Robby's Passions

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This is the Truth Network. Kingdom Pursuits, where you hear from ordinary people instilled with an extraordinary passion. Together we explore the stories of men and women who take what they love and let God turn their passion into kingdom pursuits. Now, live from the Truth Booth, your host, Robbie Dilmore. Oh, we have a very special Kingdom Pursuits for you today, as this is your opportunity to show us how God takes your passion, right?

You listening. You know, we've done this for years and years with lots and lots of guests. How does God take their passion and use it to build the kingdom? Well, today we're going to open that up to you, the listener, and call in and tell us, like, well, God put it on my heart to teach Sunday School, or God put it on my heart to teach sailing in a Christian camp, or whatever it is that God has given you a passion and using it to build the kingdom. And we would love, love, love to hear how you do that. And all you have to do is call us at 866-34-TRUTH, 866-348-7884, 866, my kids say I say that too fast, so 866-348-7884.

And I love to say that if you're digitally gifted, you can dial 866-34-TRUTH if you know what that, but on iPhones, it's not like it used to be where you could see those letters so easy. So anyway, also on today's Kingdom Pursuits, we have me. And it just so happens that God has given me a passion that I don't talk about maybe as often that He uses to build the kingdom. And I have loved it for years and years.

And yesterday, I was telling actually Morgan Freeman, I mean, not Morgan Freeman, Morgan, who works at the station, and Feldmeier, this story. And she said, well, you ought to take that to Kingdom Pursuit sometime. I thought, well, you know, that's not a bad idea. So many, many years ago when I was in the sixth grade, the one time that my parents took us to church, we lived in Naperville, Illinois. And this was the one place I remember growing up. We went to church in later years. And we went to the first congregational church. And so this was one of my few church experiences.

I certainly was not a Christian. And we went for about two years. And I was in the choir.

I know it's hard to picture that. I was a soprano back then. Anyway, they gave me a solo to sing. And they took us to nursing homes to sing. And so the way this story went, we were in this nursing home. And it was my turn to sing the solo. And as I am singing, this little sweet old lady in the very back goes, sing choir boy, sing, right?

Oh my goodness. Like, there's no explaining what that did for my heart. And as you can tell, here we are, you know, 60 years later or whatever it is. And I still remember it like it was yesterday. And I remember the joy that those people had in just watching us sing and worship in the way that we did.

And so later in life, when we moved to the dealership in Mocksville, North Carolina, and we had just opened up about the same time that Somerset Assisted Living opened up behind us. And it wasn't long before I was invited by a friend by the name of Calvin Imes. He did devotions over there. And he said, Robbie, I can't be there.

Would you come please do this? And so I really didn't know what to do. You know, I just knew I was supposed to lead a devotion. Well, my mother had for years and years and years sent me these devotions that had some jokes, right? And they had all jokes and they had some stories. And so I said, well, I'll just do this.

Well, I had read somewhere that if you ever do devotions or something at a retirement home like that, that the thing to do is to print them something and to give them something because they love to have something in their hands. And so I printed out my jokes and little did I know that I would be asked back, back, this was in 1999. And so this has gone on and on and on to this very day. And I have become known at Somerset Retirement Home as the man with the papers because every week I bring my jokes.

And so it's kind of like the origination of shenanigans, just saying. And so, you know, I got to do a little jokes today because it is Kingdom Pursuit. So speaking actually of Valentine's Day.

So it's Valentine's. Here we go. All righty. All right. So like I said, I've been doing this with these for years actually from my scripts that I bring in and hand to all the folks. So this is the actual ones that I use this week.

They're at Somerset, which I do, like I said, to this very day. And so here we go. Never trust a pastry chef on Valentine's Day. Do you know why, Greg? He's shaking his head. He doesn't know why. He'll desert you every time. That's a pastry chef.

You know, they will do that. And here it goes again. What do you call sweets that can't keep a beat? Excuse me, that can keep a beat. You probably know this one. What do they call sweets, Christian, that can keep a beat? I don't know actually. They're candy wrappers. There you go.

