first day of school

Here it is..........The day has now come where both of our precious girls are in school all day now...........It is a little sad, but the first day went great and both girls absolutely loved it!! So excited to see all God has for them and our family this year...........hold on tight=)

You down with OPP?

Identifying other peoples problems (OPP) is pretty easy. I mentioned the story of Sampson in a message a while back and if you read judges 16 it's hard to imagine how he kept falling for Delilah's tricks. After all, the very thing he told her would cause him to lose his strength kept happening every morning when he woke up!!! HELLO!!! EARTH TO SAMPSON!!! How can you not see this???? Maybe you and Delilah should take a little time off????? See other people????

I think as Christians we can be real good at identifying specks in other peoples eyes when we have planks in our own. It's not our job to judge people, nor can we be everyones Holy Spirit. Phil.2:13 says that God is at work........IN YOU!!! Instead of pointing out what everyone else is doing, let's be people that humbly allow the Holy Spirit to bring conviction and change into our own lives first......

I always get a little leery when I hear people say things like....."I wish so and so had been here to hear this message, they could really use it." "I wish Sampson had heard this sermon on relationships, he's really messed up........" Identifying others issues is always easier than dealing with our own.

swimming lessons

No I don't think we have the next Michael Phelps in our midst, but I figured our girls should at least learn to put their heads underwater without me having to dunk them and have a major freakout on our hands=) Friday mornings have been designated and they are already LOVING IT!!!

As I explained what was going to happen and how they needed to listen, Addy asked what would happen if she drowned..............I told her that I'd at least hopefully get a discount? =)

You won't drown Addy, (she gets that drama queenness from her mother=) Jk Kendra

Here's to future olympic endeavors!!!!!!!!

7 yrs

I can hardly bring myself to say or admit it, but my firstborn beautiful daughter Ava turned 7 last wednesday. Where did the time go? We watched some home videos of her trying to sound out words and singing along to the doodlebops, oh how things have changed (although change is not always bad=)

We had her friends come over for cake and ice cream and then burned off all our energy at jungle joes for the afternoon!! thanks to all the parents who brought their kids out to join us=)

I love you soooooo much Ava and I look forward to many more years of your sweet heart for life being on display in our family. I love being your dad more than you could ever know.

right away

The other day I made an amazing discovery. I was baking a delicious pizza for dinner, and I used the handy little pizza cutter thing to transform it into eight or so delectable slices. (none of this is amazing yet I know, just wait, it gets amazinger) Of course the pizza cutter was covered in sauce, cheese and my tongue print as I attempted to lick it, but instead of just leaving it on the pizza tray to take care of after the inhalation of Digiorno goodness, (with cookies).......... I decided to run it under the sink.............right away.

It was incredible. The hot culligan-purified well water cascading over this brilliant invention brought back its silver shine with no scrubbing or soaking. I stood there in amazement, recalling the former times where I would leave the gadget for at least a day and have to scrub with steel wool and paint thinner to remove the caked on elements.

Here is the lesson I learned........ Things end up being easier to deal with, when you take care of them right away. I recently experienced how true this is with pizza cutters, but believe it or not, there are more important situations where this principle is applicable.

You notice a particular sin in your life that maybe you've struggled with before rearing it's ugly head, don't ignore it, don't wait, address it before it gets caked on and tries to set in to your life permanently.

Your relationship with your spouse is strained or something has happened to cause your heart to withdraw or become detached.............begin to take steps right away.

Stress at work or busyness is taking you away from your family and causing worry and financial fear to dominate your heart.........Don't just wait hoping things will get better, address it right away.

Disappointment with God or complacency in your faith has caused you to lose your passion and zeal for life and the Lord. Acknowledge it, and bring these things to God right away.

I don't know your situation, but I do know God desires for you to walk in His freedom and nothing gets easier when you avoid, deny or ignore it.............including the dishes

halfway there

WOW!!! World's shadiest and laziest blogger award goes toooooooooooo. Me.

