Category: Journal

My journey

How to Choose a President

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date September 7, 2023

Good Character Tag field — Good Character is leadership qualifier number one

Good Character is Key

With the first Republican candidate debate, the issues of presidential election politics became more pressing. Debate number two will intensify the voters’ dilemma. I know I am not alone when I say that I can hardly bring myself to properly prepare as a citizen because of the contentious and disappointing nature of politics in recent years. Yet, I need to. As I contemplate another election season, the question for me and I think for every voter is simple on the surface. “Who is the best candidate?” But in this era of misinformation and constant spin on everything, making that judgement seems anything but simple!

Media-managed selection of candidates can be alluring and deceiving.

As voters, we need some criteria to help us look past the parroted talking points, the inevitable mudslinging and the constant real-issue avoidance. However, I am very afraid that most voters judge far too shallowly. Camera image, bravado, self-assertion, and smooth talk by picture-ready candidates impress people far more than genuine credentials and honest communication. As constant consumers of media, we are so used to judging actors on their acting, it doesn’t seem to occur to us to ask whether the candidate is genuinely portraying him/herself in front of that camera. Hence TV and media personalities can get elected based on an impressive media persona which may be quite different from who they really are. And we have had a constant parade of such legislators who were quickly revealed to have no integrity and be quite undeserving of their office.

The real threat comes from bad character.

What we all need to remember is that citizens are not protected simply by having many police on the beat or strong armies and navies, but rather by the good moral character of their neighbors and the leaders who are over them all! Bad neighbors and bad leaders both make citizens afraid! John Maxwell, the expert on leadership today, teaches that the number one can’t-do-without characteristic of leaders is good moral character.

“Character makes trust possible and trust is the foundation of leadership.”

John C. Maxwell ¹

How can we recognize good character in political leaders?

Drawing on biblical wisdom, we can flesh this out with particulars. For example, especially disqualifying characteristics include greed, ² lawlessness,³ arrogance,⁴ and lack of compassion for the oppressed.⁵ All these traits show self-centeredness and predict a decrease in genuine concern for ordinary citizens. They also greatly increase the likelihood of misuse of power.

Chief among favorable characteristics is a demonstrated fear of God.⁶ The person with this honorable trait believes they are accountable to God and therefore they desire to give a good accounting of their deeds when their own Day⁷ arrives. The person who fears God is in the process of learning how to live according to the teachings of God. For Christians, instructions of Jesus, such as “Love one another,”⁸ and “Do to others as you would have them do to you,”⁹ are in their mind. Such a one is more likely to value personal integrity too. They will likely develop a consistent reputation for value-driven and principle-driven decisions. These traits increase the likelihood that the leader will be genuinely considerate of citizens and benevolent in the use of power.

This is only the beginning

Certainly there are other important considerations in the presidential race. For example, the person chosen must be electable, not just by the party faithful, but by the country as a whole. I’m interested in how the person polls beyond the party faithful? And a candidate for presidential leadership must have the ability to draw and hold talented and wise helpers and advisors. How are they handling their campaign team, for example, because leading leaders is the stuff of presidential life.

Yet, despite all these complexities, good character remains the bottom line.

So I consider it my first job as a voter to try to learn about the character of the candidates. I am interested in their positions on issues too, of course. But character is first! When I read or watch news, when I view a debate, the most important information that I am seeking concerns the character of the candidates. Character is key to everything!

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, p. 9, Thomas Nelson Inc. 2012 ↩︎
“The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” 1 Timothy 6:10 ↩︎
“When the wicked thrive, so does sin.” Prov. 29:16 ↩︎
The biblical Psalmist describes the wicked this way. “They scoff, and speak with malice; with arrogance they threaten oppression.” Psalm 73:8 ↩︎
“The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.” Prov. 29:7 ↩︎
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Psalm 110:10
“Through the fear of the Lord evil is avoided.” Prov. 16:6 ↩︎
“”Each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.” Rom. 14:12 ↩︎
John 13:34 ↩︎
Luke 6:31 ↩︎

Tags character, Election 2024, moral issues today, Presidents

Journal Meditations Wisdom

Why go to Church

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date August 20, 2023

Thought for a Sunday

People-watching statisticians are telling us that more people are choosing to do other things on Sunday morning besides go to church. There are lots of choices from a trip to the beach to the ever-expanding Sunday sports schedule. But even among those who still prioritize a worship experience on the weekend, many are choosing online options for worship. Recently I attended a local church that listed the attendance for the previous week both in-person and online. Online attendance was a full third of in-person attendance. Of course, the availability of online worship is a huge help to many who could not otherwise attend for a variety of reasons. Yet I found when I was on vacation myself that tuning in could also be a choice of ease rather than necessity. Hmm.

