140 Words (More or Less) On Tradition

It’s Twitterfic Thursday, where I write about a subject in 140 words, more or less.

Last week I wrote about how Community is my One Word 365 word for this year.

This week I want to relate how tradition plays a part in community.

Tradition helps tie people together in community.  Shared traditions help pull us and hold us together.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s family, local community or faith communities.

Traditions are needful and necessary and, in many instances, fun.

However, we cannot be afraid to be flexible with them or willing to change them.

In a few years, others will be joining our family through marriage.

We are searching for a church and others will join that church after us.

We must be willing to change tradition as our communities change.

Tradition is made for us.  We are not made for tradition.

What about you?  Are you willing to change traditions?  Or do you want them to always remain the same?

Twitterific Thursday Two-Fer Edition: The Bottom 10

It’s Twitterfic Thursday, where I write something in 14o words, more or less.  This is a special year-end Two-fer edition.  T hat’s right.  You get a double dose of Twitterific Thursday today.  However, this one gets nowhere near 140 words.

I don’t know about you, but I have seen a ton of top ten lists for the year.  From songs to movies to TV shows, I think I have seen my fair share.  Several of my blogging brothers and sisters have run their Top 10 lists or repeated their top posts.  I want to go the other way.  Here are my least viewed posts.  They need more love and I learned more from them than I did those that did well.

10.  Working On A Building.  After reading this one, I understand why it comes in at the 10th least viewed of the year.

9.  Back To The Basics.  This was an ill-fated attempt at a series from when I was teaching Sunday school.  Booooorrrriinnng.  Who wants a rerun of my Sunday school lessons?  Certainly not me.  That’s why this didn’t last.

8.  Failure Isn’t Final.  I actually like this one.  This was in the early days of Deuceology.  Please read this one and give it some action.

7.  No Beast Of Burden.  Another that I like.  From July, before anyone was really reading.

6.  Free Live Music.  This one was from the first month of the blog.  It was also my first with a picture.  I got the idea while I was running.

5.  Anchors For Dreams.  I think this one was kind of stupid.

4.  140 Words (or less) About Focus.  One of the early Twitterific Thursday posts, before I added the More to the Less.

3.  What Are You Passionate About?  I was trying to find out what my voice is and what I’m passionate about.  I also thought that I was the next Jon Acuff.

2.  Running Like Children.  Again, one of my earlier posts.  I had no idea what I was wanting to write about at this point.

And the least viewed post in 2011 here at the Deuceology blog……

1.  Godliness Next To Patriotism.  What in the world was I trying to say here?

Pick one or pick all ten.  Read them.  Hopefully I have improved over the past seven months.  Hopefully, 2012 will be even better.  Thanks for hanging in there with me and for your patience.

140 Words (More or Less) About My 2012 Goals

It’s Twitterific Thursday, where I write something in 140 words, more or less.  Today I share some of my 2012 goals.

Today I want to share my six 2012 goals with the multitudes of Deucology readers.  Some of you may ask, “Why six?”  My smart-aleck answer is because there aren’t seven.  Seriously, though, I can’t really answer that question.  These are six key things I want to achieve this year.  They aren’t my only goals, but they are the ones I want to share with you.  So, if you’ve made it this far, here are my 2012 goals.

• Run my first marathon at the Kiawah Marathon on December 8.
• Attend Bryan Allain’s  Killer Tribes conference on March 31.
• Have an idea for a book that I have outlined by July 1.
• Read the entire Chronicles of Narnia series by December 31.
• Lose 30 pounds by December 31.
• Read the Bible beginning March 1 by October 31.

What are your goals for 2012?

140 Words (More or Less) About The Three Wise Men

It’s Twitterific Thursday.  I write 140 words, more or less, about a subject.  Today it’s a few more.  And it’s the last one before Christmas.  This one was inspired by my wonderful wife, Jan.

Balthazar.  Melchior.  Caspar.

Who?  Isn’t one of those guys a friendly ghost?

These are the names of the three wise men that show when barn Jesus was born.  These are the three guys that we sing about in We Three Kings.

You can read about it right there in the Bible.  Right?

They’re in every nativity, live or otherwise, that we see.

There’s just one problem.

Despite what I saw at The Living Christmas Tree this past weekend (put on by a church, no less) none of this is in the Bible.

They show up after the family moves to a house.

We don’t know if there are three of them.  There are three gifts.

Their names aren’t in the Bible.

A lot of what we know about the original Christmas story is just plain fiction.

Read the accounts in Matthew and Luke.  Then report back.

What do you know about the Christmas story that really just isn’t in there?

140 Words (More or Less) About Christmas Nostalgia

It’s Twitterific Thursday where I write a post of 140 words, more or less.  Today begins the Christmas season of blog writing and I will be writing a Christmas post daily for the next 25 days.

Christmas is all about nostalgia, isn’t it?

Listen to the Christmas songs on the radio.  They convey a feeling of remembrance of past Christmases that we have enjoyed.  They point the way back home.  They remind us of what Christmas was like when we were kids.

Christmas is about going back home.  Visiting with family.  It’s about sharing meals with loved ones who we may not have seen for a year or so.

Christmas is about memories and the warm fuzzy nostalgic feeling that we get when we get together.

However, there’s nothing nostalgic about Christ.

He came to die on a cross for our sins.

He continues to work in our lives now.

He’s coming back someday and He will physically reign as our King for eternity.

Christmas may be nostalgic.  Christ is not.

What is something nostalgic you think of at Christmas?  Does Christmas increase your thoughts of Christ?

140 Words (More or Less) About Thanksgiving

It’s Twitterific Thursday and it’s Thanksgiving.  You probably know the drill by now.  I write a post in 140 words, more or less.

Today is Thanksgiving.  I’m not sure what I should write about today.

Should I write about all of the things that I am thankful for today? Christ, Salvation, Marriage, Children, Family, Health, Job and more?

Should it be that I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart?

Should it be about my prayer life and how I should not be anxious for anything, but by prayer and supplication and thanksgiving let my requests be made known to God?

What is the answer to what my blog post should be about today?

The answer is yes.  Yes to all of these.

I am thankful for all of this and more.  I need to strive to come to God with thanksgiving in my heart.  I need to lay down any anxiety and trust Him through prayer.

How about you?  What does Thanksgiving mean to you today?