Have you ever had something happen that could have changed your life forever? An event, a wreck, a doctor’s report or a moment you looked away? We had one of those this week.

This past week, our entire family stayed at a rental house for several days near the beach. The house had a swimming pool and all the things a beach house should have. The last afternoon we were there, Elaine, Leslie, Matt, Rowan (our four-year-old granddaughter) and I were all at the pool having a good time. The pool had three steps that lead into the pool. Rowan was swimming with a float and just having a blast. When we were about ready to come in, Rowan took off her float, lost her balance, and stepped off the last step into the pool and went under the water. We were right there, and she was under the water for maybe two seconds until I grabbed her up.

The event itself was only a second of time, but after the event, I began to think about what almost happened…I could not get it out of my mind. See, life was just happening like life happens and in a flash, I realized how so very precious life is. I loved, hugged and kissed that little girl as many times as she would let me that night. It scared me. You start playing things in you your mind like what if we hadn’t been right there, etc. You just have to stop and thank God almighty for having his hand on us that day.

In life, it only takes a flash of what could have been for us to realize how precious and grateful we are for our life and our family’s life.

The message is to love often and fully and never hold back. KT

Everyone needs a mentor and an example to follow. A gentleman by the name of Harmon Born is mine.

I met Harmon Born at The Rock Baptist Church when I was still in high school. That was the church Elaine, my wife today, was going to.  She pretty much told me we were going to that church. Ha. Just kidding. Anyway, I started going to The Rock Baptist Church where Elaine went to because (guess why) I wanted to see her.

In the course of seeing Elaine, I met a man named Harmon Born who, while he didn’t know it, became my mentor. Harmon growing up didn’t have such a great home life and had to work just to make it in life. He started selling cars at Beaudry Ford in downtown Atlanta when he was just out of high school and sold cars part-time. He was drafted into the Army, and I am not quite sure how this came about, but he was still able to sell cars on Saturday while serving in the military. He would sell cars one day and still lead the sales charts for the company over other salesmen who were there the whole week.

See, Harmon believes, as I do, that people do business with people they trust.

When Harmon was in his late 30s/early 40s, he was able to buy Beaudry Ford in the late ’60s and build a fully-integrated, multi-story Ford dealership in downtown Atlanta that won him great respect from the Ford family. Beaudry Ford, during much of Harmon’s ownership, was the #1 volume Ford dealership in the US for many, many years. The Ford family tried to hire Harmon to come in at a very senior role within Ford Motor Company, but he declined because he loved his family, church, and home too much to leave it. For many years, Harmon sat on a number of boards from banks to hospitals, etc. Everyone wanted Harmon.

Harmon is a great speaker, great example, honest, humble, transparent, funny, and he was and is the real deal. One thing I always respected so greatly about Harmon is that I never heard him say a bad word about anyone and never heard him speak a word of idle gossip. He was simply above doing either.

Today, Harmon is in his late 80s and still in a leadership role at The Rock Baptist Church setting the example of what a real man should be like.

Everybody needs a Harmon in their life. I am just glad I met him at a time when I very much needed someone to follow. KT

There is a pastor I know that I respect greatly, and he told the story about a counseling session he had with someone. The person was dealing with an issue that was a decision issue. Let me explain, there are issues you can’t just make a decision to move on from, and then there are issues that you will deal with daily until you decide in your heart that enough is enough.

This person was dealing with the latter kind of issue that they still wanted to cling on to, worry about, and let that issue determine their joy.

Well, the pastor I am speaking of listened to the whole story…what he/she said, did, etc. and how wrong they had been treated. The person was expecting the pastor to say some kind words, hold their hand, hug them and tell them how much God loved them and basically tell them they had every right to feel hurt, etc.

The pastor decided it was time to get real with this person and actually help them get past the issue rather that mumble some sweet words. He looked at the person asked them when did they want to move on and how much longer were they planning to keep the pity party going. He asked the person if they were going to feel sorry for themselves for ten more days, two more weeks, or six more months. When exactly were they going to “decide” to end the pity party.

