My wife

My wife rocks. For every reason and for no reason other than she is who she is. I have no particular reason for posting this other than posterity and as affirmation that I need to say it more often to her as well. How else to describe someone who takes care of the kids, house, me, friends, family, communications, groceries, actvities, birthdays, sports, laundry, cooking, and all the other things I am not thinking of? Of course she is appreciated for what she does, but not often enough. Not big enough. Not well enough.
I love you honey.

2am

For just about everyone this will not come as a surprise, but, I am officially old. This isn't the first time I have said this, I am sure...., and it certainly won't be the last. So, maybe it would be more apropos to say "I am officially old, again." Right? Cause I will get to be reminded of my aging in various capacities for the rest of my life. This one? Kristen had her wine and cheese party last night and I watched all three boys for several hours. No problem...brought them home, got them ready for bed and into bed...no problem. Stayed up talking until 1:30 or so and had to get up for 9:00am service at church....PROBLEM. Not that I didn't enjoy the conversation or that I wouldn't do it again, but I definitely felt like I needed the nap I took today and I still don't feel all the way back to myself.

Investing in others

This topic has been on my mind lately and it came to me again yesterday when I was driving between offices and I heard this song...



One of the lines in the song says...and I became a friend a friend would like to have....
It got me thinking...with how busy I am with work, family and church, do I do a good job of investing in my friends? Giving them time, following up on stuff in their lives and praying for them on a regular basis are all things I could do better. After all, relationships, friendships, the experiences you have with people will matter way more than how your career went and what your house looks like. Like most of the rest of us (probably..), I will always need to keep tweaking my priorities to make sure that where I spend my time and energy aligns with where I want my investments in this life to be.

"Special"

My wife started an interesting incentive program for Jaden and Jacob a little while back. On a given day, the boys can earn a "special" through good behavior over the course of the day. If they start to have problems, she can remind them that they will lose their "special" if they don't correct themselves. Our kids are into the Matchbox cars, so, she procured a box of these with around 100 cars that we can take out and give to them on these various days. Overall it works pretty well, but considering we have almost 100 cars to go, and I don't like giving them more than 1 day a week where they can earn them, that is many weeks of cars in inventory. I hope that they will continue wanting their "special" car a long time.

Latest Book

I just finished up this book yesterday and it was a really good read. Mark Batterson is the senior pastor at a church in DC. I go online and check out his sermons every once in a while because I really enjoy the passion he has and the way he communicates. Since I was enjoying his sermons, I thought I would read his book. You can read my review by clicking the link below in my "Books I have read recently" list below...but in short it was pretty awesome.

Maybe I am just in the right place to read something that made me get a little "jazzed" up for God and life in general, but I guess I would hope that anybody with breath to draw would ultimately be in a place where they are ready to get "jazzed".

If Mark can find a small passage like 2 Samuel 23:20 and make a book out of it...imagine how much the whole Bible really has to offer?

2 Samuel 23:20 (NIV)
20 Benaiah son of Jehoiada was a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, who performed great exploits. He struck down two of Moab's best men. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion.

Rambling.....

My wife told me that I rambled a bit in my last post and the more I read it...the more she was right :)
Even with editing features in this stuff, you won't always get it right. Usually simple is best. I'll leave it at that for today.

Becoming more childlike

So, one of the things that has always driven my wife crazy is the way the kids scream around the house yelling "Daddy!" and then jump into my arms when I get home from being at work for the day. It is also one of the things that makes me smile the biggest.

For her, and rightly so, she says "How come they are so excited to see you and love on you? Where was the love, joy and happiness for me as I took care of them all day?"

For me, how can you not love your kids giving you that kind of joy?

"I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."

So, we should embrace their joy and excitement. Not only embrace it, but change to become more like that ourselves.

We should do this daily and with intentionality.

For now, I fail at this more days than I am successful (ask my wife)(and it is especially hard for me because I am the only night owl in the family with a bunch of early risers.) But I am trying.

