Have you ever done something you are little embarrassed about?

A couple of weeks ago we were going to a graduation party at my sister in law’s house. Elaine was driving her car and I was driving separate. My sister in-law and her family live in a fairly rural area with country roads and limited traffic. I had the top down on the Shelby (by myself) and the sun was shining and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Well I looked up ahead and didn’t see another car for at least a mile so I dropped the hammer on that Shelby. It almost scared me when the road had a little rise in it because I hit that little rise running about 110 and almost caught some air under the tires. A half a mile further there was an old 4 way stop sign. I eased through that 4 way and looked up ahead again and saw only one slow car ahead of me. I dropped the hammer again and pulled out to pass the slow car. When I went by him, I was going so fast that other car wiggled like you do if you get a chill. Burr!!

Well I got to the party and pulled up slow to the front of the house and started to walk down the long driveway. About half way down the driveway I realized I had left my cell phone in the car and went back to get it.

Yes you guessed it. When I got back to my car, the slow car I had blown by was just pulling up to the party and it was my nephew and his new wife. Ha. I thought oh my lord, here I am supposed to be setting an example for the younger generation and I just got caught like I was driving in a NASCAR race.

Needless to say, we had a good laugh about it but I was a little embarrassed and did drive more reasonable on the way home. That said, it was still fun. KT

A couple of weeks ago we had all the family over to our house for dinner. At our house my two little granddaughters have clothes, toys, gamed etc. Elaine also bought them these fancy ball gowns that they like to dress up in.

After dinner that night the girls wanted to go put on the fancy gowns. We were sitting around the table when the girls walked in wearing the dresses. My oldest granddaughter (6 years old) came over to me and asked me to dance with her. I was finishing a conversation with her mother and was getting up from the table and she asked me again. I stopped and looked at her and said, I would love to dance with you.

At that moment I realized that was a special moment I needed to be in. Let me say that again. At that moment I realized that was a special moment I needed to be in. My little baby girl was asking her grandfather to dance with her. We did the dance where you hold your arms out like a Heisman trophy winner and I sang a song while we danced. It was so tender and so special. Then my youngest granddaughter (3 years old) also wanted to dance so I held her little hands and sang the song again and danced with my littlest baby girl.

That moment in time will stay with me for the rest of my life.

What are the moments you need to be paying attention to? Trust me when I tell you that later in life, those big sales, job promotions, money in bank, titles etc. will mean nothing. What you will remember are the moments like dancing with your granddaughters. KT

Remember this term, “those who care don’t matter and those who matter don’t care.” I am speaking about people who worry and wring their hands about what other people think or say. Obviously I am not taking about people that are close to you. What I am talking about is people who gauge their life and decisions based on what people that they don’t even know, think. In today’s society we have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Foursquare etc. and sometimes people get lost in life worrying about how to please people that don’t matter in their life. Looking again at the phrase at the top. More times than not, the people who act like they care and want to say things about you, usually are the people that don’t matter. The people that matter (like your family) are usually the ones who don’t care, meaning that they are not the ones that want to talk about you behind your back.

In the world of social media, one has to be very careful what they post on the internet about themselves and their family. I have seen many make mistakes in this area where people write things they wished they could take back. The problem is that once it is on the internet, it is accessible long term.

I know people who literally make decisions based on what other people think. They worry what people think about them and lose sleep based on someone’s opinion that really doesn’t matter in their life. This social environment where everything is subject to the opinions of others, may not be the healthiest way of making decisions and the healthiest way to live.

I remember when I was young going to my grandparent’s farm. My granddaddy didn’t care if someone else thought he should buy a green tractor or a red one. He didn’t ask if other people thought he should plant beans or corn. Sure, it was a simpler time in life but it was also not cluttered with social media and everyone knowing every time you walked outside. Their idea of social media was seeing their friends on Sunday at Beechwell Baptist Church in Campbell Missouri and actually having human conversations about what was going on in their lives. Sounds simple but it also sounds smart. KT

Yesterday we had our two granddaughters over at the house. The youngest (3 yrs.) was supposed to be taking a nap on the bed but it just wasn’t happening. We were doing more wrestling than anything and I was kissing her and telling her stories. Her daddy came to the house to pick them up and she heard him talking. She looks up at me and asked “is that my daddy?” See, she recognized his voice even though she couldn’t see him.

In the bible it speaks many times of shepherds and their sheep. What many people don’t know is that at night multiple shepherds will put their flocks of sheep together in the same area and the shepherds will keep guard over the sheep. The next morning one shepherd will call his sheep and watch as his sheep move out from the other sheep and come to him. See, they recognize the voice of their shepherd. Of course in the bible the metaphor is that Jesus is our shepherd and we are his sheep and we know his voice.

Just like my little granddaughter knew her daddy’s voice, I know my heavenly father’s voice when he speaks to me in my heart. Just like the sheep didn’t come when the other shepherds called, because it wasn’t their shepherd. They only came when they heard the voice of their shepherd.

I suppose the question is, do you recognized when God is talking to you? Can you hear his leading among all the other noises in the world? I will tell you that when he leads, it will be in your heart and it will be a still calm voice that is easy to trust and full of peace. It will come from the God of peace. KT