Happy Thanksgiving

It's a day late, but Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.
A couple of things I am thankful for:
1. My wife - How did I end up so lucky?
2. My kids - I am blessed to be watching them grow up.
3. Jesus - I am thankful that He dies for me to live.
4. Blessed - We are so blessed with friends, family, material blessings and in pretty much every way you can imagine.

This video was taken yesterday just before dessert. Kristen's sister Annette and her husband Todd came over with their kids...Cordell, Sydney and Piper...everyone is reading off their leaf that was what they were thankful for...

Jude has learned to wave!

Biblical cross-references

Thought this was too amazing not to share....from Christianity Today at

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/novemberweb-only/147-41.0.html

Reference Rainbow
When Christoph Römhild, a Lutheran pastor in Hamburg, Germany, sent Carnegie Mellon Ph.D. student Chris Harrison a list of 63,779 cross-references between the Bible's 1,189 chapters, the two became enthralled with elegantly showing the interconnected nature of Scripture. Each bar along the horizontal axis represents a chapter, with the length determined by the number of verses. (Books alternate in color between white and light gray.) Colors represent the distance between references. Graphic by Chris Harrison, Carnegie Mellon University

Creepy and funny

You have to see this to believe it. Here is the background from YouTube...

"This was the opening video for our Student Fall Retreat called "You've Got Talent." Everyone is asking what inspired this. Here is goes... 1) We needed a great opening video that caught everyone off guard, and set the the tone for the weekend. 2) With this idea in mind, we thought we could use this video as a great object lesson about media choices (kinda creepy hearing your grandparents sing some of this), and 3) this has been a GREAT transgenerational culture experiment. It has totally bridged a gap with our Senior adults and our students. Hope you enjoy!"

Parenting tips

I came upon a list at MSN titled "The 50 Best Parenting Tips Ever". Now, I am not the biggest fan of these types of articles, but...on occasion they will have snippets that are worth capturing. That was the case with this article as well...while I can do away with some of the mundane suggestions, there are a few that grabbed me...

4. Praise your partner. Never finish a day without acknowledging -- at least once -- your spouse's role in the life of your children. (We all know how hard parenting is and how easy it is to not appreciate the role the other plays. I for one don't always do a good job of this and it is a good reminder to be active in that appreciation.)

15. Be romantic. Go out on dates, kiss in front of your kids, and say, "I love you" to your partner (with your kids in earshot). (Who are our kids going to learn from about how marriage is supposed to work? If we don't exhibit it, then they are likely to end up with marriages that don't have the traits that we are praying for them to have when they find their partner later in life.)

25. Put your baby down when she's awake. Letting her self-soothe is the key to her sleeping through the night. If you nurse or bottle-feed her before bed and she falls asleep, change her diaper one last time to wake her up. (I am putting this one in here for my wife :) )

50. Break the rules sometimes. Have ice cream for dinner, or wear pajamas all day on a snowy weekend. (These will be some of the best memories!)

Odds and ends

A few updates:

Jaden's school is having a couple half days as we have hit parent teacher conference time...we are excited to talk with the teacher and hear her comments on how Jaden is doing. For his part, he is excited to be home earlier and hopes this will let him watch a little more TV

Jacob is still doing his school as well. He seems to do pretty well socially, we think...but he also has some time before he will be moving on to kindergarten anyway. He is quite the complex character as we are learning to deal with a child that likes to go from one extreme emotion to the other in a blink of an eye. He is keeping us on our toes.

Jude is crawling and getting close to walking. I know I need to post more pictures and do some new videos, so hopefully I will do that soon. He is getting very big and is very close to being turned around in the car. I know that he is very excited about that, since Kristen gave him a test ride this week.

Kristen has an A going in her class through the mid-point and is very excited. It is well deserved as she has worked hard thus far...time to bring it on home, babe :)

More to follow....

Getting cold here

Well, it is officially getting to be winter out here. It was just this weekend and we had some fairly nice weather...now, it is cold and not pleasant at all with the winds...

We definitely need to do some winterizing around here so that our house can stay a little warmer and our bills can hopefully stay a little lower. Wish me luck.

President-Elect

Just a quick comment on the President-Elect. Whether you were for him or against him, you have to appreciate certain things he has done during his campaign and now during the transition period. I just came upon Obama's transition site...
www.change.gov
The amazing thing to me is the way he is leveraging technology and the communications tools that are now available to make people feel closer to him and to communicate his message. Within the site is a blog that includes a YouTube video address that he has committed to doing every week now and while he is in office. Here is the link:
http://www.change.gov/newsroom/blog/
I imagine that this type of communication and leveraging of websites, blogs, social networking sites and such will be in stark contrast to everything before now. Will it result in him being a good President? I don't know, but I do think it will be a very different presidency.

