What a privilege it is to give honor to a God-fearing and highly-acclaimed businessman, who just happens to have been this writer’s next door neighbor and best friend during his early years growing up in Presque Isle, Maine!
According to The County, Kirk Carroll, Owner, Carroll’s Auto Sales, Presque Isle, Maine, has been nominated for the 2024 “TIME Dealer of the Year” award. The award is one of the automobile industry’s most prestigious and highly coveted honors, recognizing the nation’s most successful auto dealers who have demonstrated a long-standing commitment to community service.
Kirk was chosen to represent the Maine Automobile Dealers Association and was one of only 49 dealers nominated for the 56th annual award from more than 20,000 dealerships nationwide.
The County article may be read in full HERE.
My brothers and sisters, I hope you will indulge me in this time of worldwide political and military upheaval to spend a few moments honoring my friend, because friendship is a gift from God!
Some of my most indelible and favorite memories of growing up in Presque Isle are the times Kirk and I spent playing together as friends, the weekends spent at his family’s camp at Portage Lake, Maine, and even learning to play trombone together in 5th grade!
Kirk’s mom and dad (Marcia and Frank “Skip”) were very special persons – who worked hard, with integrity, and who always had graciousness and kindness in their hearts. It’s so wonderful to see that Kirk stepped into his daddy’s footsteps, with passion and integrity, and is raising his family just as his father before him.
It’s funny the things we remember from our childhoods, but one of my strongest memories is Kirk’s dad (Skip) sitting in ‘his chair’ in the basement smoking his pipe – which aways smelled so good to me. It brings to mind one who works hard and yet, never forgets the importance, in Christ, of bringing peace and joy into the family home.
John 14:27 (NKJV)
“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
A ‘best’ friend is someone we love and who remains close to us in our hearts, regardless of time – even if decades have passed. This article about Kirk’s achievement reminds me just how important it is to tell those who have been a blessing in our lives how much we cherish them. It can be difficult sometimes to acknowledge this, but the bible tells us that tomorrow is not promised. Perhaps it’s time to reach out on this side of heaven to our ‘long-lost’ friends who mean so very much to us, before it’s too late!
Proverbs 27:1 (NKJV)
My Son, Be Wise
“Do not boast about tomorrow,[f]or you do not know what a day may bring forth.”
James 4:13-15 (NKJV)
Do Not Boast About Tomorrow
“Come now, you who say, ‘[t]oday or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, ‘[i]f the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’”
The bible tells us that Jesus is our Savior, who carries the only name by which man can be saved, and yet, the bible also tells us that He is a friend – hopefully, our VERY BEST friend!
Acts 4:12 (Amplified Bible)
“And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among people by which we must be saved [for God has provided the world no alternative for salvation].”
John 15:12-15 (NKJV)
“This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you [emphasis mine].”
Friendship is so very important because it is the fruit of love. Jesus willingly submitted to crucifixion at the cross of Calvary, demonstrating, as the bible tells us, that there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
John 15:13 (NLT)
“There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”