So, each morning I am trying to wake up with the right frame of mind...because it is easy to start the day with some negative thing immediately getting the best of me and if I succumb to that temptation, any chance of having childlike joy to start the day can easily go right out the window.

That is one side of this, but I think my wife has a point too that shouldn't be lost because I think she has given me a totally different perspective of their excitement:

She is always around, always caring for the boys and as such, the boys don't tend to give her that same joy and excitement. It's nothing new that mom is there...she is always there. Her presence is taken advantage of. (every mom out there insert your amen here)

That is where I tend to fall down in my excitement and joy with God too. He is always there, always taking care of me....so I tend to take advantage of that fact; much as my boys do with their mom. As they grow, they will appreciate her more and more. I am hoping for the same growth too.

An interesting story?

The saying goes, "If you wrote your life's story, would anyone want to read it?"

How would you answer that?

That question got me thinking a bit after I read a pastor's goal list that included a goal for himself to write his autobiography for his grandchildren. He has gone out and visited other countries, planted a church, written books. Pretty good start I would think.

I would like to think my story is just starting, but you never know how much time you have...but I would really like to have a story that people want to read.

Jude sitting

Just wanted to share a quick photo. Jude is sitting in his Bumpo. Isn't he cute?

Jason Moffitt

Kristen's birthday present

This is what I spent my time on today. She is now waiting for me to call the cable company to get the cable hookup enabled. I may not be a great handyman, but, I gave it a go and it seems to look pretty good. Will have to see if Kristen really is able to get more cooking done now and is able to watch the news like she expects.

Confidence

"Recession proof jobs"
"Housing woes crunching retirement"
These and other headlines have been the topic du jour of late. I can understand why, as we have all been impacted in some fashion by our stalled economy. However, it emphasizes that much more the difference between those of us that trust in the Lord and those that do not. He will provide. I may have lost value in my home and my 401k is going in the wrong direction...not great things...and even worse with three young kids and a wife at home. But I will not just endure; I will prevail as long as I keep focused on the right metric, which is how closely I am walking with God.

JAM on Wednesday Nights

Back in September, I started working with kindergarten aged kids on Wednesday nights at a church sponsored event called JAM (Jesus And Me). Outside of some work and travel conflicts, I have been teaching each week to usually around 5-7 boys and girls. It will run through the end of May, so it was a much bigger commitment than I realized (8 months minus one month off around Christmas) but it has been fun and challenging. As with my own children, they can be hard to handle and entirely too full of energy, but the moments when you do get them to quiet down and focus, or those moments when they get what the story is about are pretty special and seem to make the difficulties worth it. Here is a moment when they were all quiet and praying:





Hopefully, we will have a good night tonight as well and they will find the story of God feeding Elijah by having ravens bring bread and meat each day as amazing as I do.

Whatever happened to Kirk Cameron?

I was a fan of Kirk Cameron growing up and it surprised me that I didn't see more of him as the years went by.  I had heard he became a Christian and I knew that he had worked on some of the Left Behind movies, but until I came onto this site awhile back, I didn't know if he was doing anything else. 

'The Way of the Master' is a pretty neat organization, it is mostly targeted at how Christians can communicate about God to professed atheists.  They do trainings and have created video series and tracts and quizzes....a whole bunch of stuff.  I received the following email where they took a scene from ER and are using it to demonstrate principles of the gospel and how we are all in need of what Christ offers.  The video is about 9 minutes long, and is led by Ray Comfort who is the other "face" of the organization.  Pretty cool that network television can prompt these discussions and then people like Ray and Kirk can help create materials so that everyone who is a Christian can help promote the kingdom within their own sphere of influence. 

 

If you have trouble reading this email, go to the online version.

March 17, 2007 A Powerful Lesson from ER A number of people called our attention to this clip from the popular TV series ER. It really is amazing for secular televison. The "Fair Use" law allows us to teach from it without violating copyright laws. Please send it all over the internet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06HGc_jb6tk

 

Kristen's birthday

My lovely wife had a birthday today. She was still up early with the kids (dressing them, taking Jaden to school), still busy with the house (general clean up and one of the boys figured out to overflow the toilet) and still busy making meals (lunches for school, etc.). Maybe not the most relaxing, greatest birthday, I am sure, but she knows that she is loved by her family and friends. Happy birthday honey.

