Alpha Dude for President

I HAVE DECIDED TO BECOME A WRITE-IN CANDIDATE.
HERE IS MY PLATFORM:

(1) Press 1 for English is immediately banned. English is the official language, speak it or wait at the border until you can.

(2) We will immediately go into a two year isolationist posture to straighten out the country's attitude. NO imports, no exports. We will use the 'Walmart' policy 'If we ain't got it, you don't need it.'

(3) When imports are allowed, there will be a 100% import tax on it.

(4) All retired military personnel will be required to man one of our many observation towers on the southern border. (six month tour) They will be under strict orders not to fire on SOUTHBOUND aliens.

(5) Social security will immediately return to its original state. If you didn't put nuttin in, you ain't gettin nuttin out. The president nor any other politician will not be able to touch it.

(6) Just like the presidency, all political offices (senators, congressmen, etc.) will have term limits. All politicians will be required to contribute to social security, just like everyone else. No more “Golden Umbrella”. No more free rides.

(7) Welfare - Checks will be handed out on Fridays at the end of the 40 hour school week and the successful completion of urinalysis and a passing grade.

(8) Professional Athletes --Steroids - The FIRST time you check positive you're banned for life.

(9) Crime - We will adopt the Turkish method, the first time you steal, you lose your right hand. There is no more life sentences, if convicted of murder you will be put to death by the same method you chose for your victim, gun, knife, strangulation, etc.

(10) One export will be allowed, Wheat, The world needs to eat. A bushel of wheat will be the exact price of a barrel of oil.

(11) All bans and/or restrictions on accessing or utilizing American Oil will be lifted. Wanna stimulate the economy? Bring those gas prices DOWN.

(12) All foreign aid using American taxpayer money will immediately cease, and the saved money will pay off the national debt and ultimately lower taxes. When disasters occur around the world, we'll ask the American people if they want to donate to a disaster fund, and each citizen can make the decision whether it's a worthy cause.

(13) The Pledge of Allegiance will be said every day at school and every day in Congress.

(14) The National Anthem will be played at all appropriate ceremonies, sporting events, outings, etc.

Sorry if I stepped on anyone's toes but a vote for me will get you better than what you have, and better than what you're gonna get.Thanks for listening, and remember to write in my name on the ballot in November.


God Bless America

God’s One-Liners

I’m posting these just for fun, although most of these carry a pretty good message. You may actually be able to see yourself in some of them.
And remember: If you can’t laugh at yourself, then laugh at someone near and dear to you.
(or something like that)

Don't let your worries get the best of you;
remember, Moses started out as a basket case.

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Some people are kind, polite, and sweet-spirited
until you try to sit in their pews.

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Many folks want to serve God,But only as advisers.

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It is easier to preach ten sermons than it is to live one.

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The good Lord didn't create any thing without purpose,
but mosquitoes come close.

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When you get to your wit's end,You'll find God lives there.

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People are funny;
they want the front of the bus,
middle of the road,
and the back of the church.

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Opportunity may knock once,
but temptation bangs on the front door forever.

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Quit griping about your church;If it was perfect, you couldn't belong.

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If a church wants a better pastor, it only needs to pray for the one it has.

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God Himself doesn't propose to judge a man until he is dead.
So why should you?

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Some minds are like concrete.Thoroughly mixed up and permanently set.

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A lot of church members singing 'Standing on the Promises'
are just sitting on the premises.

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We're called to be witnesses, not lawyers or judges.

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Be ye fishers of men.
You catch 'em - He'll clean 'em.

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Coincidence is when God chooses to remain anonymous.

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Don't put a question mark where God put a period.

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Don't wait for 6 strong men to take you to church.

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Forbidden fruits create many jams.

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God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called.

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God grades on the cross, not the curve.

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God loves everyone, but probably prefers 'fruits of the spirit' over 'religious nuts!'

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God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage.

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He who angers you, controls you!

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If God is your Co-pilot, swap seats!

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Don't give God instructions -- just report for duty!

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The task ahead of us is never as great as the Power behind us.

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The Will of God never takes you to where the Grace of God will not protect you.

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We don't change the message, the message changes us.

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You can tell how big a person is by what it takes to discourage him.

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Remembering Names

Remember my next door neighbor, Mark? I’ve written about him before.

