tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244093762024-03-23T13:47:26.586-04:00Sterling GriggsThoughts, Quips, and Occasional WisdomSterling Griggshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929691521171347178noreply@blogger.comBlogger793125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24409376.post-38778799102965520492023-11-12T18:13:00.002-05:002023-11-12T18:36:18.230-05:00My Story to TellI was hesitant at first to write this blog post. A big reason for that is because so many people have experienced a lot of life-altering events and I don't want to appear as if I am trying to play the comparison game with mine. But, at the same time, when life throws you a series of curve balls, it is often therapeutic to chronicle the twists and the turns that it brings. This is my attempt to doSterling Griggshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929691521171347178noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24409376.post-58308390380441983862022-06-24T10:04:00.001-04:002022-06-24T10:28:32.196-04:00Redeeming Your TimeFree time. Anybody know what that is anymore? I know I am not alone in wishing I had more time each day to “get things done” and enjoy more down time for myself. Remember when you were a kid and complained to your folks about being bored all the time? Don’t you crave a little more boredom in your life right now? Someone once said that you don’t make time to do the things you want to do, rather Sterling Griggshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929691521171347178noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24409376.post-29065187999976675432021-03-25T09:26:00.003-04:002021-03-25T09:27:22.653-04:00Mazda SUV's, State fans, and peaceTo the lady in the black Mazda SUV with the NC State sticker on the back window, thank you. Most mornings, no matter what time I leave my house, I find myself directly behind you on the way to work. You drive slower than I would prefer and you take that last turn so painfully deliberate that I am afraid you may ultimately stop in the middle of the intersection. But thank you nonetheless for Sterling Griggshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929691521171347178noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24409376.post-40417494324418048212020-12-09T09:36:00.005-05:002020-12-09T09:38:10.141-05:00Christmas Memories Never DieDo you remember what it was like? You know, when you were just a kid and Christmas seemed liked the most magical time of the year? I know, I know, Christmas is truly about Jesus and that is why we celebrate. Yet as a kid, you couldn't help but go beyond the manger scenes and Christmas Eve services to a world filled with toys and happiness that still sticks with you to this day.As I ponder what Sterling Griggshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929691521171347178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24409376.post-12385858749665434972020-06-02T08:46:00.001-04:002020-08-25T11:51:33.472-04:00It Begins With Me
Hello, my name is Sterling Griggs, and I am white.
I sometimes hunt and fish and shoot guns. I drive a Ford F150 truck with big mud tires and I even like to listen to country music (80's and 90's only – none of that new "country" stuff, please). If you called me a redneck I would say "whatever" because I could easily point out to you many more people who are truly more country than I pretend toSterling Griggshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929691521171347178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24409376.post-31408863894291739182020-05-17T10:27:00.001-04:002020-05-17T10:27:41.304-04:00Just another post about what everyone else is posting about. Kind of.
This morning as I was enjoying coffee on the screened in porch with my wife – which is what we do every morning (coffee, that is, and on the porch if the weather is nice) – I was scrolling through the YouVersion Bible app when I came across a devotional by Francis Chan. I will be the first to admit that I find many devotional plans that are posted online to be a little anemic if not cheesy, but Sterling Griggshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929691521171347178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24409376.post-58507339640957789142020-02-26T11:38:00.001-05:002020-02-26T11:38:13.686-05:00You are more than what Insta-Face-Gram tells you
I teach high school students for a living at a private, Christian school. You may have just read that and thought to yourself, "Oh, that's nice. Sterling teaches in a sanitized environment to a bunch of semi-rich kids who can afford tuition. That's not real life, but kudos to you." While it may be true that I am not employed in the arena of North Carolina public schools, what I have come to Sterling Griggshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929691521171347178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24409376.post-25466143006488498382020-02-10T10:40:00.000-05:002020-02-11T07:21:49.933-05:00Hurry up and slow down
I have a confession to make: I am terrible at waiting. If patience is a virtue, then well, I ain't got much virtue. Truth be told, this is nothing new. Patience and waiting on events and schedules to happen has always been a sore spot for me.
