You can know a man if you follow his trail, if you follow long enough.  By his tracks on the land the ways of a man are made plain–his kindness or his cruelty, his ignorance or his cunning, his strength of his weakness.”
              –Louis L’Amour  (The Key-Lock Man)

    “Godliness guards the path of the blameless, but the evil are misled by sin.”
              –Proverbs 13:6 (NLT)
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Part of what makes a man, what makes a leader, is bearing.  How does the person handle himself through life?  Bearing can be described as the outward showing of the inward man.  While it may be true that clothes do not make the man, yet much about the man can be seen from the way he presents himself.
    Then we hear the excuse, “God looks on the heart.”  That is so true, but at the same time as He does cleaning on the inside it begins to appear on the outside.  Now, that doesn’t mean we go around wearing our finest all the time, but we do dress, work, speak, and present ourselves as representatives of the “King”!
    Follow a man.  Look at his house, see what he reads, what he watches, where he goes, what he listens to, how he spends his money, what he does for entertainment, how he takes care of his family, and I’ll tell you much about the heart of the man.  It won’t take long.
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    I read this many years ago and have used it a couple of times, but figured it would fit well here.  Next week of Thanksgiving many will have decorated their homes in falls colors and emblems of Thanksgiving, turkeys, pilgrims, pumpkin pies.  Maybe in our time of decorating it might be a good time to take some things down off the walls of our minds and do some redecorating.  One of the things to start with is the decoration of being thankful.  The following is by Clarence W. Cranford.

         “Have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, every man in his room of pictures?”
                    –Ezekiel 8:12

         “If your mind was an art gallery in which your thoughts could become visible like pictures hanging on a wall, would you be willing for your mother to see the exhibit?
          This question was asked in a college chapel service.  Some of the students treated it lightly.  They joked about it afterward.  But some of the students knew it was no laughing matter.  The pictures we carry in the mind color the rest of our lives and affect our relationships to God, the greatest art critic of all.
          During exile some of the Jewish people fell into bad habits.  They adorned the walls of a room in their houses with ugly idols.  This they did in the dark, not permitting their friends to enter and see what they had in that room.  That room became a wall between themselves and God.
          The mind is our art gallery.  We adorn it with many pictures, some good and some bad.  Let us pray for God’s help in the selection of the pictures we imagine.”
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         “The husky, rusty russel of the tossels of the corn,
          And the raspin’ of the tangled leaves as golden as the morn;
          The stubble in the furries–kindo’ lonesome-like, but still
          A-preachin’ sermuns to us of the barns they growed to fill;
          The strawstack in the meddler, and the reaper in the shed;
          The hosses in theyr stalls below–the clover overhead!–
          O, it sets my hart a-clickin’ like the tickin’ of a clock
          When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.”
                       –James Whitcomb Riley

Whatever a man describes, that’s his word.  His promise.  A man’s word is everything.”
              –Cotton Smith  (Dark Trail to Dodge)

    “The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.”
              –2 Peter 3:9 (NLT)
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A man’s word, now that’s a quaint thought.  I’ve recently read from a number of our pseudo-leaders, our politicians, that is it okay to lie, in fact a lie is better than the truth if it gets what you want, no matter who may be hurt.  Lie to get ahead, lie to hurt someone, lie to get your agenda followed, lie even if the facts and the truth show that you are lying.  People who follow this philosophy (Machiavellian) follow in the steps of their father–the devil.
    A man’s word will show his character (and no I will use the term “man” and not be swayed by the nonsense in Europe that says a gender term can be a sign of discrimination and will not be tolerated).  A handshake used to be a bond between parties, that is no longer true.  If a man can lie, then his handshake means nothing.  Yet we have generations of people who believe there is no absolute truth, that truth is relative.  Being relative it is always changing and to the whim of the person who is involved.
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              “It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord.”
                      –Psalm 92:1

