Christmas is coming
The elves have been away
Now they’re returning from their holiday.
If you haven’t any reindeer
An airline flight will do
If you haven’t got an airline flight,
Then God bless you.
Christmas is coming
Although it’s still July
We’re going shopping, and no asking “Why?”
Hobby Lobby has your ornaments
And artificial pines
If you don’t have one in your town
Then shop online.
Christmas is coming
The elves may call it quits -
Santa’s reducing all their benefits.
If you haven’t got insurance
Obamacare will do
If you haven’t got Obamacare
It’s time to sue.
The only time I ever bought clothes for my children without a guardian present, I bought two dresses in Mobile – this one and a green one.
Actually, I bought the same dresses twice, for a special reason. Earlier that day my twin girls were born.
Little did I know how quickly they would outgrow them.
Today this dress – and the girls who wore it – turns 25. Time moves even faster now. But the love that filled my heart that July day is stronger than ever.
Happy Birthday, ladies. May you change your world as much as you’ve changed mine.
To see in him the image of two – an increase to my place in the world;
To shelter him, and walk at his pace until he can walk at mine;
To lend my strength until he has his own;
To model a partnership of intimacy and trust;
To introduce him to an abundant world;
To teach him the ancient ways, that will live in him beyond my lifetime;
To set him free, even from my influence;
To touch eternity by the ways I touch his life…
This is the sacred trust – to forever remain the friend of a child.
There’s more to vision than hopeful daydreaming about a desired future.
Yes, vision sees the goal, but it is aware of much more than that.
Vision sees the path from here to there.
Vision recognizes the need for decisive action. It has a bias toward making the jump.
Vision also recognizes the risks and potential dangers that lurk on all sides, and prepares accordingly for them.
Vision then sees beyond the goal. It recognizes the larger community, and the visionary’s place in the larger world.
Yes, vision sees the goal. But true visionaries recognize that success is more than the perfect landing.
(This extraordinary picture of Oberstdorf, Germany as reflected in the goggles of Japanese ski jumper Noriaki Kasai is one of many that can be found here. PHOTO: Reuters/Kai Pfaffenbach)
That’s why it’s a good idea, if you’re offering yourself (or your church or organization) as the solution to somebody’s possibly-desperate problem, to make absolutely certain that somebody is there to answer the phone.
Or that the phone is actually there in the first place.
They may not be thinking about jumping off.
Maybe they just need a tank of gas…
A safe, friendly voice…
Or answers without religious jargon or clichés.
Maybe they just need to know where to find a phone that works.
(Photo – Taken on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge by Throwingbull. Used by permission.)
The only time I ever bought clothes for my children without a guardian present, I bought two dresses in Mobile – this one and a green one.
“What we have here,” said 
