Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Great News for Fat Folk!

Health Benefits Of Being Overweight

"A new report suggests that being overweight is not as harmful as is commonly believed, and actually confers some surprising benefits.

Being five to ten pounds overweight could protect people from ailments ranging from tuberculosis to Alzheimer's disease, research indicates.

Those carrying 15 to 25 extra pounds are better able to recover from adverse conditions such as emphysema, pneumonia, and various injuries and infections, states the report.

Thirty to forty pounds of flab could help fend off breast, kidney, pancreatic, prostate, and colon cancer. And an extra fifty pounds on the scale may improve eyesight, reverse baldness, cure the common cold, and reduce global warming. In general, the report concludes, overweight people are happier, more successful in business, smarter, and friendlier.

The study was funded by a research grant from McDonald's, Burger King, Jack in the Box, Taco Bell, Domino's Pizza, Starbucks, Haagen Dazs, Sara Lee, and Krispy Kreme."

Not included in the report was this warning; always consider the source of information.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Switched?

Why is LaWanna on the cover of AARP? And why is Jamie Leigh Curtis in my driveway?
If I were a better photographer (and LaWanna wasn't rushing off to a shower) you wouldn't be able to tell them apart.



Friday, April 18, 2008

Children Teach us to Pray

After teaching young children for years at church, Terry Brown has learned to tell parents "If you promise not to believe everything they say happened at church, we promise not to believe everything they say happens at home." I was reminded of that when I received the following today from The Good Clean Funnies List;



A Sunday school teacher asked her pupils, "Now, children, do you all say your prayers at night?"A little boy answered, "My mommy says my prayers.""I see," said the teacher. "And what does your mother say?





"The little boy replied, "THANK GOD HE'S IN BED!"

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Hedging your bets?


It is time to "Focus" on one or the other.

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Consider...

"Consider the flowers of the field"









"They toil not"






"Neither do they spin"






"Yet even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these"






Friday, April 04, 2008

Celebrate Love!

In honor of Mark and Lindsay's first anniversary, here is a photo of their wedding day and a great tribute written by my brother, Keith, in his newsletter last April;




"It was a very cool wedding!


Outdoors, 49 degrees with a 30 mph winds - that makes for a cool wedding. But it really wasn’t the wind chill that made it cool. It was the way the couple weathered the worst. As all their best laid wedding plans were being blown away all around them, they couldn’t stop smiling at each other and at everybody else. When the petite bride shivered, her gallant groom gave up his jacket for her. So, there they were on the most important dress-up day of their lives - he in his shirt sleeves, and she in a clownishly oversized tux jacket. It was beautiful!


What salvaged their “ruined” perfect day was that they didn’t care. They were living out the “for better or for worse” of their vows right in front of us and that warmed inside where the wind can’t reach.


When the candles all blew out and the couple tried in vain to light their unity candle, the grinning groom announced to the audience, “You’ll just have to use your imaginations.”


And I did. I imagined that any couple who could laugh at these calamities on such an important day could handle anything that might come against them in the coming decades. I imagined them 40 years later, hair graying, faces wrinkled, but still smiling at each other.


That’s what real love does. It “always perseveres” (1 Corinthians 13:7).


So many marriages (and friendships, and church relationships) fail for lack of perseverance. Winds blow, the relationship gets chilly, and the flames go out. When the situation falls short of perfection, as it inevitably will, too many people pack it in instead of persevering. In so doing, they cut love off before it has opportunity to really bloom. Real love grows strong, not in the absence of difficulty, but because of it. Love perseveres.


It is those who persevere together through all their differences who find genuine love - and the joy that always tags along behind it. It is old friends who have laughed together and cried together, who have fought and made up – those are the ones who understand: “Love never fails” (13:8).


It was a very cool wedding. Not because of the temperature. Not because of the beautiful setting, the excellent music, nor the touching words. It was cool because of what was unspoken, but clearly demonstrated – love perseveres. Always!"

Thursday, April 03, 2008

New Bumper Sticker

You see them every day. The bumper sticker on the mini-van in front of you; "My child is an honor student at upper-middle-class elementary school". It makes you wonder if all these folks are from Garrison Keilor's fictional hometown of Lake Wobegon where "all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average." I say "Sodier on, faithful parents!" Kids need encouragement. Adults need encouragement also. I was recently in a situation as a counselor with a client that had great difficulty thinking of a single accomplishment in 27 years of life. Part of the difficulty was the inability to recognize accomplishments as such, but most of her challenge is that she really has not accomplished much--nor has she tried. After many tears, excuses, and anxiety, a brief list was composed. Here is the point; Every one of us is accomplishing less than our potential, including your kids. Whoa, there, Roxy. You are stepping on some toes now. Well, when you have about 8 minutes, watch this video of an ELEPHANT that has been trained to paint a self-portrait. I am not making this up. It takes a few minutes to watch but that allows you to see that it is not fake. Sure he makes himself look a little thinner than he really is (and taller) but I would do the same.

What do you think? Is more possible than you previously thought?

Oh yeah, my new bumper sticker says "My Elephant Paints Better than your Elephant!"