All this requires us to ask ourselves again why we attend service at church in the first place. This morning before church, I was reading in the book of Haggai, a short Old Testament book recording the words of a prophet who spoke to people who were trying to get along without rebuilding their Jewish Temple. The folks in his audience had returned to Israel from exile and were building their own houses with great success (Haggai 1:4). Yet they had put forth no effort to rebuild the house of God. However, rebuilding the temple was the very reason they had been allowed to return from exile (2 Chron. 36:23). During his conversation, Haggai gives us some great reasons to worship God in-person at the local house of God whenever we can. The verse that instructed me was this one.

Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the Lord.
Haggai 1:8

I was reminded that we are always thinking from our perspective, how we like it, how the service impresses us. But God takes pleasure in his house and by implication in the worship that happens there. God reminded the people that one purpose for them being in the temple was to honor Him. I remember a friend in Kirkville who was playing golf one Sunday morning. He later testified at church that it was as if God spoke to him saying that God would be honored best by my friend’s presence in worship at church. From then on he determined to be at church on Sunday morning to honor God. It’s not about our pleasure in the singing though we do enjoy it. It’s not primarily about us feeling inspired though we do. Rather, it is about giving honor to God by our presence and participation in worship.

That is a perspective we need to meditate upon and take to heart!

Tags church attendance, Haggai, worship

Journal Who Am I

We are retiring again!

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date June 4, 2023

retirement sign — We are looking forward to retirement.

Here is the text of the post I wrote for our church blog.

Pastor Jones to retire June 30

Journal Who Am I

News about our house

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date June 4, 2023

JoAnne has written a great blog post with the story of our purchase of the West Granby parsonage.

I invite you to read it.

https://inspiredbyhope.us/?p=8646

Tags faith, our house, West Granby

Country Touches Journal

Spider Daylilies Capture My Fancy

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date August 21, 2022

Red Sails in the Sunset is one of the favorites in my garden.

New spider daylilies bloom

Daylilies, daylilies, daylilies. What a great season. It is almost over now. Watering was certainly necessary this year to keep the blooms coming. But with a little care, I enjoyed some delightful surprises in my daylily collection. We even held a daylily garden open house one hot July Sunday afternoon. A recent focus has been expanding my collection of spider daylilies. They have always been among my favorites. So this article concentrates on them. A spider daylily is any daylily with a flower petal at least four times as long as it is wide.

original spider daylily from Grandma Isaman

Red Sails in the Sunset 2 — original spider daylily from Grandma Isaman

The last few years I have been adding seed-grown daylilies to my garden. So now I am getting a collection of new spider daylilies. A few are volunteers, that is, they came up in the garden from seeds naturally scattered. I just recognized and cared for them. Others are from seedpods I deliberately gathered in the fall and then planted inside in the winter. I then transplant the seedlings into pots for a year before putting them into the garden. It usually takes a second year for the young plants to start blooming. This past year I also bought some seed-grown daylilies from Roger Adams. In contrast to me, Roger frequently knows the parentage. Here are a few of the new seed-grown spider daylilies.

A volunteer spider daylily. I’m calling it Kel’s Brick Tangles because of the color and the curls.

Kel's Regal Sunrise — A volunteer spider daylily. I’m calling it Kel’s Brick Tangles because of the color and the curls.

But of course, daylily lovers like myself are never quite satisfied with their collection and are always seeking out new looks. I was looking to add lavender colors and big blooms. Here are a couple stars that I found this year.

New dark pink spider daylily — This new dark pink spider daylily in from Roger Adams. It is a cross between Entwined in the Vine and Webster’s Pink Wonder. The blooms are ten inches across.

