your choices matter

Unless you've been under a rock as they say, I'm sure you've heard about the recent exploits of a few famous people. Serena Williams had an explosive verbal tirade at a lines person during her tennis match, and Kanye West grabbing the mic from Taylor Swift and telling her someone else deserved it.

Both actions were obviously regrettable and each one issued their own version of an apology. Its not my place to say whether they were sincere or whether they have "done enough" to satisfy their critics. I guess my fear is that it can be really easy to point the finger at someone else's mistakes, because it takes your mind off of yours. I know I've gotten upset during sporting events, and while I may not have said the things serena did, it still wasn't right. And you can argue that Kanye has a history of these incidents and should know better, but I wouldn't want a history of my sins brought into the spotlight. I've screwed up more than once in many areas of my life. I'm not making excuses for either one, I'm just saying I'm glad none of the dumb things I do have been on television. I don't want to be one of those "let me get that speck of out your eye" christians, when I have my own planks. Maybe instead of heaping how bad they are on them, its best to say "they made a mistake, I hope their apology was sincere and they change"? I don't know, just a thought.

Here's the real question I want to ponder, how do my choices affect others? As the spiritual head of my household, how are my choices playing out in the lives of my wife and children, because they do.

I was reading in Joshua about Achan who kept some of the spoils of Jericho buried under his tent after the Israelite's victory. God had commanded His people to bring everything into the treasury, but Achan chose to take a gold brick, some garments, and a bag of silver coins for himself. When Israel was then defeated by a tiny nation, God told Joshua that it was because of sin in the camp. When Achan's choice was exposed in chapter seven, we are told that he, AND HIS WIFE, SONS,AND DAUGHTERS, were all taken outside of the camp and stoned.

I'm sure Achan never thought his greedy choice would ultimately cost his family their lives. He may have even thought he was doing it for his families security. Imagine if you were Achan's children and had no idea what dad had done, no direct involvement, yet you paid with your life.

I don't want my choices to negatively affect my family. If your children hear you choose to talk bad about certain people, it affects them. When they see what you choose to watch on television, it affects them. Whether or not you choose to value them by giving them your time, affects them. If your constantly obsessing about how you look, or how much you weigh, it will affect them. Maybe its pornography, or lying, or something they know nothing about. Understand that every choice affects those you love, as well as you. As christians, and especially men, we must strive to be pure, honest, and wise in the things we choose, recognizing that what you do, influences more than just your life, whether you know it or not.


Dueteronomy 30:19 "Today I have given you a choice between life and death, between blessing and curses. Choose life, so that you AND YOUR DESCENDANTS might live"

kindergarten

Today marked Ava's first day of kindergarten. She will be going all day from 8:15-3:15. This is going to be quite the shock to her system as we have been making sure she gets to bed by 10:30 all summer to prepare her for this=) I thought I might be a little more emotional, but Kendra and I were both ok. She was so sweet and just gave us a hug and a kiss and that was it!! I've heard that once your children are in school all day, time really starts to fly and I believe it. Did a wedding this weekend and tried to envision myself walking one of my girls down the aisle...............way to scary. Had to block that thought out!!!!

I love you Ava, I know your light for Jesus will shine bright!!

"and they will know you are my disciples by your.......

praying for the president to die of brain cancer? I almost hesitate to bring attention to someone so incredibly ignorant that calls himself a christian, much less a pastor, but I guess I'll throw this out there anyways. This man has no clue, no business pastoring anyone, and his reprehensible behavior is damaging the kingdom of God.
Obviously you don't have to agree with anyone concerning political views, this is a free country, but show me one time where Jesus ever instructed anyone to pray this way? Christians in the first century were suffering horribly at the hands of Rome, and never once did Jesus recommend an insurrection or praying for the death of Ceasar. He was always very clear that we were of a different Kingdom and our war was NOT against flesh and blood. He even admonished us to pray for ALL those in authority over us as citizens. (romans 13:1)

I do not approve of most of the presidents policies, but this kind of hatred and ignorance in no way reflects the heart of God and much like the "money preachers" on tv, gives all christians a bad name. We aren't called to be doormats that have to tolerate everything, and abortion IS out of control and abhorrent to God, but this is not how our savior taught us to do battle.

James 3:1 "not many of you should become teachers my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness" If your going to call yourself a pastor, teach the word of God, not your ideology of hate.

Off the soapbox now, here's to a better monday =)

Showbiz Pizza......the only place a kid can still be a kid?

Leave it to the United Nations to attempt to parent your children all the way from their New York Offices. This inept organization, blackeyed by numerous scandals, including "oil for food" which padded the pockets of executives, is now advocating that masturbation be taught to five year olds. Their "recommendation" is that children (as young as pre-kindergarten) be taught about self pleasure and gender violence.

