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Ken really felt he got a promotion when he left the business world to enter full-time Christian ministry, and I think he did. But it wasn't so much because of the salary. Oh, I'm sure you thought it was because of the great money that he would make in Christian ministry. No, it wasn't because of the great benefits, but his job before had been handling consumer complaints.
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I enjoy going to professional sporting events. I can't afford to very often, but every once in a while some tickets come my way. And I think my favorite to attend would be professional football games. Unfortunately, I always seem to be surrounded by experts at those games. You know what I mean? Those fans that are on a first-name basis with every player. You know them. Actually, the players don't know them, probably wouldn't admit it if they did, but they feel free (these fans) to call every player by his first name.
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Maybe it's Prozac I need before I watch the news any more, because I know I'm going to be hit with stories and numbers that just quantify a lot of hurt in a lot of lives. I mean, there's jobs lost, and homes lost, and loved ones lost, record numbers living in poverty, and struggling families, and devastating disasters, and always, always, people dying.
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Man, people do the craziest things to lose weight. I know. I mean, we will take away all the normal food out of our lives, and then it's tremendous. You can have water, grapefruit, all the lettuce can eat, lots of celery, and watery soup. You can lose weight that way, but you know what? Take it from an old diet expert here, you can't keep it lost. You just can't live that way. You just can't always eat just grapefruit and unlimited lettuce. You have to find some new foods that you can eat and enjoy for the rest of your life. Otherwise you violate the key principle: If you're going to take away something you enjoy, you had better put something good in its' place if you want the change to last. Actually that applies to spiritual change.
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Frogs aren't as dumb as they look, apparently. Well, the reason I know that is because I understand that if you take a frog and you put him in a pot of boiling water (why would you do that?) he'll be smart enough to jump out. He knows he's going to die there.
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I remember not long ago, this hot summer day when my oldest son and I were out working in the yard. I was doing the mowing; he was doing some clipping around the rocks; working just a little bit behind me where I had just mown. And I noticed that he was working pretty hard, and I glanced at him. I was pretty pleased with how he was doing, and I just kind of gave him a quick smile and went back to work.
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Forgetting can get you into a lot of trouble. Like forgetting someone's name, or maybe forgetting an appointment, or maybe you forgot your homework. Or, "The dog ate it." Yeah, uh-huh, or you wouldn't want to forget your wedding anniversary. Oh, no... No, that can cause trouble. But forgetting is a basic skill for people who want to be emotionally free and spiritually alive. Oh, some kinds of forgetting really help. No, not the accidental kind. We're talking about the deliberate kind.
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When I used to go places with my two sons, people would often say, "And who are these young men?" And I'd say, "Oh, these are my body guards." We'd all get a good laugh at that! Of course, you know, these guys of ours grew up pretty fast, and it was believable that they could be my body guards.
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I'm on this country's interstates a lot, and it was on a day that we were driving along, and I just had this flashback of a time when our family was driving the Interstate and we saw this familiar bumper sticker. I said, "Oh, that's nice." And then I began to pass the car. I could tell from behind, that it was obviously a mother and a child in the front seat. But the significance of the message on the bumper didn't hit me until I pulled along side. I glanced over and it was obvious that the child had an evident disability, and that the mother had a very heavy burden. And I thought, "Boy, how does she cope with responsibility like that?" And then I remembered her bumper sticker and I had my answer. It just might be an answer for you too.
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Some years ago, we learned a great way to make our vacation dollars stretch, and that's important these days! We ordered ice water with our meals instead of like Coke or something.
Now you say, "Well, that's no big deal." Yeah, it is. We finally talked our kids into it because the five of us, we figured, could save three or four dollars every time we ate out. And pretty soon you add those up and you've got enough to eat another meal out. We also learned it was a good idea to do that throughout the year. Hey, listen, drinking water is good for you.
