I take a certain amount of well deserved, if I say so myself, pride in keeping to a well organized schedule; my to-do-list. If it is on that list, I am going to do it, regardless of the difficulty attached. The trick is to get on that list which I guard with my very life.

Not that I worship my to-do-list, but I do reverence it with a great deal of deep personal appreciation. I think long and hard before anything appears on my to-do-list. Once something is on my to-do-list, there it is for all and sundry to gape upon it. It is a deep honor for anything to be put on my to-do-list.

Another reason I take my time in putting something on that list is that the only way it can come off is if I actually do it. After all, that list is not supposed to be stared at but rather to inspire activity on my part.

The other night I was busy with my to do list going over each and every item with the utmost care hoping that St. Nick would soon be there. Each item on that list nee...

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I am rather old-fashioned in some areas of my life, which I do not intend to upgrade to current standards. I do not believe in changing something unless it really needs to be changed. A crazy phobia is going around these days suggesting that if something is old, it must not be any good and if it is new, it must be good.

I think old Solomon was right when he said,"there is no new thing under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:9 KJV).

So, I am never intimidated by some new gizmo or gadget that comes down the line. One of the things I have no intention of upgrading is in the area of giving credit. I believe in giving credit where credit is due. After all, I need all the credit I can get these days.

If somebody does something that blesses me, I am beholden to give them their due credit. I am under the opinion that if I give enough people enough credit that one day I just may be able to cash in.

This all came to me this past week when I had my visit to the...

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It was one of those weeks where, if I accomplished anything that delicious slice of information has completely eluded the tiny gray cells floating in my cranium. It is not as if those little gray cells had anything else to do.

As I suffused my weary body into my La-Z-Boy chair, I knew I was tired but I could not figure out what I had done during the week to make me this tired. After all, it did not seem like I had accomplished anything of significance this week. I was trying to do something, of course, but I had absolutely nothing to show for it. What was I trying to do this past week?

A verse of Scripture began haunting me as I thought about this. "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin" (James 4:17). What was I supposed to "doeth" that I did not get around to "doething”?

Of course, there was that funeral I had this past week. Unfortunately, I opened my book to the wrong page and begin the funeral by saying, "Dearly belo...

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God does not make grandmothers like He once did. At least not like MY grandmother. Grandmother never trusted such things as banks with her money. Someone once told my grandmother, “If you would put your money in the bank, they would pay you interest.”

With a confused look on her face she responded, “I have enough interest in my money, nobody else needs to bother about it.” That was that!

After my grandfather died, my wife and I had the opportunity to take grandma out for supper. It was a delightful restaurant and we thought it would be a real treat for her. More than once, I had to keep her from getting up and serving coffee to the rest of the people in the restaurant. After all, she did that at the church suppers. Why not here. “I’ve got two good legs,” she protested.

Then came time to pay the check and the waiter brought the check and laid it in front of me. I immediately took a credit card out of my wallet and laid it on the check.

I could tell gra...

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Every year somebody, who does not really have a life, comes up with words that should not be used during the New Year. I am not sure where this started, but it just goes to show that there are a whole lot of people who do not have much to do.

Topping the list this year of words not to be used is the word "amazing." Allegedly [which I think is one word that should not be used this year], 1500 people voted to ban the word "amazing."

I think it is rather amazing that out of the 312,867,000 people living in the United States, 1500 people tell us what not to say. Who are these 1500 people? What do they have against the word "amazing?" Have they ever seen anything that was actually amazing?

Of all the words I would like to see canceled during this year, "amazing" is not one of them.

A few words have come to my attention that I would like to eliminate for the coming year. I know I am only one person but by Jehoshaphat, I am going to have my say.

The ...

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Forgive me if I have said this before, but, "Happy New Year." It may be the epitome of redundancy but I have given this greeting for 60 years and I mean it as sincerely this year as I have all the years preceding.

The first few years of my life, I had no teeth and so all I could say was "Goo-goo, daa-daa." It meant the same thing. This year I have all of my teeth but I am not certain how many more years.

The way we start life is the way we usually end life, with no teeth and drooling all the time with a silly grin on our face.

Why is it so cute to have a toothless drool at three months but rather disgusting when you are 93 years old?

We all start life wearing diapers and if we live long enough we will end our life wearing the same apparatus. I guess it all depends upon what we do between the two events.

I suppose I could be guilty of not learning as much as I could at my age, but one thing I have learned and that is the good things in li...

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An old year is fading and a new year is upon us again. Each year I go kicking and screaming into the New Year, and not because I am against change. My pants pocket is full of change.

I simply cannot remember to change the year on the checks I write until May. By the time, I remember the correct year I have forgotten to make deposits into my checking account. I need a reality check, which with any luck will not bounce as high as my checkbook.

That is not the only reason I hesitate going into a new year. The biggest reason has to do with the mistakes I made during the old year.

Looking back over the old year, I worry that my blunders were not as bad as they could have been. Did I make all the gaffes I possibly could? Did I fill my quota? What is my quota, anyway?

For many people, the New Year offers the opportunity to start over again. Actually, what happens is people simply make new mistakes curiously similar to the mistakes made during the old year.
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Although I may look a little stodgy on the outside with a few gray hairs blossoming on the top, I still know how to celebrate, and this is the time of the year to do that sort of thing. I love a good Christmas celebration.

For the last few years, I have never had to check my calendar to know when it is time to celebrate the Christmas season. It seems that the Thanksgiving turkey always gives rise to what I shall refer to as the Holiday Turkey. No sooner is my Thanksgiving turkey resting snugly inside of me when the Holiday Turkeys begin their assault on Christmas.

Do not let this get out, but I love it.

Some people are quite offended when these Holiday Turkeys begin their assault on Christmas. I would be insulted if they did not. I expect them to attack anything to do with Christmas. It just goes to show that the Christmas story has not lost its offense.

Those of us who celebrate the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ embrace this time of the year with a ...

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Many reasons exist why a person should love and embrace the Christmas season. I hear of those who attack the Christmas season and I take no notice to them at all. The thing that keeps buffoons energized his attention paid to them. If they were really serious about their so-called beliefs, they would leave the country during the Christmas season and go somewhere where it is not celebrated.

My recommendation is the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

Ignoring the holiday buffoons, I snuggle down and enjoy the Christmas festivities. So much about the season to savor and enjoy.

The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage has our home all decorated for the Christmas season. In the evening, we sit down in the living room among all of the decorations, sip our hot cocoa and have a healthy slice of Christmas fruitcake.

When it comes to decorating things, I don't even have a thumb. During this time, I envy those who are all thumbs. My decorating expertise is simply to enj...

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The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage had commandeered the Christmas decorating operation for yet another year. I am not quite sure how she remembers when to start all of this, because the thought had not yet entered my mind.

Here it is Christmas and I am about as prepared for Christmas this year as I was last year. One of the great things about my wife is that she keeps all of these holidays in order and on time. I am still reeling from my Thanksgiving Day turkey indulgence.

Once again, our home is in decorating mode. My great contribution to the Christmas holiday decorating plan is to keep out of my wife's way. One year I tried to help her and let's just say we will not repeat that again. I just have no decorating expertise at all. I cannot tell the difference between a wrapping bow and a Christmas tree bulb.

Before I could get out of the way of the decorating frenzy in our home, I ran across something in the back of a box. How it got there, I have no way ...

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