From the Home Place

April 7, 2026

Good morning to each of you reading this. I pray you have a blessed day, filled with opportunities to be light in a dark world. It is 4:30 a.m., with a temperature of 23 degrees, moving toward a high of 71 with a SW wind 14-30 mph.

I want to apologize for not writing yesterday. Perhaps I need to let you in on a bit of information about my personality. When taking a temperament analysis, I score as an extreme introvert. That simply means that it drains my energy when I need to be around people. Being an introvert is the opposite of being an extrovert. As many of you experience, being in a crowd of people energizes an extrovert. For you extroverts, lots of people, with lots of visiting and interacting fills your emotional batteries to the max, while for us introverts that scenario drains our batteries.

By the time I was around 8 or 9 years old, I started staying home by myself while the rest of our family went to Lusk to sell cream and eggs and to visit, visit, visit. It was a much more enjoyable day for me to saddle a horse and go ride summer pastures all day, or go fix fence, than it was to have to be around people all day. I loved to saddle a horse and take off across the pastures. If I found the need to visit about anything, my ‘ol horse was plenty of conversation.

I share that with you so you hopefully understand that after being in a car with Miss Deb all day Saturday & Sunday, being around a group of people for hours on Saturday afternoon and after being around a large group of people that I didn’t know on Sunday morning, my emotional battery was drained. Sunday evening, I spent the night in a recliner in the living room by myself, not because I was mad at Miss Deb (my best friend by the way.) I just needed to be alone so that I could regain enough energy to function once again. That is why I seldom turn on a radio when I’m driving by myself, I actually really enjoy the quiet.

Yesterday, Miss Deb gave me some more of that much needed alone time when she went to her weekly ladies Bible study. While she was gone, I grabbed a book and sat quietly as I read for a couple of hours. Remember, Jesus often “went away to a lonely place.” In the Psalms, David mentions finding God’s blessings while he was in “lonely” places. For an introvert, being alone is a good thing at times.

You see, I can do a large group of people, if I know many of them. That is why Sunday morning at church isn’t terribly draining, I know most of the people there. To have to do something that I am not familiar with around a group of people I don’t know is just about the worst event I can think of. Yet, for you extroverts such an event isn’t a trial, it’s an opportunity.

Here’s the point regardless of being an introvert or an extrovert, God has a place for you in His kingdom. It makes me crabby when an introvert says, “I can’t do that.” They can do it, just not for a long period time without some alone time interspersed along the way. Remember, “I can do all things in Christ Jesus who strengthens me.” I just need some alone time after such an event.

So, I was not ignoring you yesterday, I was just recharging. Thank you for understanding.

Being who we individually are with you, Neal