I Need A Boost!

Twenty-two years ago ...

Scriptural Insight
John 17:1-5
eternal life - people have it when they know God and Jesus Christ, whom He sent
Prayer
for traveling mercies
for Dad to be strong in therapy and unemployment
thank God that we CAN have eternal life
Application: Eternal life is a gift from God; I, who have it, must give to others.

Over this weekend ...

Sunday, besides the forty-fifth anniversary of the first manned moon landing, I commemorated Journal Day -- that is, the day I first began a journal when Susan Weaver, the Vacation Bible School I was helping at Beulah Baptist Church in Fruitland, Florida, was handing out these thin gray-covered "Spiritual Journals" to everybody. Over time this got to be more than a laundry list of prayer requests and praise reports; I wrote about what's going on in my life and I often look back on what I wrote days, weeks, months, years ago to get focused, to remain quotable and interesting and interested, to record in some way the people I meet and the books I read and it's all supposed to make sense someday. Perhaps the labor I've continued in the mornings for the last twenty-two years (start date July 20, 1992) is something my kids will want to carry on once I can't anymore. Or maybe it's all rubbish for the fire, but I like to think not.

The North Dakota State Fair is in town, and I was fighting the urge to go or not this weekend! The rest of the family went, but I could have lived without it especially after working the paper route and Marketplace and Fast Cash through the week. Haven't had a full twenty-four hours off yet this month, and sometimes I let the burnout get to me more than I ought ... Sunday night after getting off Marketplace I had an hour to get home, eat dinner, and have some face time with the family (who because they'd been to the fair Saturday got back a few hours after I did, actually a few minutes after midnight Sunday because Martha got shanghaied into being the family chauffeur and got people to and from my in-laws' house late that night) before going to church Sunday evening at Minot First Assembly of God. Sarah came with me after nodding off and on and off with the rest of the family at home -- didn't even wake up until 11:30 am Sunday so they missed church -- and I'm glad.

I did decide to go to the Fair after I got off work Saturday, but I insisted on getting a nap first when I met Martha at her parents' house. She was OK with that; the kids were already at the fair after having watched the parade and were having so much fun on the rides (this year Sarah's really having fun with the high-flying rides and both she and Jeffrey are raising their arms in thrill on every ride they can get on -- the height restriction on one of them let Sarah go on but not Jeffrey); by the time I arrived with Martha, the kids were in line to ride the bumper cars and Martha's mom had brought several water bottles that we then carried among us. Then we offered the kids who despite the sunblock they wore were still getting nice little burns on their arms -- Jeffrey less so because he is darker skinned to begin with. And for the few hours we were there we ate well (AND cheap, which is a shock, but it works) and walked around several exhibits and then got home, crashed, and worth it!

Today's title was said after Jeffrey drank some water from the bottle, David