Friday, May 26, 2017

Talents




 

 

 

Well my dear ones,

 

I believe we all have God-given talents,

although some of us

may just have yet to develop them;

even if you don’t think you have any,

I’d be willing to be you do. =>

 

Years ago,

my wife and I met a young woman

whose opening line to us was,

“Hi! I’m Lydia; I have no talents.”

 

In context, that line was in

response to my wife’s and my review

of her friend Madi’s talents.

Yet as the years passed,

it became evident that Lydia

(just like her namesake in the Bible)

has many God-given talents. =D

 

Now some may worry about

having the time to work on things,

as in, they see now that they

may just have a talent,

yet might it not be too late?

They learned about it later in life;

so can God restore the time

they could have used on their talents

yet spent on other things?

 

A good question; to answer it,

I’ll have to dial the clock back

about 2800 years,

back to the year 835 BC,

to the time of the prophet Joel:

 

“So I [God] will restore to you

 the years

 that the swarming locust has eaten.”

         --- Joel 2:25

 

 

There’s a lot of hope there,

like that it’s never too late,

and that our best days

are still ahead of us

... I love that!

 

In honor of all who have

sacrificed for us,

have a blessed Memorial Day! =>

 

grace, peace, and love to you,

dave

 

“For I know the plans I have for you,”

 says the Lord.

“They are plans for good

 and not for disaster,

 to give you a future and a hope.”

            --- Jeremiah 29:11

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

The Legend of the Jimbo Leg Stabber



 
 
 
Well my dear ones,
 
 
This morning, as I was washing some dishes,
I noticed a knife on the windowsill.
It used to be mine, but I gifted it to my wife;
it is now one of her favorites,
used for opening boxes and such;
however, it has a bloody history.
 
Yes, I have many knives,
even several on which I cut myself
as I learned the trick of opening them;
but I only ever owned one knife
that has the distinction
of having stabbed someone.
 
Well, like the Bible says,
“A joyful heart is good medicine”
(Psalm 17:22)
and even the guy who got stabbed
is able to laugh about it now;
he also gave me approval to tell the story;
so I will tell you how this ordinary knife,
known as the [discontinued] Buck model 506,
came to be known as “the Jimbo Leg Stabber.”
 
See it here:
http://theeverencouragingword.blogspot.com/2017/05/jimbo-leg-stabber.html
 
 
A long time ago,
nigh well more than 30 years ago,
my brother, Jimmy (aka JimBro, aka Jimbo),
and I went for a ski trip up in Maine;
in order to avoid the crowds,
we went to Mount Abram; at the time,
it was a place used mostly by Maine locals.
 
The night we arrived, we were in our room,
and Jimmy asked me if I had a nail clipper.
I said, no, all I had was a knife.
He said that would have to do,
so I handed him the knife.
 
Jimbo put his hand of the night table,
and went to work
with his modified “nail clipper.”
 
A few seconds later I hear...
 
Jimbo: “Oooooh!”
 
me: “What?”
 
Jimbo: *holding his leg*
“I think I just stabbed myself in the leg.”
*takes hand away from his upper thigh & looks*
“Yep; the knife slipped off the tabletop
 and I stabbed myself...”
 
me: “How deep?”
 
Jimbo: “Right down to the bone.”
 
me: “We’ve got to go to the emergency room,
or get you to a doctor!”
 
Jimbo: “No; no need for that.”
 
Yep; my brother is pretty tough;
showing that he was destined to
become a Marine in the future,
he used some alcohol to clean the wound,
put some antibiotic ointment on it,
and was able to bandage it enough
to [mostly] stop the bleeding.
 
Not only did he refuse medical treatment,
but he also insisted that we had to ski,
since we had already spent the money
and that’s what we had come up there to do;
hence, despite the pain in his leg,
we skied for four hours the next day.
 
He did give me the knife back,
as he said he really didn’t want to
see it for a while.
 
Years later, when he asked about it,
I told him I gave the knife to my wife.
 
However, this year, for his birthday,
I gave my Bro the current version
of this knife, and told him it
had the identical blade to the old
“Jimbo Leg Stabber.”
 
And he laughed; so that’s cool;
and that’s the story...
 
Wait...I was just reading last night
about the medieval bards,
the storytellers from whom we got the
“histories” of King Arthur and Robin Hood.
Any bard worth his salt had to add to the tale,
to tell more than just the bare bones facts,
even embellish it a bit...
 
OK; forget everything I just said...
 
*thinks for a bit*
 
This is how things “really” went down.
 
My Bro and I were in the parking lot
at the Mount Abram ski lodge
when a bunch of local toughs walked by.
 
The leader of this gang thought my Bro
looked at his girlfriend,
so he had 4 of his guys grab my brother
while he proceeded to stab him in the leg,
right down to the bone,
and left the knife sticking there
while he laughed.
 
But my brother got the last laugh!
He slapped the living crud
out of all 5 of those guys,
then pulled the knife from his own leg
and used it to slice their pants off.
 
So, when the cops showed up,
there’s my Bro holding a knife,
while these 5 lou-sas are
stumbling around in their underwear. #_#
 
The two cops, both former Marines,
thought this was so funny
that they suggested my Bro
keep the knife as a memento;
they further suggested that he
might want to join the Corps,
as they could see he had Marine potential.
 
Yep; that’s it; that’s how it went down;
that is...
“The Legend of the Jimbo Leg Stabber 2.0”
 
That’s how I plan to start remembering it
...in the future. Hahaha! =)~
 
Remember, God has a sense of humor
so we should, too! =D
 
“This is the day the Lord has made;
 let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
              --- Psalm 118:24
 
If you enjoyed this story,
you can leave a comment on my brother’s
Facebook page here:
https://www.facebook.com/jim.macfadyen.7
 
Thank you. =>
 
grace, peace, and love to you,
dave

Jimbo Leg Stabber