Just got an email from a news source that I subscribe to. It opens with a plea that reads sort of like this:

"Help keep this resource free."

Bottom line boils down to: "To keep this resource free, please send money."

Does anyone else get this oxymoron? or is it just me?

Click through to Challies.com. And definitely do not enter his giveaway, because I want to win and if you enter, then I may not.

Pause with me for a moment as we consider those pesky 'postrophes. The apostrophe should be your friend, not another headache, but he does have to do his work properly. And being a lesser used punctuation mark, he gets misused almost as often as his big sister the comma.

And now today's lesson:
1) The apostrophe can and should be used to show possession--as in the previous phrase ("today's lesson"). The lesson belongs to today. Just as you can refer to this webpage as Benjie's blog because it belongs to me. [The most notable exceptions to this rule come from the pronoun family in the form of the words "it" and "who" in which we find that when the dog owns a bone (and we don't know the dog's gender) we say that the item is "its bone"--no apostrophe. In the case of our little interrogative friend who, possession is shown by asking "Whose book is this?"--again, no apostrophe.]

2) One may also use the apostrophe when contracting words (creating contractions) such as can't or won't (can + not = cannot contracting to can't; will + not contracts to won't). This is the rule that applies to our pronouns from example one in conjunction with the apostrophe. It's is the contraction for it and is, just as who's is the contracted form for who and is.

Please do not use the apostrophe when forming plurals (notice I did not write plural's) because that would just be silly. The struggle you will have is when writing about decades using numerical designation instead of words. Let me help you: the decade of the Sixties (including 1961-1970, another lesson altogether) would be written as the 60s, not the 60's (you may include an apostrophe to indicate that you have left out the first two numbers if you want: '60s).

Please treat him nicely because, after all, the apostrophe is your friend.

Our nation has set aside this day to honor our others—both those who are still living and those who have gone on to their reward. There are several ways to do this. Some of the more common ones include giving a special gift to your mom, be it a bouquet of flowers or a new piece of jewelry. Maybe some chocolates. Some people make a special effort to visit their mother if they live some distance, and they often honor Mom by attending worship with her. If you are in this category, you are especially welcomed in the worship hour today.

If a trip to Mom’s is not an option for you, contacting via phone or e-mail is always nice. With today’s technology, you might even want to set up a Skype account and video chat with Mom over the Internet.

Here are a couple of suggestions that you may not have thought of, but are really some of the best things to do to honor your mother today: Give generously to the annual “Mother’s Day Offering” which benefits the Baptist Children’s Home and Family Services (If you're not located in Illinois, find a worthy cause to support in honor of your Mom). Share your faith in Jesus with an unsaved friend or family member.

However you plan to do it, honor your mother today.

(Here are two of my favorite Mothers)