Addy turns 2 (and dad's at a conference)

Today marked two years since my beautiful daughter Adalyn was birthed into our lives. She is such a precious child and a complete opposite of her sister. Ava is a tenderheart like her mom, and Addy is a crazy troublemaker like her mom, oops i mean like me:)
Anyways, to top it off, I have been at a leadership conference in Grand Rapids since Monday morning so I wasn't even home at all today!! I didn't see my daughter once on her birthday and I'm feeling like a terrible dad. My fears were somewhat relieved when Ava informed Kendra that it couldn't be Addy's birthday because there were no presents and no cake. When Kendra insisted, Ava replied, Mommy, if there is no cake, its all a lie!!! I guess this weekend we can get a cake with candles, take pictures, and pretend like its really the big day, but for now i figured I better at least blog about it.



Every time I put Ava to bed, I ask her how does daddy love you?. I say with all my heart? and she says yes. No matter what? and she says yes. And then she finishes the last part for me.......and forever and ever.

I thank God for my children as well as the unreasonable love of my heavenly Father who loves me with all His heart, no matter what, and forever and ever and I pray that God would show me how to love like He loves.

Happy Birthday Addy, Your dad Loves you more than you can know.

DATE NIGHT

Kendra and I have started a new tradition in the Zondervan household. With two little ones and both of us so busy, it seems sometimes that even though we may be in the same house, we don't have the connection we want. Often by the time the girls go to bed, we both kind of collapse on the couch, exhale, and begin the process of vegging out in front of the hellevision until we fall asleep. (mispelling was intentional)

To remedy this, we have decided that on thursdays, we will put the girls to bed early (by faith) and then take turns cooking dinner and having a real "date night" at home. This way we don't have to pay a babysitter or tons of money on eating out and it can be even more romantic. Last night I made a fresh salad with poppy seed dressing and a filet mignon wrapped in feta cheese. It was a wonderful night that enables us to talk, connect and have specific time just for us.

What better night to start than valentines day!!! To my beautiful wife, thanks for being the most incredible mother wife and friend, and I look forward to what God has for us in the future.

See you next thursday:)
Love Jon

ENCOUNTER WEEKEND CONTINUED!!

We are all alive!!!!! Not only did the God show up at camp, so did winter with a vengeance!! Despite the bad weather on sunday, Encounter was an incredible time of pressing into God and developing relationships with students. Here is a bullet point recap.....

Friday night--pastor Lee spoke on seeking God with all your heart. He told them that God had "set up" their generation to be light in a world of darkness. Every student came up to the altar and consecrated themselves again to God that night.

Saturday--climbed the icewall, went tubing. played an insanely rough game of igloo capture the flag--ate an enormous amount of french fries and chicken fingers (the camp food was amazing!)

sat pm--I challenge the students out of 1timothy 1:2 and what it means to be a "true" son or daughter. The worship was amazing and the presence of God was undeniable. When we talked about a true son being willing to be sent out, one girl told me she had a vision of people in heaven and people in hell and God showed her how urgent the message of Jesus was for her classmates to hear.

Sunday--recap of God's plan for us as a generation. I talked about how God took Abram out of his tent (gen.15) to see the stars that would be the number of his children. sometimes we can get so focused on our right now and God wants to take us out of our little corner and give us new eyes to see and believe the promise He has for us.

overall, I am amazed at how fervent our youth is for the presence of God. I am humbled and grateful beyond words at being able to be a small part of the spiritual development of these incredible students. I thank God for rescuing me and entrusting me with this message.

Special thanks to all the cabin leaders, worship leaders, and anna the nurse (she took great care of a sick girl:) All of you putting so much energy into this weekend led to its success and I appreciate all of you.

to the parents who had to pick up their kids in the storm, I apologize again but if I could control the weather, I would have made this a summer camp in february!!

God bless and keep livin LOUD!!

ENCOUNTER WEEKEND!

This weekend 65 of our Res life students and I will be off to bair lake bible camp for our winter retreat we call encounter. I am so excited about what God is going to do in our lives as we seek Him and position ourselves to receive. I thank God for the opportunity to be a part of this great church and the awesome students of Pulse and Surge. Please be praying for us as we press into God and I will be sure to post again when we get back on sunday!!!!
If you want to see more of what our youth ministry looks like you can go to myspace.com/pulseyouth or www.ilovesurge.info for our jr high. you can also check out our video site at www.lolfyi.tv
In eager excpectation........

ON MY SOAPBOX AGAIN

I recently ran across a blog someone else wrote about the "southern baptist association of Christian schools" which is a organization that wants to use its considerable influence to create a "new public school system.," I stole some of his thoughts, but I think this is too important to not pass on. While I do think there are some serious flaws in the public school system, i have several issues with the idea of creating a "christian only" school world.

