everal years ago during the Year 2000 ("y2k"), I was driving a truck for a local food distributor. During July that year, my boss asked me to drop off coffee mugs to all of our customers. The mugs were pretty nice metal mugs - not the usual cheap plastic ones you see in all of the Truck Stops - they had our logo on them, along with our name, address, phone numbers and website.

If you watch television at all, you have probably seen one of many incarnations of an ad for a wireless phone that features a young man walking about saying, “Can you hear me now? Good. Can you hear me now? Good.”

10. Don’t miss the boat.

9. Remember that we are all in the same boat.

8. Plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the Ark.

7. Stay fit. When you’re 600 years old, someone may ask you to do something really big.

6. Don’t listen to critics; just get on with the job that needs to be done.

5. Build your future on high ground.

4. For safety’s sake, travel in pairs.

3. When you’re stressed, float a while.

2. Remember, the Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.

1. No matter the storm, when you are with God, there’s always a rainbow waiting.

A flock of eerily quiet black birds perched like tiny statues, lining the telephone wire the car followed endlessly down the long, desolate highway. The elms in the tree-rows were motionless, testifying to the stillness of the afternoon. An oversized shadow stretched out from the base of each one as the sun sank at a snail’s pace into the distant horizon.

Someone yelling, ?Let?s play ball,? officially announces spring. Springtime and baseball seem to go together, as if God created springtime just for the national pastime.

Something about that first baseball game seems to shake away all the gloomy aspects of the past winter. As soon as Old Man Winter strikes out for the last time, good old springtime steps up to the plate and a new game is afoot.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” -Philippians 4:6

Perhaps no other hymn has ministered so much comfort and consolation as this simple but meaningful message of hope and cheer. As with many of our hymns, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” was a result of much grief in the life of its author, Joseph Medlicott Scriven.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Wonder…a sense of wonder. Isn’t that where we all end up when we consider our God, His creation, the works of His mighty hand?

I once had an office mate at work with whom I did this wondering out loud. One day I was talking about one thing in particular that I wondered about when she suddenly burst out with, “Bill, you just wonder TOO MUCH!”

Maisey didn’t know how long it had been since she last set foot on Topsail Island. When she left all those years ago, she had no intention of returning.

In the end, all it took was one simple phone call to bring her back.

“Is this the granddaughter of Jean Anderson, of Topsail Beach, North Carolina?”

Moments of magic, sounds of laughter and memories etched in hearts are what lifetimes are built on. All these words seem like out of a fantasy book written by some single adult that knows nothing of parenting and yet this is what our homes are missing, no more magic moments or sounds of laughing. When our home life is fulfilled then we live in divine joy, joy that sustains the day, makes the morrow easier and eases away yesterday.

I always know when April makes its yearly debut without consulting the calendar because my wife usually says, ?Let?s clean out the garage today.? Trust me on this one, it is no April fool?s joke, but someone gets fooled. And believe me, I?m just not anybody?s fool. I?m my wife?s fool.

Somehow, her ?let?s? has a funny singular ring to it and we had, if I remember correctly, a double ring wedding ceremony. Hers is on her left ring finger while mine somehow ended up in my nose.