Small things can affect things greatly

What are small things that affect things greatly? Here are a few to get you thinking:

* Spark starts a fire
* Rudder turns a ship
* Tick can cause lyme disease
* Splinter, turns to infection, turns to gangrene?

It truly is amazing how the little things seem to matter when we really don't think about them until they affect us. The spark and fire piece is what got me thinking about this the other day. I read an article about a golfer who hit his golf ball into a rock, which caused a spark, which caused a 25 acre fire. ou can read more about it here.

There is something about this in the Bible too. Check this out. (James 3:3-12)

³When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. ⁴Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. ⁵Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. ⁶The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
 ⁷All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, ⁸but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
 ⁹With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. ¹⁰Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. ¹¹Can both fresh water and salt^[a] water flow from the same spring? ¹²My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

Do you ever struggle with your tongue? Do you know what I mean? Maybe it's gossip, or tearing people down, or making fun of people, or sarcasm (ooohh, that one hurts a little) or perhaps it's lying. I don't know what it is for you, but what I do know is that the small muscle in our mouth we call the tongue is very powerful. We have the ability to make someones day or completely destroy it.

Who will you encourage today with your words? Come on...commit to it. And make it take a little effort.

Golfing during the holidays

Yesterday I went on our "annual" Williams Men Golf trip. We headed out to one of the fine golf courses in South Carolina and began what is always filled with laughs, arguments over scores and lots of terrible shots.

My dad, brother, brother-in-law and I hit the links. We actually went 2 days ago and then by the 4th hole it was raining too hard that we called the front desk and asked for a rain check. I didn't even go look for my ball I hit off the tee because it was raining too hard. (that is a rarity, as I think a good game of golf is if you come out at the end with more balls than you started with. i love the woods!)

So we came back the next day. My brother and I rode in one cart together and my dad and wes rode in the other one. Rune and I can STILL fight like nobody's business to this day. (that's why I think we would be fun to watch on the Amazing Race as we would make for good television.) I think Rune's counting leaves something to be desired and Rune finds that often I forget a stroke...he counts every single one! No matter how loud we got, we would always race each other back to the cart to see who would drive to the next hole. We are seriously 10 years old still! Well, he's 8 cuz I'm the oldest...and yes, I should know better. But we laugh every time we see each other slowly walk faster and faster until it becomes a sprint. All is fair game too...poor clubs don't like that part.

I had 2 very memorable shots. The first was from the woods and straight into my golf cart, off the inside of the windshield and out into the perfect spot on the fairway. The second was from a tough shot by a tree (is there a theme here?) and over a big water hazard, hitting the top of the wall that the inlet from the lake stops at and up onto the green! It was my 3rd favorite shot ever.



The final score? Well, my brother golfs a lot and my father golfs quite a bit too. Lets just say that I was leading after the 4th hole and leave it at that, shall we?

Oh, Rune called ahead and asked if it was OK that I wore jeans because I was from out of town and didn't bring any dress pants...and I would lose my pants if I wore any of the others' pants. So when we got to the first tee box the "ranger" said, "We have a dress code here, so you can either take off your pants or go back home and change." I began to jokingly unbuckle, but I think he was semi-serious. I hate golf rules. They are so uptight.

One more thing...The lake was down a lot as there has been a drought out here and there were about 10 balls that I found down in the rocks by the water hazard. So yes, it was a good game.