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I have interviewed many people about their Thanksgiving dinners through the years. I have yet to tell anyone of my Thanksgiving disaster. I think that if they did have one, they buried it, because it was so horrible. In my family there were two fairly terrible episodes. One occurred when I was a child and the other occurred at my house in Somers when I was an adult. The Thanksgiving incident at Somers as it is called in my family to this day happened when I had bought a large Thanksgiving turkey and it seemed like things were going well until...
I’ve been going to the gym every day for months and have been enjoying it, but I discovered that the gains in my weight training and general fitness, which I experienced during my earlier days of working out, slowed gradually and reached a point of standstill over time. I responded to the slowing of my progress by working out harder, but that didn’t help. I resolved to stay the course and hope for the best at that point, when a friend of mine asked if I had considered taking days off or incorporating lighter workout days into my routine. I had...
Q: I hate to admit this, but my wife and I never got along, and when she died last year I wasn’t all that sorry. But now I desperately miss her. I wish I could make up for those lost years. What’s wrong with me? A: One reason I wanted to reprint your letter is because I hope it will cause other husbands (and wives) to re-evaluate their marriages, and do everything they possibly can to strengthen them—before it’s too late. Even if your letter only touches one person, it will be worth it. Why do you miss your wife so deeply? I can think of seve...
Some friends of mine are going to spend Thanksgiving at their cabin northeast of Missoula and feast on prime rib instead of turkey and dressing. I thought about that for awhile and decided it was a good idea. There should be a turkey in the mix for Thanksgiving or Christmas but serving good beef is great too as Montana owes a lot to the cattle that graze it’s coulees and great meadows that make Montana what it is. I have thought about what I am going to do for Thanksgiving this year. I am having trouble getting around so a minimal feast s...
Q: Every year we debate whether or not to invite my aunt for Thanksgiving. She’s a very negative person who spends her whole time complaining and criticizing everyone, and it gets very unpleasant. Would she get the message if we didn’t invite her this year? A: From what you say, I honestly doubt if she’ll “get the message” if you don’t invite her for Thanksgiving. Instead, you’ll probably just give her another excuse to complain and criticize you even more. The Bible bluntly says, “Whoever hates correction is stupid” (Proverbs 12:1)....
Thanksgiving is just around the corner and for many it is the time to head to Grandmother’s house or Aunt Margie’s house or invite a dozen people to your own house. I can remember when I was a small child around eight or so, I got a new sister and we always wanted to stay home for Christmas. Our parents were very generous as was Santa and there was a lot to play with on Christmas Day, So, we would put up a fuss if we had to go somewhere on that day of all days. We wanted our turkey dinner but we wanted it at home. Can you imagine us kids tel...
Q: You often say in your column that we need to learn to walk with God, but what does that mean? I don’t have any trouble believing in God, but I don’t think I understand what it means to walk with Him. A: The key is to understand what happens to us when we commit our lives to Jesus Christ. By nature, we are separated from God because of our sins—but when we open our hearts to Christ, He forgives us and comes to live within us by His Spirit. In other words, we now have a personal relationship with God. We have become God’s friend—and He has be...
Everywhere I go, my phone goes along with me. Part of the reason for its constant presence is my need to be available to folks. My job and my family are both benefited by access to me whenever and wherever I happen to be. It’s also a convenience. From time to time, I have trouble finding an address or I need to take a note that I would otherwise forget. Apart from that, my phone keeps me entertained when I feel bored. I can read the news, books, and articles or play games or waste time in almost a limitless variety of ways wherever I happen t...
This is the season for making hot and hearty soups. Yesterday a neighbor brought a vat of clam chowder for my supper. Clam chowder is a soup I do not make from scratch very often. I buy some prepared and add to it. But I love clam chowder and I think one of the reasons I do love that soup is because no matter who makes it or what restaurant makes it, it is always different from all other clam chowder and always very good. It was the same yesterday with my neighbor’s clam chowder. It was different than any I had eaten and very good! Years ago I...
While playing with my kids at the park this week, I watched as my son climbed the jungle gym, struggled with the last step, and called for help. I walked over, but was pretty sure he could take the last step from the ladder to the platform at the top. I watched as he yelled at me to grab him, while simultaneously taking the step over to the platform. He was obviously scared, which is justifiable for a four-year old, but he beamed when he managed to get to the top without any help. I was close enough to catch him if he fell, so he wouldn’t g...
Q: I know God has forgiven me for all the bad things I did when I was younger, but I just can’t get them out of my mind, and it really depresses me. Why can’t I forget the past? A: I’m confident that when we get to Heaven, all those memories will be washed away, and we will be overwhelmed with the wonder of God’s forgiveness and love. The Bible says, “When Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). Why, then, doesn’t God erase our memory of those things right now? Perhaps one reason is to remind us of...
A good Halloween story is one that ends like no one ever suspects it is going to. A case in point is the dreadful Christler murder where Rev. Christler was shot dead by his girl friend in front of his wife at the church rectory where they were living. There were always stories going around about that murder for several reasons. Many people wondered if Rev. Christler’s wife had anything to do with the murder and others knew that the church rectory was haunted from that day forward. That Rev. Christler had a girl friend was well known around t...
When I worked full time in youth ministry, I noticed disturbing trend in the kids I worked with. With every passing year, they got busier and busier. Between homework, after school jobs, sports, extra-curricular activities, etc. many of them were scheduled end to end from before school until bedtime. Not every student reached that kind of excess, but it was rare to find kids who had any completely free days, apart from holidays. This was in a bigger community, which in many ways was different from Big Sandy, but there is a strange cultural...