    In this season of Thanksgiving do not fail to give thanks unto the Lord.  It is good for us; it is of benefit to the mind.  I have heard so many people say don’t look at your past.  Nonsense!  I would say don’t live in the past but the past is so beneficial to us.  George Matheson said that “The remorse of conscience is the pain of having done wrong; but the remorse of memory is the pain of having failed to enjoy yourself.”  Have you ever looked back upon the past and learned how little you had valued it?
    How many times have we rushed hither and yon and missed beauty and wonder along the way?  We cannot escape the mistakes and memory of the past.  We may try to hide it in the mind, but it is still there and often the consequences haunt us.  Then how do we overcome?  By giving thanks!  Treasure today the “gems” that are strewn on the path and the “flowers” that bloom just off the trail.  Retrospective love is a painful thing; therefore, love today.  There will be no remorse of memory when we thank God for today.  Hearken to the words of George Matheson:
         “I should like to know that I had not defrauded myself of my birthright, that I made room for others because I had had my share.  It will be a great solace to me at twilight that I have basked with conscious joy in the heat of the day.  Therefore I shall bask in it now.  The cup of gladness which my Father has given men shall I not drink it, even unto the dregs!  I shall thank Him for every bird that sings.  I shall praise Him for every flower that blows.  I shall bless Him for every stream that warbles.  I shall love Him for every heart that loves….”
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              “They’s something kindo’ harty-like about the atmusfere
               When the heat of summer’s over and the coolin’ fall is here–
               Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossoms on the trees,
               And the mumble of the hummin’-birds and buzzin’ of the bees;
               But the air’s so appetizin’; and the landscape through the haze
               Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days
               Is a pictur’ that no painter has the colorin’ to mock–
               When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.”
                         –James Whitcomb Riley

Makes one just want to get out and thank the Lord for the cool, crisp air.  To thank Him for the unique and special design of the frost.  To thank Him for this special time of life.

There’s few things worse in this world than someone who knows what he’s doing and doesn’t need any advice…especially when he’s a few years shy of twenty years.”
              –Lou Bradshaw  (Along the Way)

    “He will die because there is no instruction, and be lost because his great stupidity.”
              –Proverbs 5:23 (HCSB)
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I used to enjoy sitting around the table listening to my elders talk.  I dared not interrupt, except in rare moments, but it was my part to listen and learn.  This was true of parents, teachers, and especially my coaches.  I wanted to gain more knowledge (shame it didn’t apply to studies back then), I wanted to practice more and more.
    I remember one time as the baseball team took a train trip to Utah for games.  I played cards with the rest of the guys and came out the big winner.  My Dad happened to be on that trip and took me aside telling me that he didn’t think that my Grandma and Aunt would be very pleased knowing I had won money from cards, and that I should give it back.  Lesson learned, and I never gambled again.  When one stops to look at it, gambling is really stupid.  The definitions of gambling:  the act or practice of risking the loss of something important by taking a chance or acting recklessly.  A little game of cards, you may question, but it all starts somewhere.
    What it really boils down to is selfishness.  I want more; I don’t need to depend on the Lord, I’ll take my chances.  Gambling is not trusting the Lord with our lives, and that includes our finances.  It is not being a good steward; remember that money in your pocket actually belongs to the Lord.  
    But there are other ways of gambling.  Drinking, driving too fast, bizarre acts of recklessness.  I remember a person I knew years back.  He was ready to dive into the lake.  He looked at the water and was gambling that it was deep enough for him to dive.  It wasn’t and he became a quadriplegic for life.  Yet, there are those out there who know it all.  No need to try to tell them anything and when disaster hits, what happens?  Meltdown.  They need a safe place.
    What happens on the Day of Judgment?  Today is the day of salvation.  Today there is compassion and it is only intelligent to choose salvation today, for in that day there will be no compassion.  Grace now or there will be judgment later.
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I had to smile as I read this description from a book I am reading.  My we have come so far in our requirements for life.

         “…she picked up her bundle and followed upstairs–the first real stairs she had ever seen–and into a room on the floor of which was a rag carpet.  There was a bed in one corner with a white counterpane and a washstand with a bowl and pitcher, which, too, she had never seen before….  How clean it was!  There were some flowers in a glass vase on the mantel.  There were white curtains at the big window and a bed to herself–her own bed….”
                –John Fox (The Trail of the Lonesome Pine)

June would have been beside herself, maybe gone insane, with all the “stuff” we have now.  There are little red, green, and blue lights throughout the house, and a beep for this, a beep for that, and other sounds that I can’t describe.  We have beds that are self-heating.  I remember warming a brick to shove under the sheets in the winter, or at least a hot-water bottle.
    Perhaps all of our modern “necessities” have taken part of the wonder and simplicity of life away.  We look for the next gimmick and don’t even consider that we should be content with life.  The Lord is there, we have family and hopefully a few good friends.  
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              “When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock,
               And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin’ turkey-cock,
               And the clackin’ of the guineys, and the cluckin’ of the hens,
               And the rooster’s hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;
               O, it’s then the time a feller is a-feelin’ at his best,
               With the risin’ sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,
               As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes out to feed the stock,
               When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.”
                           –James Whitcomb Riley

Thought this would be a good one to start the day since it was supposed to be our first freeze last night.  There was none on the ground this morning, but I did feel some on the windshield of the truck.  So, no frost on the punkin here.