1. parents should not look to ANY school system whether public,private, or christian to raise their children to be godly. Raising children has to happen in the home not at school.

2. no church denomination should be asking for a mass exodus from any school system. I think it goes completely against the concept of christians being salt and light in the world. If it were up to some people, lights would only associate with other lights and too many of us think light should never even come in contact with darkness. What about being in the world but not of it?

3. Where children are educated is a decision that needs to be made by PARENTS and a church denomination should not be advocating much less organizing a way for us to not be around non-christians. If a parent asked me, I would encourage them to do just the opposite. I certainly wouldn't say send your kids to the most dangerous school in town on purpose, but i also wouldn't encourage them to keep them in the house at all costs. We need to know how to interact with others who haven't had their eyes opened to life in Jesus.

4. parents and churches need to accept some responsibility. We can not rely on the government to somehow legislate righteousness. If we would raise our children to follow AND model Jesus,(1 timothy 4:12) we might be able to influence the public schools instead of bail on them. We can't long for the glory days of when we used to be able to pray in school. I don't even want to know what school prayer would look like now because it would take 5 hours to cover every god and be "PC". The students have to take the initiative, not the govt.

I'm not against christian education (most of those kids certainly aren't any "holier" than public school kids. I just have to look in the mirror to prove that one). I am not against homeschooling your children. I am simply stating that I spend enough time in public schools each week to see the incredible need for salt and light and people who will be the light to this generation.


whats next? maybe we start a christian grocery store so that we don't expose ourselves to cosmo in the check out lane. Maybe we can all pool our money together and buy 10,000 acres in new mexico (next to ted turners) and start a christian only town. lets never underestimate our calling and responsibility to shine like bright lights, in a crooked and perverse generation.(phil.2:15)

"you are the light of the world. like a city set on a hill that cannot be hidden. no one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead it is placed on a stand so that it give light to everyone"-matt. 5:14-15

FATHER SET ME ON FIRE FOR YOU, SO PEOPLE WILL COME WATCH ME BURN!!!!!!

evolution of the smile

A few weeks ago Kendra and I packed up the littlins to go to Gr to see some of our friends Brad and Bradi. A great time was had by all as they have two girls about the same age as ours. I even was able to try a pizza made with olive oil instead of marinara that was INSANELY good!!! (i had about six pieces and cookies and ice cream and was so stuffed it was sickening) Anyway, enough about my gluttony issues. when we arrived, my girls were rearing to go crazy and Reagan had just gotten up from a nap. Once they warmed up to each other they of course ended up having a ball playing with toys in the basement. By the end of the night I finally tried to get a picture of them together and at this point Ava is burning out and Reagan is still on all systems go. My first picture attempt garnered this half hearted smile from Ava so I asked her to smile again and basically you can see from the pictures that each time I asked her it only got worse until it was a downright snarl!! Meanwhile Reagan continued to smile like an angel in every frame!!! Hopefully Bradi got at least one picture where Ava resembles a three year old having fun!

Thanks Brad and Bradi for the great night and next time lets not wait so long:)

what am I doing!!!!!!!!!

Ok, I posted friday about the Ava-isms that are constantly being born in my house, and now I feel like a terrible dad who is losing this "war of words"

two more that I have to mention---a few weeks ago on friday (when I play Mr. mom all day because Kendra works) we were watching my sisters dog Gus. He is a cute little boston terrier and the girls love him. Any ways I was yelling at Addy because she kept opening the fridge and pulling stuff out. Of course Ava scolds me and tells me how she is just trying to get her juice and doesn't know better. Then Gus starts running around crazy and I yell at him too (remind you it is very early on a friday:)
Anyways ava looks at me and says "dad, you can't keep doing this to children and animals!"--welcome to my world.

Then yesterday was the real kicker that made me realize once and for all that i can basically never have a slip of the tongue- i was pouring the water for the kids bath while kendra went to a baby shower. Ava climbs in and says......Dad, this water is fricken hot!. Now I don't go around saying that word all the time, and obviously it isn't something I want my 3 year old saying. So after explaining to her the reasons that it is not a nice word, I am now posting this on line to hold myself accountable.

Ps. 141:3--"Oh Lord, set a guard around my mouth, keep watch at the door of my lips."
ps. 19:14--"may the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you"--words to live by:)

ps. since Kendra and I have to now spell things (not swear words:) to disguise our intent, now whenever Addy cries, Ava will say " I think she wants a "b-d-c-a" and just rattle of random letters! --Help me Jesus!