1. Take every opportunity you can to tell people about Jesus.

My grandad does this as a lifestyle. He is passionate about telling people about Jesus. After years spent on the mission field of Thailand, he came home to the U.S. to a different mission field but didn't change what he did. He still tells people about Jesus every day. He does is by his words and his actions. To his patients, to his neighbors, to his family, even to himself. He continually preaches the Gospel of Jesus, over and over and over.

2. Hard work builds character.

This is a man who founded and built a hospital in rural Thailand. A man who still practices medicine at 82 years old, and not because he has to. For as long as I have known him, he has woken up early and walked/jogged every morning praying every step of the way. A man who raised 4 children and has faithfully served his wife for 60 years (he has taken out the trash every evening after supper every day he has been married). He is one of the hardest working men I have ever known and this directly translates to his character.  You can talk to anyone who has ever met my Grandad and they can and will speak to the strength of his character.

3. If you have a sore throat, gargle with warm salt water at least 4 times a day.



I hated it as a child. Still do if I'm being honest. But the truth is, it works. Every time I have ever seen him or talked to him about a cold or sore throat, the first thing he would tell me was to gargle with warm salt water. My siblings and I would have contests for who could get the farthest in gargling the alphabet. And every time I have a sore throat to this day, I make myself gargle before I take any medicine.




Today, with a baby due any minute and a house full of cold-infested people, my anxious heart needed to be reminded of all three of these things. 


I need to tell people about Jesus with every opportunity, even (especially) myself. 


Hard work builds character.  There seem to be many character-building opportunities in the past few weeks and maybe, just maybe that was the Lord's plan all along.


And yes.... gargle gargle gargle. Gargle.