Upside Down - part 1

I was reading this interesting book on the plane today on my way to Vegas for my company's kick-off event. It goes into the dichotomy of secular/business/military leadership tactics strategies and styles versus what the author believes is demonstrated in scriptures from Jesus and ultimately the early church...that of "servant leadership". I got through about half of the book on the way here, and I am certain I will be done by the time I get home. Some quick highlights from what I have read so far:

- Jesus never reprimanded his disciples for wanting to be "great"...according to the world's standard for being leaders...He did, however, correct them and then demonstrate it for them (Mark 10:43-44)
- Leadership models are based on values, assumptions and principles and we must look at those before we accept the leadership model is valid...in leveraging secular leadership theories and overlaying with biblical principles, we are dressing up things that do not have a solid foundation to start from.
- "They attempt to accomplish God's work using a management philosophy diametrically opposed to biblical principles"
- They think..."If it worked for the world, it must work for Christians too...."
- Secular or "Power" Leadership models are built on standardization, conformity, pragmatism, productivity and centralization
- Servant Leadership models are built on diversity, empowerment, scriptures, and authenticity.
- Paul's criteria for leadership in his letters was entirely built on relationships...his perspective..."Do not consider an individual for spiritual leadership until you have examined the integrity of his personal relationships.
- "The church is not a chain of command but a network of love"
- A leader cannot demand what he has not earned
- Who can argue with success
- Authenticity of authority is the issue. Does it bear the mark of its originator - the character of the King?
- In our flesh, we constantly attempt to wrest control, even from God, because we fear failure
- Controlling others...is an unattainable goal

Money, Money, Money, Money.......Money!

Money is one of the most frequent topics in the Bible and it was the subject of this week's Bible study with my Thursday night group. We stayed strictly in Proverbs and only on the verses outlined from the study sheet from our pastor and had a lively discussion that was quite engaging.
(The thing I love about this group is that, thus far anyway, everyone feels free to speak up and talk about their opinion and even ask questions. I think it sets a great tone for everyone to be able to learn from each other and hopefully learn more about the Bible and the truths therein.)
The main take-aways were:
1. How we perceive others due to money or the lack thereof based upon the culture and generally our own first take vs how we should perceive others based on how God values them
2. If we put ourselves in a place where money can control our lives, it will.
3. Money is so intertwined in all parts of our lives the it is probably one of the strongest reflections of our true selves that we have. The way we live our life with our money, how we use it and value it is one of the strongest "tells" of who we really are as a Christian.

First Bethel Class

Just some thoughts from my first night.
- About 2 hours and lots of handouts. Kate, the teacher, said that handouts are equal to love...and she loved us a bunch.
- Only 7 people are taking the class, but, when you are committing to something that will take 2 years to complete...I guess that doesn't surprise me.
- One of the comments made this evening was "Biblical literacy of the average person who is a Christian is that of what a 11 year old knows and understands of the secular world." Not sue exactly how you measure that, but it doesn't sound terribly off either. Definitely makes you think.
- I have 25 Chapters in Genesis to get through this week!
- I have 7 tests, oral reports, 29 assignments to go until summer break...that'll shock the system...

Interesting conversation

I happened to be speaking with some acquaintances, Beth and Therrin, at Jaden's soccer practice / game awhile back and the conversation turned to school. Since Kristen was going back, they asked themselves..."What would you go back to school for?" After asking the question of themselves, they turned and asked me, to which I replied..."I would go to seminary."
"For theology, or to be a pastor?" They pressed...
"To be a pastor, I think..." I continued. To which Beth calmly inquired:
"So, God is calling you into his service and you are ignoring the call?"
I just stared at her. Her husband, Therrin, said "Honey, we don't know him well enough for you to say things like that!" :)
It was light-hearted, we all laughed a little and it both before and after we had great conversations, but it was also one of those moments where you end up wondering if that was truth being unmasked for a moment. We even joked about the fact that you never know when God is using someone to speak into your life. The fact that it hasn't left me over the last two weeks further presses on that point.
I don't know what that means for me at this point, as I don't really feel that I am supposed to be making a life change at the moment, but, I do think that I have to keep my eyes open to see if God is opening up my life to other possibilities. Who knows what 1 year, 3 years or 5 years from now may look like?

Bethel Class

So Wednesday starts my 2 year class at our church on in-depth Bible training. The website for Bethel training says:
'This unique format uses the Bible as textbook, with the basic concept of an overview that ties Old Testament concepts to New Testament themes. It is in-depth Bible study that gives the Scriptures relevancy and equips students for mission and ministry, as they are able to apply the Word to their daily lives.'
I am excited to get started and to have a schedule that I need to work through to get all the work done. We will get all the way through the Bible in the 2 years, meeting 3 out of every 5 weeks during the 2 years. It will be interesting!