• Friends

    Friends

    Day 7-  Do you remember the song from Michael W. Smith entitled, “Friends?”  Today I am thankful for all my friends not just the ones that are in my church family. As Christians, we all need friends that are not a part of our “holy huddles.”  Most of the time…

  • My Son

    My Son

    Day 4- I am thankful to God for a wonderful son. Philip has talent that I cannot wait to see how God uses. Philip leads a prayer group at his high school. He helps with worship at church, a member the school honor choir, and so many other talents. I…

  • My Wife

    My Wife

    Day 3 of giving thanks. Today I thank the Lord for my wife. The last 20 plus years she has loved and stuck with me. When I found out my grandma died just days before my birthday she was there for me. When our son was born…yeah…she was definitely there…

  • Family

    Day 2 of giving thanks for all that I have in my life.  Today, I want to give thanks to for my family.  There has been no greater influence on me than my family and rightfully so.  I am who I am because of my family; good, bad or ugly.…

  • God in my life

    Today, the first day of November; where has this year gone.  I don’t know about you and your family, but here in the Shrimplin’s, it has been a crazy summer.  Unfortunately, the fall has not slowed down either.  We are busy!  That’s why this month I am going to slow…

  • Stealing

    In Exodus 20, the God of the universe sets up some rules to help humanity live in harmony with one another.  One of those rules is “Thou Shalt Not Steal.”   Most cultures have decided that not taking your neighbor’s stuff is a pretty good idea.  But baseball is different, stealing…

  • Evaluate and Adjust

    Baseball is a game of evaluating and adjusting.  The coach evaluates how players have been playing and they adjust the batting order.  The infield gets an evaluation and will adjust where the position themselves on the infield depending on the hitter.  The pitching staff evaluates a pitchers performance and adjust…

  • Catcher

    I loved playing catcher when I was younger. The catcher is the only player on the field that can see all the action. The pitcher can’t everyone but the catcher is behind them.  The infielders can’t see the outfielders. The outfielder can’t watch the other outfielders; they are watching the…

  • Coming Together

       Up to this point, most of my blogs have been more devotional in nature.  Today, I am starting a series of post about a merger, and a new church start that Ottumwa’s three United Methodist Church exploring.  I am not going to post every day about the merger but I…

  • Wish I Was Home

    The other day I followed a link on Facebook that took me to a sign company.  I was looking at signs that are made for churches.  Of course, they did more than church signs.  They also do light pole flags like the one on the left. When I saw this…