You can read a man’s life history in his eyes if you know how to look for it.”
              –Robert J. Thomas  (The Reckoning)

    “Therefore, brothers, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and wisdom, whom we can appoint to this duty.”
              –Acts 6:3 (HCSB)
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I’m of firm belief that life consists mainly of two ingredients.  Pie and coffee.  Nah, just funnin’ with you for a minute.  Back to my thought–life consists of two main ingredients:  choices and attitude.  There are with us from the time we are walking around in diapers until they finally put us in the ground.
    A child quickly begins to challenge and has to be taught right from wrong.  They have to come to an understanding of what “No” really means.  By the way, that’s where a lot of parents falter.  They don’t teach the child what it means.  The child then makes decisions based on what he has learned.  He can challenge, rebel, or choose to do the right thing and so it goes throughout their life.  
    It is not much different when it comes to the end of life.  I remember, Pappy (Annie’s father), both legs amputated and he was ready to go home to glory, and would ask why am I still here.  But then he would get in his wheelchair, in his 90s, and visit other people in the home.  He said people don’t come see them.  He made choices to continue doing what he could even when he was in bad shape himself.  Choices and attitude.
    If we truly believe that “This is the day the Lord has made, let us be glad and rejoice in it,” then why are so many Christians stepping on their lower lip?  They are either out partying or are in the throes of depression.  The Lord gave us a day to be living for Him; we don’t know about tomorrow.  We should choose to live for Him and take advantage of the day with a good attitude about us.
    In came across the following in my reading.  It is from a letter Robert E. Lee wrote his son who was facing some difficulties as a cadet.

         “Shake off those gloomy feelings.  Drive them away.  Fix your mind and pleasures upon what is before you…  All is bright if you will think it so.  All is happy if you will make it so.  Do not dream.  It is too ideal, too imaginary.  Dreaming by day, I mean.  Live in the world you inhabit.  Look upon things as they are.  Take them as you find them.  Make the best of them.  Turn them to your advantage.”

Face the realities of life without gloom and despair for isn’t the Lord with you?  Why dream fanciful thoughts?  Instead get busy making sure you are facing the day the way the Lord would have you.  Lee understood the realities of war and he refused to let the carnage, suffering, and evil get him down.  
    Isn’t this much like the what the Apostle Paul tells us in his epistles?  Rejoice, in everything.  This is the will of the Lord concerning you, so why challenge it, why rebel against it?  You can’t find much in his writings that showed he was a gloomy person.  He would take what others, including the devil, meant for harm and destroy him with and turn it into a victory.  He took what came his way and turned it into something that would benefit his and other’s spiritual growth.

There isn’t any bright, patent-leather world that’s always shining, no matter what you do…you have to make your own world, and your own place in it.”
              –Louis L’Amour  (Tucker)

    “For I am persuaded that not even death or life, angels or rulers, things present or things to come, hostile powers, height or depth, or any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!”
              –Romans 8:38-39 (HCSB)
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I think we have lost the practice of enjoying the Lord.  Instead I believe that we think the Lord enjoys us.  Just look at the way to perform on Sunday in church, especially during the time of music.  We can hop around, or mourn with great tears that flow.  Let the lights go down, the music go up, the performers get their thing on, giving it up to the Lord and we think we’re all right.
    Either that, or we think the Lord has us for a few minutes on Sunday.  The rest of the week is mine.  Sure, sure, in the sweet bye and bye, I’ll have time to be with Him, and enjoy Him there.  However, the Lord wants us to enjoy His presence now.  Here is the now, and also in the sweet bye and bye.  If anybody understood the meaning of worship it was David.  Take a look at the second half of Psalm 16 (HCSB).  This is a good one to contemplate all week long, hmmm, maybe even into the sweet bye and bye.

