She had only been gone a few hours and already we were talking about the things she had done . . . had said . . . what she had meant to our family . . . what she still meant to our family.

What a blessing memories are.

I realize that in our humanity there are memories that are not pleasant, but the ability to remember is one of God’s greatest gifts to us — this ability to “treasure” things in our hearts. The truth of this statement is the devastation that occurs when someone we love starts to lose their memory. A connection between us is being lost.

In difficult times remembering God’s goodness and promises will bring us peace and comfort. And when we lose someone to death, memories can bring us joy and laughter.

Next week is Jamie’s celebration of life, and even though I am writing this two weeks before the event, I know that the memories, and the smiles they bring, will be many.

As a friend reminded me this past week, “God gave us memory that we might have roses in December.”

And any other time of the year we need them.

“What’s your name? . . . I’m Jamie Peterson.”

And that sums up my sister right there. She knew who she was, and she wanted to know who you were.

She was all about relationships . . . well . . . and popcorn . . . and whipped cream . . . and nail polish . . . and dancing . . . spaghetti . . . Santa Claus . . . you get the picture.

Jamie was born with Down Syndrome. We called her our Peter Pan sister because she would never grow up. Christmas was always an adventure and simple pleasures were all she needed. And my parents told us that God only gave certain families a Peter Pan sister or brother so we felt special.

However, Jamie could be ornery, a bit devious, stubborn (she was 1/4 Irish, you know), but she was also pure in heart, and she loved life.

She won bowling trophies, a gold medal in gymnastics at the Special Olympics, has been to Hawaii and attended summer camp.

She was blessed to have three families. First, us, her biological family, which consisted of a mother she loved, a father she adored, an older brother who teased her unmercifully, a younger sister whom she made sure understood the sibling hierarchy, and me, her fellow middle sibling — which I felt gave us a special bond.

Then she had her Gateway family—those who lived life with her 24/7. A very special group of people who do what they do out of love. Gill, who has been her second mother for the past 24 years. Daniel, Moses, Peter, and Dan who have been her father figures. Alita, Junior, and Priak, who have been her one-on-one caretakers for the past few years, and all the other staff members who have loved on her. Then, of course, there are her Gateway “brothers and sisters”: Jay, Steven, Francie, Bonnie, Amanda, Eloise, and Kimberly.

Finally, there is her heavenly family. Though I look forward to the time I will see my father, my grandparents, and my aunts and uncles and cousins who have gone before me, I most look forward to seeing Jamie in her perfect body and mind. And I look forward to having a long conversation with my sister.

That is if she has time for me, because she has a lot of people to go up to in heaven and say . . . “What’s your name? . . . I’m Jamie Peterson.”

I just returned from a week and a half on the road. Home to Fresno to Salt Lake City to Fresno to Monterey and then back home.

I never went off-road. All freeway or street driving. But my car is filthy. Outside in particular but inside as well. Even though I try to keep the interior neat, the film builds up on the windows and dirt gets tracked onto the floor mats.

Then there are the bugs. The come from every which way, make their imprint, and stick.

Life is like that, isn’t it? Even with just normal, everyday living it doesn’t take long for the grime of life to stick to us: the negativity, cynicism, temptations, others’ bad choices, etc. etc, etc.

And it’s not like we went off-road or put ourselves in iffy situations or had to maneuver around major obstacles. We were just navigating the roads we needed to for our daily living.

But just like our cars, we need to get that grime and those bugs off as soon as we can; otherwise, we might view ourselves incorrectly, find the filth harder to remove, and feel ourselves pulled down by it all.

The answer? And it’s always the answer. God’s Word and prayer.

The sooner we immerse ourselves back into His promises, the sooner we can start cleaning off the discouragement that Satan dishes out.

The sooner we start talking with God, the sooner we can stop listening to Satan’s lies.

Life — just normal, everyday life — without the big stuff, can wear us down and take it’s toll. But when we remind ourselves of who we are and whose we are, the cleansing process begins again.

As you read this I am at Pebble Beach watching the Women’s U.S. Open Golf Tournament, one of the four major tournaments of the year for the best professional women golfers in the world. The talent is astounding, the pressure immense, and the course made more difficult by dictate of the United States Golf Association (USGA) in order to truly test the competitors. And it does.

A few weeks ago, the professional men competed in their U.S. Open. I remember watching that final round intently. The rough (which began immediately off the fairway—no first cut here), was only eclipsed by the barrancas that flanked many of the holes. Good lies in one of those were nonexistent.

I remember watching the leader, Wyndham Clark, on the eighth hole try to go for the par 5 green in two, only to hit into a barranca. When he got to his ball, he apprised his lie. His ball was in a huge clump of wispy grass. The way he peered into that clump, and the fact that the camera couldn’t pick up the ball, meant that it was in there deep. I was waiting to see what he would do. Even taking an unplayable lie didn't look like a good option.

