Anita and I attended Guy Lepley’s funeral in Hudson Friday morning. Pastor Burkholder did a great job with the message. He spoke of Guy planting a tree for each of his grandchildren and caring for the tree. He illustrated his point by pouring water from a plastic milk jug into a bucket. That was very graphic and the water sounds were picked up by his microphone and projected all through the packed auditorium. Anita looked over at me with a grimace and said, “I’ve really got to go.”

Running water sounds tend to do that to us. Is like priming a pump or yawning. A little bit precipitates even more. And I think the same thing is true of caring and encouragement. What we give out tends to come back to us.

What do you need today in life? Give that out and expect it to come back to you.