Ephesians 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
Today will be a trickier day for balance after a phone call we received from one of our kiddos last night as we were checking in to our hotel 🏨 down here in Durham.
Life is full of challenges, and my family has more than it’s share but when you are trying hard to give others hope and encouragement, one has to follow the Joel Osteen path by only preaching out of one side of the Bible.
I can still remember the last time that my late Father and I discussed religion. He shared with me that issue with Joel Osteen was that he only preached about Heaven, and Dad wanted him to let people know about Hell.
Yesterday, one of my children experienced something that made my heart ache as it would any parent. When you add in the distance, it removes the ability to hold them.
Now, there is absolutely no reason for sharing what happened because of the amount of pain involved in others’ lives right now. Yes, I could tell the story in the manner that I’m capable of, but it’s not my story.
Yesterday, I wrote about not telling a story if you can not reach the end of it without demeaning another human being in the process. The back half of the thought process is don’t tell a story that isn’t yours to tell.
Now, Thursday night in Martinsville is a story to tell, and I will absolutely do so here before too long !
Thank you to Kevin DeHaven, Bill Gallimore, and Travis Osborne for taking a second of their time to keep me in the know about the latest conquest of our 5-0 🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈 ( one ball for each victory) football team last night 🌙 in Stuart !
4:45 was the departure time ⏲️ from the center of the campus at the James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The next stop ✋️is down in Salem at the Exit 140 Park & Ride.
Yes, there was one very important piece of business that HAD to take place and did, but the rest of the day was answering the question – how much fellowship can you fit in one time slot ?
BWW was our headquarters !
Alan Knight is about to be the color commentator for ESPN+ tonight as the network covers the JMU – South Alabama match at 6pm.
The first bit of humor was about the two things that he loves most about his part-time gig. Let’s start with his love for the sport, but follow it with the fact that it is the one thing that I can not find a way to take credit for. In a lifetime of joining up with someone to accomplish something, the bond between Alan and I was created in a special place!
Old Coach, Young Coach
Chris Carter is the fourth of five children whom I was blessed to father, and the bond between Alan and Chris goes way back, and the ties 👔 run deep. Chris coaches a multitude of youth sports in Page County and enjoys picking the brain 🧠 of someone who has collected 1,100 high school victories in his career.
Christina, pictured here, is connected to four of our nine grandchildren and is a great role model for each of them ! Noah, Ana, Melody, and Madison each feel protected by this young lady.
The next member of the extended family to swing by was Brian, who also answers to Big Daddy. The push 💪 for his health is to the point where we might need to revisit the nickname. The before and after photos are pretty wild !
The next guest was a great unexpected surprise as the son of Frank Comer, Quentin, stopped by. Frank is the one who called the balls and strikes the day that Rick Nester led Carroll County High School Softball team to the very first State Championship in Lynchburg.
Father and Son are about to team up to officiate an area high school football game.
We missed out on Bill ” Pappy ” Meade and Dennis Zimmerman but will get to see 👀 both Pappy and Barb in Durham tomorrow.
When you factor in that I didn’t know that I needed to make the trip up until last night, I feel blessed by the turn-out !
Approaching exit 205, the home of Nancy the book 📖 publisher lives. There is a solid room for a nap….
That sign has a crazy story to it as well, and I look forward to telling it later !
The goal for me was / is to create a set of books 📚, seven in number, with the 7th one being a faith-based 🙏 non-fiction tale of the role that God played in my life. That one is designed to help people who face serious struggles and could use inspiration.
The thing that sets me apart from most people who write ✍️ is that I have never asked for or seeked compensation. Even the years of writing for Mike Petre and Chuck McGill at the Northern Virginia Daily, that money 💰 went towards producing the volleyball 🏐 book we did for the Strasburg Rams 🐏 after they won their State Championship.
The other thing that sets me apart from most writer’s / storytellers is that I will take a hard pass on a story that I know to be true, if I can not tell that story without casting another in a bad light because I don’t need money or fame, just need an audience to try and make smile.
I mentioned earlier ( two Rest Area’s back ) that today is Ryan McCafferty Day here on our site because of his birthday. Earlier this week we shared a thought or two about people who are quick to judge others.
Someone who will absolutely be part of the seventh book 📖 is Delilah Brady !
If you go back to the only time that I knew to be in the same room with her, the conversation was very different. There were days that I would drive up to Omega Office and spend hours swapping stories with Ron Cochran. I miss those days, as Ron would tell a story about the person who walked in, and then that person could decide if they wanted to engage in a conversation with me or not.
The day that Delilah walked in, it was a different type of conversation, to day the very least. She didn’t call me any names or show true disrespect, but it was different.
See, most people only have minutes, but a great deal of knowledge comes from the next five minutes. A lot of people take pleasure in running other people down, a part of life that I will understand, nor will I ever, but my next 5 minutes included asking Ron about the Lady I had just met.
Her story intrigued me to the point that I went home and spent another 15 minutes learning about what matters to Delilah Brady and her friends.
I think the work she’s doing falls under the umbrella 🌂 of doing God’s work ! It is easy to type that and move on, but for me, the natural next step was to write ✍️ her group a check ✔️. I have to answer to the government about every nickle of the $250K we distributed so I know what the amount was, $1,000.00
She is from here, embraces her home, is trying hard to capture as much of the history, and preserve it. Beyond that, she goes out of her way to educate people on subjects that she knows are important to their lives. The kicker to it all is that she tries so very hard not to belittle them while doing so.
It would have been easy to just go to the local restaurant and talk 👄 smack about this lady, to judge her on a five minute exchange. First, that is short sided, second is not very Christian like and third and most importantly, I would have missed out on a great story !
I see 👀 you, Delilah Brady, and I praise your efforts to stand up for what and who you believe in !
I live my life in an open book manner through my site. There’s not a day that goes by where a reader of mine wouldn’t know where or how to find me. What I do every day is anything but the norm. If someone has a question about any part of it, I welcome questions because the alternative is for folks to draw their own conclusions…..
