Weekend Blog! Tomorrow I plan to return to Suitor Selection but for now let me share a delightful weekend. Friday evening my youngest daughter, Hannah, came home for the weekend. Although I did not get to spend much time with her, she serenaded me for an hour while accompaning herself on the piano. The house was filled with her special giggles. What a delight! Saturday I took the Oswego School chess club to tournament in Thayer. During the tournament the Chess King, Ralph Bowman, told me that I was featured on their school's website.  This is a picture of some of the students wearing clown noses. For the article visit http://www.cusd101.org/ and search for Walter. I would like to make a slight change in the sentence, "His point in doing this was to control stressful things and focus on the things that make a big difference." Thanks for the nice article and to Ralph for mentioning it.
My youngest son, Stuart turned in a great performance at the chess tourney. He started the tourney as the 14th ranked player out of 50 and placed 5th. He was the highest ranked Sophomore! I was very proud of every team member. The teams youngest player, Bryce Anderson, competed in the high school section. This very brave 5th grader proceeded to show the high school players he deserved to play on their level and posted an excellent score. That evening we spent a couple hours at the gym with several of Stuart's classmates. At the end Stuart offered to attend church with me on Sunday and also do special music. The song he selected was an exact topic match! Afterwards, while shopping at a dollar store for small children's gifts, I observed a father with his 3 children patiently letting them pick out small toys while it was obvious he did not have much money. When checking out I gave the cashier some money and told her to anonymously apply the money to whatever the father bought. Sunday morning began with Stuart going to the prison ministry, Beverly (my wife) and Hannah left to visit a church where Hannah spoke about her upcoming mission tour in Japan, while I headed off to the church where I serve as interim pastor. A dozen friends surprised me by traveling over 30 miles to visit the services. They have no idea how great of an honor it was to have them there and I became a bit emotional by their gracious gift. Stuart's song was during the sermon and he did excellent as he accompanied himself on the piano! Afterwards we all went out to eat with Beverly and Hannah joining us. What delightful friends and such a laughter filled time. The afternoon I split wood for my in-laws and fed cattle before heading back to church for evening services. Both churches gave generous financial gifts to Hannah for her trip. Try giving yourself away. Serve others. Measure your day, your life, by how you serve. Serve without any expectation of anything in return. Labels: Giving Yourself Away, Success is Free |
