My Pond

I have always wanted a pond or lake built on my property. I have lots of land but no water. Well, today my pond was finished. It is about an acre in size and is 10 to 14 feet deep. It will take a long time to fill up.

I still have lots of work to do. I will plant grass around the outsides. For a background I will plant lots of evergreen trees. I believe one day it will be a beautiful thing to look at.

I will stock it with lots of fish. Bass, bream, and catfish will be the main fish I stock. I will also stock it with minnows. Hopefully it will be a place where my wife can go fishing and not get board. If she is not catching one every 2 minutes she gets board.




I thank the Lord for this pond. He has blessed me toooo much over the years. I praise Him for His goodness on my wife and me. What a joy it is to see God's blessings and to appreciate them.

I don't know if you can see the high spot but that will be a place for a carport and picnic table. I'm so excite about working to make the pond a beautiful place.

alight

What a recovery!

As my wife recovers from her brain surgery earlier this year I am still amazed at her progress. Here in this picture Dale and our daughter Andrea are running a 5K race. She has ran several races this fall and continues to improve.

Three cancer spots on her liver, one on her hip, two on her spine and the two tumors on her brain and the last time Dale was checked (cat scans, mri, test of all kinds) no cancer was found at all.

Want to see a miracle? Look at the picture.

"Thank You Lord Jesus for Dale's healing."

alight

alight's hummingbirds

I have been feeding hummingbirds for years. This year I got a new feeder and started mixing up my own nectar. I use 3 parts water and 1 part sugar. They like it! I go through a quart and one half each day. Kind of gets a little on the expensive side but they are worth it. I so enjoy watching them. They are so use to me that I can sit down right beside the feeder and they come back in flocks.

It is getting late in the season and now they are feeding more in preparation for their long flight south. I know I have at least 15, probably more. I also have another feeded over to one side.

alight

Davis Homegrown Triathlon 2010

I put some pictures together of a triathlon that my family put on this July. It was way more work than I expected but worth it all. Will I ever do it again? We will see.

alight

P. S. Dale did great in the 1/4 mile swim. Now she is running again. The last CAT scan showed no spots in her liver!!!!!

Some good news!

Dale finally had enough with her oncologist. His bedside manner was like hugging a porcupine. He just would not listen when we would tell him things. When he missed the tumor growing in her brain, knowing that his chemo would not pass the brain/body blood barrier, well that done it.

We did our research and came up with a new oncologist. She specializes in breast cancer and is highly recommended. When Dale told her brain surgeon that she had changed doctors to this new one he said, “Major upgrade!”

Today my sweetie got the best news ever. She was so excited when I talked to her. I was at work and when I called her to check on her day I knew before she even told me that I was in for a treat. I was not let down!

Her CT scan showed NO sign of cancer in her liver!! There was 3 and now there is none, zero. Her first oncologist said that there was no cure. That she was wanting her cake and eat it too. He told her and us time and time again that her days were numbered.

I still wonder if all the chemo she has taken has done any good. I truly believe that the Lord is working miracles in her life. The three spots in her bones are still there so we must keep praying and hoping for more miracles. Two months ago Dale could walk to the mailbox and back and have to take a 2 hour nap. Now she is swimming ¼ mile in right at 11 minutes.

Praise the Lord God Almighty!

alight

Davis Homegrown Triathlon

On July 24th our family will be putting on a local triathlon. There will be around 15 people doing the 1/4 mile swim, 13 mile bike ride and 5K run. The days event will start at 7:00am will the triathletes setting up their transition areas and getting their race packets.

There is no charge for this race. It is our first triathlon and if all goes well we will make it an annual event. You would not believe all the effort put into this race. We have tried to think of everything and I believe the racers will be impressed.

With the finishing touches being completed Friday all will be set. Dale will be doing the swimming leg of the race and then she will be helping with the race. Andrea will will be doing the whole race and I will be in my kayak, pickup and at the finish line.

It will be a hot day and the bike ride has one long hill but I believe it will be fun. I like planning stuff and am excited about putting this on. With all the mission trips that I have planned it has helped me to plan this one no doubt.

alight

Tennessee's Hurricane Katrina

As I check my rain gauge for the last time the total was 14.8 inches. All this rain came in a 1 1/2 days. I live on West Trace "CREEK" Road here in Waverly Tennessee. Needless to say the creek turned into a river. It flooded hundreds of homes up and down the creek. I live kind a on a hill so I was safe from the creek but not many houses can stand that much rain.

The drain pipe around the foundation of my home could not take any more load and water seeped into the basement. I did pump it out and today it is all dry. Not so lucky for my church basement. I sent all morning today tearing up carpet and hauling it off.

