Happy Birthday Dad

Today is my father's 82nd birthday. I've missed being at a family birthday dinner for him. The plans all fell together within the last week and living 14 hours away made it impossible to be there.

Typically the birthday boy receives gifts, but I'd like to share some of the gifts my father has given me.

The gift of Wal-Mart. This actually means the gift of wise investing--find a good company that you believe in, support it like crazy, and stick with it. He's done this with other companies as well but Wal-Mart sticks out. We knew to refer to a competitor as Bleep-Mart rather than use the letter at the beginning of the real name. In fact, I think my nephew thought K-Mart's real name was Bleep-Mart until he could read. Dad has taught us that the market isn't a get rich quick scheme so when you get in, get in for the long haul.

The gift of generosity. My parents have been very generous to us, but many, many people have been recipients of their generosity. My parents home has been open to thousands of people through the years, and I know they have given many anonymous financial gifts. Once when leaving a restaurant I commented about what I thought was a more than generous tip Dad had left. I remember often his words: In a couple of hours or tomorrow I won't know the difference in giving a few extra dollars in a tip, but a bigger than normal tip for that server may mean the difference in her day.

The gift of work. I have many, many memories of spending time at church and school with Dad as he showed how to mow a yard to look nice and not just get the grass cut. The church had a mower that would die if you tried to mow a too thick patch. He came out once to restart the mower for me, but after that it was "Why did you slug it???" He also showed me how to paint and stain. Every painting project I've done I've put into practice his advice for taking care of the equipment and how to paint well. Yesterday I helped a friend by priming several walls at her house. When she commented how neatly I paint, I just thought, "Well, it's how my dad taught me."

The gift of buck-up. OK, I really don't naturally think of this as a gift because a gift should be pleasurable and nice, but reality is that it is a gift. Through the years when I've called home and needed a little support and just wanted to talk through and complain about life, Dad's comment has been "Well, buck up and you're the person to make it through." I always wanted to say, "Could you put Mom on?" However, the truth is that a lot of life is just bucking up and getting through it. Now I laugh when I hear kids talk about how tough life is and I think, "Oh just buck up. . .."

My dad has been known by many names: Lynn, Dad, Papa, K-daddy, Daddy-K, Bro. Lynn, Mr. Klopfenstein, Lynn Kaye, Lynny-Boy, Uncle Lynn, Lim, and even Punky. However, the most important name he has is Child of God. Over 56 years ago Dad gave his life to Jesus Christ and became Child of God. There is no doubt that he loves God, desires to serve Him, and has been promised an eternity in Heaven with his heavenly Father. And that Dad, is the greatest gift you can give a child.

Thankful Thursday 01/19/12

1. I'm typing this on my new PC. Lots of people recommended Mac but I can buy several PCs for what I would have had to pay for a Mac. I just didn't want that much money tied up in a laptop. I'm comfortable with a PC and I don't do a lot of graphics work.

2. Lots of snow this past week but no travel issues.

3. Because of my adjunct instructing I'm getting a very, very nice deal on Office!

I Am Getting Old

Today after work I get "old". I will be picking up my first pair of progressive lens glasses.

Honestly, I'm not sure why I'm getting them except that I get new glasses only every 3-4 years. My vision insurance allows for either contacts OR glasses in a year instead of both. Technically contacts are good for only a year if you follow their advice about how often to change them. The other reason I wonder about getting them is that unless it's allergy season when I may wear glasses if I can't get my contacts in, then the only time I wear glasses is for 10-15 minutes at night between taking my contacts out and going to sleep.

Oh well, let the aging commence.

Thankful Thursday 01/12/12

1. Thankful for Jeffrey, my nephew who turns 11 today. Jeffrey has been a joyful boy who has brought much life and laughter to those around him. One of my favorite memories of him was when he gave me the ultimate compliment any 2-year could hear and thus he gave to me, "Aunt Rhoda, you're getting bigger just like me!!!" Yeah, not a compliment to a 40 something lady. However, he made up for be saying multiple times, "Aunt Rhoda, we're cited you're at our house."

2. Seeing little children ride the penny pony ride at Meijer. It's fun to watch their smiles while standing in line waiting for those really slow people at the self-check out lines.

3. The opportunity to work at home when the weather is bad. We'll see if I need that tomorrow.

A Conversation

My great aunt was in a nursing home for several years. Once a week I would go to visit her often stopping after school to pick up a sandwich for each of us for supper. I loved her dearly but it was often difficult to know what to talk about as our lives were so different and we really didn't know the same people.

Side story: Many people came to her "home" to present musical programs, and Aunt Louise wasn't really into music. She would go to these programs because she wanted to honor that people were coming to do something nice for the residents, but I don't think she really enjoyed them or looked forward to them. Before realizing this one day we were sitting in the big room when I saw the piano. I asked her if she'd like me to play something for her. Her reply was short and quick and not necessarily in that order: "No." It was so matter of fact that I found it humorous. After that I would ask her if she wanted me to play for her just to get that answer!

Anyway, back to original thought. Today the Ann Landers column had a great idea for visiting older people. The writer had found an address book of her older mother-in-law and would go through the book asking her about various people in the book. The mother-in-law enjoyed thinking of people from her past and she knew more details about the past than the present. The writer also learned much about her mother-in-law. The address book gave specific names and helped the mother-in-law remember people.  Wish I would have had this idea 20 years ago!

Thankful Thursday 1/5/12

1. I'm glad Michigan State and Michigan finally won a bowl game each. It's good for the fans in this state to understand how good Alabama fans feel so often.

2. Had a good time and met some new people on New Year's Eve.

Continue in prayer in 2012

On one of the last days of 2011 I read this post, and I was again reminded of the importance of starting the day with Biblical thought. This morning I read from Charles Spurgeon's Morning  devotional.

Colossians 4:2 Continue in prayer

You can read the entire devotional here, but these were some statements that stood out to me.

It is interesting to remark how large a portion of Sacred Writ is occupied with the subject of prayer, either in furnishing examples, enforcing precepts, or pronouncing promises. .

 Here we find a wrestling Jacob--there a Daniel who prayed three times a day--and a David who with all his heart called upon his God. On the mountain we see Elias; in the dungeon Paul and Silas. We have multitudes of commands, and myriads of promises.

If He has said much about prayer, it is because He knows we have much need of it. So deep are our necessities, that until we are in heaven we must not cease to pray.

Dost thou want nothing? Then, I fear thou dost not know thy poverty. Hast thou no mercy to ask of God? Then, may the Lord's mercy show thee thy misery! A prayerless soul is a Christless soul. Prayer is the lisping of the believing infant, the shout of the fighting believer, the requiem of the dying saint falling asleep in Jesus. It is the breath, the watchword, the comfort, the strength, the honour of a Christian. I

 The motto for this year must be, "Continue in prayer."