"Burnt Biscuits" (author unknown)

Not one who digs on emails of the forwarded nature, I was leery on opening this one up. But my bro sent it to me, so I gave it a whirl. I'm unsure as to who the original author of this was, but it's a great story with a great moral. Enjoy.

When I was a kid, my mom liked to make breakfast food for dinner every now and then. And I remember one night in particular when she had made breakfast after a long, hard day at work.

On that evening so long ago, my mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage and extremely burned biscuits in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed! Yet all my dad did was reach for his biscuit, smile at my mom and ask me how my day was at school... I don't remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him smear butter and jelly on that biscuit and eat every bite!

When I got up from the table that evening, I remember hearing my mom apologize to my dad for burning the biscuits. And I'll never forget what he said: "Honey, I love burned biscuits."

Later that night, I went to kiss Daddy good night and I asked him if he really liked his biscuits burned. He wrapped me in his arms and said, "Your Momma put in a hard day at work today and she's real tired. And besides - a little burnt biscuit never hurt anyone!"

Life is full of imperfect things.....and imperfect people. I'm not the best at hardly anything, and I forget birthdays and anniversaries just like everyone else. But what I've learned over the years is that learning to accept each others faults - and choosing to celebrate each others differences - is one of the most important keys to creating a healthy, growing, and lasting relationship.

And that's my prayer for you today. That you will learn to take the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of your life and lay them at the feet of God. Because in the end, He's the only One who will be able to give you a relationship where a burnt biscuit isn't a deal-breaker!

We could extend this to any relationship. In fact, understanding is the base of any relationship, be it a husband-wife or parent-child or friendship!

"Don't put the key to your happiness in someone else's pocket - keep it in your own."

God Bless You.... Now, and Always....

So Please pass me a biscuit, and yes, the burnt one will do just fine.!.!.!.!

I Believe...#9

Kids - much like our four-legged K-9 buddies - can sense when you've been around other kids. It's a gift. Like kid ESP. They smell it on you. Not literally though. Usually. So anyhoo...

No joke, I was on location at a diner yesterday when the owner's two-yr old walked right up to me and started playing games with his menu. Out of the blue like he knew I was safe and cool with the whole "kiddo scene" as a role model and whatnot.

He walks up with the menu, hiding his face from me, then lowering it and laughing. Did it maybe a hundred times. Give or take. He was a funny little dude. I asked him who's menu that was. He said his. I asked him where mine was...and he ran over to the counter and brought me one. He told me "here, this is yours." The menu spoke of fajitas. My favorite.

Posts from the road/I Believe...#8 supercombo

I believe that kids entering those zany wacky teen years will be emotional. Duh. They will misplace their anger, their sadness, their overwhelmed'ness on us at times.

They are in that 'who am i, can i be you?' phase where up can be down, and left is...also down. Just let it ride. Don't take offense. Or defense.

Betta Fish, Crawdads and Snakes oh my!

Sitting in my office as G comes in and we start talking Betta fish. He wants to buy 10. But, when I said he'd have to buy 10 separate tanks because those little Japanese fighters like to, well, fight, he didn't so much care for the idea after all.

That led to "and this one time" where they were exploring for crawfish - crawdads to a Texan - at his grandma's, two "Diamondheads" (Diamondback snakes I'm assuming) slithered up and they had to abandon their hunt. I told them they are poisonous and to stay away from them. He said yep and then told me...catfish have pointy things that can break a fish tank. Because "this one time" his friend's catfish was being petted, and shot out his pointy things (whiskers?) and broke the glass. Okay.

Then J-Boy came in and they noticed the crickets on my desk for work. They were intrigued. When does it go from boys loving bugs to grown men thinking they're pretty nasty? Childhood. Gotta love it.

Then E came in and looked outside the window and yelled "It's not dark." Ha. Thanks for the head's up.

Posts from the road...#7

Okay so we have just til this sunday afternoon with our little army, so I'm wanting to do something super-mega ultra cool for them.

So if you guys have never seen the 'comment' section below - it's at the bottom of this post - pretty please with a cherry on top leave one and give me ideas for a 'last hangout for a bit with the kiddos throwdown shindig.'

That'd be real supercool if you did.

Star Wars: Who's Your Jedi?

Hey role models, it's no secret that I like Star Wars. I believe every kid and adult human - and non-human - on this planet should know about it. And then love it. It's a pop culture catch-all that can spark any conversation, good or great, and lead to many other things, good or great. I do not, however, feel the same about Star Trek. Moving on...

So, we popped in the Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones dvd and watched as one familial unit today. As I watched for the 3747584th time or so, I allowed my mind to wander...into thinking who was the greatest Jedi of all time - in the regular George Lucas universe, not the fanboy-extended Star Wars universe. Anyhoo...

So, most websites will say Mace Windu was the best lightsaber duelist while Yoda was the strongest in the force. Of course that was the "still getting his bearings" Anakin Skywalker phase and pre-Luke Skywalker era. So if we consider all the top Jedi dogs, without considering time and place - in their primes, as it were - we can then begin to rank these guys into the best of the best. Pay attention, 'cause this here's some good knowledge to pass on to the kiddos. Pop culture small talk ammo, remember?

Keep your hats on and your hands down until the end of class, but...I think Obi Wan Kenobi was the best all-around Jedi. Follow me here...the "Thrilla in Manilla" climax of part III pitted Kenobi against Palpatine's golden boy Anakin, who was thought to be the "one who will bring balance to the force" and slated to become "the most powerful Jedi of them all." Well, sorry Annie, you caught a serious, lava-filled beatdown at the hands, and lightsaber, of Obi Wan. He had the upper ground.

And remember, Obi Wan beat wicked good saberist Darth Maul after he killed Qui Gon Jinn on Naboo. He then was throwing down with old school gentleman duelist Count Dooku (or Darth Tyrannus, if you prefer) and he held his own pretty decent until the long day's work coupled with the fighting for his life against an army of bug dudes got him a little winded while Dooku played the whole "undermining" his Jedi prowess with his "I'm so disappointed" talk. Plus, part of him was worried about the deep fried Anakin still smoking in a heap in the corner. So there's that.

He stacked up a pretty nice heap of bad dudes in his wake before turning old, feeble and gray in the outskirts of Mos Eisley.

I know what you're thinking. Luke killed Darth Vader while Kenobi almost killed the pre-robot suit version of him. But even though Luke was awesome with the saber, Vader was old and beat down. He was also having regrets about his lifestyle choices over the years...and probably was a little bored of the same outfit day after day for many decades.

Plus, Obi Wan Kenobi was the first dude we old schoolers ever saw do the Jedi "hand wave" telling someone that who they were looking for was not actually who they were looking for. You just can't beat that with a stick. Or lightsaber.

Wow, this post was long...huh, Star Wars. Gotta love it.

I Believe...#7

I believe lying for the sake of lying, or worse, for the sake of negative results, especially against anyone undeserving, will only result negatively for you in the end.

If you have kids, you are setting a bad example on how the real world behaves versus how it should. Moreover, if you're just simply a human being on this planet or any other globular mass in the Milky Way, you'd be illustrating yourself as the kind of person who not only typically leaves an enormous carbon footprint in their wake, but also a huge "come and get me karma" one as well.

I'm of the mind that karma doesn't necessarily target you back, but perhaps sets its sites on those around you who you care about. And maybe karma is a myth, but I'd sure dislike being caught in the headlights of that "myth" in the middle of the street on a cold dark night should it turn out to be real.