Dave and I have two new houseguests.  In the beginning, I enjoyed their company, but recently I’ve become annoyed with them. Hubby finds them kind and cooperative.  Probably because his wish is their command. He makes a request, and they speedily comply. He’s loving it and appears overly grateful and mannerly when these womenfolk respond.

“Siri, please set my alarm for 6:30”

“Okay.  Your alarm is set.”

“Thank you.”  (Dave seriously thanks her.  He thanks a robot, and it responds with “You’re welcome” or “My pleasure.”)

The other night, when he asked her to set his alarm, he altered his request.

“Thank you, Sweetie,” he said, thinking himself funny.

She did not answer.  Dave waited, staring at his cellphone.

“Dave,” I said, “You ticked her off when you called her ‘Sweetie.’  You crossed a line.”

“I did not.  She appreciated me being nice to her.”

This scenario was repeated the following night.  Still no “Thank you” from Siri.

“Told you,” I said.

When Hubby tried it with Alexa, she, too, failed to appreciate his term of endearment.

“You haven’t earned the right to call her “Sweetie,” and you don’t live in the South where everyone calls everyone “Sugar,” “Honey,” or “Sweetie.”

When I realized I was lecturing him on how to talk to a robot, I knew that we both were in mid-stages of brain decline.

Dave decided to trick Alexa to determine if she really was listening to our conversations, whispering to me ahead of time what he was doing before saying loudly, “Patty, I think we should buy a new vacuum,” pointing his face towards our new friend. Within minutes, Dave’s iPad lit up with ads for vacuums.

Personally, I found that alarming.

We are entering a world where AI (Artificial Intelligence) is causing us to question where we are headed.  We appreciate that it directs our driving routes, screens job applicants and has tremendous potential in medicine and science, but we must ask where it all ends.

Today, I asked Alexa if we humans are special among other living things.  She said that we were because we can think and be creative. I was glad she didn’t lump us in with vegetables and animals.

In Linda Kinstler’s article “Can Silicon Valley Find God,” she wrote about Rob Barrett, a researcher at IBM in the ’90s.

One day, he was outlining the default privacy settings for an early web browser feature. His boss, he said, gave him only one instruction: “Do the right thing.” It was up to Mr. Barrett to decide what the “right thing” was. That was when it dawned on him: “I don’t know enough theology to be a good engineer,” he told his boss. He requested a leave of absence so he could study the Old Testament, and eventually he left the industry.

Recently, I read that AI writes sermons and that there is an AI Jesus app where the app speaks to you as if it’s Jesus talking to you.  “What is going to be created will effectively be a god,” engineer Andrew Levandowski forewarned and continued, “It’s not a god in the sense that it makes lightning or causes hurricanes. But if there is something a billion times smarter than the smartest human, what else are you going to call it?”

Certainly, not God, Mr. Levandowski.

My God is eternal, omnipresent and omniscient.  He created the person who programs the AI system, and He not only offers us eternity, He delivered it by sending His son, Jesus Christ, to die for us, something AI can only imagine doing.

He is the only god I will call “God.”  I am concerned for those who do otherwise.

Keys to the Kingdom

By Carolyn Tucker

Dad and Mom have been gone for quite some time now; 11 years and 8 years respectively. I still miss my parents, but I’ve gotten used to them not being around. I’m often reminded of their biblical love for one another. I distinctly remember Mom telling me that Dad had given her a heart-shaped box of chocolates for every Valentine’s Day. Their hearts had intertwined so deeply that it was heartbreaking for them to be separated when Mom transferred to a healthcare facility. They were solidly married for 69 years.

There are at least three descriptive levels of love: words, actions, giving. There’s probably something wrong in our mindset if one of these three ways to express love is missing. Love is not saying, “I love you,“ when our attitude denies those words. Love is not doing the right thing with the wrong motive. And, by itself, love is not giving a box of chocolates, dazzling jewelry, or a dozen roses. Love is a steady intense affection that demonstrates genuine feelings of love with kindness and unselfishness.

