I am watching the Kansas City Chiefs play the Cincinnati Bengals, taking my vitamins and meds at appropriate times, an occasional nap at boring times, and eating the famous superfood, popcorn with a cube of melted butter, cures just about anything. I am expecting to be as good as new in a couple of days.

After this game is the San Fransico 49’s playing the Los Angeles Rams. Probably going to need to pop another bowl full of popcorn.

After the games are over I am going out to my shop and work on the mustang for a couple of hours then come in and ride my stationary bike for an hour and read my Bible while I do. I will also get in some good Christian book reading, and some scripture memory. I will set in the hot tub and the sauna before I go to bed.

During the day I will regularly and often take a mental break and thank and praise the Lord for my life, His amazing blessings, and for Him to use me for His glory.

Sherri and Thomas, our daughter and son-in-law, both got covid and are over it, then my wife got it, and has been sick all week, and now she is mostly recovered. But I did’t get it, I figured I was to tough to get it, you know, being an ex-dairy farmer and all.

I, with help of two other guys in the church loaded up four cords of firewood this morning, and dumped it at our house. When I got done with that I was feeling pretty wimpy so I took a nap and woke up with a bad sore throat, a fever, and a terrible taste in my mouth, Wow, I never had that kind of result from doing firewood before. Must be old age. My sore throat got worse quickly so I took a home test and was positive for covid.

Speaking of positive, there are a couple of very positive results from this. I was going to miss both of the NFL playoff games tomorrow because of teaching responsibilities, but now I can watch them while my wife brings me snacks, and occasionally checks to see if I am comfortable bringing another pillow and blanket. She is a very good wife!

The other positive is I should have plenty to blog about for the next couple of days as I work at inventing new and novel ways to conquer COVID.

I have been getting lots of advice on what to do so as to get over it quickly, but I did my old faithful cure for everything, I ate a Haagendouse ice cream bar. I am feeling better already! I am trying to decide now what my dose should be, once a day, twice a day, heck maybe one an hour. I have heard there is no danger of overdosing!

I plan to get in extra Bible reading, scripture memory, and a couple of books read.

Man, I hope I don’t get over this thing to quickly, sounds like I am going to have a lot of fun!

The definition of humility is multi-faceted; that is, humility is a significant character trait and is described and understood in various ways. The goal is to become humble in our hearts, in our character. The way we become humble on the inside is to act humble, do what humble people do, and as we faithfully live in a humble manner using self-discipline, we will become humble in our character. The most complete description in Scripture about humility is In Philippians.

Philippians 2:3-8
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Humility is all about how we treat people. A humble person puts others ahead of themselves. The biggest place we struggle is in how we talk to other people. The most effective guide for us as we work at being a humble person is to elevate others, build their self-worth, and honor them.

Humble people don’t think about themselves and what they want or need; they are thinking about those around them, what they need. Sometimes we believe that to be humble; we need to put ourselves down; no, we need to lift others up. We don’t do that by making things up that aren’t true or flattering others, but we are “good finders,” we train ourselves to see the positive, the good, and the accomplishments in others and we affirm them with our words.

When we work hard at exalting others, God will exalt us, but if we exalt ourselves He will humble us.

It is a fun project to rank yourself on each of these 26 character traits. Go down through the list thinking about each one, thinking about yourself and how you act, and then give yourself a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5, 1 being bad and five being good. On the traits that you gave yourself a one on, write out a strategy of how you are going to change and bring them up to a 2.

Another way to do the personal evaluation is to rank the character traits in your life.Take the 26 character traits and put the one you think you are strongest in at the top and the one you are weakest in at the bottom and all the rest somewhere in between. Work on growing stronger in just the bottom one, write out your personal strategy of how to do better in that one and then you can move on to the next on the list and work on it.

