You will enjoy the new insights that Rick Warren has

You will enjoy the new insights that Rick Warren has, with his wife now having cancer and him having 'wealth' from the book sales. This is an absolutely incredible short interview with Rick Warren, 'Purpose Driven Life ' author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California.


In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said:
People ask me, What is the purpose of life?
And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.


One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me.
I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity..


We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.
Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one.
The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort; God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.


We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.
This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.
I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.


Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life.
No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on.
And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.
You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems:
If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, which is my problem, my issues, my pain.' But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.


We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her- It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.


You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.
Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy.
It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease.


So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.
First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit.. We made no major purchases.
Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.


Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation.


Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free. We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?
Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?


When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do.
That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.

Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD..

Goin Back Down memory lane

....Before the Internet or PC or the MAC......

....Before semi-automatics and crack....

....Before PlayStation, SEGA, Super Nintendo, even before Atari...

....Before cell phones, CD's, DVD's, voice mail and e-mail....

....way back....

....way.....way.....way back.....

I'm talkin' bout hide and seek at dusk

Red light , Green light

Red Rover....Red Rover.....

Playing kickball & dodge ball until the first...no...second...no...third

Streetlight came on

Ring around the Rosie

London Bridge

Hot potato

Hop Scotch

Jump rope

Duck....duck....GOOSE!!!

YOU'RE IT!!



Parents stood on the front porch and yelled (or whistled) for you to come home - no pagers or cell phones!

Mother May I?

Hula Hoops

Seeing shapes in the clouds

Endless summer days and hot summer nights (no A/C) with the windows open

The sound of crickets

Running through the sprinkler

Happy Meals

Cereal boxes with that GREAT prize in the bottom

Cracker jacks with the same thing

Ice pops with 2 sticks you could break and share with a friend

...but wait.....there's more....

Watchin' Saturday Morning cartoons

Fat Albert, Road Runner, Smurfs, Picture Pages, G-Force & He-Man,

Schoolhouse Rock

Watchin' Sunday morning oldies (Abbott & Costello, Three Stooges)

Wonder Woman & Super Man Underoos

FONZIE.....AYYYYYYYY

Playing Dukes of Hazard

Catchin' lightning bugs in a jar


Christmas morning


Your first day of school

Bedtime Prayers and Goodnight Kisses

Climbing trees


Swinging as high as you could to try and reach the sky

Getting an Ice Cream off the Good Humor Truck

A million mosquito bites and sticky fingers

Jumpin' down the steps

Jumpin' on the bed

Pillow fights

Sleep-overs

A 13" black and white TV in your room meant you were RICH

Runnin' till you were out of breath

Laughing so hard that your stomach hurt

Being tired from PLAYING

WORK: meant taking out the garbage or doing the dishes

Your first crush*

Your first kiss (I mean the one that you kept your mouth CLOSED and your eyes OPEN)

Rainy days at school meant playing "Heads up 7UP" or "hangman" in
The classroom, Remember that?

Oh, I'm not finished yet....

Kool-Aid was the drink of the summer

So was a swig from the hose

Giving your friends a ride on your handlebars


Wearing your new shoes on the first day of school

Class Field Trips with soggy sandwiches

When nearly everyone's mom was at home when the kids got there

When a quarter seemed like a fair allowance;


and another quarter, a MIRACLE

When ANY parent could discipline ANY kid, or feed him, or use him

to carry groceries...And nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it.

When your parents took you to McDonald's and you were COOL

When being sent to the Principal's office was nothing compared to....

the fate that awaited you at home!!*


Basically, we were in fear for our lives but it wasn't because of


drive by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc.


Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! And some of

us are still afraid of em!


Didn't that feel good? Just to go back and say, "Yeah, I remember that!"


Well, let's keep going!!

Let's go back to the time when...

Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-mo"

Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "do over!"

"Race issues" meant arguing about who ran the fastest.


Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in "monopoly"


Catching fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening


It wasn't odd to have two or three "best" friends.

Being old, referred to anyone over 20. (CRAP! I'm officially old!)


The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was cooties.


Nobody was prettier than Mom


Scrapes and bruises were kissed by mom or grandma and made better


It was a big deal to finally be tall enough to ride the "big people" rides at the amusement park.

Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true.

Abilities were discovered because of a "double-dog-dare"


Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles.

The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team.

Water balloons were the ultimate, ultimate weapon.


Older siblings were your worst tormentors, but also your fiercest protector

If you can remember most or all of these, then you have LIVED!!!

Pass this on to anyone who may need a break from their "grown up" life......I TRIPLE DOG DARE YA!!!!!!

If dads was to raise kids all by themselves?

BOYS WOULD READ MORE



Kids would get more rest.



Work would get done more efficiently.

Potty training? Who needs it!



&of course the kids would be much more able to express their emotions!



put a smile on your face or a dog will come out and pee on your screen!

Morning Humor!!]

A father passing by his son's bedroom was astonished
to see the bed was nicely made and everything was
picked up. Then he saw an envelope propped up
prominently on the center of the bed. It was
addressed, "Dad".

With the worst premonition, he opened the envelope and
read the letter with trembling hands:

Dear Dad, It is with great regret and sorrow that I'm
writing you. I had to elope with my new girlfriend
because I wanted to avoid a scene with Mom and you.
I've been finding real passion with Joan and she is so
nice-even with all her piercing, tattoos, and her
tight Motorcycle clothes. But it's not only the
passion dad, she's pregnant and Joan said that we will
be very happy. Even though you don't care for her as
she is so much older than I, she already owns a
trailer in the woods and has a stack of firewood for
the whole winter. She wants to have many more children
with me and that's now one of my dreams too.

Joan taught me that marijuana doesn't really hurt
anyone and we'll be growing it for us and trading it
with her friends for all the cocaine and ecstasy we
want. In the meantime, we'll pray that science will
find a cure for AIDS so Joan can get better; she sure
deserves it!!

Don't worry Dad, I'm 15 years old now and I know how
to take care of myself. Someday I'm sure we'll be back
to visit so you can get to know your grandchildren.

Your son, John

PS: Dad, none of the above is true. I'm over at the
neighbor's house.

I just wanted to remind you that there are worse
things in life than my report card that's in my desk
center drawer. I love you! Call when it is safe for me
to come home.

Many people will walk in and out of your life. But only true friends will leave footprints in your heart. To handle yourself, use your head; To handle others, use your heart.

Anger is only one letter short of danger. If someone betrays you once, it is his fault; If he betrays you twice, it is your fault.


Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people.

He, who loses money, loses much; He, who loses a friend, loses much more; He, who loses faith, loses all.

Beautiful young people are accidents of nature,

Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself.

Friends, you and me ... You brought another friend .. And then there were 3 . We started our group ... Our circle of friends ... There is no beginning or end ...

Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is mystery.


Today is a gift. It's National Friendship Week. Show your friends how much you care .... God bless America - and those who defend her

work vs family

Are you aware that if we died tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of days. But the family we left behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives. Come to think of it, we pour ourselves more into work than into our own family, an unwise investment indeed, don't you think? What is behind the story? Do you know what the word FAMILY means?
FAMILY = (F)ATHER (A)ND (M)OTHER (I) (L)OVE (Y)OU