PARADISE FOUND

What is Paradise? Where is it? There are several conflicting beliefs from different groups of people on this subject. All I need to know is, “What does God’s word say about it?”

The word Paradise only appears three times in the Bible. The Apostle Paul mentioned it once in 2 Corinthians 12:4, and Jesus mentions it the other two times, in Luke 23:43, and again in Revelation 2:7. Let’s start with the last one first.

Revelation 2:7
7 He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches; To him that overcomes, I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the middle of the PARADISE of God. 

There’s our first clue. Wherever PARADISE is, The Tree Of Life is there, also. Does the Bible tell us where the Tree Of Life is? Let’s see.

In Revelation 21:10, John saw a vision of the great city, holy Jerusalem coming down out of heaven. He spends the rest of the chapter describing the city. Then in chapter 22, he says the tree of life is there in the city.

Revelation 22:1-2
1 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. 
2 In the middle of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bare twelve kinds of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 

So, according to Revelation 21 and 22, the Tree of Life is in the holy city, New Jerusalem and so is the throne of God. The next two verses tie it all together.

Ecclesiastes 5:2b
2 …for God is in heaven, and you are on earth…

1 Kings 8:39a
39 Then hear in heaven your dwelling place…

So, according to the Bible, God is in heaven. Heaven is where he lives. That’s where his throne is. The Tree of Life is in the same place where God’s throne is, which is heaven, where he lives. The Bible tells us that the Tree of Life is in Paradise. So, Paradise is just another name for heaven.

Paul said the same thing in 2 Corinthians 12:2 and 4.

2 Corinthians 12:2,4
2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knows;) such a one caught up to the third heaven.
4 ….he was caught up to paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

So, again, Paradise and heaven is the same place. Paradise is just another word for Heaven.

This is a good example of how to study God’s word. We have to search the Bible (Acts 17:11) and compare scripture with scripture (Isaiah 28:10) to see what the whole Bible says about any certain subject. Of course, we need the Holy Spirit to help us understand (1 Corinthians 2:14). So pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17) and serve God without hesitation. As we read and study the Bible, God will show us the truth (John 16:13) and he'll give us better understanding (Proverbs 4:5-7). He'll lead us into a close, personal relationship with himself, and someday we'll go to live in Paradise with our Creator who loves us with a love beyond anything our human minds can comprehend right now. That will definitely be Paradise.

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PREPARE FOR WHAT'S COMING

Have you ever had anything happen to you that you were totally unprepared for? Have you ever seen or heard of something happening to someone else and thought it could happen to you. Unfortunately, many people see something happening to someone else and think it could never happen to them. Well, not me. My grandmother was always thinking about what could happen if you do this and what could happen if you do that and I guess she passed that on down to me. Some people call it worrying but I call it being prepared. I think it’s reckless and irresponsible to begin anything without considering the possible negative outcome. We should never just jump into anything without thinking it out first. We always need to be safety-minded.

Remember my little blue Geo Metro? Well, I have another tale to tell you about it. One day I was going to check all the fluids as I always did once a week. That’s the life of your vehicle. When I pulled the hood release, I felt the cable break and the hood did not unlatch. I finally got it open but it wouldn’t latch back. The safety latch was working but I didn’t trust that enough to drive down the road. I had heard of several people having wrecks from car hoods fly up while going down the road so I put a bungee cord on it to keep the wind from blowing up under the hood.

I thought about what I would do if the hood were to blow up and block my view while driving down the road. I actually pictured it in my mind and planned out a strategy in case it ever happened to me. My plan was to put my head out the window and calmly apply the brakes and slowly and safely get the car off the road without having a wreck.

Then one morning, I was on my way to work, minding my own business, when my windshield suddenly turned blue and shattered. There was no warning like I thought there would be. I didn’t even have time to think about it. It was just there. I immediately put my well-thought-out plan into action. I put my head out the window so I could see the road and began applying the breaks and soon I was safely off the road. Thank God I had thought about what COULD happen before it did. Thank God I was prepared. If not, who knows what might have happened?

