I love my daughters!  I have been blessed with two:  Gracie 10 and Hope 5!  I want them to be happy and I do everything that I can to try to help them to discover how to be happy regardless of the circumstances of life.

Today, I took them out shopping.  We were on a mission to find a western belt and belt buckle for Grace and a Halloween shirt for Hope!  Of course, when we started looking at belts for Grace, we also had to try to find one for Hope!  The only problem is the size difference!  We tried on belt after belt!  One would look like it would do the trick and then when we got it on – too big!  Mission Accomplished on the belt for Gracie, but failure on the belt for Hope!

We were then off to another store to try to find the Halloween shirt for Hope.  Again – no luck!  To make matters worse, Hope was getting tired and when she gets tired, she does the silly dance which involves a sequence of rolling around on the floor, something similar to what I remember seeing the Solid Gold dancers do when I was a mere lad!  Of course, we were in Wal-Mart, so it was no big deal, just part of the atmosphere, but this redneck Dad was getting a little frustrated at this point.  We did not find the shirt for Hope – we ran out of time.

On our way back out to the truck, I could feel my nerves about to overload and then I thought about how much I love my girls and my frustration disappeared and my nerves settled and I decided right then and there with my two girls in the parking lot, that I would do the happy dance too!  Got a few weird looks, a couple of grins and a really big smile from a lady missing her front tooth!

In the truck on the way back home, I kept thinking about how I could have lost it!  I wanted to lose it, but I didn’t.  If I had lost it, then I would have missed it!  Missed what?   A very cool experience with my girls.  An experience that helped me to understand that in so many ways they are just like me, the me I used to be, before I became such a serious-minded adult!

What I learned today:  Loosen up!  Enjoy life, have some fun and share some laughs.  Hope you can loosen up, enjoy life, have some fun and share some laughs today!

Give Me A Break! Do you sometimes feel like one of those people in life that never seem to catch a break?  It does not matter how hard you seem to work, it’s never hard enough.  It does not matter if you do everything right, things still don’t come together as you’ve planned.  You want your life to be special and make a difference, but seems like the harder you try, the more illusive the dream becomes.  There was a time and place when you used to have dreams, but the hard knocks of life have stolen them from you and now you just have life, if you can even call it life.

Don’t Stop Believing! You may be tempted to think that a blessed life is for other people.  You might begin to believe that dreams are for other people.  Somewhere along the way, you started to wonder why is it that some people seem to always have things going their way?  The dreams that used to be yours are now just faded memories lost somewhere in the yesterdays of life.  You are a decent person, you try to do right and you want to make a difference, but you stopped believing and gave up your dreams a while ago.

STOP! For just one moment stop and remind yourself of the only reality that really matters.  You are the creation of God!  God does not make mistakes and you are not an accident!  You were created out of love!  That’s right!  God loves you and this is the reason that He made you.  Because God loves you, He created you and He created you because He has a wonderful and amazing plan for your life!  You can dream and should dream, because God has a dream for your life!

You’ve Got What You Need! Not only does God have a dream for your life, but God has placed or will place at your disposal – everything that you need to accomplish and make the dream a reality!  Remind yourself today that you are a very special creation of God.  Ask God to help you believe and understand.  Take some time to think about and write down somewhere what you feel like God created you for.  Don’t just think about it – write it down!  Come back tomorrow and we will talk about making plans to use the resources that God has given us to start making our dreams a reality!