I don’t want to live a small life that’s full of myself. I want to live with an enlarged heart full of love for others. God is the supreme example of what real love is because He is love; He invented it. Even in this pro-self society, brotherly love is still supposed to show up and reach out every day in every believer’s life. No love is more convincing than the God-kind of love flowing out from our own heart. The best motivating explanation of love is found in the New Testament:

“If I were to be so generous as to give away everything I owned to feed the poor, and to offer my body to be burned as a martyr, without the pure motive of love, I would gain nothing of value. Love is large and incredibly patient. Love is gentle and consistently kind to all. It refuses to be jealous when blessing comes to someone else. Love does not brag about one’s achievements nor inflate its own importance. Love does not traffic in shame and disrespect, nor selfishly seek its own honor. Love is not easily irritated or quick to take offense. Love joyfully celebrates honesty and finds no delight in what is wrong. Love is a safe place of shelter, for it never stops believing the best for others. Love never takes failure as defeat, for it never gives up. Love never stops loving” (1 Corinthians 13:3-8 TPT).

Christ followers are commanded to love, so it’s not a mere suggestion. In the above letter, Apostle Paul is teaching that love covers everything, like a roof covers the home. Genuine love doesn’t focus on what’s wrong but will patiently endure the shortcomings of others. Like a roof that protects, love doesn’t spring a leak. It’s a safe place that offers shelter, not exposure. Love doesn’t tell everything it knows, even if it’s true.  Love doesn’t throw anyone under the bus. Love takes a licking and still keeps ticking. In the end, love wins every time.

The Key: Love never goes out of style and neither will a heart-shaped box of chocolates.

How long do we trustfully wait on God to answer our prayers? A few days?  Months?  Years?   God told Abram that he would be the father of many nations, yet there he was, over 99 years old, and he and his wife, Sarai, had no kiddos.  What was Abram thinking?

“Maybe God confused me with someone else.”

“Maybe I misunderstood.  Maybe He said ‘kids.’  Yea, that’s it.  He’s giving me a herd of goats.”

“Maybe I need to help God and make this happen myself.  Yep, that’s what I’ll do.  After all, God is busy.  He probably forgot His promise.”

God had told Abram that his offspring would be numerous.  Ten years later, Abram remained childless. When God came to Abram in a vision and promised to be Abram’s shield and great reward, Abram wasn’t too hepped about receiving that promise. “LORD God, what good will your gifts be if I continue to be childless?”

I get it.  The only one in the picture to inherit Abram’s vast estate was Eliezer, his servant.  God reassured him that he would have his own son and that his offspring would be more than the “dust of the earth” (Gen. 13:16) and later, the “stars of the sky” (Gen. 15:5).

But doubts began to creep in, so Abram took matters into his own, wrinkly hands.  After all, what harm could it do?  He finally, by golly, would have a “legitimate” heir.  He impregnated his wife’s servant Hagar who birthed Ishmael, never realizing that, to this day, this royal mess-up would cause unending problems between the Israelis and the Arabs.

Abram impatiently moved forward to help God’s will come to pass.  Surely we can’t blame him, right?  Wrong.  God lives in a timeless zone.  What seems to us late, for God is on time. Perfect time.

Haven’t we all been there?  We take our requests to God.  And wait.  And wait.  And wait.  Do we patiently endure, knowing that God will answer in His time? Do we continue to exude peace?  Sure we do.

NOT!  If you’ve read any of my columns, you know that I do not wait in peace. I “do” the first part of Matthew 7:7 well. Jesus says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”  It’s the very next verse that causes me issues: “For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”  I love the part that tells me I’m going to get what I want.  I don’t love the part that fails to tell me how long it will be before I “receive” what I’m seeking. (Not proud to admit that.)

We read that God did for Abram what He said He would do.  Sarai (meaning “my princess”), in her old age, birthed Isaac, and her name was changed to Sarah (“mother of nations”), while her husband’s name was changed to Abraham (“father of a multitude”).  I love that God did that miracle in their old age.  That way, they could give God all the credit.             Scripture makes it clear that God will answer our prayers.  He will.  Sometimes He wants us to figure things out on our own.  Other times, He wants us to grow our faith and trust in Him and His timing. (Sooooo hard, don’t you think?)  And let’s not forget that little “motive” thing.  Am I asking for something out of selfish ambition?