North Wind Dancer — This new dark pink spider daylily in from Roger Adams. It is a cross between Entwined in the Vine and Webster’s Pink Wonder. The blooms are ten inches across.

Tags daylilies, spider daylilies, summer fun

Americana Country Touches Journal Who Am I

Uncovering History in my Garden

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date July 11, 2022

Hitching post with Bela Lugosi daylily — Hitching post, a piece of history with Bela Lugosi daylily

Hitching post Daylilies — Roadsides orange and Jeanette’s Tall Yellow by a hitching post

Hitching Posts

At our home in the historic section of West Granby, CT, the old granite hitching posts standing in the rail fence line are immediately obvious. The remaining granite sentinels with their broken rusty metal loop tie hooks remind me of the mid nineteenth century mill origins of this part of West Granby. I love the look of an old hitching post with yellow and orange daylilies blooming alongside. Not so obvious are the granite pieces of former hitching posts that previous gardeners had used for borders along the nearby wall. I found them buried under the grass when I planted my first daylilies. I also noted that more such granite pieces had been used to form garden tiers in an area that is now young woodland with nativized daylilies. Apparently succeeding residents did not tend that area and let the saplings grow in the enlarging shade of the sycamore tree.

Rusty Metal Hoop

This spring I was again reminded of the long history of this spot by a rusty metal item that came to the surface as I was planting perennials. I am seeking to diversify my daylily garden with an emphasis on natives. I found a spot in the middle of the front of the fence row and started digging for my new meadowrue. My shovel hit something hard about three inches down and it wasn’t a stone. I kept digging and unearthed an old metal hoop. Was it a rusty metal rim from an old wooden wagon tire? Or was it a barrel stave left over from a long-departed flower barrel? Had a gardener long before me had used it as an edge for a bed of annuals, but the grasses had overtaken it and it was forgotten? Whichever, I felt justified in choosing that spot as I knew in the garden history of this land, some previous gardener had also found it a good choice.

Nineteenth century cut nail found about four inches deep

Cut nail from early settlers

Then just a week ago I found a late perennial sale. Among my purchases was a decorative onion which I hoped would help deter voles. With my sturdy trowel, I dug a hole near a plant which they had almost destroyed this past winter. It was also near the cellar entrance. I soon ran into metal pieces, which turned out to be a collection of nails. Most were ordinary, but one which was a little deeper in the soil was a cut-nail. According to websites I’ve visited, this nail likely is mid-nineteenth century vintage. Is it somehow from the original house, the one reflected on the civil war era map for this lot? (See my house history posts for discussion of why this current home is likely the third house on this site.) Or is it just a fallen nail from someone splitting fire-kindling they had trucked in to feed the stove which was inside the cellar door in the second house. Either way, I had unearthed another connection with the history of our home.

Tags gardening, local history, rusty metal, West Granby

Americana Country Touches Journal

Rose Arbor Delights

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date June 12, 2022

Rose Arbor 2020 — Roses for our Anniversary Year!

Climbing roses reward hard work

Rose arbors have a history in our family. My maternal grandmother had a rose arbor. Here’s a picture of my Grandfather and Grandmother, Samuel and Jessie Isaman in front of their home rose arbor. The arbor was still there when I was a child but the roses were no longer thriving as they are in this picture.

There was also a rose arbor at my wife’s maternal grandparent’s house, Clifford and Mildred Wilcox. I often visited there to date their lovely granddaughter, JoAnne. And each time, I entered through the rose arbor gate.

JoAnne always wanted a rose arbor at our home and I did too. But in our first two parishes, there just wasn’t a good place for one. But when we moved to Copper Hill/West Granby parsonage, there was an old broken down gate to a fenced-in area. (It had been a dog run.) The gate and fence were overgrown with poison ivy. But the gate was clearly visible from the dining room window. I saw my chance. I sprayed the ivy and dug out the remaining roots (I’m still digging.) I tore out the old gate and saved the hinges. I turned the fenced area into a garden spot and rebuilt the fence. (We ate strawberries from the garden this week.) Even before I started replacing the gate, I planted the first climbing roses. Then I started building parts for the arbor in the garage. Eventually, I finished the construction. It took at least a year as I did not have much time to work on it. By then, I had roses to tie on it already. The following year I painted it white. After all, both my Grandmother’s arbor and JoAnne’s grandparent’s arbor were white.

