PRINCIPLE

Today I read the chapter “PRINCIPLE” from William Thayer’s book, “Gaining Favor with God and Man.”

The attached is a slightly abridged version, but more than worth the time to read.  I do find it fascinating that those who are principled will read about being principled, while those who are not absolutely refuse to do so.

PRINCIPLE

Morning Walk…

Today I learned 3 things:

1. My black rain jacket looks nice, but only serves to provide a conduit for rain onto my clothes beneath it.
2. It hurts to walk the 2nd day after not walking for 5 days.
3. At 5:00 am, in my black jacket, my dark navy blue jogging pants, my black/brown shoes and with the shroud of a light rain, I am almost completely invisible to the local newspaper delivery lady.

As I was walking up one of the streets this morning, the rain had begun to fall hard enough for me to put on my jacket hood to keep my head dry.  I noticed a car was coming so I quickly stepped into the front of a house driveway in order to keep from being accidentally run over.  Little did I know that the car was operated by the local newspaper delivery lady who was attempting to place a newspaper into the open slot of a mailbox that was 3 feet from where I was standing.  Once her car had stopped in front of me and we were 4 feet from each other, I realized that her car was blocking my exit and I would have to stand there until she finished.  This began to feel a bit awkward as I stood there looking at her.  Not wanting her to feel awkward as well, I decided to be cordial and announced, “Good morning!”  The way her arm retracted into her car with cat-like reflex and the slurred, but high pitched ”eeerrraaaahhh” that came out of her mouth led me to believe that she had not actually seen me up until my cordial greeting, nor did the site of a man dressed in almost all black less than 4 feet from her standing in the rain at 5:00 am bring her any comfort or joy.  Lest I was confused at this point, she clearly defined her lack of trust in me as she accelerated her vehicle away toward the next house that needed a newspaper.

Oh well, I continued my walk and prayed for this neighborhood as well as my own.  It was almost a 1.5 mile walk.