Two grandparents who have passed away ...and no disrespect, but we laugh about certain things we recall about them.

One spouse:  You should respect my feelings. When I say I don't like your singing, then if you love me, you would respect the way I feel, and not sing.

Other spouse: How can you say that if I love you, that I would respect you and not sing, when by asking me not to sing, you're not respecting me?

One spouse: But, you're so loud!!

Other spouse: I was two rooms away.

One spouse: Well, when I get there, I want to be on the other side of Heaven, far away from you ...there should be plenty of room to get away from you then.

Other spouse: Well, according to your beliefs, you'll probably still be able to hear me.

One spouse: Well, I still don't want to have to put up with you here, or in Heaven.

Other spouse: In Heaven, there is no marriage, though neither will there be bitter feelings.

One spouse: If you love me, then you'd still change that about yourself.  And if they ask you to be a song leader in Heaven, you will respectfully decline.

Other spouse: If you loved me enough to overlook how I am at one time, then why would love be now restricted by it?

One spouse: Certain things should change with maturity. And besides, I didn't know you were so stubborn ...maybe I was a bit immature myself, but I thought I could change you.

Other spouse: Maturity should not be a matter of personal taste or etiquette ...nor should you think that you can purchase a person and change them to what you want them to be.

One spouse: Marriage isn't purchasing a person.

Other spouse: Exactly ...but at one time they did offer a dowry, and many people still think of a marriage in monetary terms.

One spouse: Isn't that what God did, when He sent His Son to purchase us with His blood?

Other spouse: Yes, God wants us to change to be more like the image He created us to be ...but, He gave us a choice.

One spouse: I'm giving you a choice too ...to stop that singing, or find a tree somewhere to roost in, so you can sing to your hearts content like all the other squawkers that God created! 

When you read the entire Bible, the more you read, the more you get a feel for the character of the most important Person there is ...of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

When you listen to a song, or even a speech ...emotions stir, and that's the purpose of the song or speech.

Yet, we don't always know what emotions are stirring ...and if the speech is misquoted, or the song rewrote, it can take on much different meaning.

In 1965, I was ten years old ...and this was a time among many Civil Rights protests.  Some people were gaining ground ...and the some does not always represent the sum.

People are always struggling somewhere, and often struggling helps develop character ...but, never do I say that the struggles that some people had to go through would in any way be that which is viewed as good to developing character.  The character that should be focused on is those who viciously take advantage of others ...which is different than today's version of being taken advantage of by the likes of big banks and businesses.

In 1965, Otis Redding wrote the song Respect ...and as the song was rewritten, or sung by others with a different flare, it can be seen to mean many different things.

All you want, you got it ...

All you need, you got it ...

I'm about to give you all my money ...

You can do me wrong, while I'm gone ...

All I'm askin' is for a little respect when I get home ...

Got to have it ...

Give it, ...

Give it ...

(Now, that can mean any number of things, to anyone's interpretation ...from a simple working man's plea for appreciation for his hard days work, to a mobsters empire building.  Yet, I do not at all look at it as the latter.)

Many things have changed, while sadly some things have not changed for some.  Yet, in a general sense, it seems the majority of people used to strive for survival ...while today, so many people strive for excitement.

Survival used to mean planting, cultivating, harvesting, cooking, doing the dishes, doing laundry by hand ...but now, we turn on our labor saving devices, and go to the TV as a turn on, as only one of our vices. And us husbands often don't cultivate what we should, so the wives find their only exercise ...as shopping.  Who would argue that the exercise program works too?  It's a remarkable reduction program, reducing savings in just minutes.

Don't get me wrong, shopping is necessary ...yet, so is budgeting, and the biggest enemy of a budget is a credit card. 

(Let me note here, that my wife has a job ...and she gets most of her exercise with that and walking two dogs which she also owns and pays preventative doctoring for.  She also does not have a credit card, so our budget does not pose a problem, nor is it threatened in that way.  I wish our federal government would do as well ...but, do not think of electing her for office because I prefer her at home, and she does also.  The children certainly do, and I think the dogs feel the same way ...though I don't know what political affiliation they are.  But, if they believe in a huge national debt ...everything will probably eventually go to the dogs.)

Mom used to leave 'Guidepost' and 'Reader's Digest' magazines in the bathroom. I was not a good reader as many of those in my family, so I didn't sit long on that porcelain post. I would usually just read the back cover of the Reader's Digest ...of all the listings of the articles contained within.

One article was entitled, Are You Happily Married? Take This Test and See.

I remember thinking to myself, and laughing to myself ...myself, because the porcelain post is a place where self is the proper perspective.  There is no properness to imagine 'selfies'.

Anyway, I remember thinking it should rather say, Are You Stupid?

If you are happy, why question it? 

Unless, your happiness is gained through reprehensible behavior.

And if you are unhappy, and don't know it ...would this qualify as ignorance is bliss?

Better not to merely know that you are unhappy, but why ...so you can possibly remedy it.

And it goes back to perspective ....

Perspective is what is the driving force to develop most of our character ...and it drives our motivation, and attitudes.

Corrie Ten Boom belonged to a Christian family which helped people to hide to escape the Holocaust.  After an informant told of the family's activities ...she spend 10 months in a Nazi concentration camp.

Later, Corrie said, "When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don't throw away your ticket and jump off.  You sit still and trust the engineer."  And she trusted the Engineer of the universe.

We can be grateful for the breath of life that God gives us each day ...and if that is diminishing, then we can be thankful for the change we will soon experience through the eternal life God has given us.

Hopefully, any degree of ungratefulness, which we all participate in at some time, does not reach the level of unbelief.

And I don't mean little bits of doubt or unbelief with difficult things that come our way ....what I mean, is unbelief in the grand sense, where we don't allow ourselves ever to believe in God's gift to us --- Jesus.