Tom & Brenda's Family Journal

This morning we had a Skype call with Tommy, Sherry, Anna and Jack.  What a treat to be able to see them as well as talk to them.  Jack seemed amazed that we are within walking distance to Home Depot.  I think that is his favorite store.   We had to go to Home Depot this morning to get the fasteners Tom needed to finish the dishwasher project so I took some pictures to show just how close we are to HD .   This first picture is taken from the entrance to Kristen's apartment complex.  Home Depot is up at the light on the right side of the picture, behind the balloons . We are now up at the corner of Bell Road and 49 th Street.  This is the corner in the first picture.  Tom is standing by the sign for Kristen's apartment and you can see Home Depot in the background.  See Jack-it is really close to us. Now just across the street from Home Depot is Starbucks where I am sitting.  We had 2 coffees and a muffin and it came to over $10 so next time we might try Dunkin Donuts or McDon...

Rick Warren just gave the invocation for Obama's inauguration.  He began his prayer by saying, "Let us pray."  I was taking notes and wrote down LUP even before he began because that is always the phrase used to begin a public prayer.   I think that LUP should be the watchword for our lives both in important events and the everyday events.   We can only pray that Obama and his leadership will always depend on prayer for guidance and that he will begin each day with LUP.

I am encouraged as I sit here  watching Inauguration Day coverage on TV.  The Obamas and Bidens are attending worship services before they begin their day's activities.  I pray that they will  be aware of God's leading in their lives and are willing to follow it. I am reading Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin right now.  This is a biography of Abraham Lincoln's political life.  I am so impressed by how Lincoln treated others especially those who treated him badly.  Lincoln's antislavery beliefs were strong but he still treated those against him with respect. "Rather than upbraid slaveowners, Lincoln sought to comprehend their position through empathy.  More than a decade earlier, he had employed a similar approach when he advised temperance advocats to refrain from denouncing drinkers in thundering tones of anathema and denunciation, for denunciation would inevitably be met with denunciation, crimination with crimination and anathema with anathema.  In a passa...