Candy wrappers. Yes. And what did the scientists say to her, Valentine? It's alive. Probably. It's alive. It is. And also, I think of you periodically. Yeah.

And of course, you know, the construction worker, you know, he was a big man at love and first sight, right? Right. Okay. Right.

Yeah. And then I did like this line a lot. Dear Cupid, next time hit both of us. And so you can call in and win today, even if you don't have a passion that God is using to build the kingdom, which we're waiting for you to hear. You can call in and win today. We have a prize for you. With a very simple Valentine's quiz, not so biblical this time, but nonetheless, what do squirrels give for Valentine's Day?

I bet you've been wondering this and maybe you know it. If you can answer, what does squirrels give for Valentine's Day, Greg? Tell them what they'll win. What are they going to win?

I have a new producer, Greg, and he hasn't had a chance to experience it. Tell them what they're going to win, Christian. What they're going to win is a fantastic prize from the Kingdom Pursuits Prize Vault, which usually will include a book, but we have other gifts, videos, and I even have a Christian back scratcher with it, which has beads on it, which are, you know, red for the blood of Christ. You know, the whole thing. You can get the gospel with a back scratcher, all in the same thing.

All you got to do is call in. And if you want the Christian back scratcher, we'll see if we can get that for you. What the squirrels give for Valentine's Day, 866-348-7884. So, you know, I've done these jokes for years and years, and as it turned out, believe it or not, Christian, they would sometimes keep these things in books, and every week said that they had these big, huge books, and then one time somebody stole one other person's book, and they got into a big fight, and all these people were getting all upset over my papers, right? Wow, that's amazing.

And so I decided, wow, this is a resource. So I started putting them at the Kingdom Pursuits, what at the time was Robbie's Hobbies website, and they are there to this day, and I print them every week, and I do it for two reasons. I first so that, you know, that my friends at Somerset, they don't have to fight. They're always there. They can look at them anytime they want to, but also for somebody like you that's listening today that says, man, I'd like to go to a nursing home. You would not believe, you know, you kind of think you're doing that for them, but it does not turn out that way at all, that, you know, in Mark chapter 10, there's this verse that says, if you give up your life for the sake of the gospel, you know, which again is a whole Obi-Wan Kenobi, you know, concept here, that you will not fail to receive 100 mothers, okay?

In this present life, there's more to the verse than that, but I'm just using this one, okay, because most of them are mothers that are there, and I can tell you that I have way, way, way, I've done this for years, and I have way more than 100 mothers, because these ladies, they pray for me, right? They love on me. I mean, I can't even begin to tell you all the faces, but I just want to tell you that there was this lady when I first started, and I couldn't tell your name because there's been so many names, and she used to play the piano before Miss Beck played the piano, and one day she had a stroke apparently, and the next time I saw her, she came in and her face was all drooped. I'll never ever forget what that looked like, and I was so sad, and she said, don't be sad for me.

Don't be sad for me. I've never forgot the story. There's more, much, much more to her story when we come back, but we need your, like, how does God take your passion and use it to build the kingdom, or what do squirrels do for, you know, Valentine's Day? Eight, six, six, three, four, eight, seven, eight, eight, four, eight, six, six, three, four, truth.

You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Welcome back to Kingdom for Six, where we hear how God takes your passion, and today we really do hear how God takes your passion. We're expecting to hear at any moment now how God takes your passion and uses it to build the kingdom. We'd be so blessed to have you call in and share that with us.