Almost every Christmas Eve growing up, I was the kid perched at the top of the stairs starting at 3:00 a.m. anxiously counting the minutes until the sun Sterling Griggshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929691521171347178noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24409376.post-50465572569333415142020-01-26T17:58:00.000-05:002020-01-26T19:37:41.090-05:00Heart surgery and life changes
Using social media to post every facet of your life is not always the wisest of choices, but sometimes it is the best way to disseminate important information. Since I have neglected my blog for way too long, I have decided to use this as the medium to give everyone a life update. I hope all of my 13 followers get this information.
Right before Christmas of this past year, my family doctor Sterling Griggshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929691521171347178noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24409376.post-81808004844239086522019-08-21T18:54:00.002-04:002019-08-21T18:54:55.266-04:00Mosquitos
Here in the south, mosquitoes are a part of every day life, especially in the warmer months, which last about 11 1/2 months out of the year. Google tells me that there are more than 3,500 species of mosquitoes, with about 175 of them found in the United States. That means that the southern states have approximately 183 species of mosquitoes because I am convinced that we have them all plus a fewSterling Griggshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929691521171347178noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24409376.post-56173588018892835002019-08-07T12:18:00.000-04:002019-08-07T12:28:55.790-04:00Thank you for your service
Costco Wholesale Warehouse is an absolute gold mine around lunch time. Vendors set up
tables all over the mammoth store, hawking all sorts of samples ranging from vitamin juice
shots to mini crab cakes. I used to make sure that I would go there with the kids so that we
would have at least one day when we didn’t have to meal plan.
I don’t shop there Sterling Griggshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929691521171347178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24409376.post-22346171681948828492019-08-01T14:14:00.001-04:002019-08-01T14:14:17.888-04:00End of summer drag
Today is the first day of August, which means that there are still a few weeks before school begins and the real monotony of the schedule takes over. Summer is still in full swing and there are plenty more days at the beach and the pool to be had. It is still hot, so steamy hot that eyeglasses fog over once you leave the house and you begin to sweat just thinking about how hot it's going to be Sterling Griggshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929691521171347178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24409376.post-59733068276312759922019-07-19T07:16:00.001-04:002019-07-19T07:49:53.582-04:00Wrong bait? Who cares!
They didn’t catch a thing. In fact, I’m not even so sure they got so much as a nibble on those hooks baited with artificial top water frogs, probably not the best choice for luring bass in this pond. Although there are plenty of manmade retention ponds all around, natural freshwater spots aren’t all that common this close to the coast. Yet these less than ideal circumstances did not - could Sterling Griggshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929691521171347178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24409376.post-23099659808427916242019-06-26T10:16:00.000-04:002019-06-26T10:16:51.292-04:00The end of an era
A couple of weeks ago my wife and I reached a milestone in our lives as parents. Our youngest child "graduated" from elementary school, placing us in an elite category of parenthood that we have waited over a decade to achieve – no more "little kids" in the house.
For 13 years we have had a child walk (and at times terrorize) the halls of an elementary school somewhere in North Carolina – East Sterling Griggshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929691521171347178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24409376.post-36217654061985032882019-06-18T10:37:00.000-04:002019-06-18T10:37:21.431-04:00Lessons from fishing
My son recently decided that he wants to be a fisherman. Living at the coast, this should not be a problem - it seems as if everyone fishes down here. But in reality, the fact that everyone fishes here IS a problem.
Most of his friends who fish have fathers and uncles and brothers who have fished their entire lives. These kids have multiple fishing rods, tackle boxes filled with hooks and luresSterling Griggshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929691521171347178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24409376.post-36568635637177916872018-08-05T18:25:00.001-04:002018-08-06T08:34:09.196-04:00Top ten road trip takeawaysOur family just returned from a quick weekend road trip to Williamsburg, VA., the primary purpose of our little jaunt was to spend a day at Busch Gardens on Saturday. However, we also threw in a ghost tour of historic Williamsburg on Friday night, which allowed us to take in some of the history even though we did not have enough time to spend a whole day there.Up and back in 48 hours does not Sterling Griggshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929691521171347178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24409376.post-63253696814903162322018-07-25T13:00:00.001-04:002018-07-25T13:02:39.760-04:00Underdog
Steve reached into the kitchen cabinet for a real plate, not one of the cheap paper ones that his family normally used. With a large family, paper plates were the typical go-to for any occasion, but sometimes you need the real thing to get the job done, such as heating up leftovers in the microwave.
