Columns/Opinions

   Psalms 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” 
   I truly feel like over the past two weeks the Lord has given me the desires of my heart. 
   We started off Christmas vacation with a family meeting. I asked each family member what we needed more of. 
   Their responses were so simple:  family football games, hanging out over at the shop, dinner at the table, movie nights and more working together out in the woods. 
   Everything was free and within our reach. I am happy to announce we nearly checked everything off of our list and we added in nightly pool tournaments, where I always ended up in the loser’s bracket. 
   We laughed a lot too…big stuff! 
   We do not always get along. We sometimes do not even want to be in the same room with each other; however, the Lord blessed our time together. 
   He granted me the desires of my heart. 

   One of the top questions ever asked is, “What is the purpose of my life?” 
   When people feel unsuccessful in their life, they can feel hopeless and depressed. 
   The truth is that Christ has a plan for your life. 
   Many people want a single purpose for their life. The reality is that there are multiple reasons you have meaning today. 
   Now this is a broad question, and there is no one single answer for it. 
   Every believer has a general and personal purpose for our life. Our personal purpose deals with the gifts and passions God has given to us. Our general purpose is to believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and preach the gospel. 
   Around 1647 a group of Christians wrote a summary of beliefs about their faith. These were called the Westminster Catechisms.  

    Carolyn Thames had announced that she will be running for Mayor of Bay City in the spring election. 
   Thames, a four-term veteran city council member and valued community leader, is poised to be a substantial challenger in the upcoming election. 
   “I’m honored and humbled to ask the voters and community members for their permission to serve the community as mayor of Bay City,” said Thames. 
   Thames adds that her record as a community leader and partner has positioned her as the ideal candidate to elevate the future of Bay City. 
   “As an active leader in the community, I’ve spent countless hours discussing the future of Bay City with our residents and without a strong leader, we will never be able to make that happen,” explained Thames.  
   “As mayor, I would continue those candid conversations so I can ensure that the future we build is the future everyone wants.”

   I don’t have any resolutions for this upcoming New Year.
   In fact, I doubt I had any last year.
   However, things have happened in the last six months or so that have impacted my life and forced me to make changes.
   I can’t say that I’m happy about them.
   But, I’m grateful to have the chance to change.
   And that’s all I think anyone should look forward to.
   I won’t go on to say that there’s a fresh start each morning.
   Mainly because I hate mornings and wish the work day would start around 10 a.m. rather than 7.

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   I suppose our representatives at the Texas capital are high-fiving over passing the open carry law that becomes effective Friday, Jan. 1.
   Surely they must be congratulating themselves over all of the fuss it’s caused the challenges the new law has created for government, schools and businesses.
   Yep, State Senator Lois Kolkhorst and State Rep. Dennis Bonnen were proud to have voted for joining their senate and house colleagues in allowing people with concealed handgun licenses to openly display their firearms.
   This statement that seemingly stands for Second Amendment rights is another measure coming from Austin that divides Texans.    Many Texans believe in the right to bear arms. I own pistols and rifles as many Texans do.

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  This year in the stock market is analogous to a roller coaster ride taking you way up and way down, only to end the trip where it began.
   If you investment was that of which Warren Buffet would suggest in the ETF for the S&P 500 stock-index, you made about as much as if you had kept it in cash.
   On the other hand, you could have purchased stocks such as Google aka Alphabet, Netflix, Facebook, Amazon and Starbucks and realized double-digit gains for the year.
   So much for Warren always being right.
   Now if you were chasing dividend yield, you may have had a bad year if you invested in the energy sector.
   So far, the vast majority of energy stocks have not cut their dividend but the share value plummeted.
   I have a feeling that we are finding the botto

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Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.”  
   And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” Matthew 2:13-15 
   The other day I was reflecting on this passage of scripture and I realized how fast Joseph got up and left after being warned through a dream that he needed to.  
   He left without hesitation in a time that the roads weren’t safe - they aren’t safe now either, but riding in a car is much safer than walking or by donkey.  

   We have had a revolving door here since the Christmas holidays began with a constant flow of family, friends, and dogs back and forth enjoying the free time. I decided the day before Christmas to skip the cleaning and just add more lights.  
   It ended up being nice and festive here, inside and out! The sunshine and warm weather last week did not bother me one bit. I left the doors wide open, served lunch on the trampoline, and even allowed the kids to sleep outside on it one night.  
   Our family has grown. We added another dog into the chaos about a month ago when my in-laws neighbor had a stroke and was immediately placed on hospice.  

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   The Bible tells an amazing story about how Joseph was given a coat of many colors by his Father Israel. Genesis 37:3 says,”  
   Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours” (NIV). 
   This coat is symbolic. Joseph’s coat had two different things that a normal coat did not.  
   Number one, it was expensive because of the colors. Next, it had long sleeves.

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   The four most basic obedience skills that any dog must learn are Here, Heel, Sit and Eye Contact! 
   These skills are the building blocks for your dog to “learn how to learn” and to become a well behaved member of the pack. 
   We teach the commands of Here, Heel and Sit in a positive, intuitive and fun way for the dog. 
   The eye contact training makes the dog very receptive to bonding with the trainer. 
   We use food rewards to teach Here, Heel, Sit and Eye Contact. 
   When we start training a dog, we use the dog’s normal daily food allocation and divide this in to rewards for training and as part of our hand feeding - eye contact training. 

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