Eight, six, six, three, four, eight, seven, eight, eight, four, eight, six, six, three, four, eight, seven, eight, eight, four, or if you've all of a sudden come to the conclusion on what a squirrel gives for Valentine's Day, of course, we would very much love to hear that. So, when we left her here, all right, I was at this point in time in my 50s, early 50s, I might have been in my late 40s, and I was so sad when I saw this, this, this, the sweetest lady, she had the most beautiful smile that you ever saw in your life, one of my 100 mothers, by the way, and after she'd had this stroke, it just broke my heart, and she said, Robbie, don't be sad for me, this is my stage of life, and it's almost over, and it's gonna be great. And in spite of the fact that she could only smile with half her face, she lit up with that statement like nothing you've ever seen, and I've never ever forgotten that.

Well, fast forward about 20 some odd years, and a young, well, no, he's not young, he's older than me, but anyway, a man is in there, and he's in a wheelchair, and he too has a beautiful smile, and he too is such a delightful man, and in fact, every time that he would come, he would always say, when I laughed at my jokes, which I do there too, as you could imagine, he said, you know, I've never met anybody who entertained themselves any more than you, Robbie. But he always, he was always like that, he goes, I wonder if you remember my mom, because he found out that I'd been there for years and years, and he said, I think she knew you, and he went on to describe, and I said, did she used to play the piano? Oh yeah, she was, and I was like, oh my goodness, it was his mother.

No way, seriously? Yeah, it was his mother, and now, man, I mean, you know, one of my favorite things is to see, his name's Mike, and to see him is to see, you know, the two generations, right, and we still have a good idea. And then when I got there, Miss Beck was in her 80s, okay, Miss Beck died when she was 104.

Glory to God. And she, like, if you ever wanted 100 mothers, let me tell you that one of the mothers that you wanted was Miss Beck, because I have never met in my life anybody that had read through the Bible. She read through the Bible three or four times every year since the 20s, since the 1920s, okay? And there would be very few Bible verses that she could not quote right off just like boom, boom, boom, and she played the piano after my friend that we're talking about, and she played it up until like two months before she passed.

And I can remember like 98 or something like that. Maybe she was over 100 at this point in time. All I know is I was just, one day I was talking to her, I said, Miss Beck, at what point in time do you slow down, you know, because she was out there, you know, she would go beat on all their doors to have them come to devotions, and she would make sure that all this stuff was going on, and she would encourage me so much in so many different ways. And I was like, well, Miss Beck, at what point in time, you know, when you're 100, when do you slow down? And she quotes this thing out of Ecclesiastes like this very obscure passage, well, while you're in the, you know, when you're subscripted into the war, it's not, you're not out of the war until the war is over, you know? And I've never, I mean, there's no way that I can explain to anybody like what a joy it is to have a relationship with these folks. And again, I'm just offering up as a resource.

It's always there at kingdompersuits.com. It's Robbie's devotional humor and inspiring stories. And so for today, as a little treat, besides waiting on you to call in and tell us, you know, how God takes your passion, and somebody is calling in, maybe they know what squirrels do for Valentine's Day, I have some more of my jokes that I shared this very week. So stopping by, you know, to pick up some flowers for Tammy on my way home the other day, I said, Siri, find the closest cemetery. Yeah, yeah, I'll let you go for that one. And good news, I got a date for Valentine's. You know, I get to wear a suit and everything, you know, bad news.

It's a court date. Yeah, there you go. So you're gonna like this one. The Game of Love is called, I got a text from my girlfriend that said, I bought you an awesome Valentine's Day gift, X0X.

I really hope she spelled Xbox wrong. So here we have one, right? It's called the bird, wait a minute, wait a minute. We got it.

Okay. It's called the bird feeder. Three sons left home and went out and prospered getting back together. They discussed gifts that they were able to get their elderly mother for Valentine's Day, right? The first one said, I'm going to build a big house for our mother. And the second said, I sent her a Mercedes with a driver.

Third one said, I've got you both beat. You know, you remember how mom enjoyed reading her Bible and you know, she can't see very well. So I sent her a remarkable parrot that recites the entire Bible. It took the elders of the church 12 years to teach him. And he's one of a kind. I mean, mom was going to just love this and he does name, verse, chapter, all that stuff.

