The Love Doctor

 

 

 

Well my dear ones,

 

 

 

As I’ve noted before,

my friends cover a wide range of ages

as well as a diversity of viewpoints.

 

As for me,

my liberal friends think I’m too conservative;

my conservative friends think I’m too liberal;

and my Libertarian friends... *shrugs*

they’re too busy trying to figure out

how to shrink the government

to take the time to care what I think. J

 

Yet I can’t help but notice that society,

at least in the USA,

is becoming very polarized,

and I don’t find much encouragement in that.

 

Perhaps we could benefit from some old wisdom

laid out by my friend, “The Love Doctor.”

 

Now the Love Doctor was a nice guy,

a guy I worked with long ago,

by the last name of “Love.”

While he didn’t actually have a PhD,

he was the smartest mathematician we knew;

and he was in his fifties,

while we were in our twenties,

so we looked up to him as a mentor;

hence, us younger engineers started

referring to him as “Dr. Love,”

which evolved into “The Love Doctor,”

and “The Doctor of Love.”

 

The Love Doctor was one of the nicest guys

that I ever met in my life.

He was also a Mennonite (similar to Amish:

http://thirdway.com/faq/whats-the-difference-between-mennonites-and-amish/ ),

so he was humble and quite modest.

And since we were young guys,

we enjoyed teasing him.

 

One day, my friend Tommy and I

went to another engineering group

(which happened to be young women),

to run some of our ideas by them.

When they suggested some changes,

I was like,

“Well, I don’t know;

we’ll have run that by The Love Doctor.”

 

Tommy: “Yeah, we’ll have to see what

The Doctor of Love has to say about that.”

 

Them: “Oooo, The Love Doctor? 

We need to meet him.”

 

Me: “Sure thing;

come by our area after lunch.”

 

*after returning to our area*

 

Me: “Hey, Guy (his actual first name),

some women are coming by to meet you

after lunch.”

 

Tommy: “Yeah, some 20-something hot chicks

are looking to meet The Doctor of Love!”

 

The Love Doctor: *turning red as a beet*

“Aww, come on...you guys!”

 

Heh, yes, we were jerks;

but the Love Doctor took it in stride.

 

And then, as now, there was much polarization.

It was an election year,

so we asked the Love Doctor,

“What should we do?”

 

His advice:

“We’re supposed to vote for godly men and women

because they’re godly men and women.”

 

Us: “But what if there are no godly ones?”

 

Him: “Then vote for the least ungodly.”

 

 

That’s some good advice that simplified my life.

No matter what king I live under,

my path remains the same.

 

Flipping through the Book of Kings in the Bible,

we see that there were a total of 43 kings

that ruled in ancient Israel.

And for that, only seven of them were righteous.

Yet, even for all the kings of which it says,

“And he did evil in the sight of the Lord,”

nowhere does God add,

“And hey, since the king’s evil,

 you all can do whatever you please;

 the king’s not following Me;

 hence, you don’t need to either.”

 

Yes; I kept looking to find something like that,

but I never did. J

 

Hence, at any time, and in any place on earth,

and under any ruler under whose authority

I am required to live out my time,

my task in simple:

follow the ruler,

unless or until they turn from God;

realize that God passionately pursues

all of us, and wants us in heaven;

recognize that God is Love;

love God and love other people.

 

May you know Love and may that guide you.

 

 

grace, peace, and love to you,

dave

life lessons from a tube of toothpaste

 

 
 
Well my dear ones,
 
 
 
I am running behind on encouraging things;
the passing of my Mom took a lot from me;
thank God, I know I’ll see her again
past heaven’s gate.
 
And one thing I’m really happy about
is that, while she was here,
I told her like a million times
how much I love her;
hence, if you have someone you love,
someone who has been a huge
influence on your life,
please tell them,
...even if you’ve told them before
 
...you can’t say I love you,
or tell someone that you care,
too many times...
...trust me on that. J
 
Anyway, back to some encouraging words
that you can live by; but first off,
I have to say that these are not mine;
they came to me from my friend, Ashley,
and the story belongs to Amy:
 
My daughter starts middle school tomorrow.
We've decorated her locker,
bought new uniforms,
even surprised her with a new backpack.
But tonight just before bed,
we did another pre-middle school task
that is far more important than the others.
I gave her a tube of toothpaste
and asked her to squirt it out onto a plate.
When she finished, I calmly asked her
to put all the toothpaste back in the tube.


http://theeverencouragingword.blogspot.com/2016/08/toothpaste.html


 
She began exclaiming things like
"But I can't!" and
"It won't be like it was before!"
I quietly waited for her to finish
and then said the following:
 
"You will remember this plate of toothpaste
for the rest of your life.
Your words have the power of life or death.
As you go into middle school,
you are about to see
just how much weight your words carry.
You are going to have the opportunity
to use your words to hurt,
demean, slander and wound others.
You are also going to have the opportunity
to use your words to heal,
encourage, inspire and love others.
You will occasionally make the wrong choice;
I can think of three times this week
I have used my own words carelessly
and caused harm.
 
“Just like this toothpaste,
once the words leave your mouth,
you can't take them back.
Use your words carefully, Breonna.
When others are misusing their words,
guard your words.
Make the choice every morning
that life-giving words
will come out of your mouth.
Decide tonight that you are
going to be a life-giver in middle school.
Be known for your gentleness and compassion.
Use your life to give life to a world
that so desperately needs it.
You will never, ever regret choosing kindness."
 
Thank you, Amy!
That’s a wonderful illustration
of some great advice; I love it! =D
 
 
 
grace, peace, and love to you,
dave

toothpaste

The Swamp (or, let kids be kids)

 

 

 

Well my dear ones,

 

 

 

Something my wife and I often discuss

is the change in the way kids now grow up,

compared to how we did,

and the change is not for the good.

 

Would you like to see a better world?

Me, too.

And it starts with the way we teach our children.

 

 

Here’s a great article from Miss Hannah Rosin:

 

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/04/hey-parents-leave-those-kids-alone/358631/

 

 

“The Land.”  I love the concept, and

I’d like to see it catch on here in the USA.

Let kids be kids.

Let them play.

Let them use their imagination.

 

When I was a kid,

we had a place like “The Land,”

and fortunately, it was right

behind the house we lived in.

 

If we cut through a patch of woods

beyond our backyard,

my sister and I would come to “the Swamp.”

 

Basically, it was a wide, shallow,

very slow-moving creek that meandered

between small islands of trees.

 

As kids, we thought the Swamp was awesome!

 

In the summer,

my sister and I and other kids

would build bridges so we could cross

from one island to the next;

and in the winter, we would ice skate

on the ice trails between the islands.

 

The Swamp.

 

I don’t think it ever covered more

than perhaps 5 acres at most.

But to a ten-year-old kid,

it was a place of mystery,

a place to be explored.

 

Over the years, we kids spent

many happy hours in the Swamp

with ZERO parental supervision;

our parents never set foot in the Swamp

because it was a place for kids,

a place for kids to use their imaginations,

a place for kids to be kids.

 

I hope you all had some place like that

when you were growing up.

And I really hope that your kids

and grandkids get to have a place

like the Swamp,

an electronics-free environment

where they can use the “props”

God provides in nature

to let their imaginations run free.

 

 

grace, peace, and love to you,

dave