motive

A guest pastor at a Butler County church asked how long he should preach. An older man named Don, said—Pastor, you may preach as long as you want but we are all leaving in an hour! Sooooo that tells me to keep this “It’s Saturday” short! Some folks' attention spans aren't very long!

Maybe about 20 years ago our son said to me—Dad, what is your motive in doing this certain project (i.e. referencing to “It’s Saturday”)? If your motive is wrong, then you have it wrong, and it probably isn’t going to work!  He was saying I think, if my motive was my ego, it was not right and it probably won’t work. He, I think, was dead on. I never forgot that!

Saturday question—What do you think is the #1 motive of folks in America? In the world? There are many motives that folks have of course. What is our motive for living a.k.a. our purpose of our life?

I was putting my running shoes on (i.e. actually my walking shoes now) the other day and noticed that the tops look good but the bottoms not soooo much. It isn’t that I burnt the soles off as I don’t move that fast. There must be a defect in the shoes!  hahaha  Has to be. They remind me of some folks who look good on the top but if you really get to know them, they don’t look all that good! Yikes. What is their motive to be fakers anyway? But flip the pancake; we were at our 55+ park dance and met a guy who we call Rocky as he likes to work with rocks. He told us that he did something quite impressive for Jeanne’s sister a year ago and we didn’t even know it. His physical look looked way out of character to be that tender. He obviously has a big motor of kindness, and we would have never known it by looking at him (i.e. he’s incognito). Now that was impressive to us!

RickyRick says—"Don’t let the shifting winds of culture and other people’s opinions wear us out anymore. We have the steadfast hope of God’s Word—the only thing in this world that does not change.” I don’t understand why folks won’t change when life is not going well: why folks won’t change!  I just don’t get it. It seems that they would rather keep hitting their heads against the wall instead of changing. I don’t get it. Should I feel sorry for them? Saturday question—What is their motive anyway?

OneSmartPerson says--I have been reassured all over again that if a person stinks a little bit when at the top of the barrel, when we get to the bottom of the barrel they will really stink; don’t kid yourself. I rediscovered this by smelling something about a person the first time I met them and when I really got to know them it was really bad. Ouchy ouchy!  FlipThePancake! I also got to know a person and felt something was really neat about this person and after I got to really know them, they were really great. Bingo! OneSmartPerson also says—But, I have been wrong tooooo!

I read in the paper soooo it must be right that the NCAA playoff is not fair—Not perfect or fair! Well, nobody ever believed that it was! The only thing that’s fair is the Butler County Fair and that’s in June. Sooooo, don’t think anything or everything is going to be fair ‘cause it ain’t!  Just believe me on that! Even when they judge the hogs at the Butler County Fair, there are personal subjective feelings by the judge; don’t kid yourself. I remember in getting a degree that I would write on the test what the professor wanted to hear, and I got a good grade, but it wasn’t what was right nor what I believed. It didn’t matter, I had to say what he wanted to hear. Da! It ain’t fair but it worked! Bingo! Basically, I kissed his butt! That was my motive! He was a big Vince Lombardi fan soooo I always snuck in one of his philosophies!

Robert, anybody can be a Robert, says—"God can change our motives. When I realize I have gotten off track, focusing on the wrong things, I like to pause and assess where I am and where I would like to be. Then I pray as King David prayed during a difficult time, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). I like David, he’s one of my heroes. I think that is good thinking! When we wee buying our books in Beaverdale book store I asked the gal working there that I wanted a book about David and his humility as he is one of my heroes. She said we would have to order one as we don't have one in stock. Later, she came over to me and told me that David is one of her heroes tooooo! Huh, interesting. 

Have we ever had someone misunderstand us as to what our motive was (i.e. especially when we were trying to help someone). I have many times. Sometimes it really really hurts; they just don’t understand our motive. Ouchy ouchy!  When that happens, it can really make us pull in our horns for our future for some time; actually, it can be very humbling as well. But flip the pancake. Sometimes folks truly understand our motive and it feels oh soooooo good (e.g. Jeanne ran an ad in our 55+ community engage communication for clothing for the homeless and low-income folks at Community of Hope where we volunteer. Many folks brought us clothing and were very excited about doing so. One lady thanked Jeanne in saying thank you for the opportunity for me to give these clothes that have never been worn to someone who can really use them. She said it with great emotion.

