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If you’re a business owner, you’ve got so much to think about, and you work so hard, that it might be difficult to envision the day when you’re in a different place in life. However, that day will likely arrive, so you’ll want to be prepared for it, which means you’ll need an exit strategy. But how do you create one?

If you ask a teacher, they will tell you that there is a rhythm to teaching. There is a weekly rhythm, there is a rhythm based on the moon, there’s a yearly rhythm based on the agricultural calendar, and there’s even a rhythm based on a semester. Spring semester has its own rhythm: it is when deeper learning can occur due to students using what they have learned in the fall and building on that knowledge.

Meaghan Wharton of Forney, has received the following degree from The University of Alabama: Bachelor of Science. UA awarded 2,362 degrees during its fall commencement ceremonies on Dec. 10-11, 2021.

A PROUD PARENT MOMENT

How do you thank someone who’s willing to risk their life for yours? When it comes to military service members and their families, advocates say there are many avenues for tangibly showing your support. Check out these easy ideas from the USO.

There’s a scene in The Breakfast Club, one of my favorite John Hughes movies, where, after being given the Saturday detention assignment of writing an essay on who, exactly, they thought they were to have broken the rules they had broken and caused the problems they had caused, a group of school detentionees select a spokesperson to pen a single paper for the whole lot. The Anthony Michael Hall character, Brian, agrees to be their representative and author in residence. His reply goes a little something like this. “Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it is we did wrong. But, we think you’re crazy for making us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us: in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But, what we found is that each one of us is a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal. Does that answer your question?” And, thus we have this week’s introspective question. Who am I? WHO am I? Who AM I? Who are you? How do we figure that one out?

“Satan knew Eve would fall for it,” says Amanda, age 9. Nice pun, Amanda.

Students in Texas public schools are experiencing another year upturned by COVID-19 as the delta and omicron variants spread.

Christmas was a little brighter this year for several Forney ISD students thanks to the kindness and generosity of the Forney Lions Club, local businesses and numerous Forney ISD employees and students! This year’s Forney Angel Tree drive benefitted more than 800 Forney ISD students and children in our community during the holidays.

There’s a scene in the movie Beetlejuice that cements Tim Burton as a cinematic genius, The Neitherworld Waiting Room scene. See, post-death humans have to enter the waiting room to meet their case worker. The ghosts in the movie, Adam and Barbara, didn’t understand the process of crossing over until they found their copy of The Handbook of the Recently Deceased. Once they enter the waiting room, they’re met with grotesque civil servants and (pardon the pun) hellish wait times. One movie review website nails the description: it’s like the social security office and the mortuary had a baby. Entering the office requires knocking a certain number of times. There’s a turnstile involved, along with digital turn counters (resetting every 100 billion deaths), and lots of rules. Some spirits are forced to stay Earthbound for 120 years. Some have to be allocated to different departments with equally complicated entrance requirements. Also, you’re only allowed three appointments. It is clear that some of the waiting room occupants have been there for literal centuries. It seems that, even in death, bureaucracy reigns supreme. Except, we aren’t actually talking about death today. We’re talking about what it takes to get anything done through government run healthcare, specifically Medicare and Medicaid.

Jesus said that the greatest Commandment is to love the Lord your GOD with all your strength, heart, and mind (Matt. 22: 34-40). And the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. I believe if we do those two commandments all the others will fall into place and be easy to keep. One problem is we cannot get up in the morning and say I am going to love GOD all day today. We cannot love someone we don’t know or are close to and spend time visiting with them. (We can only spend time with GOD through the Holy Spirit we receive when we accept Jesus as our personal savior). That means we must follow His leadership and learn about GOD by reading His word and talking to Him in prayer.

“Mary loved Jesus so much that she wanted the honor of washing his feet,” says Vanessa, 8.

Like many outdoor types, I used to consider the dead of winter as ‘off time’, a time to clean rifles and shotguns and put them away and devote time to readying fishing tackle for spring fishing. But winter has become one of my favorite seasons for enjoying the outdoors.