As I watched the Nashville news I could only think of Hurricane Katrina. Middle and West Tennessee was flooded all over. No telling how many thousands of home where standing in water. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District said that this was a once in one thousand years occurrence. I hope so.

My wife, daughter and son-in-law ran a race that morning an hour south of here. So many roads were closed that it took them over 5 hours to get back home. My daughter and son-in-law spent the night with us because there was no way they could get back home in Nashville. The next morning at 8:00am they start home. At 7:00pm a boat picks them up on I40 (Interstate) and carries them to a Humvee waiting to carry them to a Red cross shelter. Nashville is only an hour and 15 minutes from my home.

We will be weeks, no months recovering from this disaster. We have so much water that our rivers will be weeks getting back down to normal, barring no more heavy rains.

God says in the last days there will be all kinds of natural disasters, wars and rumors of wars, signs in the heavens and on earth as never seen before. Hmm, everywhere I look these days I am seeing such things. Could it be?

Blessings,

alight

When it rains, it pours.

For those of my readers that do not know, my wife has breast cancer. She come down with cancer about 4 years ago. It came back 2 years ago in her hip, 2 vertebra and her liver. For 23 months now there has been NO change, growth or spreading. Praise the Lord for holding it in check.

The chemo has been very rough on her but she is a trooper. She continues to be an avid runner and exerciser. Her doctor changes her chemo to a different one about ever 6 months because it weakens her so much. Each different kind has it's own bad side effects. Her hair is now growing back from the last kind of chemo.

Well, 3 weeks ago she had a treatment and the next day something strange started to happen to her. Within a week her whole left side was not working normally. She is going to have another pet scan in a week but we think she has had a mini stroke.

It seems in this life that when it rains it pours. Because of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ we have kept our sanity. "Thank You Jesus that we can always trust in You to see us through whatever this life throws at us." We believe Jesus still heals and will do miracles. It keeps us going.

We believe in the power of prayer and encourage everyone to remember Dale in prayer. You don't know how much it helps us to keep on keeping on when we know that others are going to our Lord on Dale's behave.

Blessings,

alight

It’s time for a new bible.

My wife bought me a new bible many years ago for my birthday. She had my name put on the front cover and it was real nice. After many years of use it started to fall apart so I bought a cover to go on it. Well, the other day I decided to retire it and get a new one. I found a nice one that was almost the same as the one my wife gave me.

I have read through the bible many times. One year I read through the New Testament over and over. I come up with the idea of writing the New Testament down by hand hoping that I would pick up things. I have the whole copy of the New Testament now in my own hand writing.

One year I read the bible an hour a day. That was very hard because of a busy life. One day I was on a road trip out west and had traveled from 2:00 am till late in the evening. It was 11:00 pm when I realized that I had not read my bible that day. I jumped up out of the hotel bed and to keep from waking anyone up I sneaked outside and read my bible in the truck.

I have highlighted tons of scriptures in the old bible. Many times I have reread a highlighted verse and wondered why I highlighted it to begin with. I guess the Lord was telling me something for that particular time. To me the bible is alive.

Well, I have ordered new highlight pencils so I am ready to color up my new bible when the Lord moves me. I am excited to have my new bible and hope that this one will last the rest of my life. It sure is hard to break in another one. My old bible and I were kind of close.

alight

When is spring?

I was reading this morning in Acts 14:17, “Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.”

I don’t know about you but I will be “filled with joy” when spring arrives. Here in Tennessee we have 4 seasons and this year the winter has been long and cold and snowy and …. did I mention long? It must be the global warming (oops! sorry, climate change).

I am reminded that our seasons are for a reason and that as long as this world as we know it lasts we will have seasons with cold, mild and warm weather. As you can probably tell, I am not too worried about all the talk in the news and from our liberal left about climate change. I am just antsy about the coming of spring.

This morning as my wife and I went for our run the wind was still cold when the wind was in our face but all we had to do is get out of the wind and the sun was warm and pleasant. Spring can’t be too far away. It will not be long and we will be wishing for cooler weather when we are sweating in the heat of summer. Go figure.

So for those of you who are getting cabin fever like myself, it want be long! We will be planting our gardens and mowing the yard in no time. Spring has got to be just right around the corner.

Blessings,

alight

The Cross

"And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." —Luke 9:23

I tell you the truth, I lie not, I come after Jesus. Where else would I go? Who else can save me? No one but Jesus! But do I deny myself and do I take up my cross daily? That is the question that I ask all the time.

And the answer to that question is… not always. I have so many things in this life to distract me like my job, my family, my hobbies. Then when I have time to sit down and it is finally quiet and I have time to think, I realize what a fool I can be.

