Today is a new day

Ok, this is not the best picture of me ever taken, but it fits my mental image of myself. I used to think of myself as this young, can-do guy. Now there is snow on the roof, and I spend most of my time preparing for preaching. When I try to "can-do" I wind up with lower back pain. I have talked to my doctor, but he prescribes muscle relaxers and pain pills, but they put me to sleep. The chiropractor seems to be my best answer for (almost) immediate, if temporary, relief. At times my back hurts so much I preach sitting on a bar stool behind the pulpit. Because of my bad back, and the intensity of the heat this summer, the grass has not been cut like it should have been. Thus the grass is too thick to cut and leave on the ground, but must be bagged. The bagger fills after five or six feet and must be emptied. After ten or twelve bags, the garbage can is full! ARGH! Well, it does not make a living, but it is the sweat of my face (Gen. 3:19).

Speaking of hair, I was teasing a church member because we saw a picture of him with more hair than he has now. Rubbing his head, his wife said, “This is a LOT of hair … in your soup!”

My wife goes back to school today, to teach seminars for the “Reconvening” at her college. The teachers have to have recurring training in WebCT, and she is the one teaching the teachers! She really enjoys teaching, and most of the people she is teaching are friends. She always makes lots of friends where ever she is! She is, however, a little bit stressed over the challenge of teaching four different sessions on four different subjects about WebCT. She will do great, she always does! For those of you who don’t know about WebCT, it’s a software package that allows for record keeping, class design, and even content teaching via the internet. Some of it is intuitive, but much is not, and for teachers who have a fear of computers, it can be downright intimidating.

We are getting new glasses this week. I never did like the ones I have been wearing because they have such a narrow strip across the bottom for reading, which is most of what I do, and then I see the edge of the glasses as a bright line under the text of what I am reading. I think these new glasses will solve that.

We were talking last night about our youngest, and we affirmed that she has achieved what we hoped and prayed for her, the ability to live and work independently, and to be happy in her life. One has a hurt knee; another is planning to go back to school again; all will be fine in the life God gives them.
Numbers 6:22-27
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them:
The Lord bless you, and keep you;
The Lord make His face shine on you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance on you,
And give you peace.’ “So they shall invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and I then will bless them.”