Well, he and his family went out of town for a few weeks on vacation. Before he left, he asked me if my son and I would take care of his yard. Sure. After all, that’s what neighbors do.

Well, one Saturday while I was mowing his lawn, his mother stopped by to check on things and get the mail. I stopped what I was doing to say hello.
I asked her if she knew when Mark would be home and she asked, “Who’s Mark?”
“Your son, my neighbor.”
“No. His name is Paul.”
“Are you sure? I thought his name was Mark.”
“I think I would know the name of my own son.”

We chatted briefly and she went on her way and I went back to cutting the grass.
The entire time I couldn’t stop thinking that I had been calling my neighbor by the wrong name for the last three years, and he never once corrected me!

“Paul” came home last week and he came over one evening while I was outside barbequing.
We said hello and talked about his trip and stuff like that.
Then I said, “Hey, I’ve got a bone to pick with you!”
“Why’s that?”
“I talked to your mom, and apparently I’ve been calling you by the wrong name for the past three years! Why didn’t you ever correct me?”
“No you haven’t. Well, if you did, I didn’t notice!”
We both got a good laugh out of it.

Then Paul told me something else.
He said he would probably never forget my name or get it wrong, and not because it also happens to be his middle name.
But because of his kids.

Sometime before they left on their trip, his kids asked him if they could pray for me.
When he asked them why, they told him that their Sunday School teacher had taught them about what the Bible says about loving your neighbor, and that they should pray for their neighbor.
So they said, “Dad, can we pray for Scott?”
“Why would you want to pray for Scott?”
“Because our teacher said we should pray for our neighbor and he’s real nice and we want to pray for him.”
“Sure we can, let’s pray for Scott and his family.”

Paul said he was so impressed that his kids would interpret that lesson that way, that he would not soon forget the lesson his children just taught him.

I thought it was pretty cool that my neighbor’s children think I am alright and they would want to pray for me. I always liked them already anyway.

The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself."
Galatians 5:14

Have you prayed for your neighbors lately?

Luke 10:26-28
26"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"
27He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
28"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."


I probably won't forget my friend's (neighbor's) name again, but just in case, I wrote it on the big message board in our kitchen.



Blessings.

Father’s Day 2008 – The Power of Dad

Please forgive me for re-using this post from last year. I'll be in Chicago on Father's Day on business.
So, for all you father's who are blessed to spend this day with your families....Happy Father's Day!


A child will not see the Father in God, until he sees something of God in his father.

It is Father’s Day, again. We’re going to see a lot of posts, articles and advertisements about Father’s Day. What are going to give to the “father” in your life? (Husband, son, grandfather, uncle, father-in-law……etc.) What’s the best Father’s Day gift you’ve ever received (assuming you are somebody’s Dad)?

The best Father’s Day gift I can remember is the first time one of my children said to me, on their own, “I love you, Daddy”. What more could any man ever want after that?
(This is my 20th Father’s Day as somebody’s Dad, and I still have never been given a neck-tie!)

Before my kids came along, I read books and studied about how to be the best husband I could be for my wife. Once I found out I was going to be somebody’s Dad, I started studying things to help me be the best Daddy those kids could ever hope for.

I have made way more than my fair share of mistakes along the way, so I am by no means a perfect Dad. I don’t even come close.

I read a lot of books and I take every opportunity to study, listen and learn how to be the man God wants me to be by learning how to be the best husband and Dad I can possibly be. Most of what I learn is by trial and error. Maybe more error than trial.

My grandfather once told me that the smart guy learns by watching others. This may be due to the fact that I don’t believe I could possibly live long enough to make all those mistakes all by myself.

The following is a collection of things that I believe every father needs to say to his children. (in no particular order….)

I Love You
Your kids need to hear this. A lot! Your children should hear this from you at least once a day. I have known so many people who never heard this from their father, but have been told by someone else, “Oh, you know he loves you”. Or the dad may say that his children know he loves them and that he doesn’t need to say it to them. Why take the chance? Why leave any room for doubt? Why leave it up to some other well-meaning person to try to make your children feel better by saying it for you?
Your children should never be in a position to be asking themselves, “What does my Dad think of me?”
You know, if you remove just one word from that question, you get an even better one. “Does my dad think of me?” They need to know that, too!

