Category: Uncategorized

Christmas vacation 1969 was the most exciting ever. At least it changed my life forever. 1969 was an eventful year. Nixon was elected President and Armstrong walked on the moon. It was a big year for me. I had joined the Navy in October 1968. The Vietnam war was raging and I had suffered through three majors in three semesters at USL. The draft was alive and well and the Navy sounded better than the Army (or, Dad forgive me, the Marines). I was in electronics school in California after boot camp and in October 1969 I was home in Lafayette on leave on my way to a computer school in Maryland. My sister Pat had a friend Donnah who had a sister named Rosemary and we were introduced. I don’t think we said more than a couple of words to each other. After my eight week school was over I returned to Lafayette, this time on Christmas leave, on my way to still more computer schooling in Biloxi. (Remember I had joined the Navy because I was sick of school.) While in Maryland I had no vehicle and nothing to spend money on so for Christmas 1969, I […]

The self-assessment we discussed yesterday takes the Christian down a different path. For me, Philippians 4:13 says it all. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”If we consider this verse carefully, the New Year’s Resolution process can be life changing.1. The corollary to “I can do all things through Christ” is that “I can do nothing on my own.” It took me a long time to realize this truth and, even now, it keeps slipping away. Things will start going well and suddenly I believe I’m the reason and I try to grab the steering wheel from Jesus, with tragic results. Face it. You can do nothing. Stop trying. It might be easier to take if we consider it this way. I can do no GOOD thing on my own. After all, do you really want to do things that aren’t good?2. The secret is to do things through Christ. We sometimes look at Philippians 4:13 as a super vitamin pill. When times get rough and my agenda isn’t working out, I just take a Jesus pill and get strength to do what I want. It just doesn’t work that way. The only way we can […]

Most people with financial problems don’t know how much money they owe. Most with weight problems don’t know their current weight. On Sunday Pastor T encouraged us to consider our personal development for 2010. He discussed goals and dreams and some of the tools we might use to achieve them.The first step in this process, however, is assessment, sometimes called “getting a baseline.”  We really need to completely understand where we are, before we can decide where we want to be.You can do an excellent health assessment at the Mayo Clinic web site.Dave Ramsey can help with a financial assessment and goal setting.  Rick Warren has a nice tool for spiritual assessment. We have a few days before New Year’s. Why not do a bit of self-examination? You may find the tools cited above helpful. The most important thing is to spend some quiet time with God and ask Him what you need to work on this year. If you are like me, going through assessment tools points out so many areas that need work that I tend to be overwhelmed and end up frustrated and do nothing. We all need a little help in prioritizing the things in […]

Rosemary and I have a tradition of going to a movie on, or close to Christmas Day. Based on the crowds we ran into yesterday while carrying out that tradition, we are not the only ones. We saw “It’s Complicated” because Rosemary likes Meryl Streep and I like Rosemary. It was an entertaining movie.  As the New York Times review puts it: “Ms. Streep plays Jane Adler, a successful restaurateur who’s about to nest happily alone in an upscale Southern California coastal community, or so it seems. Divorced with three adult children who enjoy her company (the middle one is just moving out), Jane lives in a large house on a lush sprawl surrounded by trees and no visible neighbors. It’s such a bucolic vision you half expect a few deer, a couple of bunnies and the bluebird of happiness to swing by for a visit and a quick song.” In short, this idyllic situation is disrupted because  Jane has an affair with her ex-husband who is remarried to a younger woman. The movie is intended to be light and heart-warming, which it is; but it is also a sad reminder of the long lasting pain of divorce. It […]

It was a great Christmas. It began with a great Christmas Eve Eve Celebration. Every year on the 23rd of December the descendants of my parents gather. Since I am the oldest of nine children with whom God blessed Rene and Mary Lou Sigur, the gathering is large. This year was the first time I took responsibility for the organization of the event. I gained great respect for my sisters who have taken that role for years. For the first time, we ended the gathering with a Christmas service with readings, music and a meditation. The service was well-received and I hope it will be the commencement of a new tradition. My Dad died this year and he was a great fan of John Wayne. You need to know this if you view pictures of the event. I posted those earlier this morning. Our Christmas day was also great. Perhaps the best ever. We were blessed with thoughtful gifts, great fellowship and fabulous food. Some pics of that are to be posted as well. There was one bittersweet element. My granddaughter and her child, Kaydence, live with us. Well, Kaydence lives with us for three weeks and then stays […]

Here are pictures from our family “christmas eve eve 2009”