Throughout the New Testament, Jesus and his disciples warn us to be prepared for him to return. If we are not prepared when he comes back, we will not see heaven. It’s very important to have a plan. Thankfully, God has a plan for us already. He sent his son to live a sinless life and then die in our place so we could live forever. Jesus told Nicodemus that we must be born again in order to get into heaven (John 3:1-7). This is something beyond scientific explanation. It’s supernatural. In this process, our sins are washed away, we become a new person with a clean slate, and the Holy Spirit comes to live in our minds and guides us in making the right decisions every day.

Jesus is coming back soon and we need to be prepared. If you can’t say without a doubt that you’re ready, then please talk to God right now and make sure you don’t miss out on heaven. The only alternative is hell, and I’m sure nobody wants that. So be prepared and I’ll see you there.

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18 WHEELS AND A DOZEN PRAISES

I remember it like it was yesterday. Well, maybe not that vividly, but pretty well. My family and I went to a used car lot to buy a new car for me to drive back and forth to work each day. Do you get the joke? New car, used car lot. Ok, well, it was new to me. After praying first, we looked at several different cars and were about to decide that we were not going to find one there that we felt good about buying. 

That’s when we saw it. It wasn’t in the rows with the other cars. It was sitting beside the building with some other less desirable ones.

I tried it out and felt pretty good about the dependability and the price, so, after my boys climbed in, I drove it away as my wife and daughter followed.

The car was a small, blue Geo Metro. It had twelve-inch tires and only three cylinders. It only had 80 MPR on the speedometer, but I don’t even know if it could do eighty. If it could, it did one morning, about five o’clock. I was taking my kids to the babysitter on my way to work. 

We were going through town, minding our own business, and obeying the speed limit. I looked in the rear-view mirror and saw an eighteen-wheeler coming up on us pretty fast. I said something about it to the kids and they looked back just in time to see it bearing down on us. I saw that it wasn’t going to stop, or change lanes so I put the pedal to the metal. 

We were going as fast as that little car could possibly go. It was shaking all over and screaming, and so were the kids. We were only a foot or two away from being twisted up under that big highway monster. We think the driver may have been falling asleep or something. Anyway, the truck finally started slowing down and we started pulling away from it.

Thank God! We were safe again. We were so grateful to be alive and I praise the Lord for saving us that morning. I don’t mind telling you I was scared to death and so were my kids. I don’t remember praying while it was going on. It all happened so fast and it was over before we knew it. That’s one reason why it’s so important to stay in constant communication with God. 

We always prayed before we drove away to go anywhere. We would God to be with us and protect us and keep us safe there and back and we still do all these years later. I talk to God throughout the day. It’s easy when you truly know that he is right there with you constantly.

Sometimes people make the mistake of thinking he’s just up in heaven and we have to kneel and close our eyes to talk to him like we’re making a phone call. Some people even think you have to go to a church building to communicate with God, but that’s the wrong idea. We should always be reverent when speaking to our Creator, of course, but if you’ve been born again, then the Holy Spirit is living in your mind. You’re a child of God. You can talk to him any time and anywhere, in any condition and any position, whether you’re kneeling, standing, or lying down, and with your eyes open or closed. 

The important thing is to talk to him. He’s always listening and he’s always talking to us. Sometimes we let our minds drift into areas where they shouldn’t be, or neglect to take time to talk to him. Sometimes we’re angry and sometimes we may sin. In those times it becomes harder for us to hear his voice, but he’s always there. He said he would never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).

1 Thessalonians 5:17 says we should pray without ceasing. That’s constant communication. That’s how God changes us into holy people. He tells us what to do and what not to do as we listen to him. So talk, listen, and communicate with our loving God and allow him to sanctify you, and I’ll see you on the other side, at the end of our journey.

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THE VOLKSWAGEN BUG, OUR SINS, AND HIS BLOOD

It happened one evening in late summer. I still lived in the Horseshoe Bend valley. I walked up to the top of the hill to my cousin’s house like I did almost every day, but he wasn’t home. His mother told me that he had gone to buy a used car and should be back anytime now. I waited for him for what seemed like forever. Then, the sun moved behind the trees and slowly disappeared, leaving the red and yellow sky to fade into gray, then finally to black. A little while after dark, we saw two sets of headlights coming down the gravel road. The car in the rear was my uncle. He was following my cousin as he drove his new used car into their driveway.

