All Good Things...

My last post was #750.  750 posts since starting this blog in 2006.  It's a good number to end with.  I mentioned several blogs back that I was considering closing out my blog so I could focus on some other writing plans.  After much deliberation and prayer, I have decided it's time to stop.  When I started this blog, I had a two-fold intent.  First, I wanted to keep family and friends updated on what was happening in our family.  All my kids had blogs, and it was a great way to keep up with them.  Secondly, I wanted to write up and throw out things that were on my heart and mind - things that were part of my spiritual journey - that might encourage and enlighten others.  I have stayed very true to both of those intents.
With so many people on Facebook, Twitter, etc. and with texting and FaceTime and such being used so heavily, I don't think as many people are checking blogs like they did five years ago.  I know my family stays so connected with those things that using a blog to inform is "ancient" now.  I still love to see the pictures of my grandkids on their mom's blog, but we send as many, if not more, with our iPhones now.  So the family "need" part just isn't as great as it was.  It helps that I am now pretty close to being technically up-to-date since I use my iPhone and iPad for nearly everything I do.
As far as the encouragement and enlightenment part, my sermons are on the church web page each week, as well as the church bulletin with my article.  I plan to do more "devotional" or teaching type articles in our bulletin each week and not as much church info stuff.  AND, Lord willing, I hope to be having my new book published sometime in the not-to-distant future, once I do some editing and find a publisher (piece of cake! NOT!).
It has been fun, though the pressure of not wanting people to check on my blog for days at a time and not find anything new caused me some stress as I tried to do 2-3 blogs each week.  I believe I did some of my best teaching and writing in some of those blogs.  I saw writing a blog as writing an article for a magazine.  When I wrote about THE church, I was talking about the church in general or universal, but some would occasionally think it was about my church family here.  It never was.  When I wrote about struggles, disappointments, or challenges to living a consistent life in Christ, it was never about people or events close to home.  I have never written an article, a blog, or a book, or preached a sermon for that matter, with someone in mind that I wanted to "get" "straighten out" or hurt in any way.  My integrity before God is far more valuable to me than to do something like that.
If you were blessed in any way by something I shared, I am thankful and praise God for that.  If you have been with me through 750 blogs over six years, thanks for sharing the journey, and for allowing me to share my heart with you through, what six years ago was new, but now is an old method of communicating.  What might we be doing five years from now?
God is good, and I give all the glory for anything good to him.

Good Friends - Good Times!

We were blessed to have our good friends, Don and Kathy Rose, with us for the Labor Day Weekend.  We had a wonderful time doing some touring of Forrest Park and the History Museum, and eating at all our favorite places.  Above is Las Fuentes on Saturday.  Notice the multiple bowls of salsa in front of Donna.  They know us so well there that several of the waiters bring her extra bowls - and occasionally a spoon.  Don and Kathy have been special friends since 1998, when we moved to TN, and we have stayed connected over the almost eight years we've lived in Florissant.  They go on all our bi-annual vacation trips with us, and they have come up to nearly every Bible Action Musical each year.  Last year, when they came to visit us over the Labor Day weekend, I informed them that it was a non-negotiable tradition, so they had to come back this year.  They are true friends, who we can count on and they can count on us.  We laughed a lot, played a lot of cards and Fargle (called Farkle by some) and ate way too much - but boy was it good.  It was especially good to have them with us last Sunday to again meet our church family.  God is so good to bless us with wonderful friends, like many in our church family, who we long to be with and who make life such an amazing experience.  The best part is that we're all children of God and heirs of the Kingdom, and we will have all eternity to enjoy being together!
I just happened to think - I hope there's salsa in Heaven!