The very first thing I want to do is to thank you for purchasing this book. I have written it from my heart. I hope it will supernaturally bless your life.I have often said it took thirty-one years and the death of an angel to bring this book to you. I promised Jeannie that I would write this book, and I was determined to keep my keep word to her. I believe God has given me a gift to express myself in a unique way. This book is my attempt to express my thoughts, feelings, and insights that I believe God has given to me throughout my life. I have a love affair with words. I believe words make us uniquely like our Father-God, in that we have the capacity to express ourselves in articulate speech; I think it is an amazing ability.The Scripture says: "Death and life [are] in the power of the tongue." (Proverbs 18:21 KJV)Thus, it is vitally important that we learn how to speak to our mates with words that are edifying. There are many marriages destroyed simply because of words. We should always speak what we want our spouses to become; speak words of life. The words in this book are words of love and truth, even though my heart was full of pain and loss. Many of the pages in this book are literally covered with tears: my tears.Although perfection is something we achieve in the hereafter, to me, Jean was the closest thing to perfection. Having said that let me say that as long as we are humans we will always continue striving for perfection. The Lord knows I was nowhere near perfection, but that is ok. This book was not written for perfect people.I love to tell stories. Consequently, this book is filled with stories and with many quotes and metaphors as well. One of my favorite stories is entitled "Cracked Pot." The story teaches us that God will use an eccentric or foolish person. Cracked Pot is a story about a water bearer in China who had two large pots, which hung on the ends of a pole, which the water bearer carried across his neck. One pot had a crack in it, while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water to his house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect for which it was made. The poor cracked pot, however, was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do. After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house." The bearer responded, "Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side? That is because I have always known about your flaw, and I planted flower seeds on your side of the path. Every day while we walked back from the stream to the house, the water that leaked from your side watered the flowers. Consequently, for two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be these beautiful flowers to grace my house. The moral of this wonderful story is that each of us has our own unique flaws; we are all cracked pots. Nonetheless, it is the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives interesting and rewarding. We have to learn to take each person for who they are, and look for the good in them.