I can’t help it. It is hunting season, or almost, and I have hunting on my mind. Now, mind you I don’t have shooting an elk or antelope or even a deer raised in alfalfa fields for a couple of years, no, it is not that that I dream about. It is the eats, in a word. My father and his brothers must have loved cabins. Anyway during fishing season we lived in a cabin most of the summer in the Bear Paw Mountains on Clear Creek. That was true in the fall when those fishing camps would turn into hunting camps as well. In those days there were few elk...
In 1906, San Francisco suffered through an earthquake which caused enormous damage and many deaths. Among the destroyed structures was the Memorial Arch that stood in the quad of Leland Stanford University. The arch had been a very large structure, and it appeared to be quite sturdy. When the earthquake hit, the otherwise impressive monument crumbled, damaged so severely that it was necessary to tear it down entirely. Part of the reason it was necessary to tear it down was that the earthquake revealed that the arch was really quite flimsy,...
Q: My parents never bothered to get married, and now that I’m in high school it gets kind of embarrassing when my friends start asking me about it. I’ve told my mom that I wish they’d get married, but they don’t seem interested. Should I just forget about it? A: You can’t force your parents to get married, of course; they alone must make that decision. You can, however, gently encourage them to take that step—not just to save you from any further awkwardness, but for the sake of their relationship. After all, what is marriage? Admittedly...
It was quite a storm this last week. I know some people in the Bear Paw Mountains who are still stranded and wondering what to do about it. I was only snowbound once unless you count this last storm last week. And I was not snowbound in it really as friends could come and go and bring me all sorts of good things to eat and drink. The only time I really remember being snowbound is in the 1990’s when I was living in the old Faber house on Little Box Elder Creek. There one day just around Easter, it started to snow and by the next morning I had a...
I was so surprised to pick up a recent issue of “Bon Appétit” Magazine and find a picture of Spaghetti and Meatballs on the front cover. I had thought spaghetti and meatballs a much too plain food for that magazine and further, I knew of few people who thought that spaghetti and meatballs is as comforting as it is for me. They wrote what I had known for many years, “Last winter, my wife invited an old friend over for Sunday dinner. Craving something simple and homey, I suggested spaghetti and meatballs. Someone agreed, adding garlic bread...
I have always loved it when October rolls around. When I was a teacher and a hunter, I could hardly wait for the MEA Convention in October as that usually coincided with the first day of hunting season and maybe three other teachers and I would head from Glasgow, where we were teaching to Zortman or to Clear Creek where we would cook up all sorts of comfort food, drink a little whiskey or brandy and just enjoy two or three days of roughing it. If I recall there was never much hunting that went on. It was more just getting out of the groove and...
Many years ago I wanted to become a teacher and had gathered enough credits at Northern Montana College to do that. Dr. Harrison Lane was my mentor for Student Teaching and he wanted me to do my Student Teaching with Lawrence Green in Big Sandy. He said the school system was simply wonderful as was Mr. Green. Lane was right on both counts! I went to Big Sandy and remember well teaching English to Big Sandy kids very interested in learning and I learned a lot from my brief stay with the Big Sandy schools. That was a wonderful school system. It...
At one point during Stonewall Jackson’s Valley Campaign in the spring of 1862, he wound up in a position where his force was on one side of a river while it needed to be on the other side. Jackson first approached his engineers and asked them to plan and build a bridge to safely get the army to the other side. They immediately set to the task they’d been assigned. He then spoke with his wagon master, telling him that it was urgent that the wagon train get to the other side. The Wagon master immediately began gathering logs, stones, and fen...
Q: My friend keeps telling me that I need Jesus, but I don’t understand what he means. Why do I need Jesus? A: I’m thankful for your friend’s concern; he obviously cares about you, and he senses that something is missing in your life—something only God can supply. I pray that you’ll take your friend’s concern seriously. Why do you need Jesus? You need Him first of all because you need His salvation. You see, you aren’t here by accident; God created you, and He put you here for a reason. In fact, He loves you, and life’s greatest joy comes from...
A friend of mine loved to hunt and he loved most of all to hunt alone. Just his horse, his pack horse his tent, his gun and some food was good enough for him. What reminded me of this friend was that the October he went hunting in what is now the Bob Marshall but then was called just Big River, Montana had experienced a very hot, dry and smoky summer, much like what we are going through now. It was October when my friend set up his camp in the wilderness and proceeded to scout for an elk or even a large buck deer to take home. One day he had...
One of Jesus’ most popular parables is that of the Good Samaritan. Most of us know the story: a man is attacked while traveling and left for dead on the side of the road. Afterward, a series of travelers pass him as he is laying in the road. The first two are a priest and a Levite who go around him. The third is a Samaritan who takes the poor traveler to an inn, where he tends to his wounds and pays for the man to stay at the inn while he recovers. The whole story is told when Jesus answers a question. Jesus is talking with a group of s...
Q: I can’t help but wonder if we’re living in the last days. Are we? There’s so much conflict and turmoil in the world, and I don’t see any answer unless God intervenes and brings it all to an end. Am I being too pessimistic? A: You’re right; we do live in a world that is constantly torn by conflict and chaos and fear. And because of the development of nuclear and biochemical weapons of mass destruction, the world is arguably the most dangerous it has ever been. Jesus warned that as the end of the present age approaches, “You will hear of war...