You would have thought the pastor had reached over and slapped them in the face. Ha. The person got mad at the pastor and said how uncaring he was and how he should be gentler. He was about to storm out of the office. Then, the audacious thing the pastor said began to sink in and the person realized he/she could in fact choose when they were going to stop feeling sorry for themselves.

Long story short, that person decided in the pastor’s office that enough was enough and left his office with a freedom that can only be experienced when you forgive and move on. Sometimes we just need to choose how long we will let a slight or bad word from someone control our life and say enough is enough. KT

There was a period of time in my life when we owned four restaurants, and I was so in debt I really could not see my way out of the financial situation. It was fall of the year 1990. Our financial situation had literally brought us to the point of filing for bankruptcy. My attorney and CPA both said that it was the only choice we had because we were out of resources, out of money, and heavily in debt.

As a side note- If anyone ever wants to open their own restaurant, I have 3 words of advice: “Don’t do it.”

It was Thanksgiving that year, and we were at my mom and dad’s house in Virginia for the holiday weekend. My mom was  working at the time for the Fredericksburg Bible Institute in Fredericksburg, Virginia. There was a gentleman that had passed away and left his book collection to the Bible Institute. My mom was looking through the collection and saw a very old book by George Muller printed in the 1870s. She wanted to look at the book a little closer and happened to bring it home the weekend we were there.

Listen to me here, God always has a plan for your life if you will just ask him and then trust him.

I was at the bottom and knew when we got back home, I had some terribly difficult decisions to make that would decide the financial future of my family. To say I was a little stressed would be an understatement. Financial devastation was more like it.

So Elaine, Lanie, Leslie, and I were in Virginia with my parents for that Thanksgiving weekend, and Mom shows me this old book she brought home. I had never heard of George Muller and knew nothing about his life, but I opened that book and was just going to skim a few pages and look it over. When I started reading, I understood the book was his story and also his daily and sometimes weekly memoirs. George Muller was called by God to open children’s homes for the homeless children and provide education for the children. As he tells his story, he didn’t want to do it and in fact, he told God he wasn’t going to do it. Finally, he agreed to do it with one stipulation.

Imagine right here, having a prayer life so strong that it is like having a dialogue or conversation with God. That is the way it was with George Muller.

The stipulation was that he would do his part if God provided all the resources and expenses for the children’s homes. Think of the audacity George Muller had to actually call God on his promise and put God to the test. He told God he would never borrow money for the children’s home and never put any amount on credit. He told God he would literally trust him to provide every dollar because he never wanted to have any individual or banks get the credit instead of God. The book was his periodic diary of how much money they had and what they needed for that day or that week to survive. How much he called on God to provide down to the dollars and cents. Without fail, God did his part in George’s life. By the time George Muller died, he founded many children’s homes that looked like college campuses. The homes served as an example to a country ravished by poverty of what God could do though one man.

The book literally changed my life.

I went back home and began to imitate what George did; I wrote a daily diary of the debts, payments due, and how much money I needed for that day, that week or that month. My deal with God was that I would title every dollar he allowed me to make, and I would always point to him as the source and the reason why we got out of debt and salvaged our financial life without filing for bankruptcy. Long story short, I began to sell hotels and pay back the debts. We did not file for bankruptcy, but rather we chose to pay all the money back. I met with all the creditors and told them my plan; it took us eight years, but we paid it all back. God saved us from financial disaster.

Every situation is different and every cause is different. It was that decision that I believed God wanted me to make at that time.

Many years have passed since this period in my life, but even today, I can pick up that diary I wrote during that period and I cannot read it without crying because it takes me right back to those moments when I didn’t know how we would survive. When I read it, the emotions rise within me, and I know it was God that did it all.

Mom got the Bible Institute to sell her that book and she gave it to me. I still have that book today in a very safe place. Should our home ever catch fire, after all the ones I love are safely out of the house, I will be going back into the house to get that book. KT