To my surprise, he was driving an old, white Volkswagen bug. It wasn’t in bad shape at all, but the paint was scratched and faded. He wanted to do something to fix it immediately, so he had stopped and bought several cans of black spray paint. He parked as close to the house as he could so we could use the porch light to paint by. Like I said, though, it was late summer and the nights were beginning to get a bit chilly. It wasn’t bad when we started painting but by the time we finished, the dew was falling and it was getting cool. We did the best we could with spray cans and limited lighting, and it really didn’t look too bad when we finished.

The next morning I went to his house and was shocked to see what the car looked like in the daylight. It was hideous. It looked like a monkey had painted it. The dirty, white, scratched-up paint was showing through the splotches of black paint where it had been sprayed lighter and unevenly. It was a big mess.

That’s the way it is when we try to hide our sins. No matter what we do, nor how hard we try, they always show through when the Light shines on them. The only way we can have our sins covered is by the blood of the Lamb. The blood of Jesus actually washes our sins away. That’s the only way we can be free from sin and enter into heaven. Hebrews 9:22 says, Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission for sins. That’s why Jesus came to earth, lived a sinless life, and died in our place, then rose again.

In Ephesians 1:7, the Apostle Paul says our sins are forgiven through the blood of Jesus. Jesus said that he is the only way for us to be saved (John 14:6). He also said if we don’t believe in him, we will die in our sins (John 8:24). John tells us that IF we walk in the Light, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7). But, we have to confess our sins to him. Then we have the promise that he will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

Don’t try to cover your sins. You can’t do it. You might hide them for a while, but they will weigh you down and torture you, then eventually, they’ll show through. Let Jesus wash your sins away with his blood. Ask him to forgive your sins and make you a new creature. He’s faithful and always keeps his promises. He wants to give you eternal life so he can be with you forever. He loves you that much. Time is growing short, though. Soon this world will end and your fate will be sealed, so don’t put it off another minute. He’s waiting to hear from you.

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LEARNING LESSONS FROM A FORD

I've told you about my first, second, and fourth cars. There’s not much to tell about my third one but I’ll share what I remember with you anyway. I was between jobs at the time and didn't have much money, so I was excited when my uncle told me I could get a car for fifty dollars. Fifty dollars! Wow! That may seem like a very small amount of money now but back then you could get a good used car from an individual between three hundred and five hundred dollars.

This car didn’t run, of course, but my uncle worked on cars all the time and he said he would get it running for me. The man who owned the car said he didn’t really know what was wrong with it. It just died one day and wouldn’t start back. I wanted it so bad that I gave him the money before I even looked at it.

I don’t remember a lot about the car. I have a picture in my mind but there’s just not much detail there. I remember my uncle taking me to get it. I remember that it was white, and I think it was a Ford. It had been sitting in an overgrown field for several years, so the paint was faded and the tires were flat.

We figured we might have to tow it to my uncle’s house so he could work on it but he wanted to see if it would start first. He raised the hood and put a battery on and hooked up the wires. After we knocked off a few mud dauber nests, he poured a little gas into the carburetor to prime it. Then I got in the car and put the key in the ignition and turned it over. It started so I kept trying.

Finally, after several tries, my uncle said, “Woah! It ain’t gonna crank, boys. There’s a hole in the motor the size of my fist. Come and look.” With my shoulders drooping from disappointment, I stepped out of the driver’s seat to take a look. Sure enough, there was a big hole in the motor on the driver’s side. It had slung a rod. No wonder it had stopped running with the previous owner. I was disappointed. There was no way to fix it short of replacing the motor, which, back then, could be done for only a few hundred bucks, but I didn’t have the money, so told the guy he could keep the fifty bucks if he would keep the car and I just left it there and went back home.

As I was thinking about the lesson that could be learned from this story, I realized there are several.

1) Sometimes we think we can fix something but find out there’s nothing we can do. In those situations, we just have to give it to God and let it go. There’s no need to get angry or discouraged. That usually only makes things worse, and it’s not good for our health.

