God honors our smallest efforts

Unfortuanately I'm not known as the most disciplined person on the planet and I long to continue to grow more in that area. One thing that for the last year or so that Whitney and I have been pretty committed to is the bed time ritual with our kids. They grab their 2-3 books, usually Dr Suess, and they both hop up in Emily's bed. Mommy reads the books to them. Then Daddy, who very often nearly falls asleep on Emily's floor using her pink cushy chair as a pillow, pops up for "Bible book time". So I read a little children's Bible to them, usually only a couple or so pages long. Now I have to admit most of the time they are completely A.D.D. Josh is being goofy and making some weird noise or annoyingly violating Emily's personal space and my words seem to be just randomly floating in the air. But then there are nights like last night. We're reading about John the Baptist and Jesus and when they were 30 they left their jobs and started the ministry and work that God sent them to do. They were intrigued with the whole baptism part with John (and of course had fun with the fact John wore camel hair and ate grasshoppers which when I asked Josh if he would eat a grasshopper he of course said 'nyeth' (yes)) Then we got to talk about how Daddy does baptisms and Josh started saying, "Daddy Baptize!" Then Emily just starts asking questions about Baptism and we explain that when you choose to follow Jesus and ask Him into your heart then you are forgiven and have eternal life with Him. She tells us that she did ask Jesus into her heart 'last day' which translates 'the other day'. She talked about heaven and it was powerful to just hear her tender heart for Jesus as an almost 4 year old and see her childlike faith and trust in Jesus. So, just remember that our God is the God who took the little boys brown bag lunch of fish and bread and fed 5000. He can take our most pitiful and little daily efforts and do the miraculous with them!

My mom and the Flash, bonded forever

So this weekend we were in Wimberley, TX visiting my parents. My dad, brother and I head out the door to go watch Iron Man at the Corral, an outdoor movie theatre right down the road. Little did we know an unbelievable drama was about to unfold behind us. So my brother, Brad, has a dog named Mable who we've nicknamed 'the Flash' because of her other wordly speed. So the normal drill is whenever anybody is driving off the property someone restrains Mable until the car is at the gate to ensure that she doesn't make a bolt for freedom. Well anyway my Mom did her restraining duty and released Mable when it seemed safe. Well, the Flash, made the jump to light speed and somehow managed to squeeze past the gate right before it closed. My mom races down the driveway after her and reaches the closed gate. She hollers for Mable and Mable comes close enough to the gate for my mom to snatch her leg. "Yes!" my Mom thinks. But this celebration only lasts a moment as she realizes that she is stuck in a really weird dilemna. If she lets go of Mable's leg, the Flash is sure to collide with an oncoming vehicle. My mom in her panic ran off with no cell phone and no way of opening the gate. At this point its about 8:30 PM and quickly daylight is fading. Meanwhile my wife Whitney and sister-in-law Katrina are enjoying a wonderful time of fellowship and conversation inside the house and watching our kids. Every once in a while they'll have a fleeting thought like "huh, I wonder where Sandy is?" and then they rationalize different activities that she probably was doing. Anyway, my mom continues to endure her love-lock with the flash. She, in vain, attempts to scream out in the night for help but to no avail. The minutes slowly pass by. Finally, after a full hour elapses, now 9:30 and pitch black out there, Katrina finally decides that maybe she ought to walk outside and check for Sandy. She starts heading for the driveway and out of the blackness of the night hears Sandy screaming. She panics and grabs Whitney. Whitney panics and puts Emily (our 3 almost 4 year old) in charge of Josh our 2 year old and they race out into the night to locate my mom. They're thinking "she's overturned the golf cart", "she's been bitten by a poisonous snake". Finally they find her. Katrina grabs the flash and my mom works her away to the other side of the gate and the Flash and my mom are freed from their prison sentence. Anyway, it was such a noteworthy act of bravery and sacrifice I just felt it necessary to write it down.

Slow Down and look

Emily and I took some time to slow down and just sit in the river today. As I was sitting there I realized how fast and furious my life is. Normally I am racing from one thing to another. As we sat there it was cool all the things that we started to observe together. Dragon flies started getting comfortable with us and would land on our fingers. We then noticed that the fish started being o.k. with us and were swimming all around us. Then after awhile we noticed these really cool little water bugs that race upon the water. I mean you definitely would never see those when you're in a hurry. Then we started hearing bull frogs off in the distance. This whole complex and beautiful world started erupting all around us. And the conversation that Emily and I were able to have together was awesome. Just talking together about the river and what we had done that day, etc. It seems that we're looking for life by racing to find it when all we really need to do is slow down enough and realize its all around us if we'll just look and listen.

