Sleep

Riley Armstrong recorded a song several years ago called "Sleep". It's all about how he never gets enough sleep. If you've never heard, you should look it up...it's quirky. I tend to stay up way later than I ought to. It's amazing to me how quickly an evening disappears. I get home around 5, we make dinner, eat and spend some time playing with Addie. By the time the kids are in bed and Kathy and I have time to relax, it's usually after 9. Spend a couple of hours on our own pursuits, and then it's after 11 when I go to bed. I remember a time (college) when staying up till midnight, 1 am didn't even phase me. Now-a-days I feel like I've been hit by a truck next morning if I stay up past 11:30...and it is now 11:49...what does that say about my brain...why am I writing at this time of night..

I love sleep. However, I like spending time with my wife, surfing the net, watching movies, reading, even cooking. Do you ever find yourself with not enough time to accomplish what you want to accomplish? But then, I think about the things I want to accomplish in the evening and I realize that other than spending time with my wife and children, all the other stuff is pretty much useless. We fill our lives with things...stay up way past our bedtimes...to accomplish things that are meaningless. It's vanity, a chasing after the wind according to Ecclesiastes. Maybe we would all sleep a little bit better and be a bit more fulfilled if we spent our time  "accomplishing things" that grow our relationships, with others and with God...

Prayer Request and other thoughts...

I think my children are precious...you might not agree, but you'd be wrong...


I have a request to make of those who read my blog. I am currently being considered for a ministry position and I would ask that you pray for myself, the church, and my family while we go through the interviewing process. I would ask that you pray for God's will to be done and that we would all have a peace about that will. I do not want to go to a church simply for a job. I want to go because God is leading us there. I am excited about this possibility while at the same time nervous. I'd ask you to pray that God would calm my spirit as I talk with the church and that I would hear His voice as I make decisions. Thanks...

Other thoughts (random thoughts in no particular order)...

1. I love Christmas lights...I often think about leaving some up year round just so I can look at them...
2. Pinochle is a very fun game...If you've never played it, you should give it a try...
3. Crystal Bowersox's debut CD comes out December 14th...She was the runner up on American Idol this year...I hope it is as good as I want it to be...
4. Step Up 3 comes out on video soon...I totally enjoyed these movies. Not completely sure why. I'm not a dancer (in fact my wife laughs at me when I dance with Addie). But, for whatever the reason I really enjoy these movies and I can't wait to watch it again...
5. Tomorrow is Sunday...I hope you experience God in worship with a body of believers...God bless you tonight and thank you for your prayers...

Colorado

Thanksgiving in Colorado...check out the view from my in-laws back porch...This picture doesn't do it justice.

We didn't get subjected to any invasive searches at the airport, but we did have an extremely long wait. When we arrived to check in, we found out that our plan had been delayed by an hour and a half. We had gotten there early to make sure we had time to get the kids through security, so we went ahead and headed for the gate. When our plane arrived, there was a problem with the windshield and they had to ground it. Thus we were told we would have to wait for another plane that would arrive in another hour and fifteen minutes. Finally after being in the waiting area for four hours and forty-five minutes, we boarded and took off. After landing, my father-in-law picked us up and we started the 3 hour drive to their house. It was a rough start to the trip with a two and a half year old and a seven month old. However, now that we are here, life is good.

I love visiting my in-laws. As I've stated before, they are very similar in world view to my family. They also enjoy playing games. We play pitch, spades, hearts, and pinochle with cards; forty-two with dominoes; Settlers of Cataan and Munchkin board games. Tonight we played a new game called "A Game of Thrones" based upon the novels of George R.R. Martin. Lots of rules, but once you got the hang of it, it was fun. Games and more games get played when we are together, and it is a lot of fun.

I hope you are having a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday with family or friends. I pray that God reminds you of all the blessings He has placed in your life. Finally, take some time to play and enjoy life...

Missed a day...

don't know where this is, I just liked the picture...

And I was doing so well at the everyday posting...oh well...life happens. So, back to the posting grindstone. I got to teach the youth in Sunday School and evening Bible study today. We had some fun. I thought I'd share a bit of my lesson from this morning here tonight.

