Mark LaGrone

Parker 51

This is a 1947 Parker 51 in blue.  I have had this pen for about a year and it was my first antique fountain pen purchase.  The Parker lays down a beautiful wet line that is always consistent, does not bleed through easily, and is smooth as silk. I can leave the pen in my case for a week and it writes immediately.  This pen will spoil you in the way it writes and I find myself looking for excuses to write. 

 

My only real disappointment is that it really does not look like a fountain pen.  I like using a pen that has that “traditional” fountain pen look.  Still you have to love a pen that old that still writes like a dream.

Yes - that is my favorite coffee mug that I had custom made.

 

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of the year.  As a matter of fact, I always hate it when people rush Christmas and start decorating before the Thanksgiving Holliday and the radio stations who try to outdo each other by starting earlier each year with Christmas music. Now if you have small kids I understand starting early.

 

 The nice thing about Thanksgiving is that there are no presents involved.  Before you think I am just a scrooge; I love getting and giving presents to friends and family. Most of us really need a time to pause and be “thankful”. We rush through life never really slowing down and thinking about all the blessings we have in our lives.  I enjoy spending time with family and just “hanging out” with no agenda or pressure.  It is like my last breath before the business of the Christmas season.

 

For the next couple of days just try to relax, enjoy the break, and thank one person each day for what they mean to you.

 

Fall Time

This our view from the front door.  I love this time of year and the red tree really stands out in a distance.  It is a nice rainy day - perfect for relaxing and reading. If only the temp was a little cooler.

Bang for your Buck

As I was flipping through the channels the other day I came across a show entitled “Bang For Your Buck”.  The show was based on three couples spending more on a single renovation than I make in two years to have the renovation evaluated by a designer and a real-estate  person.  At the end of the show the winner is the one who came the closest to getting the most value for the money.

 

I had the privilege of taking some students to a theme park this summer.  As I was walking thru the park I noticed a group of people performing.  I stopped to watch and enjoy the show.  This was a group of 25 students from a church who were singing and doing a drama skit along with it.  They were very talented and you could tell they had put a lot of time into practicing.  However, no one outside of the group watched the performance.  As a matter of fact there were people walking in front of them oblivious to the fact that these young people singing.  At the end parents applauded and everyone dispersed to have a great time at the park.

 

This got me thinking about how we do things in the church.  As I mentioned earlier you could tell these students had put in a lot of time, but did they really get a lot of “Bang for their buck”?   I thought about the hours of practice, travel time, and expense with the hopes of sharing the gospel.  What standards could we have used to evaluate their work.  I thought about my own church and  the ministries I am responsible for.  Am I making the best choices?  Do I need to re-evaluate how effective I am? The real answer? I have my work cut out for me.  How about you as a Sunday School teacher? Are lives being changed? Are marriages and families being strengthened?

 

Let’s commit together to make sure we are getting the most “Bang for our buck” and not just to do things the easy way or just because we have always done them that way.