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The Bread of Life will never mold — The living bread that’s never old.

The Bread of Life is never stale — The appetite alone can fail.

the Bread of Life will feed the soul — Will make both heart and spirit whole.

The Bread of Life will keep us sweet — And help us stand the day of heat.

The Bread of Life will feed out smiles — Will give us comfort all the while.

The Bread of Life will make us strong — Will give us gladness all day long.

The Bread of Life will nourish charms — Will make us brrave to face alarms.

The Bread of Life gives grace to trod — The narrow way that leads to God.

HERE’S AN INTERESTING PUZZLE JUST FOR YOU.

IN THESE REMARKS, THERE ARE HIDDEN THE NAMES OF FIFTEEN BOOKS OF THE BIBLE. 

IT IS A REAL LULU. KEPT ME THINKING SO HARD FOR FACTS, THAT I MISSED THE REVELATION. 

I WAS IN A JAM, ESPECIALLY SINCE THE NAMES WERE NOT CAPITALIZED. 

THE TRUTH WILL COME TO NUMBERS OF OUR READERS. 

BUT FOR OTHERS, IT WILL BE A REAL JOB. 

FOR ALL, IT WILL BE A MOST FASCINATING SEARCH. 

YES, THERE WILL BE SOME EASY TO SPOT, AND OTHERS EVEN HARD FOR THE JUDES. 

SO, WE ADMIT, IT USUALLY RESULTS IN LOUD LAMENTATIONS. 

ONE LADY SAYS SHE BREWS COFFEE WHILE SHE PUZZLES OVER IT.  IN SPITE OF TODAY’S HIGH PRICES.

Both of my parents are retired and disabled.  Daddy is 78 years old.  Mama is 81. Daddy has emphysema, COPD, beginning dementia, glaucoma, and beginning alzheimer’s.  Mama has severe arthritis, cataracts, high blood pressure, and beginning dementia.  I am not complaining.  I’m not even venting.  I am just stating the realities of part of my life.  I love them both and tried to encourage them to practice more responsible behaviors in their younger days.  I cried and begged Daddy to stop smoking all my life.  I begged Mama to exercise more and even bought her a health club membership.  She went only a few times.  In what should be their golden years, their days are filled with medications, therapy, major ordeals of bathing and back to bed.  I love them both and oversee their day to day care.  But much of this could have been prevented. 

I don’t fuss at them now, because that would, in my opinion, be cruel and inhumane, since it would not help either of them.  But I encourage everyone who reads this to do a few things as your parents, elderly friends, or even you age.  It is difficult, so you may have to take it in stages.  But for children, write yourself a checklist of the things you need to know about your parent(s) wishes as they continue to age.  the discussion should be comfortable and relaxed and it may take several conversations.  But you should have the talk and ask some pointed questions.  These should include:   

1.   What medications are they taking?  [Periodically review the medications being taken.  If you have
questions ask the doctor. Are all of those pills necessary? Review side effects.]

2.   Who is their primary doctor? 

3. If they have a serious illness, what is their prognosis and is an alternative treatment possible, better, or available and of interest to your parent[s]?

4.  Get second opinions.  My mother suffered breast cancer because she waited too late and nobody knew about the lumps.  Her regular doctor diagnosed her as being a diabetic and prescribed the meter and insulin.  He also told her to stop drinking all natural juices (I purchased a juicer and she was doing very well) and start drinking frozen juices because the fruit had too much sugar.  I was angry but also suspicious.  We got a second opinion and Mama was and is not now a diabetic.  I had her change doctors and in that respect she is doing much better.  All of her doctors are happy she is on fresh juices not processed and frozen!

5.   If they get to the place where they can no longer live alone, do they want to live with a family member if that is possible, do they want to go into assisted living?

6.   Where are bank accounts located and who is listed on accounts with them, so that funds can be accessed when these decisions need to be made. You may want to enlist the services of an attorney, or at least be aware of who you can contact, if and when this time comes. Each state has different laws. In some state, Michigan is one, all possessions must be sold before a person can get assistance from the State fund to help with nursing home care expenses. Then all income, pension, retirement, and whatever else is available, must be relinquished to the nursing home every month.