Dad, if you haven’t told your children that you love them today, or if you haven’t said that to your Dad yet today, then go tell them. Right now. Seriously. Go. Tell them. We’ll wait for you…….

Okay. Are you back? Did you tell them? Good. Now don’t you feel better? I thought you might.

I Am Sorry
Are you too proud to admit when you are wrong or have made a mistake? Then shame on you. If you messed up, your children will NOT think less of you if you go to them and tell them you are sorry. I cannot tell you how many times I have gone to my kids, gotten down on my knees, and asked them to forgive me. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have responded that way, I was wrong. Please forgive me.”
This is huge Dad. This is one of those things your children will remember forever. They will also remember HOW you tell them. If you are standing above them, looking down at your child with your arms crossed and sternly say “I’m sorry”, then you have wasted your time and perhaps done more harm to the situation. Instead, get down on their level. Get down so you can see them eye to eye. And tell them, in a soft and sincere tone, that you are truly sorry and ask them to forgive you.

I Believe in You
This also goes along with saying I Am Proud Of You. Dad, your son needs to hear this from you, even more so than your daughter does. Both sons and daughters need to know that they are important to you. They need to see it in your actions as well as hear the words from you.
My father often told me he was proud of me. I don’t remember ever hearing those words from my step-father, even though he is the guy who raised me since I was eight years old. In little league, I was the pitcher, I lettered in wrestling and cross-country in high school, I earned two black belts in two different martial arts styles, I earned two college degrees, and passed all the exams for my professional registration. I rarely saw or heard from my father, but when I did, he would tell me he loves me and that he was proud of me. I didn’t understand why, since he wasn’t the guy who raised me or taught me how to do things like build a camp-fire or how to catch a fish, etc. But the guy who did raise me? All I heard from him was “Nice job. I’m surprised. I didn’t think you would actually make it”.
My father, the guy who left me when I was six, often told me “I believe in you. You are my son, and you can accomplish anything. You can do it and I am proud of you. I love you, son.”
Now, who do you think I am remembering today?

On November 18, 1997, my father passed away at the age of 59. They say he had a bad heart. I’m not so sure about that. I miss him.


This is the only picture I could find of me and my dad.






You Are Lovely
Dad, your daughter needs to hear this from you. More than just once in a while. I know of too many girls who are starving for some kind of affirmation from their Dad. I don’t want to go into too much detail here, but Dad, if you aren’t the one who is telling your daughter that she is pretty, that she is lovely, that she is important, that she is loved and highly respected, then she is going to find it from someone else. I really don’t need (or want) to elaborate on this one. Use your imagination. Think about it. If you don’t like what you see, then change it. You have that power.

That, my friends, is also about the Power of Dad.
By the time our children become teenagers, they want to be free to do the things that they want to do. And the parents want to be able to have some sort of control.
Dad, would you like to be able to control your kids? Be honest. Even if you won’t admit it, I know that you do. It’s a guy thing.

Then use your Power of Dad wisely. Do those things you just read and start now!
Start now while they are young and they will remember those little things as they grow up. You cannot make you children love you or respect you, but you can give them good reason.

You should also know that this Power of Dad can also be damaging if used for selfish reasons in an effort to manipulate your children or try to make them feel guilty. I’ve seen a lot of that too.

It really burns me up when I hear teenagers say things like “My dad is such a jerk!” And then these same kids will bust their butts to try to earn his respect and make him love them. That man has abused his Power of Dad.

So, what kind of Dad are you? How are you using your power?


He who fears the LORD has a secure fortress, and for his children it will be a refuge. Proverbs 14:26

He's Coming Home.....

My son Josh is on his way home.

Finally.

In March, he loaded up his car and headed out for California to surprise his little sister and spend a week with her while she was on Spring Break. She's 12.

He said he'd be back in two weeks.

While he was there, his car was stolen.
Right after I bought him a plane ticket to come home, the police found his car.

Through a series of bad decisions and mere stupidity (his words), he found himself broke with no way to afford the drive home. His myspace page shows all the evidence of a Prodigal Son and some of the poor decisions he made while there.

