In The Good Old Summertime

In the good old summertime - time tends to get away from all of us.  None of us is immune to time slip.  For myself it appears that my blogging took a brief vacation - too busy with other projects to be able to sit and blog.  I feel bad - sort of - not going to bemoan this - it just is a fact of life.  When the weather is good - to many options outside that calls us outdoors - when the weather is bad - too much to do trying to cope with excessive rain and all those things that come with excess water.  The other - primary reason - for being distracted - preparing for the celebration of our 50th wedding anniversary.  Unlike many couples who choose to celebrate privately - on a cruise - or similar event - we chose to hold a party for the entire family - including all the cousins.  As far as anyone knows - we are the first couple to reach this mark and family members begged that we gather the family to celebrate the fact that one of their own reached this goal.  So we did - dinner and dancing - sharing our story over and over again in the hopes that other family members will be encouraged to stay the course - in good times and in bad - to stick out the rough times - times that no couple is happy about - but did manage to work through them when they happened.  In 50 years - multiple opportunities to make wrong things right.

Happily for us - God has always had an important part in our marriage - He has been with us from the first day of our marriage and continues to walk with us and guide us through the difficult times.  All marriages experience difficulties - deaths - miscarriages - stress from jobs - and more.  God has been there in good times as well as bad.  We could never imagine not having Him close with us in all these years.

Deacon Dale 

Seventy-Two

Seventy-Two is a large number until you divide it by two - thirty-six a more comfortable number to visualize.  Teams of two - counter balance - two stroke - two view points - twin cycles - double vision.  When the gasoline engine was first developed it employed the use of two cylinders - one to counter balance the other. Further developments saw the introduction of the four stroke engine - again - keeping the engine balanced so it would not shake itself apart. It was not until later that a single stroke engine was developed.  In nature many things seem to automatically balance by using the rule of two - front and back - top and bottom - left and right - up and down - in and out.  In Physics - Newton's Third Law states - that for every reaction - there is an equal and opposite reaction. In religion - we profess good versus evil - heaven and hell - Jesus and Satan.  Apparently Two is the Rule of the Universe.  God knew this and throughout history tried to get humans to understand this simple principle - we are not alone.  Even when we think we are alone - we are never alone.  Moses brought two of every creature on the Ark - Adam had his Eve - the sun had it's moon.  It only makes sense that the Rule of Two is valid.

When Jesus sent His disciples out - He sent in groups of two.  Just as in the past - in the time of Christ - so are modern day disciples sent out as two. It is scriptural - it follows the natural course of events - it makes complete sense.  When one forgets - the second remembers - when one becomes tired - frustrated - disillusioned - the second encourages - revitalizes the other - renews the original vision - mission - to keep both on track.  Jesus sent those in two - we do the same today - energized by the fact that in groups of two - we will accomplish the goal set by God from the beginning of time - to tell all we meet and greet - that God loves them - forgives them - wants them to live life to the fullest - to become members of His family - here on Earth - eventually in Heaven.

Deacon Dale