CoffeeTime

The longer I live, talking and being with people, the more I realize that there is no one-way-only-lifestyle that is completely normal.   For instance, my present lifestyle seems absolutely normal to me. But President Trump probably feels the same way about his lifestyle. So does the grandmother who is living in the poverty-stricken Brick…

Think you have found your absolutely perfect dream home? Better make certain that amazing home you’ve found isn’t situated near the local garbage dump. Even a 4500 square foot house, equipped with solid gold fixtures, with its own 18 hole golf course and a piano shaped pool off the pillared back patio can soon lose…

Four-year-old Jimmy stood motionless beneath the large bucket balanced above him.  A bucket that held a lot of cold water already, with water being added constantly from the never-ending stream feeding it. Shivering in anticipation, Jimmy watched as the water level steadily inched upward.    Then it happened. The slightly off-balance bucket suddenly reached its…

Lost terribly at the family game of cards? Tear up that score card and put it out of your mind. A silly little board game is not worth thinking about and ruining your day. But you know that. Or you should.   Your fiancé lets you know that after thinking about your relationship, you just…

If you are in one, it’s a scary thing. With a lot of anger, defeatism, anxiety, and damaged pride as shipmates. But, maybe you still feel that you would rather patch the holes that are rapidly taking on water, rather than just bailing out.   Maybe you feel the kids deserve a home with both…

  The office was in its usual Monday morning subdued chaos, nothing new about the muffled exclamations, one-on-one conversations, and general hubbub. But still, there was a decidedly different element in the air.  The reason? The new chief-of-staff was beginning his first day in the office, and everyone was feeling slightly jittery with quite a…

You have natural abilities and inclinations.  You love doing certain things. That’s normal and good.  But what you love in life was never intended to be all that is important in your world.   Family, friends, co-workers, church family, strangers, and even supervisors, they are all supposed to be important to you. Granted, holding importance…

If we are talking about your teeth, yep, that’s true. Just totally ignore them, and you have a pretty quick way to rid yourself of a tiresome repetitive responsibility. “She don’t care about us, and always wishin’ that we weren’t so needy all the time? Oh, yeah, we’re outta here! We may leave one by one,…

We humans have personality traits, that is readily apparent. And because we all have our own individual and highly weird traits, each of us also have singularly different desires. Desires for things in our life that are driven by our God-given quirks. The athlete, bookworm, the flour-on-my-hands addicted, the outdoorsman, or maybe the dancer. We…

You want your way. And that is normal. But getting others to want to do what you are asking? Sometimes that’s just not very easy. Forcing them usually doesn’t make you a winner. In their eyes or in your own. A normal person will usually admit they don’t enjoy having to use bad tactics to win.…

Living in a desert in the summertime, a real actual desert, you have to learn to make choices. Choices that can make or break how well you thrive in this rather harsh environment.   You can focus your thoughts and attention on the unrelenting ‘cook your soul’ heat in the summer, or you can anticipate…

Living in a desert in the summertime, a real actual desert, you have to learn to make choices. Choices that can make or break how well you thrive in this rather harsh environment.   You can focus your thoughts and attention on the unrelenting ‘cook your soul’ heat in the summer, or you can anticipate…

A man, who had already lost his beloved wife to an illness that had taken her life a few months earlier, had only one child. An adorable blonde-haired dark-eyed baby girl they had named Leslie Raynelle. Leslie was understandably the light of her dad’s life. Everything he did, everything he worked for, was focused on…

Have you ever noticed that those rigid rules you insist your kids obey rarely bring about long-term enthusiastic obedience? “Mom told us to not do that. Yay!!!”   Instead, rebellion later on is usually the result. When your back is turned. When your kid is turned loose on his own. When you are not there…

Your spouse feeling extremely ill and hurting, with no rapid relief anywhere in sight? Don’t expect him to act differently than exactly what he is feeling. Physical illness shows itself very plainly in our behavior – take a quick look at a hurting and fussy little baby who feels no qualms at all in expressing…

Ten-year-old Billy and his dad were going to eat at Billy’s favorite buffet-style restaurant. It was the boy’s birthday, and Dad had indulgently told him that he could have anything he wanted, as much as he wanted.   Big mistake.   Billy grabbed a plate and headed straight for the prime rib, steaks, roasts, and…

Parenting kids…tough stuff. And just think of doing that same job from God’s point of view. He’s responsible for the same…guiding you and me to become good adults. Not a job that you would hear me volunteering to do in a trillion lightyears.   Just imagine.   God: “Jimbo, go to work everyday and do…

If I was still a teen in high school, I would love AI. I could have my writing assignments for English done in a flash and be out the door. And have a lot better grades to show my parents than I did years ago.   And later on, with those gnarly issues at work…

Old and slow-moving, nevertheless, Grace faithfully carried her blind rider on the snow-covered, lonely, and seemingly endless journey. There was no real visibility, due to the heavy clouds that hid the moon and stars. But even if the moon had been as bright as the sun during that long night, the old man with his…

It happens. Finding someone whose personality draws you in and you really enjoy.   It happens because there is such a thing as a natural connection between people. You sense that they ‘get you.’ You understand and appreciate their way of approaching life. Their thoughts, their emotions, their way of responding to situations – it…

Hopelessness. That terrible, hollow, empty sense that makes you believe there is absolutely nothing that can change your circumstance. Notice I wrote ‘believe.’ Not just ‘makes you feel.’     You may be someone who has already spent an endless amount of brain juice and time hashing and rehashing, searching for a way out of your…

A mirror has a tough job.  To show you how fit, skinny or fat your body is.   Your clothes have a tougher job, to make your body look good. Your body that is fit, ski…well, no need, you already have yourself categorized.  A washing machine’s job is to clean those dirty clothes you’ve had…

A mirror has a tough job.  To show you how fit, skinny or fat your body is.   Your clothes have a tougher job, to make your body look good. Your body that is fit, ski…well, no need, you already have yourself categorized.  A washing machine’s job is to clean those dirty clothes you’ve had…

“The chief fault and default position that seems to lead to the decline in the number of husbands and wives.”  A line taken from a song released decades ago, and recently re-released by Brookes & Dunn. Still so true today.   The song is talking about Pride – the chief fault of us all. And…

Maybe it truly has been horrible all this time, maybe God did pick you out of all humanity to suffer badly your entire life. Maybe, just maybe, you were selected to show the world how a life of pure misery looks. No way out, impossible to change your destiny. You are designated to be the poster…