         7  I will praise the Lord who counsels me—even at night my conscience instructs me.
         8  I keep the Lord in mind always. Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
         9  Therefore my heart is glad and my spirit rejoices; my body also rests securely.
        10  For You will not abandon me to Sheol; You will not allow Your Faithful One to see decay.
        11  You reveal the path of life to me; in Your presence is abundant joy; in Your right hand are eternal pleasures.

One time, several years ago, we were talking a midnight stroll with several others during a couples retreat.  It was a hot, muggy night in the Piney Woods of East Texas.  The paths were well marked and there was some chatter amongst the couples there when out of nowhere came a shout of warning:  “Annie!  Don’t take another step!”  The only light in the crowd was a lantern held by a man who was walking behind us.  He was alert and with the light he saw, coiled on the path where Annie was about to place her sandaled foot–a copperhead.
    We travel through life the same way.  The Lord walks with us and at times He has to holler out our names.  Maybe we are having fun, being frivolous, or simply not paying attention, but He is ever alert and with His Light He hollers and we look down–the “serpent”.  Even in the darkness of night we are guided by Him.  Whew, it was close.  With the light, the copperhead slithered off into the grass.  Relief, and then nervous laughter.  It should be that way with the Lord.  Because of His guiding light we should have joy and not be shaken.  We can lay down at night safe and secure.
    As we travel through life we will have many crossroads in our paths.  Junctions where we must make a choice for the road stops.  The Lord will reveal the path of life to us.  We then rejoice for we know that He is with us on that path to our heavenly abode.  Derek Kinder said, “To have Him is to enjoy not only guidance and stability, but resurrection and endless bliss.”  Because we know Him we will be able to enjoy Him in the sweet bye and bye.
    One other thing to note in this passage of Scripture is a prophetic message about Jesus.  Look closely at verse 10.  It was a verse that must have been a treasure for Jesus.  It would have been one in which He would place His life, His faith, and His death upon.  “You will not allow Your Faithful One to see decay.”  Jesus could go to His death with confidence, and joy, that death and the grave could not hold Him.  He would rise triumphant from Sheol.

There’s campfires…where you sit over a tiny fire with a million tiny fires in the sky above you like the fires of a million lonely men.”
              –Louis L’Amour  (The First Fast Draw)

    “He counts the stars and calls them all by name.”
              –Psalm 147:4 (NLT)
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When you’re by yourself, alone, what is it that you think about?  Most likely it has to do with circumstances you find yourself in; for sure it depends on your age.  Do your thoughts turn to God?  Our thoughts often make us do things, and by actions taken other things happened.
    Remember the words of the song, “Zaccaheus was a wee little man….come on down from that tree, for I’m going to your house for tea.”  Here was a man who, maybe while sitting and counting his money, for he was rich, thought:  “I hear this Jesus is coming to town.  There’s such a hubbub about Him.  I think I’ll go check Him out.”  So Zaccaheus gets up, knocking some of his coins to the floor, and hustles on out and down the street.  The crowds are bad and he’s a little guy so he sees the tree and thinks, I’ll just get on that one limb and I’ll get a glimpse of this Man.
    Jesus, the disciples, and the mob that follows and presses around him, along comes Jesus, who stops and looks up in the tree.  His eyes catch the eyes of Zaccaheus and the poor little man almost loses his grip on the limb.  Jesus almost smiles, but instead says, something like this:  “Hey, Zaccaheus.  I see you hanging from that limb up there.  Come on down before you fall and break something.  Besides, I’m coming to your house for lunch.  Break out the kosher baloney and tortillas, and we’ll have ourselves a little get-together.”
    I don’t know if Zaccaheus dropped to the ground, or if he climbed down, but I’m sure he hurried.  Maybe Peter, the big fisherman, grabbed him by the shoulder and put him up next to the Lord.  Did they talk?  For sure while Zaccaheus had his servants, or maybe slaves, prepare the meal they talked.  Zaccaheus came out of that encounter a changed man.  He was no longer a scoundrel, a cheat, but a follower of Jesus.
    Jesus’ path was determined that morning.  He had a definite direction He was going.  But Zaccaheus, had a thought, one upon which he acted.  That thought, led to an act, which led to a changed life, which eventually led to a new home in glory.
Jesus also made a simple statement, but it totally changed the life of the hated little tax collector.
    Again, what thoughts do you have? Jesus gave this man a little gift of His presence.  It is important to remember that we don’t have to be grandiose with our presents and gifts and actions.  Sometimes the best gift is just being there.  People get too busy with their lives and don’t have thoughts; they forget to live their lives.  We had best be doing the best we can with the gift of life.