Mark 12:30 tells us that our relationship with God should have priority over any earthly matter.  Do we keep that in mind when we make our requests?  The way we answer that question likely determines the timing God uses to answer us.

Keys to the Kingdom By Carolyn Tucker

Excellence in quality used to be a big deal. I remember when houseware items were made from strong metals that would last. In 1980, I purchased a steam iron that still works today. Nowadays, there’s a lot of plastic breakable parts in the merchandise we buy. Things aren’t built to last and certainly aren’t manufactured with excellence in mind. Anything that’s run-of-the-mill is not outstanding in quality and is considered ordinary, average, and not special. I’m not fond, and certainly not impressed, with the attitude and design that screams “it doesn’t matter.” Excellence absolutely matters in all areas of life.

The Lord told Moses to send twelve spies into the land of Canaan which He was giving to the Israelites. At God’s command, Moses commissioned them to find out what kind of country it was, the number of people, how strong they were, etc. They returned after their 40-day reconnaissance mission and reported that the land was rich and fertile. Caleb said, “We should attack now and take the land; we are strong enough to conquer it” (Numbers 13:30 TEV). But the other ten spies disagreed, “No, we are not strong enough to attack them; the people there are more powerful than we are” (Numbers 13:31 TEV).

Not only were the ten negative spies disagreeing with Caleb and Joshua, they were ignorantly disagreeing with God because God had said that He was giving it to them. It was a done deal, but the Israelites had to display obedience, courage, and faith in order for God to give them the victory. In Numbers 14:36, the ten spies who incited rebellion against the Lord with their bad report were immediately struck dead with a plague. If they  had stuck to their assignment, things would have turned out differently for them. They were to simply scout out the land, not give their opinion.

After this serious meeting, Moses and God had a heart-to-heart conversation about the Israelites’ stubbornness and lack of trust in the Great I AM. God said to Moses, “They have tried My patience over and over again and have refused to obey Me. They will never enter the land which I promised to their ancestors. None of those who have rejected Me will ever enter it” (Numbers 14:22-23 TEV.) God also had something important to say about Caleb: “But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows Me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it” (Numbers 14:24 NIV.)

Caleb’s integrity stood out from the other run-of-the-mill spies. He chose to believe that God would do what He said. God promised to give His chosen people a good and large land flowing with milk and honey. However, it wouldn’t be handed to them on a silver platter; they had to do their part to believe God and fight. Caleb was not a half-hearted individual; he gave his whole heart to following and obeying God. And God noticed and rewarded him for being different from the others.

Caleb was a leader of the Tribe of Judah and was a faithful servant of God, known for his courage, strength, and determination. He had guts and grit and was as tenacious as a Bulldog after a bone. He wasn’t wishy-washy in half-believing and half-doubting God’s promises. Caleb’s character should inspire all of us to strive for a spirit of excellence in everything we do, including following Jesus with all our heart.

The Key: Let’s live exemplary lives of faith and obedience. And a bushel basket of dogged determination wouldn‘t hurt either.

I love the K.C. Chiefs!  I have the jerseys to prove it, and Hubby, bless his heart, remembers my fondness for their memorabilia every Christmas and birthday. This makes me happy. This past game, however, in the AFC championship game, I found myself unhappy–a nervous wreck, to be honest–when the score got close.  “What’s wrong with Reid?”  “Pacheco keeps running into a brick wall; why don’t they throw a pass to the sideline for a change?”  My questions prompted Hubby to remind me that Coach Reid just “might” know a little more than I do.

Hmph…                                                                                                                                  So, late in the game, when the Raven’s rookie receiver Zay Flowers ran 54 yards before being tackled by L’Jarius Sneed, one of our players, he stood and straddled Sneed while twirling the football on the ground. (Not good for someone who had been a first-round draft pick and who led the Ravens in catches and receiving yards all season.) I was ultra-impressed with how our Chief did nothing. He let the referee do his job.  Flowers was called for taunting, a 15-yard penalty.            Soon after, with the Ravens down 17-7, Flowers fumbled on the one-yard line when Sneed knocked the ball out of his hands.  And the rest is history.  My phone lit up from girlfriends across the country, celebrating and thrilled that Flowers “got what he deserved.”

