Greetings friends! As you might suspect, here we go on another walk through my mental meadows chasing another rabbit. First a little background info.

Our family moved to Sarasota in June of 1976, three days later I met my future wife. Yes, at the tender age of 14 1/2, (halves are important at this age) I was captured by this pretty lady. As is normal with puppy love, we had our moments of disagreements and joys. Six years later my late father Jerry Meyer, the founder of Inside Out, married us on March 12, 1982. Being the “good husband,” I knew the date without having to ask my wife.

There are all sorts of dates that I remember every year, all are important but not all are equally filled with joy. For instance, 11-18-78 is the date of my mother’s Home going. May 20,1979 is a good day to remember. It is the day Dad married my “new” mom, Pat Nadeau. From there we started to forge the Meyer family “Next Generation.” (that was for you Star Trek fans)

The 4th of September is my birthday, my father-in-law’s is September 5th. My wife’s is the 12th and our oldest son’s is the 22nd. My sister’s is October 19th and my brother’s is February 10th. Our other children’s birth dates are Rachael, June 16th and Ben on July 11th and my mother-in-law’s is May 16th. I know this is all just sooooo fascinating, but what is the point. So glad you asked.

We tend to take a singular point on the calendar and make a HUGE deal about it. In reality it is only one out of 364 other days. One time a few years ago we went to the local bike shop to get a couple of bikes for our children. The month was September and the shop owner asked if we wanted to put these bikes on layaway for Christmas. She told me she would never buy such a nice gift and give it to her kids so close to Christmas. I replied that they needed the bikes now and I refused to show my kids love with gifts only one day a year. Love is a verb that should be acted out every day.

Here is the next example. I don’t see the profit in giving your “Honey Bunch” flowers only on your anniversary or Valentines Day. What a waste of all the other days of the year. It is also just as silly, in my opinion, to invest so much emotional energy into a day such as Mothers Day. Mothers should be celebrated for their place in the family every day. One year we had to celebrate Mothers Day seven times until we got it right. I guess I am a bit of a glutton for punishment, but the first time we tried to celebrate Mothers Day, on that day, it was a total flop. A few weeks later, I tried again. Ooops, try again! Finally I was able to give my wife a pleasant Mothers Day sometime in January, the following year.

Now we are getting close to the point of this thought. Since Debbie and I have birthdays only eight days apart, we like to make a big deal during that week and celebrate our birthdays. In 2001 my birthday fell on Tuesday, September the 4th. This was a particularly big deal for us. We were turning 40! Well I went to work that day and when I got home we had Pat and Dad over as well as Debbie’s mom for supper. Great, that part of the mission accomplished. Next on the agenda was to have a “BIG BASH” for Debbie. All was going along just fine and plans were coming along, the one thing we did not plan for was the HUGE interruption that Happened Tuesday September 11, 2001 . Somehow all the plans we had made seemed to not be quite so important. Well we were numbed and stumbled through her birthday. On a side note, we live in Florida. So? It is also known as Hurricane Alley. The weekend following 9-11 we had a major blow from a large tropical storm. Needless to say, it was a memorable week. That day not only changed a nation and the world, but more importantly us as a couple. Now the country and the world are very important. How it has changed the way Debbie and I approach the world and the lost is more important. I have to think you would agree that our sole purpose on this planet as long we are granted breath, is work to depopulate hell.

The old adage, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life” could also be restated as, “Today could be the last day of the rest of your life.” I think that every day should be celebrated and relished for the gift it is. On a future rabbit trail I can tell you about the time I heard paramedics talking to each other about me but using past tense terms. THAT was WEIRD!

Well I leave you with this, since we have no idea when we will be done with the job God gave us to do and we have no way of knowing when we will breathe our last breath, should we not always be busy about our Father’s business? Blessings to all!

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Your fellow servant in HIS service, Tim Meyer