TommyLog – Things Happen for a Reason!

Hey Kids it’s dad, and for today’s TommyLog I want to talk to you about how things happen for reason.

For the weekend, Drew was diagnosed with strep throat. Monday morning mom and I flipped to coin for who would stay home. I decided it would be good for me to stay home from work. A few minutes later as I was walking out to take the trash to the curb and, I noticed the smell of gas around the outside heat vent exhaust. I spent a moment and the smell went away so I didn’t think anything else about it. A few minutes later back inside I heard a strange noise coming from the heater. I immediately called the heater guy to have it checked out. I thought to myself I’ll be home all day might as will get it taken care of. A really nice guy named Eric came over to check out the heater. He found that a smart relay device was defective.

Apparently at the beginning of a heating cycle,  the heater sends out 2 bursts of gas. One small burst to begin and then a much larger burst after that first burst has been ignited. Well the regulator wasn’t working properly and there was no first burst of gas only a second much larger burst of gas. Eric stressed to me how dangerous this was and could have led to an explosion. He didn’t want to scare me but he was certainly firm on the fact that this was a bad bad situation.

So let’s think for a second if Drew had not gotten strep throat, I would not have stayed home, and could not have had the heater guy come over to take care of the problem. This could’ve been tragic.

Things happen for a reason. The good Lord was watching over the Clifford family for sure!

Be the Answer to Someone’s Prayer

Last Friday was a total rotten day at work. Do not pass go do not collect $200 rotten. I was home and it was about 7:30 in the evening and I wanted to go get Culver’s for dinner. As I’m driving to Culver’s sun roof open and XM radio turned up high—trying to forget my awful day, I saw a family stranded on the side of the road. They car had broken down. I immediately felt a prompting to do a u-turn and go and see who I could help.


The dad, named John, was from Eastern Europe, Croatia I think and he had a thick accent. He said he was the head chef at a restaurant in Neenah. His car ran out of gas and he and his wife and 2 kids were on their way to the grocery store. I was able to help him get gas and on their way very quickly.

After that, the worries of my Friday was washed away.

What a blessing it was not to ask for answers to a prayer, but to possibly BE AN ANSWER!

What will you do to be that answer?