Below are some links from previous posts; videos, heartfelt messages, a great story about a high school teacher and more.
Veteran’s Day 2012 (Video)
Veteran’s Day 2010 (Video)
Veteran’s Day 2009 (Video)
Go For It (Podcast)
A High School Teacher Imparts A Lesson
Before the smartphone, you needed someone to either take your picture with a camera, or sit down and have an artist paint your portrait. Today, smartphone selfies are a phenomenon capturing self portraits by the millions. But self portraits have actually been around since artists first began seeing their own images in the mirror.
In the late 1700’s, Spanish artist Francisco de Goya painted at least three pictures of himself – self portraits, canvas selfies. Art collectors date some of the oldest preserved canvas selfies to the late 1300’s. Today, almost everyone with a smartphone either has someone take their picture, or snaps their own selfies.
Just For Fun?
Most agree selfies are lots of fun. But some say all these selfies are nothing more than vanity. Others say it’s a clear sign of narcissism. Recent studies seem to indicate the amount of time looking at other people’s selfies causes image problems for some.
From the stats for Confidence & Joy for last month: The top 5 countries reading the blog are, in this order, United States, China, Netherlands, Germany, and France. It’s encouraging to know thousands of folks around the world are checking out the blog. It is the world wide web. God bless you all!
Sunday, October 19th, shortly after 4pm, Kathy was in the kitchen preparing us an early supper. Suddenly, it began to rain, a downpour with hail. In an instant, the wind picked up and the power went out.
Then, as we were standing in the kitchen with flashlights in hand, we heard an extremely loud bang that sounded like the loudest thunderclap I’ve ever heard, but it wasn’t thunder. At first we thought lightning hit the house.
We moved from the kitchen into the dining room and with wide eyes saw a
I found out recently from Verizon because we are no longer under contract, they lowered our monthly bill $15 per line. That’s $30 a month less than what we were paying. Sweet! I just saved some money. Or did I?
When you find something at a price lower than you were expecting or planning to pay anyway, you almost always say, “I just saved some money,” or, “I just saved 20 bucks.” The truth is
In the summer of 1989, I said, very positively, “I’m not afraid; I’m trusting God.” I had taught many times on not being afraid, had counseled countless people about trusting God and not being afraid. And now it was my turn to face fear.
It’s actually very easy to say, “I’m not afraid,” isn’t it? It’s easy to just say the words and act “positive.” But just saying, “I’m not afraid,” doesn’t mean you’re not allowing fear to direct your life.
Sure, it’s easy peasy to trust God when everything’s going well.
When I was young, several of us would go to a park or playground and play some football. When we played no one was there to “throw a flag,” to point out an infraction of the rules of football. Instead, there was usually some boisterous arguing.
In the NFL, when a referee sees an infraction, he throws a yellow flag on the field, and the sports broadcaster says, “There’s a flag on the field.” But can you imagine a football game, or any other sport, where there were no rules? Our playground games had some rules, but no rules? No standard? That would be utter chaos.
Not just sports, but in
To bury your talent in the yard is not good stewardship.
Sometimes you just gotta leave it all behind. This is a cool video from the group, Casting Crowns, called, The Well.
It’s from their album, Come To The Well
I think it’s inspiriting – what do you think? If you like it, share it!
I’ve spent time with very poor people, very rich people, and everybody in between. Most of the wealthy people I’ve encountered personally do not fit the general description or common opinions.
How many times do we hear phrases like, “dirty rich people,” filthy rich,” greedy rich,” etc.? There are many who think if someone has wealth, they obtained their riches dishonestly, and they are evil, sinful people. But is that also true of all the wealthy people in the Bible?
