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Consider this quote from Abe Lincoln

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

 

 

As we say good bye to 2014 this week, we will be bombarded by lists from the various media organizations who feel that our time is spent worrying about who was the best or worst dressed, who made the most money, or a review of all of the horrible things that took place to make news over these past twelve months. Now neither you nor I are probably in line to make any of these lists, except maybe the list of people who are just as poor as we started out the year being, so I like to think of the New Year in a different kind of way.

Gosh No! I’m not speaking of those goofy declarations that we make this time of year of all the things we are going to change about ourselves to make us feel better, only to have scrapped most of them by the time we stumble home with some strange lipstick on our collar after the New Year’s ball. I’m thinking rather of looking back at the year in terms of what I’ve learned. To me that has always been a better stock of being alive and continuing to grow, so here it is, a few of the things I’ve learned this year.

  1. I’ve learned that there are still people in this world that prejudge you based on what they think they know and are too proud or stupid to admit they were wrong.

  2. I’ve learned that getting turned down by a pretty girl for a date still stings as bad as it did in high school.

  3. I’ve learned that death comes when it wants to and no manner of preparation really prepares anyone for it.

  4. I’ve learned that idle chatter is everywhere but meaningful conversations never include more than three people.

  5. I’ve learned that a day spent with your kids is better than a day spent without them.

  6. I’ve learned that the key to happiness is to learn to forgive the unforgivable, but that forgiveness has to come in its own due time.

  7. I’ve learned that finding something that you are good at or believe in, and giving your time to it, can make all the craziness in the world seem a little less so and brings greater purpose to one’s life.

  8. I’ve learned that an hour with my Bible is still more valuable than an hours’ worth of television.

  9. Finally I’ve learned that at the end of every day when I come home and crawl into my bed that if I can look forward to the coming dawn that it has been a day well lived and that I still have faith and hope in the future.

See you next week. Remember, we’re all in this together.