Why is it we love payback?  You act cocky; you learn humility.  You punch first; you’re punched harder.  Justice is served.  Amen and Amen.

Matt. 5:38-48 (MSG) disagrees with that attitude when Jesus opposes the “eye for an eye” philosophy: “…Is that going to get us anywhere? Here’s what I propose: ‘Don’t hit back at all.’ If someone strikes you, stand there and take it. If someone drags you into court and sues for the shirt off your back, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. And if someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.

“You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the supple moves of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.

“In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”

You know, how Sneed acted. Not how Flowers or I acted.

Granted, most of us won’t have our injustices played out on national television.  Still, we are hurt by comments people make or how we are overlooked for a promotion or how a teacher is treating our child unfairly or how our spouse just shaved his head, knowing how much his wife disapproves.  (Pick which of these you think applies to me.)  And there’s no one to call “Taunting” and penalize our offender.  So, we sulk silently, carrying our offense like a tattered backpack.  We don’t allow God to do His work, to teach both us and our offenders the lessons needed to be learned.

Maybe it’s time we learn a Sneed style of doing nothing when we are wronged.

Actually, I think Hubby would prefer that.

Keys to the Kingdom

By Carolyn Tucker

Through the years, I’ve always appreciated the cue for when to stop playing the prelude for funeral services. After seating the family and the minister, the funeral director would walk past the piano and quietly say, “Finish this verse and we’ll be ready,” or “Play the chorus again and we‘ll start.“ His cue to me was very important for ensuring a smooth start of the service. Since I was unable to see what was happening out front, I relied on his cue. Cues are important, but we need to be careful who we take our cues from. Not just anybody will do.

The Passion Translation has the chapter heading, “Characteristics of the Last Days.” Apostle Paul is writing to young Pastor Timothy and boldly lays it on the line: “But you need to be aware that in the final days the culture of society will become extremely fierce. People will be self-centered lovers of themselves and obsessed with money. They will boast of great things as they strut around in their arrogant pride and mock all that is right. They will ignore their own families. They will be ungrateful and ungodly. They will become addicted to hateful and malicious slander. Slaves to their desires, they will be ferocious, belligerent haters of what is good and right” (2 Timothy 3:1-3 TPT). I could be wrong, but it appears these scriptures have become a reality in today’s culture.

I refuse to take my cues from today’s culture because it usually stands in the opposite direction of  God‘s Spirit. Believers are called to be God lovers, people lovers, humbly gracious, reverent to God, and forgiving of others. I believe our American culture is actively practicing what Jesus talked about in Matthew 12:25 TEV: “Any country that divides itself into groups which fight each other will not last very long. And any town or family that divides itself into groups which fight each other will fall apart.”

Apostle Paul later admonishes the Romans on how to live as Christ followers in a pagan culture: “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect” (Romans 12:2 NLT). Believers need to be brazen enough to wisely decide for ourselves by allowing God’s Word and the Holy Spirit to lead us. Let’s leave the crowd behind and stop allowing society to influence us to do stupid stuff. I recently heard a message about how important it is for a shepherd to keep all the sheep safely together. Because if one wanders away from the flock, others will follow it and fall off the cliff just like the first one. Surely humans are smarter than sheep and won‘t do something silly or ungodly just because someone of influence does it.

As believers, let’s not become so well-adjusted to our culture that we fit into it without even thinking. Let’s continue to fix our focus on God and what He wants. If we’re asleep at the wheel, today’s influencers can drag us down to their level of disrespect for God. Many in our culture are faithless, twisted in their thinking, and defy general truth and the truth of God’s Word. They’re far from being trustworthy influencers from whom we should take our cues. I could be wrong, but it appears that some of them have lost their minds.

The Key: Let’s continue to conform to God’s standards and not today’s culture.

Last week, I wrote about how we Little League mothers were asked by our sons’ fathers if we would like to coach our nine-year-old boys in this, the last game of their season.  This was not, I might add, because our hubbies considered us knowledgeable.  This was payback for how we had questioned the way they had handled the team throughout the season.