The parrot has got it going on. Well, soon thereafter, mom sent letters of thanks to her three children, right? Milton, she wrote, that's her older son, the house you build is so huge. I live in only one room, but I've chosen to clean the whole house. Gerald, she wrote to the other, I'm too old to travel.

I stay most of the time at home. So I really use the Mercedes and the driver is so rude. But to the last one, she said, dear Donald, she wrote to her third son, you have the good sense to know what your mother likes. And that chicken was delicious. You like that. You like that. So we have Lucretia actually in a nursing home.

So Lucretia, you're on Kingdom Pursuits. Good morning. We're so glad you called in today.

What have you got for us? How you dressed that chicken. How do you?

How did I dress it? That's good. That's good. So which nursing home are you at Lucretia? Which nursing home are you at?

Okay. Oh, you're in Ohio. Oh, you know where it is. I do know where Ohio is.

The University of Roberto Colon and Padre Pio run in Miami Valley Hospital. Really? Well, I'm so grateful. Yeah, there you go.

There you go. Well, do you happen to know what squirrels give their valentines for Valentine's Day? Well, since you called in and you're absolutely the winner, I got to tell you, they give them forget me nuts.

That's absolutely the thing to do. So how neat is it when some people come visit and share devotions with you guys and all that, Lucretia? I get my devotions here.

I get my devotions just fine. Yeah. Yeah, you get it from listening to that, to the Truth Network, right?

Right. That is so wonderful. Well, thank you so much for calling in today, Lucretia. We really appreciate you. Listen up there in Dayton, Ohio.

What's the call letters of that station, do you know? W-T-U-E. There you go. Well, thank you again for listening. God bless you. Have a great weekend. Bye-bye. All right. There you go, man.

I mean, how awesome is that? And we would love to hear from you wherever you are. And oh, by the way, you know, I often, I shouldn't say often, but it's not infrequent that I get a letter from somebody who's incarcerated, right?

And I know they can't call in, but I do want to give a shout out to all those folks that were so grateful and so grateful that you listen. I know you're thinking, Christian, you need to hear another joke, right? So you're going to like this one. Absolutely. It's another one of my, I use this very weak, okay?

That's why you got to go to the resource of, you know, devotional humor and inspirational stories right there at kingdompursuits.com. So this one's called Seaman Says, and this is a transcript of an actual radio conversation between a U.S. naval ship and the Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland. The Canadian said, please divert your course 15 degrees to the south to avoid a collision. The Americans recommended you divert your course 15 degrees to the north to avoid a collision. The Canadian said, negative, you'll have to divert your course 15 degrees to the south to avoid a collision.

The Americans came back. This is the captain of the U.S. Navy ship. I say again, divert your course. The Canadian said, no, I say again, divert your course. The American said, this is the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln, the second largest ship in the U.S. state's Atlantic fleet.

We are accompanied by three destroyers, three cruisers, and numerous support vessels. I demand that you change your course 15 degrees north. I say again, that's one five degrees north or countermeasures will be taken, undertaken, excuse me, to ensure the safety of this ship and its escorts. To which the Canadians responded, this is a lighthouse, your call. Right? It can't move. It can't move. It, you know, it's, it's, yeah. So I'm guessing the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln diverted its course a little bit, but, you know.

Sounds like a bad game of battleship. So, you know, again, I will say that we are so excited that you're listening today, and we know that you're going to be able to do that. You're going to be able to do that. We know, like, man, over the years, I've heard so many different ways that God has taken your passion and used it to build the kingdom. Maybe he put it on your heart to write a book. I would love to hear about that.

Maybe he put it on your heart, you know, to, to go to nursing homes or to go visit people in the hospital or whatever that might be. We know he's taken your passion and he's used it to build the kingdom. And here's why I want you to call in, because you might encourage somebody else to do the same thing that has been feeling that, but they haven't jumped in and been obedient. And oh my goodness, the blessing that happens when that happens. So we'll be right back with your calls.