Naturally there is much more to the story, but the end of it is that he and his best buddy are coming here in his friend's car. His buddy will be staying with us this summer.
I know the kid's parents and spoke to his mom and everything is all set. They are sharing the driving in his friend's car since Josh had to sell his car in order to afford the trip home.
Please pray they have a safe and uneventful trip.

Josh and me when he was only 8 days old.

Josh, at 3.












Josh, at 20.














He will not receive a lecture or be otherwise chastized for his behavior in California. Like the father in the Prodigal son story in the Bible, I am just happy my son is finally coming home. (He's been gone for over two months).

And, just like that kid from the bible story.......he'll be walking.

But I'm still going to throw him a party.

We don't have a fatted calf, so I'll probably just get him a cake.



Blessings.

Because I Said So………

Yeah, that’s what I said, because I couldn’t think of anything else to say.

Well, actually, that isn’t entirely true. I could think of plenty more things to say, but I didn’t feel like getting into a long drawn out discussion, or argument, about someone else’s undependable or irresponsible behavior.

So when I said no and she asked if she could ask why, I said that she could most certainly ask. So she asked why. And I said,

“Because I said so”.

I hoped that would be good enough for now, and surprisingly, it was. So she left.

My 20 year old step-daughter likes to take my dog with her to Ohio to visit her boyfriend (the step-daughter’s boyfriend, not the dog’s). I do not like this idea. I don’t like the idea of my step-daughter going there, since they live like a married couple (when they are not married), so I don’t like her taking the dog there either.
She knows how I feel about the whole thing, but does not seem to care.

This is my dog. The cute little Shiba Inu.




Ain’t she purty?











Last month, I tried to see past all that and be the “nice guy” and let her take my dog to Ohio. She promised to have her back that Friday night. She even begged me to let her take her and swore that she’d be home by that Friday night.
So I caved and said okay.

It was raining pretty hard that night and she called with a sob story about how she couldn't make it home that night but promised she’d have the dog home the next morning. I tried to be “nice”, and said okay.

The next morning came and we got a call and someone had to go to the mall where my step-daughter works and get the dog since she “suddenly remembered” that she had to work that day and didn’t have time to bring the dog home. I told her mother (my wife) that this is unacceptable and will not happen again.

This is not the first time she’s not kept her promise and proved herself to be undependable and unreliable. I just simply cannot trust her to keep her word.
This sort of thing happens way too often.

So this time I said, “No”.
(Even though the thunderstorm she'd be driving into this time, to go there, is twice as bad as when she couldn't bring her home last time).

I don’t think she’s figured out exactly why, but she seemed to know enough by now not to push it.

The Bible tells us to train up a child in the way they should go, and when they are old, they will not part from it. Apparently, no one trained up this child in the way she should go. They did however, train her up in the way she is going.

Parents beware, you are training up your children in the way they are going to go. Whether you like it or not. I understand there are some exceptions to this, but we’re not talking about those right now.

If your child isn’t going the way you believe you’ve trained him up, please don’t give up hope. My older brother went so far in the opposite direction that everyone had all but given up on him. No one expected him to live to see his 30th birthday. Even him.

But then, when he was 32, he found Jesus. Or maybe Jesus found him?
All I know is that at 3AM one morning, in the Spring of 1989, my phone rang and I heard my brother screaming with shouts of joy that he accepted Jesus into his heart and wanted me to be the first to know.

He was trained up in the way he should go, by the same parents, in the same household as me, and when he got older, he came back to it. He’s 50 now, and still going strong for the Lord.

So, I still have hope for my step-daughter.
Do I trust her? No.
Do I love her? Yes. Yes, I do. As if she were my own.
Do I pray for her? You bet your sweet bippy! Every day.

By the grace of God, she’ll come back to Him.

But in the meantime, my puppy will stay home with me.


Blessings.

Shopping.......

A new supermarket opened near my house.

It has an automatic water mister to keep the produce fresh.
Just before it goes on, you hear the sound of distant thunder and you can smell fresh rain.

When you pass the milk cases, you hear cows mooing and you experience the scent of fresh mown hay.

In the meat department there is the aroma of charcoal grilled steaks with onions.

When you a approach the egg case, you hear hens cluck and cackle, and the air is filled with the pleasing aroma of bacon and eggs frying.

The bread department features the tantalizing smell of fresh baked bread & cookies.







I don't buy toilet paper there anymore...........


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