Wander With Wayne

Perhaps my favorite line in the movie, The Blind Side is “I need a proper hug.” When the family is taking their adopted son to college, the Mom shares her advice, says some semblance of goodbye and gets in the car to leave. Her son then comes back to her and says, “I need a proper hug.”  Each time I see this, I nearly tear up with excitement and gratitude that this adopted son knows when and how to show love to and thank his mother. I need a proper hug... Covid-19 has impacted so many people in some tough ways. Recently, I read a Facebook post from a single woman I worked with several years ago. In the post she stated how many weeks it’s been since she’s had any type of touch from anyone. She added that she’s fine, “I’m FINE, I’M REALLY FINE”... She then closed with some hash tags. It appears that she’s removed the post, but they were something like, #RememberYourSingleFriends #LivingSomeSortOfCovidHell! I wish she had left the post on her Facebook or that I had been wise enough to...

Last night I woke several times with my throat bothering me. I was beginning to worry that perhaps I had contracted Covid-19. I noticed that my nose was also affected. When I woke this morning, I realized that my eyes were blurry. Shortly after that, I remembered that the cottonwood trees have begun to release “cotton” puffs throughout the area. I believe that is the real culprit. I don’t know if I have a small allergy to cottonwood trees, but I know that each year I have these same symptoms when the cotton blows! Hopefully it's just Cottonwood-19. 😃  Way too many cottonwood trees this time of year! The size of floating cotton Look closely to see floating cotton This week was truly insane. Besides trying to keep up with family and my job, I met with Hank & Renee Goodnow (my friends who have been in the rental business for decades) and Austin Anderson (the executor of an estate who is considering selling property to me). We walked through 13 of the 15 units… Wow, what a mess! ...

Last night we spent some time with our good friends, the Harrison family. Since moving to Blackfoot, we’ve enjoyed getting to know them better. Earlier in the evening we dropped off some pep band music that Tanner had been asked to give to Hailey Harrison. As Noell dropped off the music, they invited us to return later for homemade donuts. Tough, but we decided to oblige 😁. We enjoyed the fresh donuts, and I especially enjoyed the visit. Carla’s old mission companion was also there (Carla served in Brasilia and her companion is from Porta Alegre, Brasil). I enjoyed visiting with Carla’s companion and husband. I love the people in Brazil and hope to spend more time in Brasil again, someday. All the Harrison children love to hold and play with Tate and Dawson. One of them was balancing Dawson, as he stood by the couch, chewing on a piece of PVC. Dawson then fell forward and the PVC cut the roof of his mouth and he began bleeding and screaming. When we returned home, we tried to ...

“Christ was so amazing!” I exclaimed to my younger brother, when I was around the age of 10, “Jesus never swore, always taught the truth, helped others, he was just PERFECT!” I continued, “Can you imagine that, perfect. That means he never got an answer wrong on a test at school. If he played basketball, he never missed a shot. If he used a bow to shoot an arrow, he always hit the bulls-eye! Wow, he was amazing. What’s it like to be so PERFECT?” My younger brother was impressed, but unable to point out my flawed understanding of perfect. Years later, he lovingly tried to explain to me that my knowledge of the word perfect was wrong. While I’d begun to recognize that my understanding of Christ’s perfection was incorrect, I still had lingering misunderstandings about perfection. As an adult, I still struggle with a distorted understanding of perfection. I feel that Christ could live a perfect life, but I’d done so many things wrong. It seems impossible to obey the Lord’s command to...