I can't believe it's been over a month. I'm not gonna dwell on all the things that have happened that I've not updated, instead I'll just move forward and try to be more consistent for the dozens of people who used to read this =)

July 1st is today and one of my favorite days. It is the exact halfway point of the year............I know it's hard to believe, but 2011 is now 182 and a half days old with only 182 and a half or so to go.

Time to revamp, refocus and rethink some of the goals and vision you had for this year way back in january. Forget about things that you wish you had done already and get back to living each day to the fullest. We serve an incredible God who wants every day of our lives to unfold for His glory.

Hope you had an amazing first half of the year and I'll see you guys in January=)

Goodbye Michael Scott

Michael Scott says farewell as the regional manager tonight on the last episode of the office. Here is a list I ripped off from a guy I went to high school with of his top ten (very subjective obviously as there were thousands) awkward quotes.


10. Diversity Day (Season 1)

“Abraham Lincoln once said ‘If you are a racist, I will attack you with the North,’ and those are the principles I carry with me in the workplace.”


9. Lecture Circuit (Season 5)

“I don’t know you. But I need to know you in order to sell to you. That is why I have asked you to go around and tell me your names. I have an amazing mnemonic device by which I have memorized all of your names. Shirty, mole, lazy eye, Mexico, baldy, sugar boobs, black woman. I have taken a unique part of you and used that to memorize your name.”


8. Double Date (Season 6)

“Finish your cake, Helene. I want you to enjoy that cake. Because I have something terrible I need to tell you. And I want you to enjoy your cake before I tell you this terrible, terrible thing.”

7. The Convict (Season Three)

“Close your eyes. Picture a convict. What’s he wearing? Nothing special. Baseball cap on backwards. Baggy pants. He says something ordinary like ‘Yo, that’s shizzle’. Okay, now slowly open your eyes again. Who were you picturing? A black man? Wrong. That was a white woman. Surprised? Shame on you.”


6. Company Picnic (Season 5)

“I wrote down a list of bullet points why Holly and I should be together, and I’m going to find the perfect moment today and I am going to tell her. Number one: “Holly, you and I are soup snakes.” The… and the reason is… because… in terms of the soup, we like to – that doesn’t make any sense.”


5. Gay Witch Hunt (Season 3)

“You don’t call retarded people retards. It’s bad taste. You call your friends retards when they are acting retarded. And I consider Oscar a friend.


3. Scott’s Tots (Season 6)

“I told them if they graduated from high school, I would pay for their college education. I have made some empty promises in my life, but hands down, that was the most generous.”

2. Phylllis’ Wedding (Season 3)

“They say your wedding day goes by in such a flash that you’re lucky if you even get a piece of your own cake. I say that’s crazy. I say, let them eat cake. Margaret Thatcher said that about marriage. Smart broad.”

1. Dinner Party (Season 4)

“You have no idea the physical toll that three vasectomies have on a person!”

how long are your God's arms?

Boy have I been lazy in my blogging!!! God has been putting things on my heart, I just need to find time to write them down=)

Ephesians 3:20 is a very familiar scripture that is quoted often. "now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or even imagine according to His power that is at work within us"

That is a LOADED Verse!!! Can I be honest and say I don't always live that way? In fact, too often I'm imagining things for my life that I don't even dare ask for much less believe that God wants to do it. Do I really believe that God can do more in my life thru his power in me than I can even think or imagine? How does that work?

Moses had a similar issue. After miraculously seeing God deliver Israel out of egypt by the ten plagues as well as crossing the red sea on dry ground, Moses had a doubting moment.

In numbers 11 the people were complaining about having to eat Manna all the time. They missed the onions and leeks they so "enjoyed" while being slaves in Egypt. God was not pleased with their lack of gratitude for his provision and told Moses to communicate to the people that they would not only get meat, they would get it till it was coming out of their noses.

Here's a snipet.....

Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat it. 19 You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, 20 but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it—because you have rejected the LORD, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”’”

21 But Moses said, “Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, ‘I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!’ 22 Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?”

