Unfortunately, I am not with her; she decided to go to Charleston this week to spend time with our granddaughter. But that doesn’t mean I can’t wish her a happy birthday via the world wide web, right?
Happy birthday, Valerie! I heart you!
Holiday Names
My wife’s name is Valerie. Is it any wonder? I mean, she was born just two days before Valentine’s Day (and, coincidentally, on the day my parents got married). Valentine > Valerie = Logical.
You have to admit, Valerie sounds a LOT better than Valentinerie.
Valentinerie… Now that’s a name worth passing around at the maternity ward!
Hmmm. That makes me wonder. What other names parents could name their daughter’s around this time?
Valentina?
Chocolatta?
Qishentyne?
Vilntin (pronounced Valentine)?
Lubnote?
Yeah, I think “Valerie” was the best choice.
The Lubsong ♥
Anyway, I wrote Valentinerie…excuse me, Valerie…a love song several years ago (You can be the judge of how much was truly autobiographical).
When I couldn’t figure out how to film myself doing a music video, I went to work with marker, paper, Monkey, and iPhone.
Here is the chocolate-covered fruit of my labor (I said labor…I’ve really got to get down to that maternity ward!).
“Try Me”
Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!
Just remember,the truest example of love is God’s love for us. May we love others with such extravagance (1 John 4:19-21).
Have you ever had a song that you couldn’t get out of your head? Sometimes they’re so bad you’d think Myley Cyrus had written them just to give you bad dreams.
Then there are those strange, twisted, dementedly sick videos from Billie Eilish. Good grief! I don’t advise watching them, not unless you want to stain your brain.
What’s a person supposed to do when they listen to or watch something perverted or sick that determines to repeat over and over in your mind? How do you get rid of it?
The first thing you can do – and this is the most preferred option – is listen to some good Christian music that uplifts the name of Jesus as it lifts you out of the mire of Myley’s musings. I recommend the following (with links provided):
OR, if you’re really desperate, you can watch this video and listen to this song I wrote and recorded. Listen to it a couple of times, then sing along. It will drown out any memory of the typical soul-polluting garbage on the radio.
If you keep repeating it in your head, over and over, it might even drown out the “Baby Shark” nightmares.
This video from several years ago is one of my favorites. It features my youngest daughter, Haley, wrapping a warm blanket around a shivering Mr. Monkey.
Katie (the daughter that is going to be graduating from Bryan College this Friday! After 6 years!!) is doing the camera work.
The message of the video should be obvious, and one that we should take to heart.
Whether you are going to be walking around dressed like a monster with a sugar craving or nailing lots of bullet points to the front doors of churches, I wish you no ill will. Well, not unless you are really going to nail your theses to a church door – that would get you in trouble if your last name isn’t Luther.
But since today is Halloween, I thought I’d share a post I wrote a while back for Proverbial Thought, a post dealing with the issue of “curses.” That’s a Halloween-like subject, right?
Proverbs 26:2
“As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.” (KJV)
“Like a flitting sparrow or a fluttering swallow, an undeserved curse goes nowhere.” (HCSB)
Curses!
I recently watched a funny scene from the movie Despicable Me. Vector, the really bad guy, had stolen a stolen shrink ray and was playing with it in his bathroom (lavatory), and that’s when he purposely shrunk his toilet. He then proceeded to mock the toilet like it was a defeated enemy. When the shrunken toilet popped off the water line, Vector yelled, “Curse you, tiny toilet!”
Curses are as old as mankind, I suppose. They have been around long before Vector, Scooby Doo, Endora (Samantha’s mother), or the literal witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28:7). The first curses recorded in the Bible can be found all the way back in the book of Genesis. There God cursed the serpent (Gen. 3:14), the ground (Gen. 3:17), Cain (Gen. 4:11), and even the anger of Simeon and Levi (Gen. 49:7). So, it would seem that the earliest curses came not from witches, but from God.
However, when God pronounces a curse, it is usually a denunciation of sin (Nu. 5:21, 23; Dt. 29:19–20), His judgment on sin (Nu. 5:22, 24, 27; Is. 24:6), and the person who is suffering the consequences of sin by the judgment of God is called a curse (Nu. 5:21, 27; Je. 29:18).[1]On the other hand, men use curses as tools to bring something about. However, the difference between a curse from God and a curse from man is capacity: man’s is limited, but God is omnipotent.
Capacity
Those who spew out curses typically have no ability to see them come to fruition. In Eccl. 8:4 we read: “Where the word of the king is, there is power.” In other words, a king can pronounce a curse on his subject’s land or life and have the ability to make it happen. But for most people, “damning” someone is pretty useless.
I once made a video depicting a monkey puppet making fun of evolution. The video asked the question: “What do you get when cross a monkey with time?” The answer was, “A man? No, just a monkey.” Immediately I received hate mail and curses from atheists around the globe.
Click the picture to watch the video for yourself.
