family

Are you living the life you once day dreamed about? I’m not! I’m not saying it’s bad or anything, but there is room for improvement. Especially if it is going to be like what I desired. I wanted a large family for myself. A real “Brady” bunch if you will. I love children. But after I saw the price tag for two my first wife and I decided that was enough. I wanted to marry into a large family. I did, but it wasn’t long before the realization of how one bad, sour fruit hanging on the family tree can spoil relations.

After I divorced it was many years before I dared say, “I do” a second time. And once again I found another sour fruit on the family tree. Then in my own family, yep you guessed it. Some of the sourest fruit you have ever been exposed to. So the dream of “one big, happy family” has never manifested.

I could be downright depressed about it, and at times I have been. I have prayed, asked, griped and complained. Eventually, God began to give me knowledge and understanding concerning the bad actors in this cast. That has helped. It certainly is better than giving up and running away, or doing everything and anything to avoid them.

I saw the sign in this photo and realized that’s what I’m doing, but hadn’t labeled it. God is helping me know that all I can do is make sure my attitude is right, and pleasing to him when it comes to family. I can enjoy the life I have with April, and make the most of it. I’m happy being retired, and writing books now. And next week I and my business partner will be hosting our first writer’s conference, held in the setting of an old west town. (see expwriting.com) Then my first book is coming out soon. A modern day novel, “Kill The Preacher Man”. I am extremely excited about that. So really, life isn’t what I wanted, but it’s not bad either! Thank you God for taking all of my messes, and making something that can be pleasing to you.

Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.
1 Thes. 5:16-18 (MSG)

20170921_092347 I watched a good movie the other night. I won’t say which one, because I am going to give away the ending, and I don’t believe in “spoiler alerts!” The movie was about a father and a son, and their relationship. At the end of the movie the two were out fishing, and the father finally said some words his son had waited a very long time to hear, and then the father died. I lost it. Tears all over the couch. It was a real mess that even challenged “Bounty”, the quicker picker upper!

The truth is, the last few months my father was alive was difficult. He was acting out of fear and it hurt. I saw one of my father’s old friends last week, and he told me my father started fearing me controlling his life before I ever moved back to my home town after retirement to assist him as he wanted and needed. So by the time I had gotten here, my father had it in his mind how life would go, but it didn’t, and he refused to accept it, because it wasn’t the reality he had built up in his mind. I’m so glad though, four days before my father passed, we had a nice, peaceful, fun conversation.

Why am I sharing this? To vindicate myself? No. I know in my heart and before God how I treated my father, but the point is, I wanted my father’s last days to be his best days. I dreamed of my father and I out fishing. Having a nice day. Lots of laughs, and because he loved to fish, dad finally catching his trophy fish. Me, snapping a picture, and dad releasing the fish back into the lake, and then passing on, similar to the movie I mentioned above. But this ain’t Hollywood, and life doesn’t go like the well scripted, command performance acting, as in the movies.

So when life doesn’t go as scripted, what do we do? We give it to God, and we do everything to love the other people in the scene as best as we can. Love endures, remembers no wrong, and writes a great ending because love, always wins. (Love – 1 Cor. 13)

(The title of this post came from the Christian rock group, DeGarmo & Key, from 1980)

brady, mark a.

Words to inspire you

This Isn’t What I Expected

Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.
1 Thes. 5:16-18 (MSG)

Stella, This Ain’t Hollywood

Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.1 Thes. 5:16-18 (MSG)

Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.
1 Thes. 5:16-18 (MSG)