23 The LORD answered Moses, “Is the LORD’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you.”

God says the people are going to have meat, but Moses, the same moses who saw all the miracles in egypt and spoke with God face to face as a friend................doubted.

How are you gonna do that God? If all the flocks and herds were slaughtered or every fish in the sea caught would that be enough for 600 thousand men? That's a whole lot of hot pockets and we don't even have bathrooms out here and you know how those hot pockets go right thru your people. (that's the message translation)

And God replies, "Is the Lord's arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true" I love that. It reminds me of that commercial where the guy is scared to eat BK"s burgers cause his hands are too small. God's like, I got the oceans in my hands Mo, don't go thinking I got stumpy arms of provision!!!

I don't know what dream God has put in your heart. Maybe its for a healing, a financial breakthru, a loved one to know Jesus, a seemingly impossible situation. Our responsibility is not to figure out how in the world God could ever do that, we are called to believe that God is bigger than our imagination or any circumstance we're facing and His grace is ALWAYS enough.

His arms are Dikembe Mutumbo long, and he wants nothing more than to wrap you in them, hold you in his love, and let his power and glory be on display. Be encouraged today in that!!!!

irish open 2011

As most of you know, I am a tennis freak and love everything about it!!! I played in a tournament with Almendra Duran (she is here from Mexico interning at the church) and we embarked on our 3.5 rated journey to to the top of the tennis mountain!!
Alme is a fantastic player and we had a lot of fun. The highlight was playing a completely drunk lady on friday night who could literally barely hold her racket. She had lost her morning match with her partner (as we did) and literally drank all day until we played that night!!

Anyways, we ended up winning the consolation (some people call it losers) bracket and won an "I survived the irish open" towel!!!
It was alot of fun and thanks to the peeps who came to cheer us on=)

the evolution of a haircut

I took my little addy to get her hair cut. Somehow her hair went from total ringlet curls to basically straight. She refuses to have it pulled back at all when she sleeps so it becomes a crazy mess in the morning. Then of course she cries about having to get it brushed out. Since I have to hear that crying every morning, I came up with the wonderful idea of getting her hair cut..............short. There was a little resistance at first, but she ended up liking it. She is my little toothless bob=)

communication part 2

OK, I started with ten things you should never say to your wife, here is a much more difficult to come up with list of things wives should not say to their husbands. I ran one past kendra and she said it was inappropriate so I have come up with these=() I thought it was funny, but if you really want to know, come ask me and I'll share=)

10. "we should take dancing lessons" I'm petrified of dancing and while you may look at the foxtrot as a romantic way to connect, guys like me will be shaking worse than a ten year old trying to play operation after 7 redbulls. Anytime I'm forced to dance, I break into my shaun T hip hop abs routine and it's not pretty

9. "do you notice anything different about me?" Your hair? NO! New outfit? NO!!! "I can't believe you didn't notice I got a pedicure!!" :But your wearing shoes!!! SO??!!

8. "Do you know what today is?" Open ended nightmare!!! Any wrong answer inches you closer to the couch for the night

7. "we should stop and get directions" NEVER!!!!! That's like admitting defeat on every level. We know exactly where we are, we just don't know where the restaurant is.

6. "do these jeans make my butt look big?" Forget every Geico commercial you've ever seen, even honest Abe was lying thru his teeth. The answer is gonna be no even if it looks like you hid two ham hocks in your levi's.

5. "Hold my purse" Never a great idea especially now that man bags have been introduced. Someone might really think it's mine!!!~ Plus Kendra keeps small children and a rock collection in hers and I need a back brace to pick it up.

4. "Jim is surprising Nancy with tickets to (insert Celine deion, phantom of the opera, wrestlemania here) isn't that sweet?" You might not even mean to, but instantly we feel like we have to outdo Jim and have Josh Groban serenade you in the driveway.