Tiger Woods

My normal sunday is pretty busy. We have church in the morning. We come home for lunch and to get the kids down for a nap. There is usually a bit of cleaning that needs to be done and then we have our small group over for bible study for a few hours. By the time that is done, we feed the kids diner, clean them up and get them to bed. The day is basically over. So, everyone is wondering at this point...what does that have to do with Tiger Woods? Well, our normal schedule was blown apart since Kristen and Jude were not feeling well. Instead of all those things, I sat down, held th baby in my lap and watched the tube this afternoon...it was awesome. I watched Tiger win his 5th straight PGA title and truly appreciated the peace that existed for the short time that everyone was napping. For Tiger, another stellar day at the office...for me? A surprising moment of serenity in a somewhat hard and hectic week.

Latest books I have read...

Thanks to my sister Emily who bought me this book for Christmas I am really enjoying Ted Dekker. I just finished this one today but I have already read two others in the last 2 weeks. I had not read much christian fiction before, but this stuff is pretty riveting.

Good night

How sweet is he?
I love how peaceful babies look when they are sleeping.
I also can barely believe that little Jude is 3 months old today!

Forceful reminder

I was driving home from a work event the other night and all of a sudden....

yes, police lights behind me. You know the feeling you get, right?
Stomach drops a bit, you get a little sweaty...I was wondering what did I do?
Just a little bit of authority and an impending sense of the potential for punishment and my whole outlook changed.
So, up walks the officer and he asks for license and registration. I give him the documents and he informs me that my right brake light is out.

Great, so he leaves me to stew about whether or not I am going to get a fine for something I was completely oblivious to...

But the whole experience got me to thinking about the way I reacted to authority. How my pulse raced and I became acutely aware of what I was doing on the road. I knew that I wasn't speeding, but had I inadvertently done something else?

I think it would be great to get these types of reminders in our relationship with God. Do we often think about sin in the context of the impending punishment that it really deserves and that we are destined to without Christ's sacrifice? Our pulse should race and we should sweat buckets over the ultimate's authority to pass judgment due to the actions we have done that have been against his law. We are blessed to have a God that wanted the relationship with us and gave us a warning and allows us to make our choice. I wonder if the police officer that stopped me was a christian, because he let me off with a warning as well.

The longest game of pool ever

It is always longer for someone watching, and that was me, but this
certainly seemend to be the longest gmae EVER. Really...this is what
the table loked like after half an hour...not including breaks!

This may have been a test in patience..but, those are always easier when
you are among friends :)

Playing pool were dave, tim, lisa, and michelle.

Fun with Jacob

I love that when you are young that anything can be used as a mike...not only that, but he isn't afraid to belt it out. I wish the sound came across, but regardless, you can see how much he was enjoying himself. The lyrics say something along the lines of "Cause I got you." Jacob's interpretation..."ZA ZA ZOO!"

Life's Big Questions

During my trip to Colorado last month I had a fun and interesting conversation on religion and Christianity with my brother in law. I love going into these because it makes me articulate the reasons why I believe. I may not always have the answers, but it is always a good conversation.
Well, now to add to my fun and hopefully my ability to answer, my church is doing a series on these questions...



Thanks to Sheila Laurence for posting the info below to her blog...http://connectingwithsheila.blogspot.com/

March 30 - Cheryl McGuinness, whose husband was one of the co-pilots in the 911 attacks on the World Trade Center, will address the question: How do I rebuild my life after tragedy?


April 6 - Why is there so much suffering in the world?

April 13 - How can I become a better person?

April 20 - How can I love difficult people, especially when they hurt me?

April 27 - What happens when I die?The above photo was the handout of information given out yesterday, it listed the above dates and questions.


Maybe I will have even more to talk about with my brother in law after ths series!