Always Marry Your Best Friend:

After dating people of all different religions, atheist, different cultures, races, and in betweens, I had pretty much decided not to marry or commit to anyone. I was content just being single.

The guys in my church singles group used to go out and play pool all the time and we always entered nine ball tournaments together so that one of us would always win and then we used the prize money to go out and eat.

But one week a little Asian girl showed up at the tournament, and none of us could beat her. I asked her to teach me she always won so easily all the time and she stunned me by saying, ?I just pray to Jesus before every tournament, and I just always win if I do.? Then I found out she was using the prize money to buy food and other things for homeless people.

I started hanging out with her and we eventually became best buds, doing everything together (which was usually volunteering to help homeless people, helping abused women and orphans, usually things that she was already doing anyway.

If you ask her what religion she is she will tell you Buddhist, but she prays to Jesus (I don?t try and figure it out anymore, it just works for her).

Anyways, to try and make a long story short, I ended up marrying my best friend.

I don?t think there is anyone else on the planet earth that I could ever live with. And I don?t think there?s anyone else on earth who could live with and put up with me, so it works.

Moral of this long boring story. Maybe there is someone made just right for everyone. I don?t know for sure. A lot of people I know that have been married several or more times say they don?t think so.

Living with Angels

It always amazes me how much optimism my wife and kids have when “bad” things happen.

Like for instance, it was close to 100 degree’s today in Houston TX, and the electricity goes off. The first thing I say is “Man, were all going to die from heat exposure today.” But she says, “Yippee, lets have a barbecue and set up the tent outside.

The same thing happened when the hurricane hit us and took off part of our roof, one of the walls of the kids bedroom, and flooded the bottom floor of our house. Then, we hear the report that our water and electricity may be down for months. She and the kids were ecstatic with joy. She’s excited because she has been wanting to try out the new camping equipment we had bought and wanted the opportunity to teach the kids survival skills.

When the local airport reported they were building a new runway that would cause planes to be taking off and landing directly over our neighborhood, I whined about the noise it would cause. But she was jumping with joy and said, “Yea, now we don’t have to drive out to the airport gates to watch the planes takeoff and land. We can watch them from our back yard.”

No matter how bad things can get, she and the kids always find a ray of light out of it.

It’s good to live with angels. They always keep my spirits high and always keep me laughing.

Our First Church Experience:

After a couple of years into our marriage, and two kids along, we decided to take our family to a church here in Houston TX. My wife was nervous about it because she had never attended a Christian church service.

I picked one of the best known churches in Houston that was nationally known for their acceptance and compassion to others so she would feel extra welcome.

I told her how loving and wonderful these Christians were and that she could expect nothing but love and hugs.

She still was a little unsure, so we decided that she and the kids would go to the Family Life Center on the church campus and play games, shoot pool, and relax, while I went to the first bible study service to check it out before bringing them in with me to the main service.

After I dropped them off at the Family Life Center, I started walking down the side walk to the church building where the bible study held.

Now I didn’t see this part, but my wife and kids were watching from a window at the FLC building and this is what they saw A church security truck was making its rounds. When he saw me, my wife said he stopped his truck on a dime, jumped out of the truck and started running towards me (from behind).

He then tackled me from behind, picked me up and put me on a brick wall and began yelling loudly, “What is your business here?” “What are you doing here?” “How did you get in here?”

My wife and kids ran out to try and help me and see what was going on and when he saw them he started shouting the same things at them.

Finally, when I saw he wasn’t going to listen to any of us, I pulled rank on him and back him down, and he began calming down. But it was too late. The damage had been done. So much for my talk about Christian love and acceptance, huh?

But my wife’s reaction was, “Those people need help!” “We need to go back there and show them love and compassion.” And my kids agreed with her.

So the next Sunday there we were. Right back in the lion’s mouth. And she has served these people, given all her energy and love to them in ways you would never believe. But I think she has really helped a lot of damaged people who had been twisted by religion and legalism. She has worked miracles there.

The funny think is, I’m sure they all think she is a Christian just like them. If they only knew this person who has loved them and changed their lives around is Buddhist. What would they think?