1. Honesty/truthful/Transparent/real
2. Patience
3. Thoughtful/Gentle/Gracious
4. Deference
5. Humility
6. Diligence
7. Self-control
8. Determination/endurance
9. Honoring of others/free from a critical spirit
10. Orderliness
11. Joyfulness
12. Contentment
13. Decisiveness
14. Faithful/trustworthy/reliable
15. Morally pure
16. Teachable/seeker of wisdom/discernment
17. Forgiveness/ free from all bitterness
18. Thriftiness/ good stewardship of money and possessions
19. Flexible
20. Initiative
21. Gratefulness/positive
22. Loyalty
23. Resourcefulness/creative
24. Boldness/confidence/ strong sense of self-worth
25. Toughness/grit/strong/handles pain
26. Peace/calm/not easily flustered

Growing to be like Jesus in character is of utmost importance because what we are in character when we die is what we are for ever and ever. You don’t want to be a baby in character when you enter heaven. So discovering principles of optimum growth is super important. A significant principle is that I grow much faster with help than I do by myself, and the most effective help in my life is Patty. God invented marriage as the most powerful tool in his arsenal to cause growth to happen in people. But our pride has the power to completely undo or block all the positive influence that our spouse has in moving us to Christ-Like character. It is impossible to overstate all the negative influence that our pride has on our changing and growing into the image of Jesus Christ. It is easy to determine when our pride is intervening in our pursuit of Christ-like character, we have conflict. Whenever there is conflict there is pride in at least one partner but most often in both, just manifested differently. Those who are serious about growth will do a bunch of self-examination to figure out what happened and how to fix it. A man and a woman living together, raising kids together, managing a house together, managing money together, planning their future together, and working at doing all that in unity will grow very rapidly to be like Jesus in character, that is God’s plan.

I am restoring a 1969 mustang with my grandson. When we bought it a couple of years ago, it was a total junker, everything needed to be fixed or replaced. When I go out in my shop to work on it now I have my choice; I can work on the headliner, I can finish putting in the parking brake cables, I can clean and refurbish all the gauges, I can put in the fuel line, I can install the back bumper and valence then install the backup lights, I have all the electrical to do, rebuild the door latches and window cranks, and on the list goes. When it is all finished, it will be a nice car.

I am a total junker, a 1948 junker, everything needs fixed or replaced, and the goal is that I would become like Jesus. I need my self-control to become much stronger, my pride to change to humility, and my patience to increase a lot so that I am not constantly fighting irritation. I need to become much more in control of my time so that I spend my time on important things that have significant eternal results instead of so much playing.

There are 26 character traits that I have identified in the Bible that I need to grow in. My desire is that I become like Jesus in each one of them. Using these various character traits breaks up my pursuit of Christ-like character into pieces that I can attack and can have success in. Some of the things that need done on the car are almost done, but others are just getting started. I have a picture of a 1969 mustang just like ours all finished. It looks beautiful and those who own it are asking $69,000 for it. Wow, whooooeeeeee!

In my life there are areas that I am doing good in, I have grown a lot in becoming like Jesus, but in other areas, I have a lot of work yet to accomplish. As I get up each day I can take my choice on what I am going to work on. It is nice to have a variety of things so that I don’t get bored pursuing the character of Christ, that would be bad.

Right now I am reading about and studying humility and pride in the Bible and in some books that I purchased. I want to conquer all pride in my life and walk with my God in total humility. My, oh my, talk about a junker and a long way to go, this is a major project for sure.

As we pro-actively pursue the character of Christ He will give us the power, the resources, the wisdom, the encouragement, everything we need to grow and change. He wants it in me more than I do and He will mold me like a piece of clay into the image of Jesus as I submit to Him.

I am pretty sure that Isaac and I will finish the mustang before God is finished with me.

I had a great day of fishing on the Siletz river for steelhead. The weather was perfect, a little cold but not bad. We saw zero other boats, so there was no competition. I went with a good friend so the fellowship was sweet. I caught a hatchery fish, a nice fat one that I brought home, and also a wild fish which we released. I also had two other fish on that got off after a few minutes of fighting. My good friend had about exactly the same results except his wild fish was approximately 20 lbs by measurement, 21 inches girth and 38 inches long. It was a very nice steelhead.

Fishing is one of my favorite things to do because of how refreshed, rejuvenated, and re-energized I feel after a day like today. If I could do this once every couple of weeks I probably would live to be 150 years old.