7.   Do they want to be placed on life support, should their health push them to that level?

8.    Who do they want to be their spokesperson if that time comes?  A child, sibling, pastor, family friend, family member? Remember it is ultimately their decision if they are able to make the decision.

9.   What type of funeral/memorial service/cremation do they want?

10. Do they have life insurance? 

11.  How much? 

12.   Who is beneficiary and where is policy?

13. Where are their bank accounts?

This is not being morbid. It is being practical. Your parents may surprise you and be relieved that you are enough to put things in place so that they are comfortable when they get older. I speak from some experience becuase I was thrust into all of this overnight. I had some help from some family, but ultimately, I ended up by myself, making hard choices for my parents, with no input from them. I encourage you to be wise, be practical, be loving, be attentive, so that when the day comes, you will be prepared.

More than anything else, spend time with them and love them.  You won’t get tomorrow by wishing.  You won’t get yesterday by regretting.  You have today.  15 minutes a few times a week is better than 2 hours once a month.  Do what you can and be sure they always know you love them.

I am working on a book (Yes, another one) about this to offer direction and suggestions.

The following appeared in the newsletter of a 1400 member church, and was supposedly a letter written from one member to another:

Dear Friend:

Our church membership                                            1400

Non-resident members                                                 75

Balance left to do work                                               1325

Elderly folk who have done their share                           25

Balance left doing work                                              1300

Sick and shut ins                                                            25

Balance left to do work                                               1275

Members who do not pledge                                        350

Balance left to do work                                                 925

Christmas and Easter members                                    300

Balance left to do work                                                 625

Members tired and overworked                                    300

Balance left to do work                                                 325

Those with alibis                                                          200

Those who said yes but meant no                                123

Balance left to do the work                                               2

That’s just you and me – And we’d better get busy.  Especially you – It’s too much for me!

Aerobic exercise may be as effective as antidepressants if you work out enough, say scientists at the Cooper Institute in Golden, Colorado, and other medical centers.  In a 12-week study of 80 people with midle to moderate depression, researchers found that working up a sweat on a treadmill or stationary bike reduced symptoms by 47%.  That’s similar to the effect of antidepressants.  But the amount of activity is key.  Only those who worked out for three hours a week got the mood-bursting benefit.  Thsoe who exercised just 80 minutes a week had no improvement.  The researchers still don’t know exactly how exercisse helps, but they specualte that aerobic activity increases levels of serotonin and other brain chemicals that regulate mood.  Talk to your doctor before you choose walking, biking or jogging ober therapy or drugs.

I have to start this by saying, I have friends and family who have and continue to suffer with depression.  I have suffered with depression.  SEVERE DEPRESSION.  I know it is not a joke.  It is not a made up condition.  Depression is a real health condition, a real problem, an actual sickness that requires patience, treatment, understanding, prayer, sometimes medication and therapy, but it is real.  If you are around someone who is battling depression, help them, offer support and encouragement, pray for them.  Recognize that because depression is not a readily physically recognizable condition, it is just as real as cancer, diabetes, paralysis, muscular sclerosis, and others.  In fact, by the time depression has manifested itself physically, it is in an advanced stage.  Depression is real and I encourage you to treat it as a real health conditiion.

“I’ll lend you for a little time, a child of mine,” He said.  “For you to love while he lives, and mourn when he or she is dead.  It may be six or seven years, or twenty-two or three.  But will you, till I call them back, take care of him for me? 

She’ll bring her charms to gladden you, and shall her stay be brief,  you’ll have her lovely memories as solace for your grief.  I cannot promise she will stay, since all from earth return, But there are lessons taught down there I want this child to learn.

I’ve looked the wide world over in my search for teachers true, And from the throngs that crowd life’s lanes, I have selected you.  Now will you give him all your love, nor think the labor vain, nor hate me when I come to call, to take him back again. 

