During September of 1993, all of the 1994 season, and in the first two months of the 1995 baseball season, I was a left-handed batting practice pitcher for the Iowa Cubs, the Triple A affiliate of  National League Chicago Cubs, in Des Moines, Iowa.  Before each home game, I would "pitch" one of the sessions to team players who would work on their hitting skills before the game that day.

To prove that the Bible is the authoritative word of God, one must rely on a combination of secular history, scientific fact and one’s own faith that the Bible is the true word of a higher power—plus the belief that God’s power, the Holy Spirit, is working with those God has called to understand His plan for mankind!

Almost any time of the day, you can open your front door and get slammed in the face with a noisy, busy world based on false values and false education.  Bravely, we say we aren't really affected by what's going on in the world.  We can even claim that "we aren't really part of what the world's about these days."

My family and I watch our share of nature documentaries, and we are always entertained by scenes of newborn animals—gazelles, giraffes, etc.—struggling, mere moments after birth, to walk. As they struggle on their wobbly legs, instinct pushes them to walk and run as soon as possible, lest they fall as quick prey to predators or become a burden on their herds.

Sometimes, we can look at a thing and not truly “see” it for what it is, from every angle. Our approach to life with its joys, trials, and challenges often depends upon our perceptions of something—how we choose to see—in any given situation. An analogy that seems to fit this human proclivity is how one looks at a diamond, the rarest of precious stones.