On other occasions I have written about my views on marriage, which have brought even more hateful language, and even threats. The curses came by the boat load and generally read like this: “I hope you get sick and die!…go to hell!…damn you!” But therein lies the point of today’s proverb – cursed curses are useless.
Causeless
Solomon said, “the curse causeless shall not come.” Therefore, we should not fear the curses of fools, for they do not have the capacity bring about the end result. They presume upon a Power beyond their own to bring about the judgment they declare, but “there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).
Let the witch doctor cast spells; let the voodoo doll be stuck with pins; let the curses come from Hell itself; they will fly by me like sparrows on the wind, for they are as powerless as the cursed fools who send them.
[1] J. A. Motyer, “Curse,” ed. D. R. W. Wood et al., New Bible Dictionary (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 248.
The above post was copied from my other blog, ProverbialThought.com., and adapted for this site.
It’s a Friday, but some of you need a smile. I can see your faces.
About the video: This was the second video in a long series I did with a puppet named Buddy (a.k.a., Mr. Monkey). Seven years ago it took me 2 hours to film it (on my iPhone 4s), then more to edit it. On top of that, I convinced a former American Idol contestant to sing the reworked lyrics as I played the guitar. My only regret is that I didn’t make it a little longer 🙂
One of the greatest country songs to come out of Nashville in the last, oh, 20 years was Jesus Take the Wheel. This video is not meant to make fun of that song, but pay tribute to it while making fun of Monday-morning drivers.
However, it should also remind us that it really does matter Who’s at the wheel.
A few years ago I made a lot more “Monday Monkey” videos than I do now. Sadly, as I look back, I can see how much my girls have grown up!
The following video is a good example.
In the video below you will see my youngest, Haley, doing her part to help the “least of these,” a freezing puppet next to a tree…and I wasn’t exactly warm, either.
Remember, Christmas is not about getting; it’s about giving. God gave Jesus Christ unto a world who didn’t deserve Him, and that supreme act of love (both on the Giver and the Gift’s part) should be reflected in our giving.
This Christmas, why not give something of value to someone in need, someone who won’t expect it. Then, take the time to talk about the Greatest Gift ever given to mankind.
Seriously, ask the Lord to give you the opportunity to share Jesus with someone; He will make it happen.
This is Katie and Haley, now. Both are seniors: Katie, 22, in college (5th year), Haley, 18, in high school!
I don’t know about you, but I miss Mr. Monkey. It has been a long time since I made a video with him, and how sad is that? I mean, here I am with an iPhone with all the video-making power one needs (along with iMovie), and nothing…sad.
But part of the problem is a lack of ideas. Writer’s block is easy to overcome – just start writing. But movie-making block is a different story altogether; one has to plan.
So, could you help me? First, you can click on the archive tab above and find links to previous Monday Monkey videos, and that should give you an idea what I’m capable of (and those videos were all done on an iPhone 5s, not my 7!). Then, suggest something. Give me some ideas.
Yes, life is serious, I’m an adult, and there are more important things in life than making movies with a 30-year-old puppet monkey.
But God invented humor. And if He invented it and even used it Himself a time or two, I see no reason why we who are “sober and vigilant” can’t use it for God’s glory.
Leave me some suggestions for plot lines or situations in the comment section below. If I choose your idea (or if it inspires me to do something else), then I’ll send you a signed photo of Mr. Monkey and me!
…OK, you don’t have to accept the photo, but it’s available if you want it. Unless we break the camera 😉
The above photo is nearly 10 years old. Mr. Monkey hasn’t changed a bit!
A few years ago I made a lot more “Monday Monkey” videos than I do now. Sadly, as I look back, I can see how much my girls have grown up. The following video is a good example.
In the following video you will see my youngest, Haley, doing her part to help the “least of these,” a freezing puppet next to a tree…and I wasn’t exactly warm, either.
Remember, Christmas is not about getting; it’s about giving. God gave Jesus Christ unto a world who didn’t deserve Him, and that supreme act of love (both on the Giver and the Gift’s part) should be reflected in our giving.
This Christmas, why not give something of value to someone in need, someone who won’t expect it. Then, take the time to talk about the Greatest Gift ever given to mankind.
Seriously, ask the Lord to give you the opportunity to share Jesus with someone; He will make it happen.
It’s a Monday and some of you need a smile. It’s been a while since this was last posted (3 years, actually), but it’s worthy of a re-run.
One of the greatest country songs to come out of Nashville in the last, oh, 20 years was Jesus Take the Wheel.
This video is not meant to make fun of that song, so I hope Carrie Underwood doesn’t hate me when she sees this (But I hope she does see this).
This episode/edition of “Monday Monkey” pays tribute to Jesus Take the Wheel, while at the same time making fun of Monday-morning drivers. It was only the second video I’d ever made with the monkey, but it remains my favorite – I just wish it’d been longer.
Today is my wife’s birthday!
The Recovering Legalist 