Thanks to my peeps

You know nothing quite fills me up like the relationships that God has placed in my life. I just want to dedicate this post to some people who just recently have put a smile on my face and encouraged me in my spirit. On Thursday morning I drug myself out of bed to that small barely scraping by coffee chain, Starbucks, and met with Craig Charbonnet. And there's something about hanging out with him that makes me just crave Jesus more. I was just sitting there hanging out with him and just feeling so blessed that I have full access to God, the creator of everything, the owner of everything. I was just filled up with such hope that no matter how impossible or bleak things may get, nothing can cut me off from Him and His power and presence in my life. So that was great. And then I got to spend lunch with Chad and David. I like these guys because they seem to get me. Chad and I had an incredible conversation about thermostats, man am I getting old, but we both love the challenge of living on the budget that God has given us and squeezing the most out of our dollar. We talked about the importance of having people in your life that you can confess junk to where you feel safe and loved by them. Related to that we talked about learning from one another's strengths and helping each other with our weaknesses. I also received a call from another guy Kevin Keys just wanting to see how I was doing and then later today from my buddy Curtis just checking in. You know people can definitely wear you out and drive you crazy at times but God truly wired and created us for life together with others. So I encourage you all to give God thanks for the people in your life and maybe put out more effort and priority into pursuing relationships over things.

Memorial Weekend

It has been an adjustment for Whitney and I not having my parents in the same town. But it has forced us to branch out and really get to know our friends and neighbors more. I feel like that was the theme for this memorial day weekend. On Friday we had the privilege of getting to go down to Baytown and pray with with Sherry Ehrich's dad who, praise God, is doing much better as he was very critical over the weekend. On Sunday we got to participate with our neighbors Tommye and David as they dedicated their baby boy, Bo, who just turned one. The thing that really amazed me about the whole thing was how they put such thought and focus and energy into this dedication and the tears they shed over their desire to raise Bo to walk with Jesus. It really challenged me to make an effort to celebrate significant spiritual markers in my kids life and not just things like birthdays, etc. Later we were kindly invited over to Ted and Shelly's house, our other neighbors. We shared some hamburgers and hotdogs and really good guacamole. We've been in our new house now for right at a year and already have spent more quality time with our neighbors than all 7 1/2 years combined in our old neighborhood. It's just really cool to have a relationship with the people around us where we can walk into their house, borrow lettuce from each other, play with each other's kids, pray for each other's different situations, particpate in special celebrations together, share meals, and just have someone to talk to about life. So I'm just grateful for my neighbors and encourage all of you to step out and meet the people around you, it just might change your life.

Josh's 2nd BDay

Well the little guy turned 2. We had the big party last Sunday night in the backyard. Already falling behind in being ready for all of our guests to arrive our daughter skillyfully manages to discover that one fire ant mound we failed to see in our meticulous search over our yard and proceeds to get about 50 nice little ant bites all over her. Don't you just love fire ants? So the party seemed to be a hit. I mean sand, water, grass, hot dogs, and random flotation devices...I mean we stumbled across a kid wonderland in our backyard apparently. I want to give props to one of our bday party participants, Harrison Ehrich who managed to down 5 'weiners' while dunking them all in mayonaise also. Joshua was abruply awakened from his afternoon nap to discover his yard taken over by a sea of little people like him. He managed to remain in a state of confusion and dumbfoundedness throughout the duration of the party. But man he loves him a good cake. While everyone else was continuing there wild baby pool party and climbing all over the play house Joshua escaped to his little private cabana and enjoyed a luscious Bday cake moment all to himself. Yesterday was his actual bday so he got to open a few more presents while his older sister was in complete agony doing everything in her power not to pounce upon each present herself and rip it to pieces. Especially as my wife apparenly like triple wrapped one present and it took Josh what seemed to be an eternity of attempting to open it. Anyway, the little man is growing up and we're having fun along the way.

My wife is a superhero

Well Whitney had to go to work today earlier so I got another reminder of the work that she does on a daily basis. Wake the kids up, wake them up again, wake them up again, open the curtains, open the blinds, o.k. sweet they're finally starting to make noises and stir to life. O.k. um oh yeah sing a song to get them in the mood to go downstairs and eat some breakfast. Alright oatmeal for Emily and Josh. Oh don't forget to put Josh's vitamins in there. O.k. got them eating. Alright need to make lunches for them now. "Daddy, messy!" Oh yeah my neat freak 2 year old son has to have me wipe up every molecule of oatmeal that lands on the table, his pajamas or anywhere else but his mouth. Meanwhile Emily is still trying to wake up staring off into space. O.k. we made it through round 1, the oatmeal round, now it's time for round 2 with Dora yogurt. Here you go Emily, "Daddy, I don't like the peach I like the strawberry...it's pink." Of course, I should've known that. ah hah I'll give Josh the peach and Emily the strawberry...wait for it wait for it...yes! They're both happy now. Alright keep working on the lunches. O.k. I think they're both finally done with round 2. Now rush upstairs and throw them in the bath. Rinse, Shampoo, rinse. Dry off Josh, put diaper on Josh. Go get Emily, dry her off, underwear on (yes I refuse to use the word 'panties'). O.k. oh yeah spray the special spray in Josh's hair that makes his hair not tangle and brush and let him brush his teeth in the meantime. O.k. grab Emily and attempt to dry her hair as she is constantly moving and reminding me "Daddy my hair is in my eyes!" O.k. now get them downstairs (wow Josh you're going really slow) pick Josh up...."by myself!" Oh yeah forgot, the beauty of 2, the old "by myself!" stage. Wait on Josh, Wait on Josh, Wait on Josh. o.k. they're both down. Alright get them in the car..."toy!" Here you go, woops wrong toy, how about this one...o.k. finally satisfied with the correct toy selection. Rush in grab the lunches and sippy cups get them in the car. Go get my bag and their shoes and start the car and go. Wow, my wife is a super hero.