2) Many times we want something really badly, but when we get it, we realize it wasn’t what we needed at all. That shouldn’t discourage us from going after something we want later, but we should be more cautious the next time, and not jump into something without thorough investigation. We need the grace of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit to make good decisions. Always ask God for guidance.

3)We should not give up on others because they may not be able to do what they thought they could do. Sometimes things just happen that no one could have predicted. My uncle couldn’t fix that car for me, but when I had problems with my next car, I called him for help.

4) Just like that hole in the car motor, there is a hole in our hearts that only Jesus can fill. Many times, we try to fill that void with drugs, alcohol, sex, work, dangerous thrills, Social media, and a number of other things. Some people spend a lifetime searching for the perfect thing to fill that empty space, not realizing there’s only one thing that will do it.

A close personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the Messiah, brings peace, calms our fears, and fills the emptiness in our lives. That’s the only thing that will truly do it. Anything else is equivalent to “trying to place a square peg in a round hole.” Impossible.

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LEARNING FROM A GREMLIN

I remember buying what I think was my fourth car. It was a Gremlin. It was yellow with black trim. It was different and unique in shape from most cars on the road at the time, so I guess that’s what attracted me to it. I found out quickly that the fuel gauge was very accurate. Thankfully, I was almost home when it hit E and stopped in the middle of the road. I had to push it the rest of the way. That’s the car I was driving when I almost went off the embankment because a girl fell over on the stirring wheel. If you missed that story, you can read all about it in the post called, *3 Girls, 3 Guys, And A Gremlin.

I loved that car but it was used and I didn’t have it long. I was driving down a two-lane highway one day and the car in front of me was going a bit slower than I wanted to go, so I decided to go around it. I had seen people drop their gear shifter on automatic cars down a gear in order to get up more speed to pass another car. They called it passing gear. Well, I needed some more speed so that’s what I did. I wish I hadn’t, though, because when I did, the car down-shifted hard and started vibrating really bad. I heard a terrible noise like pieces of the motor falling off onto the road. I looked in the rear-view mirror and saw those pieces sliding all over the highway behind me.

What a mess. What a disappointment. I only had the thing for a few weeks. I stopped as quickly as I could on a little gravel road. To my surprise, the car was still running so I drove just a bit further to the gas station and went in to call my uncle. He came and looked at it and confirmed that the car had slung a rod. I told him it was still running when I made it to the store, so he told me to start it up and see if it would still run. I did, and it did, so he followed me as I drove it to his house. That was a sad day. I miss that car sometimes and on the rare occasion when I see a yellow Gremlin, I’m reminded of those thrilling days.

I have had so many used cars over the years that I doubt I could remember them all. I do remember at least ten cars and a truck from the time I was sixteen until I was twenty-three, though. Some were used, some were more used than others, and some were really used. Some had been well maintained, but some had not. The ones that had been taken care of were in better shape, of course, and they lasted longer. The ones that had been neglected were in bad shape and didn’t last long at all. I’m sure all of them would have lasted longer if I had taken better care of them myself, but I didn’t. I was a young man with a heavy foot and I drove too fast and was hard on my cars. I didn’t have the oil changed regularly and I didn’t really check it regularly. In short, I neglected them.

I did the same thing with my body for years. I ate what I wanted. I drank what I wanted. I drank alcohol and used drugs. I partied and I stayed out all night. I took drugs to stay awake. I took drugs to help me sleep. I gained weight, then starved myself to lose it. I took laxatives and weight loss drugs. Even after I stopped drinking and doing drugs, I spent lots of late nights playing video games, reading comic books, and organizing baseball cards. All that abuse to my body, plus the wear and tear from several strenuous jobs and two car wrecks have taken a toll on me. Now, my body is worn out and I’m in constant pain.

I’m thankful to God for helping me to give up those bad habits, but the damage is done. What bothers me the most is that a lot of it could have been avoided. If I had been more concerned about my health back then, I would still have a lot more good years left in me. The Bible says our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit who lives inside of us (1 Corinthians 6:19). We need to take care of his temple. Our bodies are like machines. Just like those machines, if our bodies don’t have regular maintenance they don’t last near as long as they will if we take good care of them.

