Memorial Day

My dad was too young to fight in WW II, and he was too sick to fight in the Korean War. My favorite uncle, Doyle Wade, fought in the Navy in WW II. I remember when I was very young staring for long periods of time at the photographs of him in his Navy blue uniform. I respected all of my uncles, but I respected him the most for lots of reasons......but his service to his country was one of the major ones. I never heard him talk about his time in the service very much. I never asked him why.

So today, I think of my Uncle Doyle and many others who fought so that I might have the freedoms and comforts that I experience daily. To think that thousands gave the ultimate sacrifice is hard to comprehend.

"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."

Thanks Uncle Doyle, and thanks to all the other veterans.....living and dead.

Last night I attended my first summer baseball game in several seasons. It brought back LOTS of wonderful memories of being out there every night of the week for years with Matt and Luke.
Some of my best memories of being a dad took place out at the park.

One of the things that jumped out at me last night was remembering the sense of community that baseball provides. Some of our closest friendships we have today were formed because of being thrown together by baseball, football, basketball or soccer. Last night I witnessed 3 Christian coaches on one team impacting young men's lives.......on BOTH teams. The boys are learning a lot about baseball........even more about being a Christian man. An EVERYDAY Christian man......not just on Sunday. As a parent, how do you put a value on that?

GO CARDINALS!!

Dr. Benson

This past week those of us in Searcy were presented with a newspaper article that made us wince. The article quoted a former Harding president concerning integration. Unless I am mistaken, all the quotes were from the late 50's and early 60's.
The paper pointed to the fact that when this issue first came up Dr. Benson was very strongly against integration. To his credit, the article went on to say that he later changed his view and Harding was one of the first schools of higher education in Arkansas to integrate.

The part of the article that I will always remember was when it said that Dr. Benson used Scripture to support his stance on segregation. I hope he was misquoted. But here is what grabbed my by the throat and shook me a little.......and I want to leave it with you.

In a whisper I want to ask.... Is there any positon or stance that we are taking at the present that we believe is based on the Scripture, that 40 years from now will make us cringe?
I pray not, but at the same time realize history is not on our side.

Pappa's Got a Brand New Bag

Well, why not go ahead and jump off into the 21st Century and have my own blog spot? I will try and update this at least once a week for all of my millions of readers. The views here are SOLELY the views of myself alone, and do not reflect the views of my employer or my relatives.

The first thought I will leave with you is from a well known Coach that I am quite fond of......Bear Bryant.

"There are 3 kinds of people: Those who make things happen, those that watch what happens, and those who wonder what happened."


Have a great weekend!