All posts by Keith Thompson

My two son in-laws

Family

Both of my daughters are married to some great guys. My oldest daughter has been married for 8 years and my youngest daughter has been married for almost 6 years.

I count myself very blessed because I not only have great son in-laws but I also look at them as sons. They are both very fine, honest and straightforward men. As a father, it brings great comfort knowing that your baby girls are married to the right kind of guys. So many fathers don’t know if their girls will be treated right and I believe it ages a father when they worry about their children’s happiness and safety.

All Elaine and I knew were girls because we never had sons. When I realized I had boys now in the family, it was like I had been released to go to car shows, play golf and do guy stuff.

My girls to this day never knew how closely I watched the boys they were dating, but trust me when I tell you, I had my finger on the pulse. If needed I would have literally put my finger on the boy’s pulse. Ha. There were a few guys they dated along the way that I didn’t like or trust and by the grace of God, they went by the wayside. I used to have visions of me and the boy’s fathers in the front yard having a fight because I had put their little baby boy in the hospital. Ha. If you have daughters, you know there is nothing that will stand between you and their safety.

When my oldest daughter brought her to-be husband home for the first time, I knew he was fine young man who was raised right and honest. You can see it in the eyes. When I met my youngest daughter’s to-be husband, he and I locked eyes and I could see he was pure, honest and good.

I will tell you I have the best God arranged for my daughters and my family. I literally would trust them with all I have and I did trust them with the most precious possessions Elaine and I have, our two daughters.

Count your blessings

Family, Life

In the movie White Christmas, Bing Crosby sings a song to Rosemary Clooney in front of the fireplace about counting your blessings instead of sheep to help you go to sleep. The words go “when you are worried and you can’t sleep, count your blessings instead of sheep, and you’ll fall to sleep counting your blessings.”

I just read an article (and donated some money) about a young Michigan husband and wife with two little girls and both the husband and wife have serious cancer. The little daughters are 3 and 1 years old. Their family is rallying around them and their two little girls. The pictures of the young family look like a young family I know very well.

I was at work and eating a salad at my desk and pulled up USA TODAY and the new story about the family was on the front page. As you can guess, I was in a hurry, hence eating at my desk and had a thousand things rolling through my mind about that or that deal and what needed to be done. This article stopped me in my tracks and I paused to pray (and give) for that young family.

I have written before about routine and normal days and how we many times take these for granted when we really should be thankful. We all are searching for significance in life and trying to improve our place in life and with that, often comes a restlessness when we encounter a standard, normal, uneventful and routine day. When these days happen, may this blog post help you to realize how very precious and priceless these routine days really are.

Pray for Ben and Shelby Offrink and their two little girls from Lowell Michigan. KT

Pig wearing a wristwatch

Life

Sometimes people do things or wear things that remind me of a pig wearing a wristwatch. The image of the pig wearing a watch is just stupid because the pig doesn’t know how out of place he looks.

It is like an 80-year-old man with jet black hair or an overweight man in a speedo. I am by choice not going to use any examples of what women sometimes do and wear.

Take cars for example, if I brought a new twin turbo Porsche 911, I would look like a pig wearing a wristwatch. I could however buy a 1965 classic 911 and look perfectly right. Take Mustangs for example, me in a new GT Mustang with the black wheels, pig again, but driving a 1967 Shelby 500 Mustang, cool.

I saw a guy at a conference who was my age and he was wearing some skin tight pants with a double knit shirt unbuttoned down to his nim-witties and he looked absolutely like a pig wearing a wristwatch. Same thing with guys and hair gel. Once men get to a certain age (like over 30) hair gel is simply no longer appropriate because it makes you look like you are trying to be slick and young when that may not be at all what you think you look like. I saw a pastor one time that was dressed in a nice suit, but he was wearing a big gold neckless over his shirt and tie. He thought, man I am really cutting a wake and looking good, when in reality he was telling people not to listen to what he says.

So the point is to do age appropriate activities and dress relevant to your position and age in life so that when you walk by, people don’t say, “he looks like a pig wearing a wristwatch.” Ha. KT

Race horses and plow horses

Career, Family, Life

My brother in-law Ted Phillips is one smart guy who I respect and love greatly. We were having lunch today and he said something that was very insightful and so very true.

He said you could take a race horse and hook him up to a plow and keep him in that environment and the horse would eventually think he was a plow horse.

The next time you are with the wrong crowd and you know you are with the wrong crowd, let this race horse image be clear in your mind. You need to quit letting yourself become the person you don’t want to be.

On the human side, it is about putting yourself in the right environment in order to reach your potential. I heard a guy say one time that you will be in five years based on the books you read and the people you surround yourself with. That statement is mostly correct, but God can and has done great things in people’s lives even thought they were in the wrong environment. Children have come from bad home situations and went on to accomplish great things and people have been with the wrong crowd and come through that time period to be what God intended them to be.

I remember some years ago that I had a set of friends from church that were not healthy for me to be around. They were complainers, they talked about other people, basically 9-5ers at work and they were lazy. I began to move away from them and began spending much less time with them because I instinctively knew that they were not good for me.

Let’s take it a step further and use some very simple examples we all know. If you hang around people who drink, you will drink. If you hand around people who do drugs, lie, cheat and steal, you will do drugs, lie cheat and steal. It really is that simple in life. This does not mean you can’t have a cup of coffee with a friend who is a bonehead without becoming a bonehead. That is not what I am saying. I am saying that if you desire to spend a lot of time and be around only boneheads, you may just find yourself one day being a bonehead.

Let’s do another easy lay-up. You as a parent are very careful about who you let your children spend time with. Maybe even your parents talked to you about who you were spending time with? It really is a simple thing to understand yet we as adults somehow believe we are not influenced by the people we spend time with. Go figure.

The power of association is a very important area of our consciousness and we all need to be aware of its existence and the quite hold it can take on your life before you knowing it.

It has been said that small minded people talk about other people, average minded people talk about things, and strong minded people talk about hope, plans, and ideas. I believe that is very true.

Ok class, it is time for the quiz on what you have read here today. Ha.

You know what I am saying. Be careful who you let close to you and your family and your children because it is very important to choose to be around people that speak of hope, plans, ideas, dreams, health and being all that God intended for them to be. So don’t look up one day and find yourself behind a plow when you really should have been a race horse. KT

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Family, Life

The old Baptist hymn, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, was written by Robert Robinson in 1757 at the age of 22. If you Google the title of the song, you can read the history behind the composer and the song.

The song depicts a person asking for streams of mercy to never cease and for the lord to tune his heart to sing his praise. It speaks of his redeeming love. In verse four it says, O to grace how great a debtor, daily I’m constrained to be, let thy goodness like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee.

The five verse song not only is a great musical masterpiece but it is a phenomenal lyrical writing. Just read the words and you will know what I mean.

The earliest memory I have of the song was one summer when I was at my granny Bell’s house (my mother’s mother) and I was probably 5 or 6 years old. She took me to Peach Orchard Baptist church for bible school. I remember it just like it was yesterday, her standing beside me singing this song and holding the hymnal so I could see the words. I remember her voice and her very presence at that moment and every time I hear the song, I think of her. Granny Bell died young at 63 of a heart condition in 1975.

The point is that this is a great song. The second point is you never know what a simple memory will mean to your children and grandchildren. We get caught up in the hurry of life and don’t realize what little moments mean. This story of my grandmother is a good example. She took the time to be with me that day when she probably had many other more important things to do but it was that moment that stays with me today. She was a dear sweet woman and loved her family with all her heart. KT