My wife and I decided to take a different route back home last week from my monthly teaching session with the Valley Baptist Missions Education Center. We went from the beautiful Rio Grande Valley of south Texas and drove “up river,” meaning we drove along the Rio Grande River to the northwest rather than due…
I’ve been thinking a lot about family lately. Five of my favorite quotes on family have surfaced: “A family is a unit composed not only of children but of men, women, an occasional animal, and the common cold.” — Poet, Ogden Nash, “In family life, love is the oil that eases friction, the cement that binds…
Last week brought back memories. My four-year-old great grandson began playing on a soccer team. When I was four years old, soccer was a game played in another country or at least in a far northern state. He also began Pre-K. Again, from my days in Miss Baker’s Little Kindergarten in Paris, Texas, I have…
During the past month I have lost two cousins. On the same day we were burying one, the second one died. It caused me to look for my favorite quotes on cousins, some of which I would like to share: “Cousins are childhood playmates who grow up to be forever friends.” – Unknown “Cousin to…
I always wished for a sister, even when my mother was pregnant with my younger brother. I had a wonderful name selected, but Madeline, became Bob, and the wish was over. But I had Vicki, a female cousin, with whom I was especially close, from our days as teammates in all the family football games…
Be very careful which funeral home you use when a family member dies. My cousin had a burial insurance policy that was purchased in another town but was guaranteed to be acceptable at any funeral home. Upon her death we had her body transferred from the Hospice Hospital to a nearby funeral home. When we…
In my early years, I used to spend Sunday afternoons with my Grandfather at the Katy Depot in Waco, Texas. In those days, there would be twelve to fifteen passenger trains passing through on a Sunday afternoon and my Grandfather and I would watch every one of them. There was an interesting thing that I had forgotten…
There is a current TV commercial that fills me with mixed emotions. Dad is on his cell phone. Daughter is busy, but suddenly has a question that won’t wait. “Dad,” she interrupts, “How big is the ocean?” Dad pauses momentarily and then says into the phone, “Can I call you back?’ Next scene is Dad and daughter riding in…
This coming fall, I will be teaching again at Southwestern Baptist Seminary. I will teach the course, “Prayer and Global Ministry” that has not been taught at Southwestern during the sixteen years of my retirement. This time it will be an online course through technology with which I am unfamiliar. In four days last week,…
Last week I attended a meeting of approximately two thousand Baptists. In the meeting area, participants were mostly of one mind, with a few exceptions. In the Exhibit Area, not so much of one mind. That’s one reason I spend so much time in the Exhibit Area. Partly because we allow each church to be autonomous, we are nearly…