Mukilteo, WA

Beautiful Mukilteo, my hometown. What I didn't photograph is the unhampered growth and the traffic. Let's just focus on the positive...

The 1905 Mukilteo Lighthouse (with the Vashon in the background).

Couldn't resist the photos of the official Mukilteo city bird. If you haven't been hit from above by one of these fine seagulls, you really haven't lived.

I met a couple of the ladies who volunteer their time making the lighthouse grounds just gorgeous, even in late October. Nice job, ladies!

Here's Lady, enamoured with my guitar case. She's my little sweetie, and was kind enough to give me my kitty fix during my stay at her house. I am convinced that my dad is just a visitor, and it's really the cats that are in charge.

On this Day: the Death of Robert E Lee

Robert E. Lee, one of my favorite people in history, died on this day in 1870, at the age of 63. The son of a governor, he was a complex man who loved his country deeply. Here are some quotes which illustrate my regard for the man:

• On his faith: My chief concern is to try to be an humble, earnest Christian.


• On learning: The education of a man is never completed until he dies.


• On Bill Clinton (okay, I made that part up): I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot control himself.


• On temptation: Whiskey - I like it, I always did, and that is the reason I never use it.


• On the loss of the Civil War: We failed, but in the good providence of God apparent failure often proves a blessing.

Quotes of the Day

The years teach much which the days never knew. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sunflowers that are young and lush are pleasing to the eye while they blossom in the fields...but in reality, they are virtually until they are dried up, almost dead flowers. That is when they really hit their stride.

We miss out on a lot by our societal neglect of the oldest generation.

The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed,

Lets in new light through chinks that time hath made. ~Edmund Waller

Non-Motivational Posters

I'm a child of the seventies, that great decade when we were all told that we could be whatever we wanted when we grew up. Oh, really?

The motivational poster was also birthed out of that line of thinking and was intended to reinforce those fantastic positive thoughts so that we could go out and achieve great things. Even as a child, I remember thinking that if we could all grow up to be president...that would be one heck of a fight during the election.

So I found these...a great remedy for the smarmy motivational poster. And further proof that I have a warped and twisted sense of humor. (It's my dad's fault.)





Because, let's face it, not everyone gets to be president.



Check out more of these "de-motivators" from despair.com.



I have this one on my office wall. My co-workers all ignore it.

Anna Karenina Update

I seem to have made it over the hump, and can now pronounce all the characters names quickly in my head, and remember who they are. So now I am engrossed. It took me 120 pages to get that way...but now all else is put aside for the sake of knowing what happens to the faithless Anna.

Quote of the Day: Will Rogers

Live your life in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.

~Will Rogers 1879-1935

Quote of the Day: Michael Douglas

Yes, really. Michael Douglas.

Many times people make more of an effort toward strangers than the people closest to them. ~from a recent interview

How often is that true in our lives? It is easy, especially in ministry, to get wrapped up in "outreach" and doing for others...and then neglecting our own. And let's face it, with strangers, you don't live and work day in-day out with the flaws.

Interesting thought.

Yesterday's Church Message

For Sunday service yesterday we had a guest speaker, Seth Wetter from Calvary Chapel Fargo. Thanks, Seth!

He brought up a couple of interesting points about grace...and how we try so hard not to receive it freely. It's funny how the Word speaks to people differently. Most of what I retained came out of Seth's introduction!

Ephesians 2:8 and 9...we all know, or have heard..."For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."

Grace is free...we know this.
Yet we often still strive to "work for God", to do great things for Him.
Liken this to when you receive a generous gift from someone to whom you would not usually bestow the same "cost" of gift upon.
Our flesh rises up and does one of a couple of things:

• Oh, no...I can't possibly accept that!
• I'll have to give something back that is equal or better to what I have been given.

...rather than just receiving with thankfulness. Oh, that's so hard.

How much was the gift that we have been given by the Father? It was everything...His Son.

So our actions in response to that should not be an attempt to earn the gift, but instead, just a natural response of love to the One who has given all for us.

Otherwise, it's just another works-based religion. And that only leads to discouragement, and ultimately, hell...because my "good" works are never going to be enough.

We cannot save ourselves, that's the work of the Father. And that's relationship.

Reality Check

Leave it to the Lord to give me a little dose of conviction this week...much deserved. The blog at OldTruth.com posted an article yesterday entitled "Why Me, God" about the sovereignty of the Lord as it relates to suffering. A good read, with a video attached, and a reminder to me to quit complaining about my allergy-related sniffles. The ragweed was bloomin' in Omaha last week!

The Creator and Designer

Here's an interesting phrase that caught my eye in my Bible reading:

Job 26:13a By His Spirit He hath garnished the heavens

The NKJV uses the word "adorned" rather than "garnished", but it was the garnished that captured my imagination. Think of how a restaurant places a decoration on your plate; a garnish...not for any purpose other than to just give you a little visual pleasure. I thought of the Lord of Creation flinging the massive stars into space just so that when we look up, we have something lovely and intriguing to look at in the night sky.

Just a thought.