From the Home Place

December 15, 2025

At 4:30 a.m. we have 41 degrees, looking forward to 57 for today’s high. With a 9-mph breeze, I hope to get some more things buttoned up outside. Today will mark half-way for this last month of this year. Time sure enough is going by way too quickly.

O.K., let me make it clear, I never once felt abused when I was a kid. Times and people were just different back then. You had to be tough to make a decent run at this thing called life. At a very young age, I realized that I was responsible for me. The kind of man I would become depended upon what I learned from being around other people. I had several examples of folks I did not want to become like, but on the other hand, I also had several examples of people that I tried really had to become like – they were fantastic folks who did their best to build positive traits into my life.

I was extremely blessed in that I had several men who set the bar high for my life, and then they invested time into my development as someone who would know who he was. Yes, in a real sense, I was the community foster child to several great families. Each one showing me what unconditional love looked and felt like. They did their best to allow me to be a member of their loving family. Families I still cherish to this day. No, I was never abused nor used, I was greatly blessed and directed.

In 1982, my Heavenly Father welcomed me into His family. A family of unconditional love, a family with high standards, a family that accepts each other where they are, but also a family that desires to help each person find their created purpose and live it to the max. Christianity really is about family! As a family, we love each other through good times and stand by each other during difficult times. We pray for and with others, always trusting All Mighty God to do His work within the lives of our family members.

Perhaps the difficult years of my life help me to celebrate where and how I get to live now! I am so blessed to have an absolute soul mate for a wife. She blessed me with three amazing little ones who are now great parents, individuals and people who care for other people in genuine ways. And from the three, we have received a passel of grandchildren, and now we are being blessed with great-grand-children! I LOVE our family!

And then there are the church families that Miss Deb and I have been blessed to get to be a part of over these last 40+ years. We have been given deep relationships all over this country (we spent yesterday afternoon with one of those groups of dear family members). Man, what a life we have lived, and what a life we look forward to living, until our Lord calls us to come and spend eternity at His house!

No, I am not abused, I am abundantly blessed! I have experienced the truth that the difficult circumstances of this world are God’s way of giving us two choices: we can either become bitter or better. Please, allow the difficulties of your life to be the hands of God, shaping you into who He wants you to become. After all, if we work with God, it sure makes this journey way more enjoyable.

Jesus tells us that “each day has enough troubles of its own.” Use those troubles to help you build a solid foundation to stand on, holding onto the hand of Jesus all the way. I join the Apostle Paul in stating, “but not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, … “(Rms.5:3-5) “Tribulation,” difficult times, are intended to help us become who God wants us to be, or they can help us remain who Satan wants us to be. We each have to decide which one we will work with, realizing that we will live with that family for eternity. As Joshua stated, “I choose God.” (paraphrase)

Choosing to follow God with you, Neal