He looked again, then pulled out a club, took his stance, and finally took a huge swing—and missed—or hit it further into the bush. The bottom line is it didn’t come out.

Here it comes, I thought. The meltdown that inevitably happens in the final round to those players not used to this pressure-packed situation. Winning is tough.

But Clark peered into that bush again, reset himself, and swung again . . . hard . . . and the ball flew to the back of the green into some of that nasty rough. He then hacked it out of there to put it two feet from the pin and putt in for bogey. What could have been an implosion turned into a bogie--a loss of one shot--and he was able to retain a one-shot lead, which he never relinquished and ultimately went on to win the U.S. Open.

I went on Youtube to see if I could watch that shot again. There was a video showing every swing that Wyndham Clark took in that final round. The video was 22 minutes long, which included a couple of replays. Twenty-two minutes is all the swinging this player made out of a 5+ hour round. Most sources say, that’s about all the time any of us take for shot-making in a round of golf. Twenty-two minutes.

So what are we doing the rest of the time? Well, a lot of time it is thinking: swing thoughts, score thoughts, what-if thoughts, if-only thoughts, lunch thoughts, negative thoughts, and maybe an encouraging thought every so often.  

Thoughts are so powerful, that many professional athletes hire sports psychologists to help them rein in and then reframe their thought process.

Lesson? What we think about is so vital to how we live. Even though we may not be a professional athlete, we, too, can be captive to a poor thought process, which in turn handcuffs us from moving forward or getting better in whatever venue we find ourselves.

The Bible addresses our thoughts and our hearts often, for in Biblical times the heart was not the seat of our emotions, but was thought to function like our brain. It was the seat of our intellect. (Keep that in mind as you read your Bible verses.) (The Heart)

Here are just a few reminders of what the Bible tells us.

Be anxious for nothing . . . (Philippians 4:6).

. . . forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before (Philippians 3:13).

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it (Proverbs 4:23).

So if you find yourself with a lot of time on you hands and sense that your thoughts are heading in the wrong direction do the following:

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things (Philippians 4:8).

Thank you for staying with me through all five of the criteria for determining the credibility of a source: Currency, Relevance, Accuracy, Authority, and now Purpose.

Purpose: Why does this document/website exist?

One CRAAP handout poses the following questions to help us determine the purpose of the source.




     *What is the purpose of the information? Inform? Teach? Sell? Entertain? Persuade?

     *Do the authors/sponsors make their intentions or purpose clear?

     *Is the information fact, opinion, or propaganda?

     *Does the point of view appear objective and impartial?

     *Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional, or personal biases?

Let’s work from the bottom up. One of the most compelling arguments made for the truth of the Bible is in its factual, objective reporting. There are no pulled punches.

Biblical heroes are flawed. Moses was a murderer. Jacob, a deceiver. David, an adulterer.

Also, the gospels record embarrassing facts about the disciples themselves. James and John use their own mother to try and further their positions, Matthew worked with the Romans as a tax collector to cheat his own people, and Peter cowardly rejects ever knowing Jesus when things get a bit dicey.

And a review of Jesus’s genealogy reveals a former prostitute in his lineage.

Even more telling is the fact that all four of the gospels use the eye-witness accounts of women to support their claims, when culturally women were viewed as second-class citizens and their testimony not credible. Therefore, if the writers were really trying to sell a story or create propaganda rather than honestly convey what happened, they would have changed much of what they recorded to be acceptable to their culture.

But they didn’t. Why? Because, unknown to them (most likely), their writings were part of a much bigger purpose. One that started in Genesis and was finalized in Revelation.

The Bible’s Purpose is simple and extremely clear: God created man and everything on earth for him. Man chose to disobey and reject God by sinning. God in His perfect love for man, provided a way for man to be redeemed back to Him through the sacrifice and resurrection of His only Son, Jesus. And Jesus will return again, and at that time, every knee will bow and every will tongue confess, that he is LORD (Philippians 2:10-11).

The Bible is a love story, for it not only shows God’s providential care for his people and a way of salvation for man, but it also gives man purpose. If we are here simply by chance or the result of a chain of events, then why are we here? Not just man in general but each of us specifically? To what end? Though each person can make up a purpose for his or her life, there is no definitive answer in this scenario.

But if we were created out of love by God to be in relationship with God, then everything we do has a purpose—to bring glory to God.

There is a reason Purpose is the final criteria in the CRAAP test. The purpose of a source provides the motive for the source’s existence, and no other source on earth is motivated by such perfect love.