866-348-7884. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the kingdom. And we are very blessed today to have you with us, because you're listening and we know you have a passion for Jesus, and we're so grateful for that.

We'd love to hear it too, by the way, if you want to call us at 866-348-7884, 866-34TRUE. So, you know, it's amazing. I don't know if you've ever, you know, realized when you give something away, God gives it back to you in phenomenal ways. Like if you sow a little, you're going to reap a ton. Well, let me show you how this works with jokes, okay? So when I started making my joke sheets every week, the next thing I know, like everybody on the planet is sending me jokes. Like, I wonder if anybody gets all the jokes in their email and letters and books that people send me jokes, but it happened long before I got on the radio telling jokes. It was just literally, I would get all my mother, all these people, and they didn't even know I was using all these jokes to create, you know, the things that I did every week and that I would hand out these papers at the nursing home. And, you know, over the years, it's absolutely crazy how many jokes and inspiring stories, by the way, because I also always tell inspiring stories. So along those lines, here's an inspiring story from my stuff today, this very week, right? So this one's called Puppy Love.

You're going to like it. So a store owner was tacking a sign above his door that read puppies for sale. Signs like that have a way of attracting small children. And sure enough, a little boy appeared under the store owner's sign. How much are you going to sell puppies for? He asked. And the store owner replied, oh, anywhere from 30 to $50. Little boy reached in his pocket and pulled out some change.

I have $2.37. He said, could I please have a look at them? And the store owner smiled and whistled out of the kennel came lady who ran down the aisle of the store followed by five teeny tiny balls of fur. One puppy was lagging considerably behind. Immediately, the little boy singled out the lagging limping puppy and said, what's wrong with this little dog? The owner explained that the veterinarian examined the little puppy and discovered it didn't have a hip socket. And it would always limp.

It would always be lame. That a little boy became excited. This is the puppy that I want to buy. The store owner said, no, you don't want to buy that little dog. I mean, if you really want him, I'll just give him to you. And the little boy got quite upset. He looked straight into the store owner's eyes, pointing his finger and said, I don't want you to give him to me. This little dog is worth every bit as much as those other dogs.

And I'll pay full price. In fact, I'll give you this $2.37 right now and 50 cents a month until I have him paid for. The store owner countered, you really don't want to buy this little dog. He's never going to be able to run and jump and play with you like the other puppies. And to his surprise, the little boy reached down and rolled up his pant leg to reveal a badly twisted, crippled leg supported by a big metal brace.

He looked up at the store owner and softly replied, well, I don't run so well myself. And the little puppy will need someone who understands. Wow. Hmm. That's incredible.

Not only that, adding value to the puppy. Oh yeah. And so with that, I'm going to make a pitch for if you've not seen the new episode of The Chosen, the new episodes of season three, let me just give you a full spoiler alert of what they did. This is so spectacular along these lines is they were showing the 12 disciples, as you may know. And one of those is little James. There's big James and there's little James.

And little James is depicted in this series is short and he's crippled and he uses a crutch. And so just imagine the scene when Jesus sends out all the disciples two by two to go heal folks, right? And so then there's this amazing awkward scene of James coming to Jesus and saying, excuse me. He said, you want me to go out and heal people in my condition? And Jesus is like, yeah, yeah. He said, do you want to be healed?

You're conditioned. Do you want to be healed? And he said, yeah, if it's possible. And Jesus says to him, well, I think you've seen enough to know it's possible. I mean, I love that line by the way. And those of us who follow Jesus have seen many, many things healed. And don't you have that exact understanding? Like, I know they did all this for other people, but you did do it.

I know it's possible. And then he says, well, he says, if it was in the father's will, I could heal you right now. And you'd have a great story to tell, wouldn't you, James? And James of course says, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

He's ready to go. And Jesus says, but there's thousands of people or hundreds, there will be thousands of people who can tell that story. He said, but the father and I don't trust many people like we trust you.

