Born in the Southern USA on November 15, 1941,to a traditional husband,wife,children family, my views tend to be both traditional and conservative. I am a Christian by family background and a follower of Jesus Christ by personal choice.
I flunked out of one school (Georgia Tech - Mechanical Engineering), graduated from another(Middle Tennessee State University - Political science) and completed the course work for a Masters degree at another( University of Tennessee - Political Science). This experience taught me a valuable lesson. Enjoy what you are doing or you will not do well at it. I wish I had taken that lesson to heart early on. I have spend the majority of my life as a salesman when I should have spent it elsewhere; perhaps in the ministry or college level teaching. I tend to enjoy the creative process more than the detailed work of completing a project.
Full time work has included high school teacher and coach, industrial engineer, life insurance sales, stock broker, business owner, insurance brokerage department head, real estate and retail. Part time work has been as a part time local pastor for two rural churches in Middle Tennessee. Of all the jobs I have had, the retail sales is the least financial rewarding but the most personally gratifying. I got to interact with people and engage them in relatively short but often intense conversations. The second most enjoyable activity is writing on one of my two blogs.
"View From the Fall" is my attempt to pass on some of the wisdom learned from my life experiences. It also attempts to fill a void I feel in my own family experience. I know every little about my own father and mother or any of my grandparents. I would love to know their thoughts and advise as well as their historic information. The "View.." is written so that my grandchildren do not have a similar void in their family experience.
"I Believe" (now titled Christianity 100) is both a personal blog as well as one attempting to pass on my religious views to my descendants. On the personal side, I need to explore my faith more completely. I taught Sunday School and have been a part time pastor but neither of these satisfy my desire to flesh out and firm up my religious beliefs. There is something about writing down the beliefs that cements them in your very being. I can carry myself well in a good religious discussion but writing establishes a base line to which others can hold you accountable. It also holds me accountable.
My first marriage lasted 21 years and produced two daughters. Though their mother and I were not able to have a long and successful marriage, our daughters seem to have this marriage thing down pat. Perhaps, in God's wisdom, they were able to learn from their parent's mistakes as they build their own families. My second marriage is in its 19th year and added three step children, two sons and a daughter. The boys were 15 and 18 when we married and the daughter was 5. Over the years, I have grown to love them as part of my family. From these five children, we currently have five fantastic grandchildren. Through both marriages and through the raising of these children, I have learn another important lesson. Love sounds wonderful but hard work and persistence and commitment are the glue that holds families together. I have learned that you can not control your adult children but you can influence them through your example. You give up control when they become adults but the influence of your example is never lost.
Spiritually, I was raised and spent most of my early years in the United Methodist Church. I was baptized as a baby, and latter baptized by sprinkling as a young 10 years old in the Presbyterian Church. Currently, my wife and I attend a Southern Baptist Church (in 2011, I was baptized by immersion). As a United Methodist, I taught Sunday School for twenty years to a group of young adults. Well, we were young adults when we started. At the end of that time, about the time my first marriage was being dissolved, I began working as a part time Pastor in five small rural Methodist Churches in Middle Tennessee. I was a pretty good pulpit preacher but a lousy Church administrator, hated paperwork and reports, and an okay pastor to my congregations. Because of the distance and the time commitment, I could not visit as much as I should and did very little in evangelism. My greatest moment came when I baptized my brother who was dying of cancer. Perhaps, God lead me to be a part time pastor for that single moment when a dying man was saved from an life separated eternally from The Father's presence.
Obviously, I am a product of my birth, my family and my experiences in life. These factors have shaped my outlook on life and my opinions on the events that impact all our lives. For good or not, this is who I am and these are my thoughts, feeling and reactions to life.
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