This is just the beginning of government officials eroding the rights of parents to raise their own children. The U.N's Economic, Social and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) released a 98 page report offering a universal sex lesson plan for kids ranging in age from 5-18. Here are a few of their timelines......

children 5-8 would be told that "touching and rubbing one's genitals is called masturbation" and that private parts "can feel pleasurable when touched by oneself"

children by age 9 would learn about "positive and negative effects of aphrodisiacs" and wrestle with ideas of "homophobia, transphobia, and abuse of power."

at 12, they will learn "reasons for" abortions---but they will have already know about the safety of abortion for three years.

at 15, they will be exposed to direct "advocacy to promote the right to and access to safe abortions"

My daughter is five and we haven't even gone over the "official" names of body parts, how are you going to teach a five year old about gender roles, stereotypes, and gender-based violence???????!!!!!!!!!

This is insane and we wonder why fifth graders are having sex in schools and "sexting" pictures is the new rage? Song of solomon 2:7--"do not awaken love before its time" There is a sexual sleep that God has designed children to remain in, and our society and government is doing everything it can to wake them up as young as possible, all in the name of "education" and "awareness". I realize that their are many delinquent parents in the world, but government does not have the right to raise MY kids, I will see to that.

Here is the report if you want to read it.

Here is another link to a childrens "bill of rights" put out by the U.N. in 1996 that Bill clinton signed but was never ratified by the united states basically hamstringing parents ability to parent.

This is insane.

giving 100%

"and whatever you do, in word or deed, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ giving thanks to God the father through him"--col.3:17

God deserves our very best, and everything we say, do and think ought to be done as if we were doing it for Jesus Himself. Here is what would happen in our world if we all thought 99.9% was good enough


12 newborns would be given to the wrong parents each day
114,500 mismatched shoes would be shipped each year
18,322 pieces of mail would be mishandled every hour
315 entries in Webster's dictionary would be misspelled
20,000 drug prescriptions would be written incorrectly each year
5.5 million cases of soda produced would be flat

Give God your best!!!

Love means nothing to a tennis player

Saw that saying on a t-shirt and while not exactly scriptural words to live by, it did catch my eye. Wednesday and thursday my buddy Mike and I embarked on a trek to Cincinnatti Ohio to attend a masters tennis tournament. It is a warm up event to the U.S open in New York so we weren't sure exactly what to expect, but we were both pretty blown away!! We saw four of the top five tennis players in the world and moved our way so close to the courts we could hear Andy Roddick swearing under his breath!! Mike and I have been playing tennis together on a regular basis for the last few years and both of us are HUGE tennis fanatics so this was a dream come true. We were literally so close to Roger Federer when he left the court that Mike touched his sweaty back and then I licked Mike's hand!!! OK, that's disgusting and not true, but Mike did touch his shoulder on the way out, it was INSANE!!

Best sporting event I've ever been to and hanging out with mike was an added bonus. He is a great friend and tennis partner and even though he tried to get me to eat fifty wings at BW3, I still got love for him=)

Here are a few pics of some of our heros=) It was one of those you really had to be there, AND love tennis moments, but since we were, and we do, it was all good!!!

the best husband she's ever had

I may have officially earned that title=) While Kendra was gone for a week on a woman's retreat in Texas, I set up a little extreme home makeover scheme without her knowledge. Those of you who know me are aware that I am barely capable of changing a light bulb, so obviously I had help. I had Grandma Linda take the girls and literally went on a home improvement two day whirlwind!! Here's a little list of the things I did, er I mean I had done.

Changed all the hardware on kitchen and bathroom cabinets,
fixed some broken cabinet doors and replaced hinges
installed towel racks and new shower heads in bathroom
cleaned entire house including basement
painted entire main floor including trim without her knowing the colors first!!

The biggest deal by far however was the installation of a dishwasher!!!!! Yes we were one of the few homes still in America that did not have one. Now we have a Kenmore instead of a "kendra do more=) we also upgraded from a beta vcr to vhs and traded in our pagers for cell phones. (ok, i made those last two up, but the part about the dishwasher really happened.)

As if that wasn't enough, I accomplished all of this while memorizing the 1000 page congressional health care bill and listening to Al Gore's inconvenient truth on Podcast. I feel it is important to multi-task.

Needless to say Kendra did NOT marry me for my handy man skillz, but it felt really good to surprise her and see the beautiful look of surprise on her face! I love you soo much Kendra and don't ever leave for a week again=)

ps. much Love to my brother in law Lee and my friends daniel, tommy, Isaac, Kurt, breena and Shawna for all their help in this!!