Catch Up

Hannah learning from her grand and great grandmother

This picture is one of my favorites of this year.  It was cold the day we laid Jim Taylor to rest. The camera caught Hannah watching very closely as Janie comforted her mother.  There are not many moments in life like this one for not many are as profound.  How we deal with death is something we learn from those who have done so before us.  Janie likes hot weather better than cold but I prefer the cold and long for its return.

Me helping my mother make her bed

I have not blogged since I have needed to catch up on my work.  I am the clerk for our local Baptist association.  As such, I have to mail out letters to the churches of our association which includes a form for them to fill out and a letter telling them when and where the messenger meeting will be held and what they are to remember to do before coming to the meeting.  I got that done and the letters are in the mail.  My next major project is to mail out 300 letters to the churches of our State Baptist Association for I am the clerk of the State Association as well.  This is a much bigger task.  These letters must contain the current information we have on each individual church so that they can review the information and make changes if needed.  This requires a computer program and the one I have been using does not work on my  new Mac laptop.  I am writing a new database program for the Mac which will allow me to print these form letters out.  This program will also allow my two helpers at the meeting to log into the database by way of the internet and input the returned letters into the database.  All this is complicated but I am making good progress getting it done.  While Janie is gone with her mother this morning I am going to try to make some serious progress on this program cause I need to get those 300 letters mailed in the next few weeks. 

Our grandsons playing their instruments and singing at camp

Yesterday I spent the entire morning working on the sermon for Sunday.  I have mixed emotions about such texts as the one I will be preaching Sunday.  Its one of those texts that I have taken for granted that it means one thing and have believed it to mean that all of my days.  Upon close examination of the text and careful deliberate study I discover that I was wrong about the text.  It is a joy to know the truth but it is depressing to think I was wrong and taught it wrongly for so many years.  On this text many people have been mistaken and I will help at least some of them to see the light of truth.  Sometimes technical details are boring and in the sermon I will lose some as their minds drift away but rightly dividing God's word is important.
I need to go and check on my mother.  She needs to have round the clock assistance because her mind is just not right.  She does not realize that she is not taking care of herself and is making bad choices.  If we put her in a nursing home and that looks like the best choice at this point, I plan to visit her there as often and as lengthy as possible.  My mother was a good mother to me.  It is because of her and my father that I know Jesus Christ as my savior today.  God bless you.