Life

Change

Transition

Trust

Pray

Obey

Adapt

Succeed

Life

Proverbs 3:5-7 (NIV)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.

Loss

"Naked I came from my mother's womb, 

And naked I shall return there.

The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away;

Blessed be the name of the LORD."

-- Job 1:21

At various times in my life, my family and I have suffered loss: death of loved ones, loss of employment, financial setbacks. But we've never experienced the level of loss that Job did during the period of his life documented in scripture.

Loss in any form is painful for us as human beings to deal with and understand; especially when the loss is caused by the unjust actions of others.

Job lost his whole family and all of his wealth in a single day. How devastating!

He could have easily surrendered to his base nature and blamed God for taking away all those he loved and everything he possessed, but, instead, Job recognized a great truth. He entered the world with nothing and would leave the world with nothing, and along the way all that he enjoyed was given to him by God.

And Job praised God for that.

Do I have that kind of faith? I know I desperately need it right now.

"The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away;

Blessed be the name of the LORD."

Life in the third grade

Well, it's official: A third grader lives in our house.

Today, our son Joel embarked on a new adventure commonly known as third grade. And after a summer's worth of groaning and wishing he could go back to second grade, I'd say "Third Grade: Day 1" was a rousing success.

Confidence was not at an all-time high heading into the annual Meet the Teacher Night on Monday of this week. Joel wasn't at all thrilled about leaving second grade behind. He really loved his teacher, Mrs. Wilson, and told me on the final day of school in the spring that he didn't want to be a third grader. Despite my best effort at assuring him that third grade would be just fine, he would hear none of it.

And so began our summer.

Any mention of school by My Smokin' Hot Wife or me brought about the same response: "I don't wanna go to third grade. I wanna stay in second grade. I miss Mrs. Wilson."

And so it continued; until today.

As usual, he awoke early (like 4:45 a.m. early) to give me a hug and see me off to work. I squeezed him, kissed his head and told him school would be fun and that I'd pick him up afterward. He was all smiles in the annual "first day of the new school year" photo that My Smokin' Hot Wife took of him this morning and was still bouncy and upbeat when I collected him at parent pickup this afternoon after school dismissed.

"I like third grade, Daddy!" he proclaimed as he climbed into Ye Olde DadMobile. He then rattled off a list of all the positives about third grade that he had gleaned from his first day, including a glowing recommendation of his new teacher, Ms. Riggle. Best of all, he told me, "there's no home work in third grade!"

Of course, I disputed this claim, but he assured me that Ms. Riggle told the class that there would be no home work in third grade.

"No home work this week, probably," I said to him.

"No home work EVER," replied Joel the Confident.

Okay. A bridge to be crossed later. I don't want to kill the mood today.

So we're off to a good start with "Third Grade: Day 1" in the books.

A win's a win, right?

Yep. We'll take it.

Thank you, Lord, for the blessing of a happy boy.

#Hashtags on Facebook

So I host this morning radio show at WHIZ-FM in Zanesville, Ohio, and I maintain a Facebook page and Twitter account for the program, which is called Z92 Morning Rush (shameless plug, yes). The social media accounts help me to build an audience and stay in contact with regular listeners. The usual stuff.

Now I'm not the most tech savvy dude you'll ever meet. I'm not totally lost in the techniverse, but it's not exactly home sweet home, either. Anyway, today on the show - which I affectionately refer to as El Grande Show - one of my minions, Sara the Moderator, informed me that Facebook is now using hashtags (#), a la Twitter.

This was news to me, so I Googled "Facebook hashtags" and found an article by Christopher Null on PC World's interwebs site about the topic. According to a study by Simply Measured, the Facebook hashtags, which made their debut on the site in June, aren't "driving additional engagement" by users.

Mr. Null said there are multiple issues with Facebook's hashtags that could be preventing the desired "additional engagement." First, the hashtags are clickable in an initial post, but don't work all the time in ensuing comments. Second, the hashtags on Facebook aren't readily visible like they are on Twitter. Third, when you click on a Facebook hashtag, you get a pop-up page that loads at a snail's pace.

It seems like the Facebook hashtags are rather useless then, doesn't it? Why even bother with them, right? I certainly won't be using them on my future Facebook posts, will I?

Wrong. In good lemming fashion, I hashtagged (did I just make up a word?) three items in my very next post about a local band that we had on the show today. I felt cool and trendy for about a minute or so.

But I'll probably keep using the Facebook hashtags just because they turn blue and you can click on them.

Hey, squirrel!!!!

#Sigh.

