kenlassblog

I’m old enough to remember when local TV stations used to sign off the air around midnight or shortly after. The late news would come on at 10 pm, followed by a talk show or an old movie. Then the station would air something you would probably never see today. They would end their broadcast day with a little Christian devotional and a prayer. In the area where I grew up, the devotional was called “Lamp Unto My Feet”.

Finally, they would play the national anthem, with video of the American flag flowing in full wind. Then a test pattern would come up for a few minutes, then static as the signal was cut off. Today of course, stations run 24 hours, never signing off. Station operators felt there was money to be made airing commercials in the overnight hours, and the time slot surprisingly finds a modest audience.

I’m nostalgic about the sign-offs. It’s almost like the stations were saying “Okay, you’ve watched enough TV for one day. Go to bed and get some rest.” Those were the days when the media business policed itself, especially in terms of content and language.

I miss those days.

From the time they were infants, my grandchildren have always gone to bed at night with some sort of ambient noisemaker at their bedside. It may be the sound of rolling ocean waves, or gentle wind and forest noises, lullaby music, or even just mild static. Since I never used any sound to fall asleep, I never quite understood the logic. Wouldn’t the noise tend to keep you awake?

But the other night I was having trouble falling asleep. Guess I just got to thinking about stuff. After what seemed like hours of restlessness, I suddenly heard the sound of raindrops on the roof. A mild storm had moved in. To my surprise, the steady pitter patter above me seemed to help me relax, and I dropped off to lala land shortly after.

I get it now. Apparently a wall of steady noise helps chase pesky thoughts out of your head. Your brain focuses on just one benign, relentless stimulus. It doesn’t have to work to solve problems or plan activities. It can switch to low, easy power.

I still prefer quiet and silence when I go to bed, but if noise works for you, go for it. It is grandchild tested and approved.

We human beings love to worry. I suppose, in some weird way, worrying helps us prepare for adversity. But how many of the things we worry about actually happen? The answer may surprise you.

A study at Penn State University recently asked a large number of participants to write down their daily worries. Then, thirty days later, they were asked to review what they had written to see how many worries actually came true. The participants averaged about three or four worries every day, but 91 percent of their concerns never happened. 91 percent!!

Clearly, we spend a lot of time worrying about things that will likely never occur and are not worth worrying about. If you live an honest, kind and godly life, and do your best in all of your endeavors, worry is pretty much unnecessary. So take a deep breath and relax. Gratitude for your blessings is much more productive than worry.

Recently we took our four young grandchildren to the drive up window at a local fast food restaurant for lunch. They are ages 11, 9, 8 and 5. They all wanted chicken nugget children’s meals, so we ordered four of them. The food was handed to us in four separate bags. So we drove home, got everybody seated around the table, and began distributing the bags.

Unfortunately, when one of the boys emptied his bag, he found his french fries and his toy, but no chicken. As you can imagine, he was very upset that everybody else was munching on their nuggets while he had none. That’s when something unexpected happened. Each of the other three children voluntarily offered him one of their nuggets. They did it on their own, with no coaching from us. The boy was delighted, and all four wound up with the same number of pieces.

It was the type of spontaneous, random kindness and love that gives you faith in mankind. I pray every day those children will carry that sense of unselfish ministry with them throughout their lives. They modeled an important lesson for me. One we all should learn.

Remember that old childhood refrain “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me”. Kids used to say it whenever somebody said something mean to them. It was a snappy comeback. Unfortunately, it was dead wrong.

Words do hurt. They can cut like a knife. The worst part is, damage caused by words is almost never forgotten. A physical wound will eventually heal, but if someone hurts your feelings with words, you carry that memory with you forever. Even if the other person apologizes, you will find it hard to forget the things they said.

That’s a shame, because most hurtful things are said in anger and not really meant. We all need to make verbal self discipline a priority. Think before you lash out. Once the words slip from your mouth, there’s no putting them back in. Sticks and stones will break your bones, but words will destroy a relationship forever.

Have you noticed it is hard to convince young people these days to save money for the future? We live in a here and now culture. The younger generation doesn’t wait to enjoy the comforts and luxuries that only older, more financially established adults can afford. They want them now, and often go into heavy debt to achieve them. This is a recipe for eventual disaster.

Sharon and I were blessed to be raised by parents who preached saving money from our childhood on. We both took it to heart. And we are so glad we did. With the incredible cost of living these days, I’m not sure what we would have done without our savings, and the investment of them. But imparting that philosophy to younger generations seems more difficult. The lure of immediate gratification is strong.

Of course, not everyone is able to save money. They live paycheck to paycheck. That’s why it’s so critical for kids and teenagers to shift into savings mode as early in life as possible. They need to be ahead of the game when it comes time to be self-supporting. So keep preaching.

The future has a price, and many will not be able to pay it.

I recently read about an experiment to improve brain function in an AARP article. The study of around 2,800 people indicated that it’s not so much we lose memory as we get older, it’s that our brains grow weaker in the ability to retrieve information. Put simply, it’s harder to think faster. The study found that folks who engaged in testing and activities that forced them to make quicker decisions actually showed a lower risk of developing dementia.

According to the article, doing things such as playing pickleball or tennis, which requires you to quickly react and think where you want to hit the ball, is an example. Another is learning to play a musical instrument, which forces your mind to quickly think about how to perform the next chord in a song.

So take comfort in the fact you are probably not losing your memories and knowledge. They’re just hiding in a closet and the door is getting more difficult to open. We’ve got to keep tugging on it.

Write it down. That has become the mantra of my life. I can no longer rely on my short term memory. It seems to have packed up and left. So I am never further than arm’s reach away from my little notebook and pen. I write down names of people I need to contact, phone numbers, so many phone numbers. Often I forget to scribble out whose phone numbers they are, which renders them meaningless in a few days.

I write down new passwords, ideas for blogs and columns, bible verses, appointments, honey-do’s, birthdays, shopping lists, and really anything I want to remember. Basically, my life is in my notebook. When I go back and browse through it, it actually amounts to a fairly good summary of the quality of how I spend my time. Sometimes I am surprised at how much effort I spent on silly things.

Maybe not a bad idea for you. Take a moment to write down anything you want to keep in mind. Then go back and review it after several weeks. You may find you are spending too much time in non-productive pursuits. The notebook doesn’t lie. Unless you are lying to yourself.

In a track meet, occasionally you get a restart. In the sprint events, if somebody comes out of the blocks a tad early, the race is stopped and you start all over again. But you only get so many restarts before you are disqualified. At that point, your race is over.

I like to think of waking up every morning that same way. Every day I am given the blessing of getting out of bed it amounts to a restart. I feel blessed with another chance to accomplish something I have yet to do, to correct a problem or a failure on my part, to be a better person, to show love for others more unselfishly.

But just like those track athletes, you only get so many restarts before your race on this earth is over. So make today a better race than yesterday. When you go to bed tonight, do so feeling you have won the day. And even if things didn’t go well, you get to look forward to another fresh start tomorrow.