Thanks to you all...

This is post #100...

It's a good time for me to hang up the blog... it's been a bit over one year...

Thanks for reading and checking in.

As of today, Thinking Out Loud has had 10,073 hits.... Wow! Never thought that would ever happen.

It's been great reading some of your comments on my blog. Thank you all...

Many regards..... Jim

My Favorite Verse

My Bible...

Being a logical-thinker is a big part of my make-up. Sometimes I don't realize how much it plays into my day-to-day judgement and discernment - but it does. Tami will even tell you that, at times, I'm obnoxiously logical. Where God gave me a full measure of logic, I often come up short regarding compassion. Whereas Tami is gifted in the compassion-arena & tends to be more free-spirited and risky, I am "Mr. Conservative" for the most part. I wrote about this in August of 2009.

Here's an example.... while reading my Bible last night before going to bed, I asked myself, "What really is my favorite Bible verse?" If you look at my Bible you'll see that I have hundreds of verses underlined and starred. There are so many that are so meaningful and that have instructed and helped me for decades... But which is my favorite...?

Maybe you'll be surprised. Here it is:

John 14

25 I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. 26 But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.
27 "I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don't be troubled or afraid.

John 14:26 (NIV)

OK... not so inspiring, right? It's this part, though, that means so much to me:

"the Holy Spirit - he will teach you everything and remind you of everything I have told you."

Since becoming a young Christian many years ago, I had always struggled with the question of how did the writers of the Bible get the facts straight? How did they record actual quotes from everyone, including Jesus? They didn't have iPads, Post-it-Notes, Google Blogger, or smart phones to capture the actual comments or events. I've always had this very logical & practical question. (...told you I was too logical...) Then I came across this verse, John 14:26, where Jesus is speaking to his disciples - telling them that he will send the Holy Spirit, once Jesus departs, and the Holy Spirit will remind them of everything! That's it! That made logical sense to me. This one verse really tied it all together for me. Too logical, right! Anyway, it has always been a very important verse for me. The Bible, God's Word, gets it done for me. It's the best way to know and learn more about the character of God...it's the best way to know the best example to follow - Jesus. He's who I want to be more like... that's my journey in life... be more like Christ... I'm trying... be patient with me...

As I post this page to my blog, I realize it is my 99th post - in just over 1 year. I've enjoyed writing and expressing some of my thoughts as I've been "thinking out loud". I hope to print the posts in book-form and keep it for years to come. I might get a kick out of reading some of this thinking in the future. Thanks for reading...

Oil-free & Sunny...

A Self Portrait

Last weekend we spent our anniversary at Sandestin, FL. We didn't know at the time what we were heading into.... the weather forecast was 60% chance of rain everyday, and the BP oil situation was even more concerning. On top of that, the day before we left, our car had a puncture in a side wall of one of the front tires. We were waffling between driving our convertible and our Toyota Sequoia. It was the convertible that had the flat... that almost made the decision for us.... after all, we expected rain each day....

View From Our Condo

Well, the flat was fixed by 8 AM departure day, so we decided to take it - solely by faith that the weather would cooperate. Turns out that we were able to "go topless" for the duration of the trip except from Huntsville to Birmingham. I think we actually got more sun while in the car than we did at the beach.... We used a lot of sunscreen while in the front seats of our red IS 250C. It was a great trip down and back as we travelled over back roads for most of the trip.

The beach was beautiful! No sign of any oil... although everyone was talking about it and the crowds were definitely down. We didn't wait anywhere when we went out to eat. We did hear that one hour west of us, small signs of oil were showing up on the beaches. It was just a matter of time...

Oil-free & Sunny

It was a very well deserved relaxing time for both of us. We have each been busy doing a plethora of things for everyone else, so it was great to spend quality time on us. The weather cooperated grandly. Tami got burned.... she always does. And I enjoyed simply spending time with my lovely bride of 28 years. On our way back from Sandestin, Tami had to drop me off at the Birmingham airport so I could fly to CVG for meetings the following morning. I arrived at my hotel about midnight.... back to the real world....

Caitlin - A Girl with Taste...

Check out one of the most impressive web sites I've seen in a while...

You'll love reading it as much as I love tasting it!

Thanks Cait!

28 Years!

Twenty-eight years today! Tami & I have been married for 28 years! Add the five years we were together before that, and you get 33 years of pure bliss... well, almost pure bliss...

This year we decided to escape to the beach for a few days to remember and reflect and relax. We don't get much free time to do any of those very often.

We each remember different details from our past years together. As you get older, I guess that happens. Of course we remember some of the same things too, but between the two of us, we can put a pretty good picture back together. She's the one for me and always has been!

I started this blog one year ago to the day. My first post was the day after our anniversary last year. You can read it here. Tami won't get her 28 roses while we are at the beach, but they might be waiting for her when she arrives home... the tradition continues... I love you Tam.