3. "just pick out a movie we'll both like" This is quite literally impossible in my home and such a statement sets me up for major movie failure. How can a rocky marathon not be considered romantic? Don't tell Adrianne that.

2. Husband picks up phone, "hello?" wife's voice......."I'm out of tampons, can you stop at walgreens?" Why are you doing this to me!!!!~! I have to actually shop and make sure I get the right brand, flow, and it's too much pressure!!!

1. Told you, had to leave this one off the list=)

disclaimer....These are generic references and not supposed to represent anyone in particular. The names (kendra) have been removed to protect the innocent.

communication

I've been married ten years now and I'm far from an expert on communication, but I do think there are a few things that you should NEVER say to your spouse so that there is at least potential for some level of peace in the home.

I was reading thru ephesians 5 (the best teaching on marriage in scripture) and tried to think of ways I can be a better listener and communicator.

Here is my list of things you should never say to your wife---

1. "I'm sorry, what was that? I wasn't really listening" --Showing interest and focusing on her when speaking is paramount, Jon, turn off the basketball game!!

2. You always (fill in the blank) You never (fill in the blank)--these two words "never" help. Use "i feel like sometimes" even if you think its all the time, you have a much better chance of being heard

3. "your overreacting!!" Even if that's true, she's never going to admit that on the spot. Something like "I don't blame you for being upset, Let's try to fix the problem" will go a lot farther.

4. "you know that was a lot better when my mom made it a few weeks ago" Never criticize cooking and never compare to mom!! Watch for flying objects after this one.

5. "Of course I know your birthday!! It's on....(any pause at all here to think and you're dead......RIP)

6. "have you seen that commercial for the slim sauna belt designed to get rid of saddlebags?" Again, watch for UFO's if you go there.

7. "Happy anniversary, I didn't have time to go to the store but I sent you an E-card, check your junk-mail" ---Fail.

8. "Honey, I was just trying to tidy up the bedroom, is this a fitted sheet or your underwear?"--not good.

9. "are you sure you're really ready to deliver? Last time my feet got really sore standing by the bed that whole time"--pretty much any comments made during pregnancy and especially toward the end will prove detrimental to your health and future.

10. " I think the bathroom scale is measuring at least five pounds light"

Maybe this will help, prolly not. I'll post what women shoulnd't say to husbands too if I can think of any.

the double j

As I posted, Addy turned five last week so we headed out to the JJ resort as a fam to tackle the water park. The girls needed a minute to warm up, but they became brave enough to do the big slides by the end, although never by themselves so dad had to DRAG the rafts up three flights of stairs about fifty times!!!!!!

The hot tub could have been a little hotter for my taste, but other than that the park was fun, but not too big and the chlorine smell was stronger than the kid pee smell so that's always a plus.

I thought about Calahari or somewhere bigger, but I thought they'll get a little older and we can build these things up in increments!!!

missing front teeth

It's happening. Our littlest one is growing up. Not only did she just turn five, but she has officially lost a front tooth and is on her way to becoming far to grown up for my liking=) She is soooooo cute and was proudly displaying her cheesy lost a tooth grin for all of her pre-school friends. They had cupcakes for snack to celebrate her birthday and she assured me that she could still eat them despite this new dental dilemma=) We are heading out to a waterpark (indoor) to celebrate her turning five so I'll post some more pics to come!!!

perspective

Sometimes its so easy to take for granted the freedoms we have to worship Jesus and forget that others are paying a tremendous price for their faith. Read this account and take a minute to pray for the people in Muslim strongholds that are standing up in the face of incredible persecution for the name of Jesus. I'm not sharing this for anything political, but rather to open our eyes.

Dear Father, Let the blood of these martyrs be the seed of your church and may every nation tribe and tongue declare that you are God.



America Quiet on the Execution of Afghan Christian Said Musa
February 18, 2011 6:00 A.M.
By Paul Marshall

A terrible drama is unfolding in Afghanistan: There are reports that Said Musa, whose situation I described at Christmas, will soon be executed for the ‘crime’ of choosing to become a Christian.