In an effort not to follow their lead, we shuffled the positions.  The boys were thrilled.  The right-fielder moved to third base.  The utility player pitched.  Who knew what talent had gone unnoticed by the dads who never did anything unpredictable!  When Toby, a small lad who came in only when we were slaughtering the other team, asked to be catcher, we agreed.

Poor little guy couldn’t catch a pitch.  But that wasn’t the only problem.  When we moms noticed a bulge in his uniform behind his thigh, we realized his cup, a protective device for the groin, had slipped from his jock strap.  None of us felt comfortable addressing the problem, so we asked for some help from the dads…who obviously found this hysterical and something we “coach-wannabe’s” needed to handle ourselves.

Fine.  No problem.  I was appointed.  Between innings, I took Toby aside and asked him if he realized that something was caught in his pant leg. He did.  He even referred to it by name.

“Do you know what you’re supposed to do with your cup?” I asked.

He smiled and nodded. “Yes…but it won’t stay there.”

“Toby, it goes inside your jock strap.”

“But I don’t have one on.”

I could feel every dad’s cynical ear straining to hear.

“Well then, just…just…just stick it down inside your underpants.”

“I don’t have those on, either.”

With that, Toby traded places with the right fielder, Greg, who had never caught, either, but at least he had on a jock strap.

Leading effectively isn’t easy.  This coaching thing always had looked so simple from the bleachers. Even Toby probably could have managed better than we did.

The term “arm-chair quarterbacks” was created because of people like me.  Second-guessing decisions coaches make is one of my talents, and right now, with the K.C. Chiefs vying for a Super Bowl spot, I am in high gear.  The problem is, whenever I voice my objections, Dave explains to me why that decision was made…something I never considered.

I wonder how many of us do that with God.  We ask for a “yes,” but He has other plans. Please let me get that job.  Please heal my child.  Please let me meet the right guy/gal.  Please get me out of debt. Please fix this relationship.

We, lacking the infinite knowledge God has, think we know best, forgetting that God’s ways are not our ways, and many times, God’s silence forces us to get on our knees and realize that He is the only One who sees the big picture.  Isaiah 55:9, NIV (God speaking to the prophet Isaiah): As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.            He already knows who will win the Super Bowl.  I’m guessing He probably doesn’t care.  Players and fans on both sides are praying for a victory.  The only thing He wants is that we give Him the glory, no matter what.

As for Toby, I have no idea what became of him, but, no thanks to the dads, I imagine he still brags about his catching debut.  He has us moms to thank for that.

Keys to the Kingdom

By Carolyn Tucker

Everybody thinks of BYOB as “Bring Your Own Bottle,” but I’m not. Nor am I referring to it as “Bring Your Own Baboon” or “Bring Your Own Bassoon.” Nope, I’m thinking of “Bring Your Own Bible.“ When I was a young girl, an older gentleman in the church once said to me, “I can look in the pages of someone’s Bible and tell you what they believe because of the scriptures they’ve underlined.” I’ve pondered his statement many times as I continue to underline in my Bible 55 years later. Howard was also the same Christian man who once told me, “I love ya, but it puts an awful strain on me.”

The value in reading and studying the Bible is not to argue theology, but to learn how to live out God‘s design for our everyday lives. We are to renew our mind every day by reading, meditating, and practicing God’s Word. It’s a choice. After we decide to follow Jesus, the decision-making process has only just begun. “I am constantly renewed in the spirit of my mind [having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude] and I put on the new nature (the regenerate self) created in God’s image, [Godlike] in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:23-24 AMP.) “I put on” is a choice.

I stand in my closet and choose the clothes I’m going to put on. I stand in front of the bathroom mirror and make up my mind as to whether I’ll put on makeup. We make minor preparations for the day and often neglect the major ones that matter the most. In the morning, we sometimes forget to make up our mind to be Godlike. And then wonder with regret that evening why we blew our stack, spewed out unkind words, and didn’t act a thing like Jesus. It’s really not a good idea to try to put our life together without referencing the official Instruction Manual.

