Good investments...

I am a cheapskate at heart. I hate to spend money on certain things. Now I don't mind buying motorcycle parts, electronic gizmos and such but for standard things I hate to spend money. I will never forget my wife telling me about a basketball camp in Joplin that our oldest daughter needed to attend. "She will learn all sorts of fundamentals, improve her game, and get some good conditioning" was the selling pitch my wife threw at me. Then she told me how much it would cost. And not only the cost of paying for the gym time but the travel back and forth twice a weekend an hour away. At first I was against it, "she can run in our hometown gym for free and I can coach her" was my thought process. Of course I knew that I would rather lay around on the couch watching football with her than sweating in an old gym and if truth be known she would rather watch football with me too. Not to mention that my coaching skills are carved right out of the Woody Hayes, my way or the highway coaching manual. But because I wanted to see her be the best she could be I decided to pay the money. So over the last two summers, and a couple of in between sessions we have written checks for extra basketball lessons.

Well last week my daughter signed a letter of intent to play basketball at Southwestern Assemblies of GOD University in Waxahachie, TX. She has always wanted to go to school there, even though it is six hours away and cost around $20K a year to attend we told her if it is GOD'S will HE will make a way. Well HE has made a way, although her basketball scholarship won't cover her total cost it goes a long way to getting her bills paid and I am sure her academics (I didn't mention that she is a brain did I?) will get her some scholarship money as well.

Well I was thinking the other day, we spent hundreds of dollars financing her basketball camps, all in all our return on investment was over 1,000 percent. Wish I could do that in the stock market!!

Brrrrrrr....

I was driving with my wife the other day and I made this comment. "It sure is cold out", to which she replied, "It is December!".

That little statement made me realize how sometimes even the most realistic thing that is right in front of us can baffle us. December is supposed to be a cold month, but we have had so much warm weather lately that I think we all forgot it is winter. I know I had. I was running around on Thanksgiving day in a T shirt, was messing around before that and occasionally only needed a light jacket. But this week, a Canadian air mass moved in and Wham! it was cold! My blood is not thick yet, my winter clothes still put up and I am not in the least prepared.

But life went on without me, the seasons changed without my consent and it got cold not because I forgot about it, but because December is supposed to be cold.

In our lives, let us not get so unfocused that we forget where we are, what we are doing and what the weather outside might be. For in that position we are not any good to anyone, to GOD and we will definitely catch cold!