When walking in our park, a professional was trimming some orange trees, and he was making a mess on the street.  I said—you sure made a mess—yes, we did--But I see you are really good at it—yes we sure are.  Sooooo there!  It appears that some folks are really good at making a mess out of almost everything they touch, and they aren’t even really trying or know it. And some others just make everything heavenly (i.e. they seem magical). Why is that anyway? I don’t think it’s necessarily their motive to do that; I really don’t, but it could be! LuckyEddie says—Oh, I don’t know, some folks seem like they like to make messes (i.e. always stirring the pot)!

I told Jeanne that she is the “star of my show!  Now that is a lot of responsibility! hahaha Some folks like to be the star of the show and others don’t, that is for sure. BUT folks can be the star of the show without even trying, that is an incredible person (i.e. they don’t even try to be the star of the show while others’ motive is to be the star of the show but aren’t). AveragJoe says--On TV the star of the show gets most of the attention! 

I wonder if time is passing me by. It’s a new era and things are changing (e.g. university football play has and is changing). I want to run this by you. I have been doing “It’s Saturday” for a lot of years. My blind copy emailing list probably has names on it that the folks are dead or can’t even read it anymore. BUT I’m still amazed in the large number of you that keep reading it. I ain’t that good of a writer as some of you have told me. Actually, it was never my motive to even do this writing; it just fell in my lap! Here is what I want your opinion about—The younger generations, it seems maybe, don’t care to read the type of material that is in this type of blog; they read way different stuff; the stuff I mostly write about seems to be more unimportant to them. At some point, maybe my material will be obsolete (i.e. just like going to church or checkbooks, or newspapers or stuff in your garage) but I hope not (i.e. maybe there will be a change)! I feel maybe no matter how I would change my style; the material is not as popular to the younger generations and even to some of the older generations.  Any suggestions for me to get the younger folks more interested? This reminds me of a story—An old member of our church in Butler County told me once; we can’t get a pastor bad enough for me to leave our church!  BUT the younger generation, that might be a different story!

But flip the pancake! We went with a group of folks to Organ Stop Pizza where a organ comes up out of the floor and a person plays it while we eat our pizza. ANYWAY, this guy plays all kinds of different music like Fathom of the Opera, star war music, classical music, old fun songs, etc. The biggest applause he got by far was from playing Handel Messiah and Amazing Grace. I never heard him play this type of music before. This is a public audience. Figure that out!

Saturday question—What motives us? Can we really self-evaluate ourselves in properly, totally figuring that out? I discovered that others and I have done somethings or acted a certain way or thought a certain way for soooo long that we don’t even know we-they act/think that way. It’s probably easier to see it in others than it is ourselves. I guess the habit is soooo engrained that we don’t even know we act that way (i.e. that could be a good thing or bad thing). LuckieEddie asks—Do we even know how we act is good or bad?  VioletStllwater says—BoogieWoogieWoogie!

Jeanne and I came to AZ this year with three motives that we wanted to accomplish. We have started all three and are on schedule. Amazing!  It isn’t that we don’t have challenges in doing them as we do. I have a friend from back in Butler County who says—Problems are just opportunities!  I think he is saying--Turn our obstacles into opportunities and our problems into possibilities.

We were walking a dog Jeanne is dog sitting at Red Mountain Park and met two spunky ladies who were in their middle 90s from ND. We said--You girls probably own oil wells and are super super rich--no no, we are are on the wrong side of the the state--We're sorry to hear that--we are toooo!

My guide book says--When we ask, we do not receive, because we ask with the wrong motives, that we many spend what we get on our pleasurers. Whowhatme?

Have a FUN day my friends unless you have other plans. (-:

erv

MyDeceasedFriendJean said--If you see someone without a smile, give them one of yours.