Sneakers or sandals, button-up or T-shirt, we’re constantly making choices. No one is holding a gun to our head to get us to put on the nature of Christ every day. It’s our call. Apostle Peter invites us to holy living when he writes, “So think clearly and exercise self-control….So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do…” (1 Peter 1:13-15 NLT.) In order to stay alert and obey God, we must know what He says. Everything we need to know is provided in the pages of His Word. It’s our user’s guide for “How to be Holy” in all of our conduct and manner of living. Nothing is left out in the tall order to “Be holy in everything you do.”

Consecrated followers of Christ are instructed to be holy, which is living a dedicated life to God and being devoted to His service. It’s the ongoing practice of individuals being set apart to God and aiming for moral and spiritual excellence. God never tells us to be something that’s impossible. Apparently, it’s possible to be holy. So knowing and practicing His Word guards against ignorance and helps us in our walk with Christ on the highway of holiness.

The Key: BYOB to church and underline in it. Then when you’re gone, the next generation can read it and be reminded of what you believed.

We mothers thought it a grand idea when our husbands asked if we would like to coach our nine-year old sons in this, their final game of the baseball season.

They had won their conference, so this contest didn’t count.  Why we thought this a grand idea is anyone’s guess.  Who in their right mind would ever want to try and corral a bunch of spirited, impulsive pre-adolescents whose parents care a lot more about their children’s success than these miniature athletes do? We did.

After all, we had coached from the grandstands for years, critiquing our husband/coaches.  We moms viewed this as a chance to prove we could do more than just pour Gatorade, bag popcorn in the concession stand, and bang our rock-filled milk bottles to add a little team spirit.

We were naïve not to recognize this as “pay back” for all the times our spouses accused us of second-guessing their fielding decisions during the regular season. Since I had three sons playing and a husband who had played professionally, the other mothers assumed that I knew how to make out a line-up card or give signals from the 3^rd base position.  They were wrong.

Huddling in the dugout, we agreed on one thing: we would be creative.  None of this “best batter bats fourth, fastest runners play outfield, etc.”  We would mix things up a little bit. So, when Toby asked if he could be catcher, we knew the dad-coaches would say something like, “No, because he’s petrified of the ball” or “No, because he can’t catch”—you know, gutless responses. We would switch everyone’s predictable position.  Genius!

And so, Toby played catcher.

Let me rephrase that.  Toby put on the catcher’s gear.  (Even that is more complicated than it appears).

The rest was not pretty.  Poor little guy was just target practice for the pitcher, getting drilled with every pitch.  The fastballs bounced off of every part of him except his glove.  But Toby was loving it. He would chase down every ball he missed and then throw it on two hops somewhere near the pitcher.  It was apparent to all of us coaching moms that he finally felt like “one of the boys.”  We might make lousy managers but we were sure terrific psychologists!

But Toby’s safety was not the only problem. Another issue became apparent in the first inning.  We noticed there was something weird about his catcher’s squat.  Some blob-like thing was bulging from the back of his uniform pant leg just above the knee.

We “coaches” convened for an emergency meeting in the corner of the dugout.

After we dismissed the more disgusting possibilities, we finally realized it was his cup, a plastic device designed to protect the male groin area; somehow Toby’s had slipped from his groin and migrated down the back of his leg.  Our novice catcher seemed clueless that anything was amiss.

Understandably, none of us wanted to be the cup-bearer of such embarrassing news.  This had to be a dad’s job.  We just needed to find a kind, compassionate, sensitive father who would help us out.  Toby’s parents weren’t there, but surely one of the others would lend support.

We could not believe the united front we heard:

“Hey, we’re just fans.  You’re the coaches.  Take charge.”

“Never happened to us—isn’t that amazing?”

“Guess that’s what happens when you move a utility player to a catcher.”

I wanted to say, “Gee!  You guys are a load of laughs. You should start your own comedy club!”  Actually, I’m pretty sure I did say that, and a lot more.

Needless to say, our husbands were not examples of godly men that day. Whatever happened to Mt. 5:7:  “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy”?

Stay tuned next week for what happened next.

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