Jesus gave His all for me and for you. He came into this world and lived a perfect life and went to the cross and died that we would not have to. He took our sins upon Himself and carried them away, never to be remembered again.

O the old rugged cross, with all the grief and shame it symbolizes is so precious to me. It is a reminder of how much Jesus loved the Father and how much He loved me.

“Father, forgive me when I am lazy or busy doing other things. I pray, I beg that You will remind me daily to deny myself and take up my cross and follow Jesus.”

Amen

Let us come boldly to the throne of grace.

Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16

This morning I was doing my reading from the book of Hebrews and when I came across this very familiar verse I just had to stop and ponder on it for a while. I must admit that I try to keep up with the news. Not just in this country but all over the world. It is a wonder that I am not depressed all the time with all the bad news that I hear.

But in stead of taking a pill for depression I am constantly reminded that there is also Good News. Good News just like I read this morning. We can come boldly to our Maker and find help in these troubled times. The only time that I find myself not coming boldly to the throne of grace is when I feel that I have disappointed the Lord of grace.

My daily prayers are filled with, "Lord, led me into Your perfect will" and " Revive me and draw me closer to Your side". I have never considered myself to have reached that prefect place in God's will and I'm sure that I will not in this life but that is the place I want to be. So, I must press on and continue daily to get to that place.

Let us come boldly every day to the place where we can find help, the throne of grace so that we can find mercy when we fall short and help in these troubled times. We can always count on the Lord to provide that help that we will all need in these last days.

Blessings,

alight

What A Difference

“But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” What a difference is the acceptable sacrifice that pleases our God compared to the sacrifice that pleases a Muslim’s god.


As I read the head lines this morning at all the road side bombs and suicide bombing I think back to Hebrews 13 and some say we (the Christians and Muslims) have the same God. I don’t think so!


For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not parish but have everlasting life. That is the God I serve. He did not attract me by the sword but by His great love. John 3:16

I do not work for Him because I am hoping that someday my good works will out weigh my bad works. No, I work for the Lord because “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10

I praise the Lord God Almighty (the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ) that I was born in the USA and not Saudi Arabia. I look forward to the day that I get to go to my next Home and I will not get there by a bomb strapped around my body but by the Word of the Lord saying, “Come up hither.”

As I end my prayers every night,

Come Lord Jesus!

alight

What if?

As I watched the news tonight my heart goes out to the poor people of Haiti. Not only have thousands of loved ones been lost in the powerful earthquake but thousands of homes were left in heaps.

I also noticed how desperate some were for food and water. How we take so lightly good water and food here in this country. What would happen here in our cities if such a thing occurred? We got a peek of what would happen with Katrina. But what if it was wide spread?

We are hopefully coming out of a recession that some thought at first would be a depression like the one we had around 1930. The difference today is that the majority of Americans today live in cities. Those old films of food lines and such were city people. The country folk also had it rough but nothing like those who within one week were out of food.

God says in His Word that in the last days there will be earthquakes, famine, disease, etc. He also says there will be scoffers. I believe we are living in the last days and need to be prepared for such things. God did not give us a spirit of fear (For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7), BUT He did give us a “sound mind” and hopefully we will use it.

Keeping a few months supply of food and water is sound advice. Getting out of dept and saving some money has always been sound advice. Giving and helping the poor today may just come in handy in the future (Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again. Luke 6:38)

Blessings,
alight

Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem

I read in the news this morning that “Twenty rockets and mortar shells were fired at Israel from Gaza this past week, Prime Minister Netanyahu told the cabinet ministers.” For those of you who do not keep up with Israel news, Israel and the Palestinians are not in a war. The Palestinians would just like to start one with the hopes that the surrounding Arab countries will come to their rescue.

Psalms 122:6 says, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May those who love you be secure.” When I read this verse I think back to the year 2000 and I was in Israel up early in the morning getting my running in for the day. The only people I seen on the streets were military people with their AK47s hanging from their shoulders. I was stopped by one of them and he told me to not stray far from my hotel, that there was unrest in the air.

Later that day our group was to visit the Temple Mound area. We were denied access because some Palestinians were throwing rocks at non-Muslims. Ex-Israeli PM Ariel Sharon was going to the site that day and some Muslims were stirring up the crowd to riot because of it. The present day Israeli/Palestinian conflict began. I didn’t care anything about seeing a couple of mosques anyway so I was glad to go somewhere else.

The next thing that I think of when I read news “more rockets and mortar shells were fired at Israel” is when I was on a mission trip. The guy I was rooming with made a statement that I will never forget. He said when we pray for the peace of Jerusalem we are actually praying for the return of Jesus. For truly there will be no peace until Jesus comes back to rule and reign.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, pray for the soon return of our Lord!

Blessings,

Dwight