visualize and dwell on the negative, your mood will be negative. If you visualize a loving and caring and living God watching over you and providing for your needs, it will bring you joy and calm.

Think about that today. Better yet, see it.

Recently our four-year-old grandson cracked us up when he asked “Grandpa and Grandma, did you ever have any children?” We explained that his mama was one of our children. He looked puzzled. “But she’s not a child. She’s a grown-up,” he said. We tried our best to describe how his mommy was once little like him, but grew up, just like he will one day.

He seemed mystified. It’s funny how he couldn’t grasp the concept. Children only know how to live in the moment. They accept things the way they are, and deal with them. They aren’t aware of the past, and don’t really comprehend the future, and they’re just fine with that. They are focused on their circumstances right now.

I think we might all have more peace and joy if we did that too.

We have two birdfeeders and a hummingbird feeder in our backyard. I enjoy all of our feathered visitors, which include robins, mourning doves, bluebirds, blue jays, finches, black birds and even an occasional hawk. I’ve spotted at least two kinds of hummingbirds.

But my favorites are the cardinals and the chickadees. It’s late autumn now and the temperatures are turning cold. Most of our winged guests have left us for warmer climates. But not the cardinals and chickadees. They will hang with us throughout the winter. They nest in our backyard tree and have taken up permanent residence. I’ve come to think of them as more like roommates. We make sure they have plenty of food throughout the chilly months.

True friends will stick with you through good times and bad. They won’t fly off when times get hard. Treat them well.

It’s nice to be missed. For various reasons I had been absent from one of my social activities for a few weeks. A member of the group sent me a text message saying they missed me and hoped all was well, and that they would see me again soon. It gave me a warm feeling inside, if nothing else, just to know that I was thought about for a moment. The note brightened my day. My mood immediately improved.

It also got me thinking about friends and family that I haven’t seen or been in touch with for a while. How simple and easy it is to just grab my phone and type out a few lines letting them know that I was thinking about them and missing them. Maybe reading my message will help them have a better day as well.

That seems well worth the effort.

Ever get a cramp in your leg? Like, in your calf muscle? You can be just walking, or stretching in bed, or bending over, and wham! Cramps can come unexpectedly, and the pain is sharp and severe. There’s not much you can do about it except rub your leg gently and just grit your teeth and endure the agony. The only thing that gets you through is the knowledge that the cramp is temporary. After a minute or two your muscle will relax and feel better.

Life can be like that. You’re cruising along with no major problems when, unexpectedly, adversity hits you. The pain can be sharp and overwhelming. Health problems, relationship troubles, money issues, many other things. You can survive them with faith, knowing the difficulties of this world are temporary.

Things will get better. You’ll get through this. Don’t let today’s suffering cramp your style.

The New York City marathon is the largest running event in the world. In 2024, 55,646 runners took part. Of that multitude, less than ten participants actually had a realistic chance to win the race. The goal of most everyone else was not to win. It was to finish. Their competition was themselves. It didn’t matter what the crowd was doing. They had their own mission, and they were focused on it.

Good advice for us on our spiritual walk. There is a Bible verse that says: “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

It doesn’t matter what the crowd is doing. You know how to live the right way.

A group of physicians conducted a double-blind study on the effect of Christian prayer on healing, involving patients at San Francisco General Medical Center: Patients were randomly divided into placebo and test groups.

The test group was prayed for by Christians, while the placebo group received no prayer.

Results showed that patients who were prayed for experienced:

Less congestive heart failure.

Reduced need for diuretic and antibiotic therapy.

Fewer episodes of pneumonia.

Fewer cardiac arrests.

Reduced need for intubation and ventilation.

Coincidence? No way.

(Source: Rich Deem, GodandScience.org)

It is almost comical how your body begins to malfunction if you don’t get enough sleep. Some really silly things start to happen. I recently went through a period of three or four days when I couldn’t sleep. Too much on my mind. By the third day of sleep shortage, I noticed doing things such as, reaching to turn off the lights and missing the wall switch two or three times. Walking through a doorway and cracking my shoulder on the door frame.

I started dropping things. Everything. Car keys, phone, silverware, pens. I would grab hold of them, and drop them. Most of the time I would just laugh at myself, but continued lack of adequate sleep is no laughing matter. Eventually I started getting headaches, lost my energy, had trouble thinking, and was always grumpy.

You have to find time to sleep. If not overnight, take naps. Make time for it. Especially if you are older (I’ll let you define that). I finally got caught up and it made a tremendous difference. If you are trying to drink from a cup and wind up missing your mouth and spilling on your shirt, it’s time for a rest break.

I helped my grandson study for his spelling test last night. He’s in third grade. He spells words exactly as they sound. No tricky silent letters. No weird letter combinations that sound like something completely different, such as the letters e-i-g-h together, which for some reason, are pronounced like a long “a”, as in weigh, neighbor, and eight.

He would spell those words wa, nabor and at. The more I thought about it, his way of spelling makes much more sense. Simple, straight forward, logical. Why not make all vowels long all the time, and just come up with new letters for the short vowel sounds?

Sometimes we make life more complicated than it has to be. Just love one another, trust God, and be at peace. That’s p-e-a-c-e. Not to be confused with p-i-e-c-e.

See what I mean?