I fancied that I heard them say, Dear Lord, Thy will be done, For all the joy thy child shall bring, the risk of grief, we’ll run.  We’ll shelter her with tenderness, we’ll love her while we may; And for the happiness we’ve known, will ever grateful stay.  But shall the angels call for her much sooner than we planned, We’ll brave the bitter grief that comes, and try to understand!

Many A Man who is in love with a dimple, makes the mistake of marrying the whole girl, said Stephen Leacock.

I quoted this aphorism last week to a young man who confided to me that he had almost decided to marry a certain girl because she has such “fine qualities.”

One of the grand errors we tend to make when we are young is supposing that a person is a bundle of qualities.  And we add up the individual’s good and had qualities, like a bookkeeper working on debits and credits. 

If the balance is favorable, we may decide to take the jump.  But human arithmetic has an X factor that never shows up on the books.  It is this X factor, and not the qualities themselves, that determines the success or failure of an emotional relationship.

The world is full of unhappy men and women who married their mates because of a preponderance of “good” qualities – honesty, gentleness, stability, generosity.  It seemed to be a sound investment.

Love, however, is not an investment: it is an adventure.  And when the marriage turns out to be as dull and comfortable as a sound investment, the disgruntled party soon turns elsewhere for adventure.

We have lost sight of the fact that a personality is much more than a collection of traits, and that love is a celebration of a mystery, not an inventory of assets.

No one knows why two personalities do or do not get along well together; but we do know that is has little to do with the traits you can weigh and measure and tabulate.

Ignorant people are always saying, “I wonder what he sees in her,” not realizing that what he sees iin her (and what no one else can see in her) is the secret essence of love.  Love is always an overevaluation – a distortion, if you will – of the other person.

Entering a marriage calmly and rationally is like dancing a bacchanal calmly and rationally; it is a contradiction in terms.  It takes into account everything except what is important: the spirit.

This is why living with a “good” person we do not love is infinitely more of a hell than loving a “bad” person we have to learn to live with.  Take a look around and see if it isn’t so.

Mathematically speaking, only 17 good men are left.

Valentine’s Day seems as appropriate a time as any to ask, “Where have all the men gone?”

“It’s been a while since I’ve shopped, but every woman I’ve encountered doing the singles scene has confirmed that eligible men have become as extinct as the whooping crane.  The dating famine seems to have hit the 25-30 age group the hardest.  No one knows why.  Logistically speaking, this is the way the figures add up. 

In 1955, 2,073,719 boy babies were born.  Out of that number, 872,638 died in war, accident, or natural causes, leaving 1,201,081.

Now it gets sticky.  since 10 percent of every thousand get married and five percent of every thousand get divorced, you can assume 15 percent of this total are marrying and divorcing one another, leaving 1,020,919.

A survey recently estimated that homosexuals represented possibly 10 oercent of the males, which brings the eligibles down to 1,010,710.

Of the little over a million eligibles roaming around, five percent don’t know their sign and don’t even care.  Another five percent are tied to their mothers by a food fixation and would never give that relationship up for a girl.  They prefer to hang out with their handball buddies.

A whopping 20 percent are searching for a girl in the traditional role who will pick up his clothes, run his bath, burn her fingers shelling his three-minute egg, run his errands, bear him a child every year, look like a fashion model, tend his needs when he is sick, and hold down a full-time job outside the home to make payments on his boat.

Twelve percent are perennial schoolboys who take two classes a semester, have changed their major 13 times and feel they cannot risk a commitment until they are out of school.

Fifty-five percent of today’s eligible men have gone underground for lack of money.  “Hello” is a luxury.  “I’m buying” is a line they only remember from an old Bogart movie.

Let’s see, what’s left?  A conservative three percent.  Hey, that means there are 17 men out there who are your basic healthy, traditional males who still believe in conversation, time to know one another and are not threatened by new attitudes.

This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.

There was an important job to be done and everybody was asked to do it.

Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. 

Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. 

Somebody got angry about that, because it was everybody’s job.

Everybody thought Anybody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. 

It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.