A mission trip to Peru represents a 180 degree change from a former position on missions I held - thanks to my excellent liberal arts education!

The TV show "Friends" ran a long time. For years, those six friends popped in on each other unannounced, loaned and borrowed, and as if they didn't get enough quality time together up in the apartments, they loved to meet downstairs at the coffeehouse where they could spend $4 on a 25-cent cup of coffee while hanging out with each other even more. That show had a lot of issues that kept it from being anything like reality, and one of them was that their familiarity seldom bred contempt. Oh, sure they were always arguing and there was always some drama, but in real life, the kind of intimate friendship the on-screen actors portrayed rarely lasts very long.

I didn't venture out much this Christmas, but when I did, I was two for two with insults from kiddos.

If I were going to put together a list of things that I thought the Lord hated, they would all be things I don’t do! I would choose the most heinous of crimes like incest, child abuse, murder, rape, etc. I am sure God does detest those things, but they don’t make this short list. What fascinates me about this list is that it is full of things most of us do a lot! Who hasn’t been proud? Who hasn’t lied? Who hasn’t plotted something to her own advantage?

Last summer money was tight around the Schillinger household because of some expensive home improvement projects – we were building a deck, fencing a couple of acres of land and converting our damp, plain cement basement into an entertainment room. The net result was no money to take a vacation. So we decided instead to take a long weekend in Tulsa, only a few hours away from our home. Still, we didn’t have any money to do that. I was opposed to charging the $500 or so that our long weekend in Tulsa would cost and then paying it off in the fall when we had recuperated from all the home projects, but it looked like that was the only choice. (Although, I guess we could have gone primitive camping!) Then one day, I overheard a conversation about the nation’s longest/largest garage sale “Bargains Galore on 64.” For three days in August, on an approximately 150-mile stretch of Highway 64, there is one huge garage sale. People from all over the south come to Arkansas for this event. In years past, we’d always been on vacation during that week in August and had not personally experienced Bargains Galore. From what I overheard, a person could make a lot of money in those three days.

Whereas men are forever and always trying to be king of the mountain, women are control freaks. It’s the same disease, just different manifestations of it. We all want control. It’s one of those natural desires that can become a positive force under God’s guidance or a negative, highly destructive force when employed for evil. Anybody can have control – just get a pet and you are lord and master over a helpless kitty cat or puppy dog. It’s just not the same as ruling people though. Making a dog sit before getting a treat doesn’t satisfy like being another person’s boss. That kind of control isn’t as easy to come by as simply adopting a pet.

In our youth, we have a lot of energy and it doesn’t feel like much effort to work 12 and even 15-hour days. If we love our jobs and we have opportunity to advance in our field of work, we overachievers are more than willing to work, we’re almost possessed with work. Amazingly, we overachievers often find just enough time to develop a love relationship, marry and procreate before we have to get back to work. Then, this beautiful little family we’ve formed is like a plant in the corner that we dutifully dump a glass of water on every now and then to keep it alive. We love the thought of our family but don’t really take much joy in it. Our joy is in work. Our family loves and accepts us and we know and appreciate this about them. Isn’t it great? We’ve got it all. Neglected families, like neglected plants, can live for years, but what kind of life is it to be stuck in the corner of the life of your spouse, mother or father?

Do you ever contemplate a harder life? Do you ever think about what it would be like, for instance, to be a dairy farmer? There are no holidays for a dairy farmer. You can’t tell your cows to go milk themselves, or hold that milk for a long weekend and you’ll be back with them on Monday. Every day without fail, you’ve got to get up at 5 a.m. (why so early?) and milk the cows. And if you’re sick, you’ve got to find someone to do it for you. What about a life in which you would have to work to be able to eat every day? When I wake up, the first thing I do is make a pot of coffee. Later, I cook a couple of eggs or have a bowl of cereal. I just open my refrigerator and it’s there. What if I lived an existence in which I had to harvest my breakfast every morning – go out looking for eggs or berries or nuts? There are still many people who daily harvest their food. There are many more who have to elaborately prepare it just to eat breakfast – hours of chopping wood and starting a fire, grinding, pounding, mixing and baking before they get a bite to eat. Truly, we are blessed if we can start out the morning by opening a refrigerator. Once we begin to have a taste of leisure, we crave it more and more. Once we get the eggs, milk and bread sitting in the fridge waiting for us, we begin to dream of ways they could be already made into pancakes or French toast – just waiting for us.

Want an easy secret to success? Do your best in everything. It’s so simple that I bet you don’t believe me. So try it, just for a day. Start in the morning with making your bed the right way, you know, tucking the sheets in so tightly you could bounce a quarter off the bed. Now brush your teeth for two minutes using downward circles that massage the gums. Don’t forget to brush your tongue. Been a while since you flossed? If you want to do your best at cleaning your teeth, you have to floss. Apply the same diligence to showering, styling your hair, applying make-up and getting dressed (be sure your clothes aren’t wrinkled!). Now for a healthy breakfast – two eggs, a piece of whole-wheat toast and half of a grapefruit is just the ticket. I know you’re in a hurry, but if you’re giving your best effort today, you’ll need to wash and put away the dishes you used. Leave the kitchen spotless! It’s off to work or school now to apply this same diligent perfection to every task all day long – and today is just the first day of the rest of your life!