A good woman’s a treasure you’ll not find anywhere on this earth.  A man ain’t really complete without a family.”
              –Dave P. Fisher  (Where No Man Rules)

    “Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm. For love is as strong as death, its jealousy as enduring as the grave. Love flashes like fire, the brightest kind of flame.  Many waters cannot quench love, nor can rivers drown it.
If a man tried to buy love with all his wealth, his offer would be utterly scorned.”
              –Song of Solomon 8:6-7 (NLT)
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It’s that time of year again.  That’s right, at least once a year the heart should start palpitating with romantic vibes.  Now romance is not a feeling, but an attitude, a frame of mind that often loses the glow as the years pass on.  There’s an old poem that I’ve used a few times when thinking of a romantic Valentine.

          “It’s that there girl ‘most all the time,
           Fer workin’ I hain’t worth a dime;
           An’ jes’ can’t turn around or stir
           Without some foolish thought o’ her.
           Can scarcely sleep or eat my chuck–
           Dog-gone the luck!  I guess I’m stuck!’
                   –Robert V. Carr

Those days of long ago have passed, and sitting here at a desk or in the dim light of my room, dreaming of a gal and what the future might hold.  Well, most of that future is now past.  Did we live all our dreams?  No, but we stuck together through thick and thin.  Which reminds me of one thin time in our lives.  It was year number two of our marriage.  We were poor; I was in the Air Force making less than $300 a month.  Annie would do laundry at the apartment complex.  One time she went to pick up the towels she had left to dry–they were gone.  We had no money at the time to purchase new ones, so for a week or two we dried with my t-shirts.
    It’s been a ride and thank the Lord that He has been with us.  She was a keeper and I kept her.  Hmmm, maybe this fits.

          “She would do the work of two men then cook supper for the crew,
           Kept her sourdough a’goin since she wed,
           Made her bridle horses light an’ she could rope a lick or two
           While her bun stayed tight an’ tidy on her head.

           She taught her kids, an’ one young ranch hand, all the way up through grade eight,
           Spent her evenings in some far off place in book,
           Her garden was an envy an’ her bread an’ pies were great,
           An’ she would gut an antelope or bait a hook.”
                     –Waddie Mitchell

She might not rope or saddle and bridle horses, but she knows how to wrangle the kids and grandkids, plus keep an eye on the ol’ fence post and keep me in line.  I’m not sure about gutting an antelope, but sure she could if she needed to, but she can do wonders with a chicken, an’ the pies are great.  
    Dreams of the future?  Well, friends, we still have a few.  We may move a bit slower, and we do more moseying down the street than running up the hills, but we are still holding hands, helping each other up the steps, and going forward.  So, I thank the Lord often, for that day long ago when I caught her eye in the college cafeteria.  For one thing for sure–things weren’t ever the same after that.   
    Now I sit on the deck in the morning and listen to the sound of the birds as they waken.  Or maybe by the fire in the evening time and watch the breeze swaying the limbs of the trees.  Then I feel the touch of her hand and hear the sound of her voice, “Sleep tight, love you.”

          “Each vagrant breeze seems to whisper a song.
           Whispers a melody sweetly entrancing,
           Telling me, dear, of your love ever true…”
                      –E.A. Brininstool
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This Day in the Texas Revolution:  Travis and Bowie agree upon joint command of the Alamo’s forces.