The title of the lesson was Grab a Booty. (nice title for a youth lesson don't you think) I started with a story that I read awhile back about a college environmental geology class. The professor took his students on a field trip to climb a mountain and observe some rock formations. Before they left, he had them gather in a clearing and gave them this instruction, "For the next several minutes I want you to go around this clearing and grab each others butts." The students started out fairly nervous, but as you can imagine were soon making jokes and having fun. Once everyone was participating well, the professor called the group back together and told them the reason for this strange exercise. He said "The trail we are about to take is extremely steep, slick, and narrow. You climb it mostly on your hands and knees. If the person in front of you were to slip, the first thing you would see is their butt. If you are uncomfortable or unwilling to grab their butt and catch them, they could hurt themselves and those behind you as they fall. In order to prevent this I wanted you to be comfortable grabbing each others' butts so that if the person in front of you slips you can grab them and push them up until they regain their footing."

I think that often we as the Church fail to "grab a butt" when we see people fall. Instead of catching them in their weakness (awkward moments) and pushing them up the mountain with us, we step aside and even point fingers in judgement about their inability to stay on the trail. This is wrong. 

So, I gave the youth three rules for Christian Booty Grabbing...

1. You must have a relationship...You've got to build a relationship of mutual love and trust with a person to truly be effective in admonition. No one wants to hear they are doing wrong, but it helps if you know the other person is telling you because they love you and want what's best for you.
2. You must be consistent...Your ability to effectively help someone up the mountain is greatly hindered when you do not live what you preach.
3. You must be willing to receive...As you help others up the path, you are bound slip occasionally. Are you will to let someone else grab your butt and give it a push? 

I realize that for the most part this lesson is about accountability. However the point that I wanted to get across even more than being accountable to each other is that we need to treat each other better in the church. I've seen it happen before. A person stumbles and has trouble getting back in right relationship with God and the Church (not all, obviously) gossips, judges, and condemns rather than reaching out in love. As Christians, the world "knows" us for what we are against as often or more often than for what we are for. Christ was for loving people into relationship with Himself and His Father...I think that's what we should be about. It has to start inside the walls...

Snow and Shortness of Breath (or keystrokes)

We had our first snow of the year today! Not sure if this is a good thing or not. We didn't start the tile job, which means I'm probably not working tomorrow (this is good). However, it was stinking cold this morning and very wet. Since we didn't get to start laying tile , we went and did an indoor painting job that didn't last all day and I got to cut out early. This was nice since it gave us time to put up the Christmas tree!

We only got so far as the tree and lights, but I think we will try to get the ornaments put on tomorrow. Addie was funny as we unpacked the box with the tree, some lights, and some odds and ends from Christmas last year. "Look momma a snowman!" "There's a Christmas bear!" "Look momma I'm helping daddy with the branches." (we have an artificial tree so we were fluffing the branches.) She was carrying around about 6 different Christmas items at one point and trying to pick up others.

In an effort to keep this brief tonight (shortness of breath) I'll just add one more cute story. This morning before I left for work, Addie woke and and needed the potty. After she finished, she wanted to watch a VeggieTale. So, in an effort to allow Kathy to sleep a bit longer, I sat down to watch part of the video with Addie. When it was time to leave for work, I opened the door to discover that it had snowed...When Addie saw the snow she declared "When I get done watching my VeggieTale I can go play in the snow, and maybe eat some of it!" Her memories of snow from last winter are playing and eating it. May we all be as certain in life...

Getting Colder

We took the day off today because we will likely be working a tile job on Saturday. We went to Amarillo to help pick up the tile and to run some errands. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we will be able to gets lots of work done on this job tomorrow and won't have to work on Saturday. However, there is a seventy percent chance for rain tonight and tomorrow morning, and a high of 46 tomorrow. This will make it a bit harder to lay tile outside on a concrete porch. 

It's amazing to me that we are already half way through November (well, almost). This year has flown by for me. When we first moved here to work for awhile, Kathy and I talked about it like it was temporary. We thought after six months to a year God would have us somewhere else. Now here we are a year later, and it is starting to get cold again. I never used to mind the cold too much. You know - wear a heavy coat from the car to work, the store, the house, etc. But now that I work outdoors fairly often (not as often in the cold months but still occasionally), I notice when it starts getting colder a lot faster. This is no longer feeling like nice fall weather. The air has more of a bite to it, and I am waking up with my skin feeling dry and itchy. 

