7/24/2019 (written yesterday)
Sitting in the pre-dawn darkness this morning I was pondering, as I read various things, about the daily goodness of God which I often have tucked away, when I looked up from the lighted computer screen upon hearing my favorite mockingbird song, and saw the Lord had “turned on” the day’s light! It’s overcast and a bit gray, but it made our view beautiful to behold. A portion of the SIMH stood out in my mind: “I’ll Fly Away” has an opening line that seemed tofit what I was seeing! “Some glad morning,…” But, I didn’t “fly away” just yet. So, there’s more to do! Amen?
Actually, I’m really looking forward to the rest of this year, Lord willing, and the two remaining scheduled bible conferences coming up in September and October. I believe the Chattanooga conference (Sept.20-22) will be their 39th. Get to see wonderful old friends, meet new ones, and hear 8 or 9 truly ably presented messages every year! The Navarre, FL conference is newer than that, but the same is true—see great old friends, meet new ones and hear terrific presentations of God’s Holy Word.That’s Oct. 25-27. I hope I’m going to see you at one or both of these events.
It also seems we have this wedding to attend in North Carolina in September and two weddings to officiate in October, wow! This could be an exciting Fall! More about all that as time draws nearer.
Things are getting exciting around Blue Jug stores. We are about to get #9 opened and #10 & #11 are purchased and looking for their locations. We get requests for information nearly everyday now. Remember when I said there was a lull and we needed to figure out some stuff to be more efficient helpers? We’ve worked on it, but we’re not fully developed yet. More stuff to tie down as “our way” to be the best wholesaler and supplier our stores can find! Although, as the number one principle of business says, “do your own business”—right out of Scripture—1 Thess. 4:11,12—“That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing,” We do want to guide as much as is needed for each of our stores to be Blue Jug stores, but we don’t want to become dictators to them. Their stores are their businesses, not ours. We’re their support, hopefully.
Grass is growing. AAargh! Several hours this week will be taken up with mowing. As I was looking out at the beauty of the mountaintop this morning, I couldn’t help but notice how lovely our weed patch we call grass was looking. Boy, when the rains come and the ground is warm, the weeds cut and trim nicely, even though when the rains slow down and the ground cools and the weeds die away, the yard looks somewhat bare. Pretty now, though, pretty now. (Somewhat reminiscent of life, don’tcha think?) Our mower is in need of a tuneup, or a replacement—machinery gets a bit cantankerous when it gets old and tired. Whew! Sure glad I’m not like that!!
Speaking of “old,” I’ve had about 40 vehicles of a sundry sort since age 18 and we are now driving a 17 year old Mercury Cougar (I’ve mentioned before about the low mileage, yet many things which had to be fixed, renewed, repaired just because it had not been an actively used vehicle.) The Cougar is very comfortable, very good-looking, but it shows it’s 17 years in spite of miles. I once had another old Ford car back in the late 60s. A man in the choir at our church told me he had bought his wife a new car so he could have her old one. So, he said, do you want an old car to drive to work so Barbara can have your new car? I said, how much? He said, $15. I said sold! We made the deal and his wife jumped all over him for taking my $15! She said, “Why didn’t you just give it to him?” I assured her she didn’t need to worry, it was worth it to me.
We drove the car for about a year, or so, and one day I found a 1959 Rambler (some of you will have to look that up) with low mileage and low price, so we bought it. A teenager at my favorite filling station asked me what happened to the old Ford? Still got it, I said, you interested? He said yeah, how much? I said $35. He said, “Alright! I’ll take it!” I reminded him the ignition switch had broken and we hot-wired it to start it. He said that’s ok. I said, “You know, when your on the passenger side, you can see the road through the floorboard.” He said, I don’t care, I’ll take it! So, I took it to him, all the while Barbara was telling me I should be ashamed of myself for taking his $35! So, a couple of days later, I stopped in to give him his money back. I didn’t see the car, so I was surprised he was working. I asked, where’s the old Ford? He said, “I sold it! Got $55 dollars for it! thanks for the bargain!” I put my money back in my pocket and said, “later guys, glad you made a profit!”…..and that my friends is the capitalist way at work.
Thanks for reading, the Elder
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