Like what? And he says, you know, for those that understand that the body is worth more than the soul, I mean, that the soul is worth more than the body and that they can praise God in their weakness and use that weakness to show my strength. Those are the people that the father really entrusts with some special stuff. So powerful. Have you seen it, Christian?

Yes. And I look forward to watching it again. Oh, you can't watch that particular scene or all of them. Again, I, it's called The Chosen. You can get it on your phone or you can go on Google and find the app.

You can get it on your TV or whatever. It's just absolutely, you know, one of the things that I think God has given us, right, to really enjoy relating to Jesus. And we have Laura who has a puppy comment.

So I'm excited about that. Laura, you're on Kingdom Pursuits. Good morning. I appreciate you calling in speaker.

Can you hear me? Okay. I hear you. Great. Okay. I just think it's just a good thing to listen to.

I missed, I didn't know if I was going to make a comment. I just like, I like this story about this puppy. It really touched me and I'm sure a lot of other people, it's just how I feel about, do you encourage each other?

Isn't that true? You know, it's just a big, kitty thing. I helped this lady with her laundry and I'm going back to finish, you know, make her some soup. But I get so much out of it, you know, and it's just, it's just, there's such a need for that these days. Anyway, I've... Oh, you're exactly right. It's grace, right? It's like, it's treating other people like they're your favorite and it has a spectacular effect.

Not just on them, but on you, right? Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

God's been so good to me, incredibly merciful to me that I'm even alive many times over. And for me not to gain some to help somebody else, come on, you know? Anyway.

That is so awesome. Where are you calling from, Laura? I'm sorry? Where are you calling from this morning? Raleigh, North Carolina. Well, thank you for listening to Raleigh.

I guess that's WDRU, right? I've still got my Christian Car Guy shirt. Oh, wow. Well, that's wonderful, Laura. Wow. Now I feel really blessed that you called in today.

So, you know, we would say that you're styling and profiling with the Christian Car Guy t-shirt. There you go. Thank you so much.

You made my day. Thank you, Laura. God bless you. Oh, thank you. All right. Bye-bye.

So how about you? 866-348-7884, 866-34-TRUTH. And again, it's really, you know, not only did I get all these jokes in my email, but I always get the inspirational stories too. And like as you give stuff away like this, it reminds me of a story some of us around the station know David Parsons. And one time he was with the men's ministry at Calvary and he was supposed to get tickets for an event.

I'm trying to think of the name of it. Maybe I will by the time we get back. And with your call 866-348-7884, 866-34-TRUTH. We'll be right back.

You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the kingdom. And I'm so grateful for those of you who called in today with your stories. And we would love to hear from you.

866, we really would, 866-348-7884, or 866-34-TRUTH for the digitally gifted. And when we left our hero, David Parsons, it was a promise keepers event. That was the advantage of having a break right there because I could remember what it was. And he was supposed to get tickets for this promise keepers event. And he had, the day of the event realized, oh, I forgot to get the tickets. And there were two bus loads of people from Calvary loading up, over a hundred guys. They were going to this event and they were loading the buses. And David thought, well, I'll just run down to the event and I'll get the tickets. And so he jumps out ahead of the bus. I guess he had a couple hours to go down there ahead of the buses to get these tickets. That was my understanding of the story. So he gets down there and he goes to the box office and they're like, we're sorry, we're sold out.

Oh no. Yeah. And so he goes out there, he makes himself a little sign, need tickets, right? You picture David Parsons out there.

I see this all comical. And so he goes out there, need tickets, right? And he's asking everybody coming in and nobody's coming. He's there for 45 minutes, doesn't get a single ticket. And finally a guy goes, oh, here's two, right? And so he's standing there with, he's gotten two tickets, he needs a hundred. That's what I was going to say. That's a big order to fill. Right.

And so it isn't long. And some guy walks up to him and says, man, you got any tickets? And he's like, look at the sign here. I need tickets. I need a hundred tickets. And he goes, no, I need tickets.