Being outdoors, on the the river, also has a significant impact on my spiritual life. I feel closer to God, my faith in Him seems to be markedly increased, and my sense of His presence grows.

Romans 1:19-20 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

I watched an NFL playoff game this afternoon between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills. It was one of the most exciting 4th quarter of foootball that I have ever seen. The lead changed hands three times in the last two minutes. Patrick Mahomes got the ball back on the 25-yard line with 13 seconds left, the Chiefs were behind, but they went on to win the game. It was back and forth, back and forth, it was crazy.

I thought to myself, the only way this kind of ending can happen is if neither team gives up, not even a little bit. Lots of people in their own life go by the statistics and probability and give up when if some effort was given things could have been different.

This is a really short blog, but I am going steehead fishing tomorrow on the Siletz River and have to get up at 4:00 am.

First Sherri got it, then Thomas, and now Patty. So far I am fine. Sherry and Thomas’s experience was like a bad cold, and Patty’s as well. Mostly just congestion and sore throat, and feeling a bit wimpy. Several years ago I built a sauna on our back porch after reading that it was beneficial to those with Parkinson’s. It is about six feet square lined with cedars boards and a bench. There is a heater on the wall with a bunch of rocks stacked up on top of the heater. When the rocks get hot ladeling, a dash of water every few minutes fills the room with steam. Only takes about ten minutes and you are sweating like a horse. I don’t know for sure because I never got tested, but I think I may have gotten COVID a couple of months ago. I was feeling weird so I sat in my sauna on high, making lots of steam, for 40 minutes. When I got out I took some melatonin and slept for ten hours. When I got up I felt fine. So I talked Patty into sitting in it tonight. She only lasted about 15 minutes before she bailed. We will see how she is feeling in the morning.

Reading through our church prayer letter, there are people with brain tumors, bone cancer, prostate cancer, skin cancer, kidney cancer, diabetes, strokes, heart attacks, COVID, and a variety of other ailments. About ten years ago I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and a couple of years later my bladder quit working so I have to self-catheterize three times every day. I am wondering what will be the next body part to quit working. Growing up, there were colds, the flu, chickenpox, measles, sprained ankles, blisters, maybe even some broken bones or appendicitis.

Most people learn to live life with ailments and expect more to be on the way without getting all tied up in knots. That is just the way it is, always has been and always will be until Jesus comes and then sickness, weakness, and death are over forever. Sickness is God’ tool to keep us focused on heaven instead of this life.

As I push myself to grow a little bit every day, I know that a key character trait is self-discipline. As my self-discipline grows in me so does everything else. Even though it isn’t measurable a high priority goal that I have is to grow steadily in self-discipline. My strategy to grow in self-discipline is filled with measurable goals that I am pursuing diligently.

1. In Galatians 5:22-23 are listed what are called the fruit of the Holy Spirit. There are nine of them and they are all character traits, so obviously these nine are high priority with God. The last of the nine is self-control. So every morning, in my prayer of commitment, I declare to God that I am pursuing self-control and would He please help me. I then quote Galatians 5:22-23, so I know that the Holy Spirit will grant me all the power I need to grow strong in the character trait of conquering my flesh with its passions and desires.

2. Daily doing disciplines that my flesh hates is a key to training myself and acquiring the character trait of self-discipline. I will read my Bible every day, I will memorize and review Bible verses every day, I will spend time with God in prayer every day, I will write my blog every day, and I will exercise every day. All of those daily disciplines have many rewards and blessings, but a common blessing is growing self-control.

3. The book of James in the New Testament says that if we can control our tongue that we can control our entire life. So I will not speak any unwholesome words to anybody. I will not grumble or complain about anything. I will not gossip or slander anybody. And I will rejoice always.

4. The strongest urge that my flesh has is gluttony so controlling my eating is essential to my quest for self-discipline. I will continue to eliminate sugar and flour from my diet as much as possible. I will maintain a routine of fasting that I have established for myself, and I will reach and maintain my weight at 188 lbs.

1 Corinthians 9:25-27
Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.