To maintain our rose arbor, I fertilize each bush each year and remove the weeds. In the spring I remove the dead material. As the bushes age, there is more of that. I tie the climbing canes to the arbor so they don’t tip over. In the most recent picture, there are a couple canes that have come lose and need to be retied. If the weather is unusually dry, I water them. At first, the red rose (Blaze) dominated as in the featured picture from 2020. But now the pink one is taking over (lower picture set from 2022). The first couple years, I mulched the base of each bush for winter. But that seems unnecessary now.

Tags gardening, grandparents, hobby, rose arbor, roses

Americana Journal Who Am I

The January challenge

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date January 13, 2022

Jigsaw puzzle of wild turkeys — This puzzle is titled “The Challenge” for more than one reason

January is jigsaw puzzle season at the Jones household. I don’t know if it’s the cold outside or just that we need a change of pace from the business of Christmas. But each year when January rolls around, we dig out our stored boxes and pick some of our favorites. Sometimes we have dueling puzzle tables. I spread out a puzzle challenge on the old wooden table in the family room and JoAnne puts a puzzle out on the end of the dining room table. JoAnne always begins with a puzzle that she has had since she was a girl for old time sake, even though it has a missing piece.

Old time puzzle challenge — JoAnne’s favorite puzzle from childhood

I usually begin the season with a Christmas puzzle with children in it as I think of the grandchildren and their Christmas activities.

But soon we move to more challenging ones. We keep track of the number of puzzles we complete and the total number of pieces involved each year. This year we each had a new puzzle to work on that presented bigger challenges. Mine was the one pictured above. It was titled, “The challenge“ for more than one reason. The cut was such that the edge pieces were not always obvious. What do these three pieces have in common?

Three edge pieces — Can you believe these are all edge pieces.

JoAnne worked on a puzzle featuring stamps from all the 50 states. As you can see it required a rather unique type of organization in order for it to be completed. She loves comparing pieces to the box picture and her new puzzle was ideal for that type of puzzle work.

Puzzle process — Puzzle solving process for stamp puzzle called “Greetings from”

Tags memories, puzzles, winter pastime

Journal

Celebrating Christmas Village 2021

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date January 1, 2022

Our Christmas Tree — Our Christmas living room 2021

Pano of our Christmas Village — Wide angle view of our 2021 Christmas village

What’s New?

There are always new twists and challenges to the annual Christmas Village that I am privileged to erect in our current parsonage. This year, we decided to downsize on furniture a little and sold the big bookcase which has bordered the right side of the Christmas layout since we moved here. So I needed to invent a new treatment for the right side. However, I used familiar scene concepts in doing so. The street of shops in the back became longer so added a new Dept. 56 Dickens series bakery and a gas station. The homemade fencing that I picked up second hand at the train show combined with a lighted fence that I had not put up before, really added to the church and school scene on the right front. On the left side, a couple years ago, Cherie suggested that a log cabin would look cozy on the hillside. This year I found a Dept. 56 one and modified the slope just enough to add it in. I like the result.

More Pictures

I keep improving our Christmas village for a month or so and usually take pictures until I tear it down for the year a couple months later. But I took some early ones this year to share. I will try to post again using a better gallery block.

Track issues

A few years ago, I switched all my track over to Lionel FasTrack. I added a foam layer under it to reduce noise. But since I tear up the track and put it down again each year, and since the lower levels are on the floor and some parts get walked on, it is beginning to show wear. Occasionally pins break and subtle corrosion will prevent good contact causing a train to stop. I overcame these by a combination of soldering a wire underneath to bridge broken pins and applying an anti-oxidant product called Ox-Gard to joints. Also, the track pieces sometimes bend slightly from being walked on which can cause issues with keeping Thomas the Tank pieces hooked up. If detected before you put it down, they can be straightened.

Journal

Houghton College Honored Again

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date October 8, 2021

Houghton College emblem — Houghton College deserves the accolades it receives

Houghton College is the college that I consistently recommend to superior students. This fine institution has again been highly recognized by two national ranking organizations. I served for six years on the board of Houghton College and both my wife and daughter are graduates. So I know personally that it deserves the accolades it receives.

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