So in the vein of remaining thankful, here are a few things I appreciate about colder weather...

• Cold weather food-Soups, stew, chili, cornbread. I love so many entrées that simply don't taste as good in warm weather. 
• The holidays-Christmas is my favorite holiday of the year. When the weather turns from cool to cold, it puts me in the mood for Christmas and Thanksgiving. Good food, family, presents, and most of all a time of remembering Jesus coming down and wrapping Himself in our skin to pay the price for our folly. 
• I have been listening to Christmas music for well on a month now. I am planning to try and put up our Christmas tree this weekend sometime.
• Fires in the fireplace-Now if only I had a fireplace...I guess the fake one I have on dvd will have to do for this year. 

I forgot one other thing I was thankful for on my previous thankfulness post...I am thankful for something my pastor told me a couple of weeks ago after the Men's Bible Study. We were joking about whether or not the Dallas Cowboys had a chance (this was several weeks ago when they still had a chance) and I jokingly said how angry I got watching the games. I meant frustrated, but he took me literally and replied, "Oh, I like football well enough, and I pretend to care occasionally, but it doesn't make me angry. The thing that makes me angry is that there are people in the world dying without Jesus in their lives, and we sit around getting frustrated at football games." (this is not an exact quote, but it was something along these lines.) I didn't reply, but as i thought about it, I realized that he was right. Why should we get so upset at a game yet not care whether or not our neighbor across the street is going to heaven when they die. It kind of puts things into perspective. Football is only football. Jesus didn't come to save it. He came to save those of us who watch or ignore it. Let's get our priorities straight...

Dumb Animals

I typically keep 2-3 movies on my Ipod in case I ever have a few minutes to waste waiting for something at a job site etc. Recently I have been watching Prince Caspian when I have time. There was a line that stuck out to me the first time I saw it and again yesterday as I watched. After returning to Narnia the Pevensie children are met by Trumpkin the dwarf and are traveling to the aid of the true Narnians. The Narnia they return to is quite different from the one they left and that fact shows itself throughout the movie. One of the first dramatic scenes where these changes are evident involves a bear. Lucy Pevensie remembers the animals of Narnia talking when they lived there before and thus approaches the bear without fear. The bear roars and starts to charge. The other children start to tell the bear to stop to no avail. When it seems that Lucy will surely be killed by the bear, Trumpkin kills it with an arrow. Dismayed by her near death and the death of the animal Lucy asks "Why didn't he stop, it was almost like he couldn't talk." To this Trumpkin replies "Get treated like a dumb animal long enough, and that's what you become." 

That statement stood out to me in a big way. I started thinking about all the ways it was true in our lives. People, myself included, can rise and fall by others' beliefs about them. We tell young girls that they need to be a certain size and look a certain way in order to be considered beautiful. (you might not say those words but the society around you does) So as that young girl matures, she struggles with her looks because she doesn't meet the expectations. A child is told over and over that he/she is dumb/stupid/ignorant because they struggle in school. They begin to believe and behave as if they are dumb/stupid/ignorant. Our society preaches the value of wealth and power, and if we are not careful we can fall into the trap of seeking after those things and we will lose sight of what is important. 

Why does this matter? First I think it should be a wake-up call to each of us that we need to be careful of the "truths" we speak into people's lives. Words have power, and we can be a positive influence or a negative one. As the saying goes, you might be the only Bible some people ever read. Second, I think this line of thought should remind us of the importance of surrounding ourselves with people who will lift us up and set us right when need be. There's a reason God tells us in Acts not to forsake meeting together with other believers. We need people in our lives who will remind us of who we are in Christ, and challenge us to live the truth of His Word. We need each other. Our world is becoming more and more mobile and individualized, and less and less societal. I can easily spend so much time writing this blog and surfing the internet in the evening that I go to bed without having spent any quality time with my wife and children. We need people who will remind us of God's love and God's plan...