As he eyed the stack of mid-sized plates, he paused, not reaching for the one on top. Instead, Sterling Griggshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929691521171347178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24409376.post-11487856034045172252018-07-05T10:48:00.000-04:002018-07-05T10:48:42.585-04:00The honest hypocrite
The Bean There, Done
That looks like any other coffee shop near a major college campus. Olive
colored walls, dim lights, students hidden behind laptops sucking in the free Wi-Fi,
college-style music playing from a worn out radio in the background, stools and
rickety tables scattered throughout, a well-worn bulletin board with fliers for
the next great social event or call toSterling Griggshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929691521171347178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24409376.post-36385731622303478892018-06-27T08:15:00.001-04:002018-06-27T08:28:10.902-04:00The Jesus dilemma
“All the tax collectors and sinners were approaching to listen to Jesus.
And the Pharisees and scribes were complaining, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them!’” (Luke 15:1-2)
In those two brief verses, the entire ministry of Jesus can be summed up as well as the legacy of the church that has been tasked to follow after Him. While He was on earth, Jesus loved those who were far from GodSterling Griggshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929691521171347178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24409376.post-75297150723157270142018-04-05T10:48:00.000-04:002018-04-05T10:48:33.545-04:00Who's got your back?
As I have gotten older I have grown to truly appreciate history. Not that I didn't enjoy history when I was in school, it's just that it didn't click with me as much as it does now. Of particular interest to me is the World War 2 era, probably because my grandfather served on a bomber in the Pacific theater. While he was alive I never heard him speak about his experiences from the war, andSterling Griggshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929691521171347178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24409376.post-30132304669490221902018-02-04T17:25:00.001-05:002018-02-04T17:25:17.927-05:00All cats are bad. Except for Bubba the cat.I am not a cat person. Truth be told, I am not much of an animal person at all. As a kid, I grew up with dogs, a cat, and a couple of gerbils that got eaten by said cat. RIP Lenny and Squiggy. So it’s not like I am an anti-pet person at all. I like animals just fine, as long at they are the ones that I can eat.Khaki was the name of the family cat that I grew up with. She was a calico cat and had Sterling Griggshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929691521171347178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24409376.post-75186034965160223562018-01-05T12:07:00.000-05:002018-01-05T12:07:16.303-05:00Jesus in the midst of instant replay
I want to go ahead and put this out there from the very beginning - Lost is the greatest television show that has ever been broadcast in the history of entertainment. If you ever attempted to watch Lost, then you know that it was a thrill ride of twists and turns that often made little sense unless you were able to go back and reevaluate just exactly what it was that you had just seen - if that Sterling Griggshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929691521171347178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24409376.post-73353303452313047322017-12-18T07:50:00.001-05:002017-12-18T07:50:53.386-05:00Give me those old time relationships
When I was a kid the world around me was unique and often intimidating. The mall where my parent's shopped was this huge complex of endless stores and easy places for kids like me to get lost. Fast food restaurants were exotic stops reserved for special occasions where I could peek over the counter as the workers whipped up a milkshake for me while steaming hot fries awaited me beside a fresh Sterling Griggshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929691521171347178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24409376.post-23069859675438274392017-11-21T10:44:00.001-05:002017-11-21T10:44:52.006-05:00We can do betterWhen social media first came to my attention years ago, I made a decision that I would avoid political and controversial posts if at all possible. Of course, I wasn’t always successful early on, garnering my fair share of harsh responses and a few posts that I deleted after I went back and re-read some of my words which made me look like “one of those guys.” Life has been a lot easier using Sterling Griggshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929691521171347178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24409376.post-78943586857702505552017-10-20T09:39:00.001-04:002017-10-20T09:39:29.020-04:00Why are all these new "original" shows anything but original?
"Help, Lord, for no faithful one remains; the loyal have disappeared from the human race...The wicked wander everywhere, and what is worthless is exalted by the human race." - Psalm 12:1, 8
I love a good story. For years books have been my go-to if I want to lose myself in a thrilling plot twist or I simply wish to allow my mind to meander through deep wooded areas that are cut off from all Sterling Griggshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929691521171347178noreply@blogger.com0