My wife gave me a beautiful watch for our 25^th anniversary. That was 20 years ago. Ha. It is the kind that you keep for the rest of your life and hand it down after the Lord Jesus calls you home.

The watch does one thing, it tells time. I know this sounds like such a novel concept in today’s world, but telling time is why they were invented. If the internet goes down and all the electrical grids go dark, my watch will still work. It is self-winding, meaning, all I have to do is wear it and it never loses time. I never have to plug it in to recharge or change any apps or settings, it just sits there on my wrist and tells time.

I see many  people wearing Apple, Garmin, fit bits, Spade, Tag Heuer, Amazfit, Gard Pro, Fenix etc. watches and while all the options, functions and connectivity is cool for a minute, I just like the old school feel of a heavy regular watch that I don’t have to look at it all the time to see who is texting me, emailing me or telling me to drink more water. It is also a weapon. Say some doofus tries to take a swing at me, all I have to do is block the punch with my watch and it will break his hand. Take it off and hold it by the band and swing it, it’ll knock somebody out. Try that with an Apple watch. ha

In my line of work, I spent a lot of time on the phone and answering all manner of messaging on a computer. I also have an I-phone that I use for contacts and,,,, the old fashion voice to voice phone call. The last thing I want is to come home at night and be looking at my watch to tell me what I am doing wrong or who wants to hit me up. Some may say I am a contrarian to modern technology, and you know what, they are right. I don’t want to go back to the world of pay telephones, long squiggly cords on a wall phone or beepers, but I also don’t want to be controlled by my watch. Most evenings I will turn off my cell phone when I get home and just assume the person calling at 9pm will be ok leaving a message. If he gets upset, he can just buy a hotel from someone else. Every now and then I will forget to turn the phone off in the evening and there is usually someone who wants to talk about 8 or 9pm. I don’t have Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok or X because I really don’t care (except for my family) what other people are doing, what they are eating or where they are going.

I talk and email all day with clients and the last thing I want to do is carry that communication into the evening hours. I like looking at my old fashion watch to see what time it is, but I don’t need it to talk back to me. Call me old, outdated and old fashion and you would be correct. KT

Being able to give, is one of life’s most beautiful, rewarding and fulfilling experiences. When you see someone in need and are able to help, it stays with you.

When you adjust your thinking from, just making money for the sake of making money-to-making money so you will be able to give, it changes everything. It gives what you do for a living, a reason and a purpose.  Proverbs 22:9 says, “the generous will themselves be blessed for they share their food with the poor.”

What a great feeling it is when you are in line at the grocery store, and you see a young mom struggling to get by and you are able to add her grocery bill onto yours. Something shifts inside you and makes you even more thankful for being in position to help. I believe God is watching all the time and he sees the little things you do when no one else does. I believe when you are faithful with a little, God knows you will be faithful with more.

I was having lunch with a friend yesterday and we started talking about the rough patches in life. We’ve all had them. I told him about when I first started selling hotels and how I would be looking at the hotel (I know it sounds strange) and I would tell God that I was tithing (right then) the income I would earn from the sale of that hotel. I wouldn’t even have it under contract, but I went ahead and ‘verbally’ tithed what I would earn from it. The bible says that Abraham called those things that be not as though they were. That was what I was doing. Telling that story yesterday almost made me tear up. We were so broke at the time, but I knew we had to be faithful with the little before he would trust us with the more.

If you are in a financially good place, don’t’ forget how you got there. Deuteronomy 8: 17 & 18 are very applicable verses on this subject.

Giving to others helps them, but it changes you. KT

If you have ever wondered what men like to imagine, think no more. Its cars, trucks, hats and dogs. Maybe a few imagine a 7-iron golf shot to the 18^th green on August National, but mostly it is the outdoor, rustic, scene of camping, hiking, boating, fishing or the occasional old hot rod car.

I know this to be true because when I get an Orvis or LL Bean magazine and there is this picture of a  rugged guy standing beside an old Grand Wagoneer, holding an over-n-under shotgun, wearing a hat while a golden retriever dog sits nearby, we all imagine being that guy in that scene. There is something about it that brings calm, joy and a feeling of excitement and a sense of life. Its like we can transport our mind from our sofa to being that person in the picture.

God gave us an imagination for a reason. It was once said during WWII – that a person cannot imagine doing the unimaginable until he does the thing no one can imagine. Use your imagination for good and imagine where you want to be in life, because you will never be there, until you can first see yourself there in your imagination. KT

Every one of us has a mental hallway that represents our past with the pictures and images hanging on the walls. Generally, the pictures start at one end of the hallway and progress through your history to current events.

Often when you fall short at some endeavor, Satan wants you to recall all the similar pictures hanging on the walls of your mental hallway. He never forgets and wants you to never forget. He remembers every event in your past and wants to make sure you do as well. We can never (best I can tell) really get rid of the pictures on the walls of our hallway but, over time we can close the door to the pictures that fill us with defeat and remind us of our failures and hold us back from being who we were meant to be.

God on the other hand, doesn’t hold those past events against us. Not to put too fine a point on this, but if you ask him to forgive you of something, he does and remembers it no more. Picture in your spiritual mind, you stole a candy bar when you were a kid and asked God to forgive you. 20 years later, you bring up the candy bar experience in your prayer. Imagine God (I want you to get this) scratching his confused head because you are talking about something that he remembers no more.

I had a family member that remembered every little slight over their life and just could not let them go. She would recall something from her childhood, and you could see that she still felt the pain and hurt like it just happened yesterday. She carried them her whole life. We need to get over many of the pictures hanging on the wall of our mental hallways. You can’t change the past, but it can sure hold you back from your future. Let me say that again – You can’t change the past, but it can sure hold you back from your future.

The moral of this story is to forgive whoever wronged you, and most important, forgive yourself. While pictures are permanently hanging in our hallways of life, you can close the door and keep them from taking away great pictures in your future hallway. KT

Someone was interviewing Clint Eastwood (93) recently and asked him how he keeps doing movies at his age. Clint said, “I just don’t let the old man in.” What a great answer.

Many people think when they get to a certain age, they are of no further use in the marketplace. Nothing could be farther from the truth. A few examples below make the point.

Lauran Ingalls Wilder – wrote Little House on the Prairie at age 64.

Ben Franklin signed the Declaration of Independence at age 70.

Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa at age 76.

Mother Teresa received the Noble Peace Prize at age 69.

Truett Cathy opened the first Chick-fil-a in a mall (1967) at age 46. He led the company until his death in 2014.

Ray Kroc became the owner of McDonalds at age 59.

Grandma Moses (renown painter) didn’t begin to paint until she was 76 and painted every day until she was 99. Harry Truman and JFK said she was one of the greatest painters of the 20^th century.

Harry Bernstein wrote his famous memoir at age 96.

Gladys Burrill completed the Honolulu Marathon at age 92.

Joseph Campbell sold his first can of Campbells soup at age 78.

Julia Child wrote her first cookbook at age 50.

Rodney Dangerfield didn’t start acting until he was 46.

Henry Ford invented the Model T at age 45.

John Pemberton invented Coca-Cola at age 55

Peter Roget published his first Thesaurus at age 73.

If I had more time, I could write page after page to make the point – It is never over until the casket closes. To all men and women who read this blog, don’t let the old man or old woman in. KT