Timely work from Erick Erickson

RedState's Erick Erickson offers some timely and wise advice in this excellent opinion piece.


http://www.redstate.com/2013/07/15/an-ecumenical-hope-post-zimmerman-trial/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Great piece by Thomas Sowell

If you've never read anything written by Thomas Sowell, you should start by reading this piece.
He is one of the most brilliant and thoughtful minds in America today.


http://www.nationalreview.com/article/352892/who-racist-thomas-sowell

Teacher Appreciation Day

Many people have influenced my life, some for good, others, not so much. But I have learned a great deal even from those in the "not so much" category. That's another story for another day, though.

Background for this blog post: I host a radio show on WHIZ-FM in Zanesville, Ohio, and in honor of Teacher Appreciation Day, this morning I shared some memories of four teachers who had profoundly influenced me throughout my school days. And my school daze, too.

First, there was Mrs. Shepherd, my fourth grade teacher. Now while I was a student at Seffner Elementary School in Seffner, Fla., I thought Mrs. Shepherd was quite possibly the meanest teacher that existed in this realm, or any other realm for that matter. And she was very stern; an old fashioned, no nonsense "school marm", if you please.

On one occasion, after I had sprinted down the sidewalk after school dismissed for the day, she caught me and as punishment made me write "I will walk on the walk" one hundred times. Needless to say, from that day forward, I always checked to make sure Mrs. Shepherd wasn't looking before I ran down the sidewalk.

Side note not necessarily relevant to the theme of this piece: My Mom was extremely irritated, not because I got into trouble or had to write "I will walk on the walk" one hundred times, but because Mrs. Shepherd referred to the sidewalk as the "walk". That just bugged the hooey out of Mom for some reason.

Anyway, one thing Mrs. Shepherd did in class that has stuck with me my entire life is that she prayed with the class each morning after announcements and before lunch. That testimony has always remained at the forefront of my hazy memory of fourth grade at Seffner Elementary.

My high school English teacher Daryl Safreed played a major role in my life over the relatively short time that we enjoyed together as teacher and student. Mr. Safreed taught me the value of writing and writing well, which helped me immensely in college and has played a key role in my professional life.

Had I not developed writing skills at the feet of Mr. Safreed, I would have never been able to work in broadcast or print journalism. He was also a good friend to me at a time when I was struggling in that no man's land between childhood and adulthood.

In my college years, Dr. Fred Afman and Marvin Easley each made crucial contributions to who I am today.

Dr. Afman was a Bible teacher at Tennessee Temple University for what seemed like ages. He was a giant of a man with a canyon-deep voice and a classic grandfatherly appearance.

The bow tie was his signature fashion item. At times, he wore an electric blue blazer around campus.

Imagine a 6-foot-8 inch tall granddad in an electric blue jacket with a bow tie teaching Old Testament Survey at 8 o'clock in the morning.

Yeah.

Beyond his unique look, Dr. Afman was a marvelous teacher of Scripture. His grasp of the Bible from both a spiritual and an intellectual standpoint was nothing short of amazing. I was captivated when he drew maps of the Holy Land on the chalk board from memory, listing all the key locations that we were studying. I always grabbed my Bible and checked the maps in the back to see if his drawings were accurate. They always were. I loved sitting under his teaching.

Near the end of a particularly horrible semester for me, Dr. Afman offered encouragement that helped me to get back on track. The fact that he noticed that I was struggling in my personal life, apart from the awful grades I was making in his class, spoke volumes to me about the man. He was so much more than just a professor of the Bible; he was a man of God who cared deeply about the well being of his students.

And then there was Marvin Easley. Marv was one of my broadcasting professors at TTU. He was a great guy.

He gained the moniker of "Easy Easley" from some students who took his classes because he wasn't necessarily the toughest prof at school. If you had class with Marv after the cafeteria was open, you were likely going to spend that time in one of his famous "luncheon seminars". But those who took his classes to grab an easy grade missed the whole point of the time they spent under his teaching.

Marv was a true professional broadcaster; a master of his craft. For years he was the voice of Honda dealerships throughout the southeastern United States. If you heard a Honda ad on radio or saw one on television, the smooth, cello-like voice telling you where to pick up your next ride was Marv's.

He encouraged me to stick with the broadcasting program at a time when I was considering changing majors. Part of his encouragement included taking my friend Dan Kennard and me with him during some of his voiceover work for Honda. It was amazing to watch him whip through that voice work, most of the time in one take.

When I worked as a substitute teacher for Zanesville City Schools during the 2011-12 academic year, I found myself utilizing some of Marv's style in dealing with students. He's shown up when I've taught Sunday school at church, too. And there's a lot of Marv in my writing style and on-air delivery. If imitation is the highest form of flattery, then I hope that I have made Marv proud.

So, thank you, Mrs. Shepherd, Mr. Safreed, Dr. Afman and Marv. Thanks for being tough, caring, compassionate and great role models for me. Thanks for being good teachers.