I brought my, my father wanted to come and can I possibly, you know, and he goes, well, I'm just, I got no, you know, I'll never make this here. Take these two. And he gives the guy the tickets.

Right. Next thing you know, another guy comes up, gives him four tickets. Another guy gives him six tickets. Somebody else comes up, man, I need tickets. You know, you got any tickets? And he's like, well, it's a free for all.

Here you go. He gives these tickets. Well, you can imagine, make a very long story short, he ended up with his hundred tickets. He said, Robbie, I bet I gave away 200 tickets.

Right. As he stood there and he gave and received tickets. Like, it's just an illustration of if you, if you have, you know, something to give, it's amazing how God, when you sow it, man, man, man, did he reap it. And I've never forgotten that story. So one more little inspirational story. I love this story that I read today to my, I mean, I read on Thursday to my folks at Somerset and this one's called the toothless grim. It almost makes me cry. We'll see if I can get through it here. All right. It's one of my inspirational stories.

I'll get you some tissues. So I was doing some last minute Christmas shopping in a toy store and decided to look at Barbie dolls for my nieces. A nicely dressed little girl was excitedly looking through the Barbie dolls as well with a roll of money clamped tightly in her little hand. When she came upon a Barbie she liked, she would turn and ask her father if she had enough money to buy it. He usually said yes, but she would keep looking and going through the ritual of do I have enough? As she was looking, a little boy wandered in across the aisle and started sorting through the pocket Pokemon toys.

He was dressed neatly, but in clothes that were obviously rather torn and worn and wearing a jacket that was probably a couple sizes too small. He too had money in his hand, but it looked like no more than $5 or so. He was with his father as well and he kept picking up Pokemon video toys. And each time he picked one up, he looked at his father, his father shook his head no. With a little girl had apparently chosen her Barbie, a beautifully dressed, glamorous doll that would have been the envy of every little girl on the block. However, she stopped and was watching the interchange between the little boy and his father.

Rather dejectedly, the boy had given up on the video games and had chosen what looked like a box of stickers, a book of stickers instead. He and his father then started walking through the aisle of the store. The little girl put her Barbie back on the shelf and she ran over the Pokemon games. She excitedly picked one up that was lying on the top of the other toys and raced towards the checkout. After speaking with her father, I picked up my purchases and got in line behind them.

Then much to the little girl's obvious delight, the little boy and his father got in line behind me. After the toy was paid for and bagged, the little girl handed it back to the cashier and whispered something in her ear. The cashier smiled and put the package under the counter. I paid for my purchase and was rearranging things in my purse when the little boy came up to the cashier. The cashier rang up his purchases and then said, congratulations, you're the hundredth customer today and you win a prize.

With that, she handed the little boy the Pokemon game and he could only stare in disbelief. It was, he said excitedly, exactly what he wanted. The little girl and her father had been standing at the doorway during all of this. And I saw the prettiest toothless grin on that little girl that I've ever seen in my life.

Then they walked out the door and I followed closely behind. As I walked back to the car in amazement over what I had just witnessed, I heard the father ask the daughter, why has she done that? I'll never forget what she said to him. Daddy, didn't Nana and Papa want me to buy something that would make me happy? He said, of course they did, honey.

To which she replied, well, I just did. Wow. That's amazing. Right?

Beautiful. It's called the toothless grin. And you just can't, you can't miss it. So you might have something like that that you can give away, especially your life, right? Take up your cross and follow Jesus this week.

It's the Obi Wan effect. I'm just saying, and don't forget to let God use your passion to build the kingdom. I'm so grateful for your listening in every which way. And so thankful for the way God has blessed us here at the Truth Network. Right now you've got so much truth coming your way, right? You've got, oh my goodness, encouraging prayer, which is on forgiveness, followed by the masculine journey. And then it's time to man up with the tequila. Call off. This is the Truth Network.