Our bodies can’t live without WATER so that would be a good place to start. We need to drink plenty of water. REST is very important as well, so we need to try to get eight hours of sleep each night. We need to get plenty of fresh AIR, so walking outside and doing other kinds of EXERCISE outdoors is a great way to kill two birds with one stone.

Another very important thing we need is SUNSHINE. Not all, but many living things need sunshine to be healthy. Of course, too much sunlight can be harmful. We need it in moderate amounts. Too much of anything can be bad for you, so we need to practice MODERATION in every area of our lives and we need to avoid putting things into our bodies that will harm them. We need to develop good eating habits and eat only foods that will promote good health. Good NUTRITION is imperative to maintaining both physical and mental health. Both of those are connected to our spiritual health. Usually, if we are lacking in one of these three areas, the other two will be affected. We need to round it all out by TRUSTING GOD to provide for all our needs and following his instructions in the Bible. All these things will help our bodies and minds to feel better and last longer.

Just like regular maintenance on a car can prevent costly repairs or even the death of the car, regular maintenance on our bodies can help keep us from getting sick and dying at an early age. Being healthy is very important, so we need to take care of our bodies so we can be as healthy as possible and enjoy life while we live here on this earth.

*3 Girls, 3 Guys, And A Gremlin

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THE POND, THE FORK, AND THE MUD PIES

I think was six years old, when we moved into our new house in Theo Mississippi. It was white with a shiny silver roof. It was in the same neighborhood where we had lived since I could remember. In the new house, my little sister and I each had our own bedroom. The living room in this house was bigger than in the house we had moved from, and we had a bathroom with a tub and water inside the house. We had hot water, too, so we no longer had to heat water to bathe in. We had moved up in the world. Our yard was about the same size as our old one but the layout was a bit different. We had more yard in the front but the side of the house was about the same distance away from the road that the front of our old house was, but it sat on a hill several feet higher than the road.

The house was much nicer, too. It had painted wood inside and nice, aluminum-framed, energy-efficient windows. It even had a storm house. There were several nice, big trees and one of them was a walnut tree. There were plum trees and persimmon trees and beautiful rose bushes all along the property next to the road. The landlord had a cornfield by the side of the driveway in front of the house and he told us we could get all the corn we wanted any time we wanted it. It was like a paradise.

We were excited about our new home, and so was our dog, Clete. I remember making mud pies there for the first time. Somebody gave us an Easy Bake Oven. It didn’t work, but we pretended it did. We made a grocery store and stocked it with empty containers that our grandmother saved for us when they were all used up. We had cereal boxes, oat boxes, milk cartons and jugs, butter bowls, and lots of empty cans. We would play store for hours.

One day, not long after we moved in, a good rain came. There was plenty of mud for some mud pies. I guess we got tired of that after a while. How many mud pies can a kid make anyway? We were just outside the bathroom window and the siding was made from sheets of something white with an orange peel texture. I just remember how pretty and white it was. I think I threw one of the mud pies and it stuck on the white wall. Then maybe my sister threw another one. The next thing I remember is both of us with our backs to the wall, bending over with our hands in the red clay mud, throwing it behind us between our legs, all over that pretty white wall.

When my grandmother saw what we had done she was more than a little upset. After the yelling and the lecture, she made us clean up the mess. We scrubbed as hard as we could for what seemed like forever but we just could not get it back to the pretty clean white that it was before. Our grandmother saw that we had done our best so she tried, but those stains never did come clean. They were still there six years later.

There was a pond on the other side of the small field behind the house but it was fenced in with barbed wire. We weren’t allowed to go there by ourselves, until several years later. I once got some water from there to take to school for science class. We looked at a drop of it under a microscope and saw a creature with a big head and huge horns. It looked like a bull with no legs. When I was older I went there by myself a couple of times but that was it. I never went back. It just wasn’t as exciting as I had imagined for all those years.

When we were older, I was annoying my sister and she got mad and threw some tea on me. I had a bad temper, and before I could think, I threw a fork at her and the points of the prongs stuck in the side of her head. I was sorry I did it when I realized how bad she could have been hurt. I could have even put her eye out.

