Choosing gifts for the ones I love is often laborious for me. I love to give, but I am not especially attentive to style and modern culture, so choosing clothing for others as a gift from me is risky…for them. I tend to buy things for myself that are durable, last a lifetime, and don’t need replacing, so when I have to choose something for someone else…it can be dated or made out of brass, and I think it’s grand. I think the most beautiful color is comfortable.… Continue reading

I was seventeen years old.  Putting my Bible and three sermons in a suitcase I got in a car with my friend, Mark Carouthers, and my sister, Patti Jones, and drove to West Monroe, Louisiana, to preach my first sermon that was to be delivered outside of the youth group at my home church.  I was nervous and excited.… Continue reading

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the president of the United States and “Cactus” Jack Garner was the vice president of the United States on January 1, 1933, and 80 years ago today Ira and Dorothy Jones welcomed a new son into this world in Lamar County, Texas. Since their new son was born on January 1 and was the first child born in Lamar County, he was named Franklin after the president and Garner after the vice president who was from Texas. Franklin Garner Jones was born January 1, 1933 and he is and he was my daddy, and no son has ever been more proud of his father than me.… Continue reading

As far back as I can remember I have always enjoyed opening a new writing book. As a child we had the spiral-bound notebooks filled with white paper and it seemed to me that the horizontal lines gave clear direction where I should place my new thoughts. Even now when I sit and stare at a blank piece of paper I see it as the potential of being the next great thought.… Continue reading

You can’t hurry up and have a legacy.

Today marks five years since the dispatch from glory stopped by St. Luke’s Hospital in Houston, Texas and picked up the greatest man I’ve ever known. Franklin Garner Jones occupied earth as a living human for almost 75 years, but his legacy is still strong and powerful, gaining in strength and stature.… Continue reading

I thank God for gifts that were given and put in place long before I knew about them or of their existence. My heart is filled with gratitude that a military family, James and Jewel Chrestman, birthed a beautiful daughter in Heidelburg, Germany on October 18, 1960, and named her Gizelle Lea Chrestman. They raised her to love God, to love people and to love her husband. She would be known throughout childhood as Gigi, I know her as Gizelle, my wife.… Continue reading

Since He is God, it is ultra-safe for us to acknowledge Jesus was never at a loss for words to express His deepest, most heartfelt intentions. As God, all words would be at His command and He would never struggle with a desire locked away due to an inability to express the words. So our assumption that His choice of words to express His deepest love is succinctly found in His admission, “Greater love has no man than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends… (John 15:13-14a). The God of the universe chose to show His “no greater love” thought by expressing His friendship, which is a pretty strong advocacy for the possession of good friends.… Continue reading

Dorothy Mae Casey was born 112 years ago today, August 4, 1900. She proudly shared the same birthday as the Queen Mother of England. Granny birthed 13 or 14 children – no one can remember for sure and it makes for good argument (as though this family needed any starter wood) when our family meets together. Our numbers are dwindling, and my four aunts are the only remaining members of their generation of my father’s family.… Continue reading