STUMP

I just returned from speaking at a Senior Adult Retreat for the folks at First Baptist Church of New Branfels, Texas. They have an absolutely wonderful leader in Billy Barnes and his wife Judy. They are two of the finest I have ever seen. This is my third retreat with them, and RL and I are willing to go again . . anytime.

The theme of the retreat was UNITY, and I began my four sessions with Stump as our role model. After all, at 10 years of age (that's 70 in adult years), we were all able to identify with Stump and his wonderful win at the Westminister Dog Show.

A television commentator said following the show that a good Sussex Spaniel should be LOW, LONG, and LEVEL. I don't know of any better description of a godly senior adult than those words. So I just used that as my outline for the first session, and we used scripture to talk about senior adults.

I had a lot of good responses from the folks. Some got the analagy right off. There were some who thought it was not spiritual enough. Others thought I was calling them a dog.

But we all learned some wonderful life lessons.

The 57 people at the retreat were mostly over 70 years of age, and there were none of them who felt a day over 35. They all thought they could win "Best of Show". That's why it's fun to hang out with senior adults.