Sometimes as I look back at my childhood, I remember some things that I’m not proud of. I’ve often wished that I could forget every bad thing that I’ve done and every bad thing that has ever happened in my life, but I realized that those bad experiences are part of what has made me who I am today. Testing and trials build character and how we react in any given situation tells us, as well as others, what kind of person we really are. We should learn from our mistakes and wrong choices. If nothing else, we should at least realize that we can’t make it on our own, and that prompts us to seek the help of our Creator.

So, when you look back at your past and remember things you wish you could forget, take a closer look at those things to see if you learned anything from them. If you didn’t, then examining them may help you to put everything in perspective and maybe you’ll be able to deal with your past a little bit better. Then, leave the past behind and hold on to the good memories and cherish each and every one of them. They are part of what made you who you are, too.

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MY LITTLE SISTER

I was nine years old and I was at my aunt’s house with my two sisters and our grandmother when our mother popped in for a visit. I’m sure I already knew she was pregnant but that day was the first time I remember knowing. She stayed for a while and then she had to go. As she was leaving, I remember my aunt saying something like, “She’ll have that baby before the next full moon,” and I remember her confirming that she had been right when we heard that we had a new baby sister. We didn’t get to see the little rug rat as often as we wanted to but Momma would bring her to see us as often as she could and we would go visit them when we could.

My most memorable moment with her was when she was about two years old. Our Aunt Lee took us and our grandma to visit them. After several hours of playing and having loads of fun with her, it was time to leave. She was dirty all over from playing in the dirt and her face was the worst. She was giving everybody hugs and kisses and she came to me. We hugged and even though her face was covered with dirt, I was about to kiss her on the cheek. Just as I puckered up and came close to her face, she turned her head and kissed me right on my lips with the wettest, snottiest mouth you could imagine. I loved her, but I was spitting out the car window all the way home. It’s funny now and we’ve had several laughs about it over the years, but it wasn’t funny at all then.

When she was three years old, we moved next door to them. Then, we got to play with her all day, every day. We had lots of fun, but sometimes I guess we forgot that she was smaller and a bit more fragile than we were and she would get hurt. I liked pushing her in toy cars and on her tricycle. One day I noticed the extra dirt left over from putting our septic tank in the ground. It reminded me of one of the ramps that Evel Knievel would use to jump his motorcycle over different things. I couldn’t resist. I was thinking, “She has three wheels, she’ll be fine.” So, I told her to hold her feet up off the peddles, as I had before when I pushed her fast. Then I pushed her faster than ever, and I let her go with an extra shove just a few feet from the dirt mound. “Yes!” She jumped and landed on all three wheels without falling over or falling off the tricycle, BUT, she kept rolling for a bit too long. I saw her start wobbling and before I could get to her, she hit the front steps and fell over on them, and split her lip open. Momma wasn’t happy about that at all, so I felt bad for more than one reason. If you know what I mean.

We’re all grown up now and have children of our own, but I still have good memories of our childhood together and all the crazy fun we’ve had over the years. When I was seventeen, I wrote a song about her. It may not be a masterpiece, but here are the words.

SISTER MARY
by Teddy Lynn 
1985

VERSE 1
Eyes like diamonds, a smile bright as the sun
A dirty face from having too much fun
Snotty nose and a snotty kiss
I’m afraid someday I’ll be missing this

CHORUS
Sister Mary, I love you with all of my heart
We have to spend way too much time apart
I guess that makes me really appreciate you
Sister Mary, I’ll always be there for you

VERSE 2
Smiling from ear to ear reaching out for me
Your eyes full of tears when I have to leave
A heart full of love as big as the sky
Handfuls of kisses, but the days fly by

CHORUS…

BRIDGE
It won’t be long until you’re grown
You’ll marry and you’ll be gone
Everything may change and be rearranged
But my love for you will remain

CHORUS

Sister Mary © copyright 2010 Teddy Lynn – BMI

As I said, it’s not a masterpiece, that’s just how I expressed my feelings before blogging and social media came along. Siblings can sometimes have strained relationships and can sometimes even hate each other, but some share a great bond. I’m thankful for my little sister and the good relationship we’ve always had. Since we’ve grown up, we don’t see each other as often as we used to, but I still love her as much as I did when we were kids. There’s nothing like family, and there’s nothing like good memories, so cherish both, while you still have them.

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