Musa was one of about 25 Christians arrested on May 31, 2010, after a May 27 Noorin TV program showed video of a worship service held by indigenous Afghan Christians; he was arrested as he attempted to seek asylum at the German embassy. He converted to Christianity eight years ago, is the father of six young children, had a leg amputated after he stepped on a landmine while serving in the Afghan Army, and now has a prosthetic leg. His oldest child is eight and one is disabled (she cannot speak). He worked for the Red Cross/Red Crescent as an adviser to other amputees.

He was forced to appear before a judge without any legal counsel and without knowledge of the charges against him. “Nobody [wanted to be my] defender before the court. When I said ‘I am a Christian man,’ he [a potential lawyer] immediately spat on me and abused me and mocked me. . . . I am alone between 400 [people with] terrible values in the jail, like a sheep.” He has been beaten, mocked, and subjected to sleep deprivation and sexual abuse while in prison. No Afghan lawyer will defend him and authorities denied him access to a foreign lawyer.

Any and every human being who is imprisoned, abused, or tortured for the free and peaceful expression of their faith deserves our support, but Musa is also a remarkable person and Christian. In a letter smuggled to the West, he says, “The authority and prisoners in jail did many bad behaviour with me about my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. For example, they did sexual things with me, beat me by wood, by hands, by legs, put some things on my head.”

He added a thing much more important to him, that they “mocked me ‘he’s Jesus Christ,’ spat on me, nobody let me for sleep night and day. . . . Please, please, for the sake of Lord Jesus Christ help me.” (View the full letter here)

He has not, in fact, even appealed to be released, only to be transferred to another prison. He has also stated that he is willing to give his life for his faith. “Please, please you should transfer me from this jail to a jail that supervises the believers. . . . I also agree . . . to sacrifice my life in public [where] I will tell [about my] faith in Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, [so] other believers will take courage and be strong in their faith.”

Newspapers in the U.K. and elsewhere in Europe have reported the story, but with, the exception of the Wall Street Journal and, of course, NRO, American outlets have not found it worthy of attention. The Journal reports that “Afghan officials have been unapologetic: ‘The sentence for a convert is death and there is no exception,’ said Jamal Khan, chief of staff at the Ministry of Justice. ‘They must be sentenced to death to serve as a lesson for others.’”

The U.S. government — reportedly including Secretary of State Clinton — and other governments have pushed for his release, but to no avail.

But the president has been silent, even as we fight a war that has among its goals the creation of a government that conforms to international human-rights standards.

An American president certainly needs to guard and shepherd his political capital, and should not speak out about every prisoner. But Musa himself has appealed to “President Brother Obama” to rescue him from his current jail. And when an obscure and aberrant Florida pastor, Terry Jones, threatened to burn a Koran, not only President Obama but much of his cabinet, as well as General Petraeus, weighed in on the matter.

If the actions of a Florida pastor who threatened to destroy a book holy to Muslims deserved public and presidential attention, then the actions of the Afghan government, ostensibly a ‘democratic’ ally, to destroy something holy to Christians, a human being made in the image of God, also deserve public and presidential attention.

sledding and daddy time

Maybe Kindleburger hill was a little too big for the girls, but I give them credit for wanting to try!! Took the girls sledding on sunday night and I can't believe how big they are getting. I feel sometimes like the moments we have together are slipping thru my fingers like sand thru an hourglass (so are the days of our lives)

Walking up the hill together, I reached out to take Ava's hand so it would be easier to get up and I took that moment to try to draw parallels between what i was doing to help her and what Jesus does for us. I know that sounds like I'm super holy or something, but I really try to find ways to make Jesus real in their lives at a young age.

Anyways, we get almost to the top and Ava says 'Daddy?" I said "what honey?" "I love You"

My heart could have melted all the snow on that hill. It's hard to imagine that the creator of the Universe is even more moved when I say that to Him.

I love being a dad.