Big Families

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In a previous post, I started a fun conversation concerning suggestions for our next vehicle.  Let’s see…this has been our 3rd vehicle in the past 4 years.  Who does that?  A growing family does, right?  Well, that has been the case with our family, at least.  I don’t know of many people who do it just for the fun of it.  Hey wife – let’s go get ourselves a new station wagon.

First, we outgrew the 2 door sports car.  I enjoyed our 5 speed Chevy Cavalier even if it wasn’t a Corvet.  Then we outgrew the minivan.  Just recently we outgrew the Suburban.  While we are in no way approaching the need for a bus – I do like our new family wagon.  Yes, I have officially gotten over the sporty feel of the Suburban and am now driving a 12 passenger Chevy Express.  We are now officially “one of those families.”

“As one of those families” I am blessed and honored to be the dad of 7 amazing children.  As I have often said and will say again, I am one blessed man!  Jesus has been very good to me and my family.

Kudos to big families!

Speak Life

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Last night I was once again reminded of the power of our words – that they either have the power to produce life or the power to produce death.

During my daughter’s soccer practice one of my son’s happened to get engaged in a conversation with one of the players grandmother.  She was a sweet lady who had my son going with the words that she used.  She was building him up with words like, “there’s nothing you will not be able to do, you are going to run in the Olympics, you are an engineer, you will be someone who creates paths for others to follow, you are brilliant and a leader.”  By the time we left that practice field, I’m sure he was convinced that anything was possible.

Proverbs 18:21 says that death and life are in the power of the tongue.  It’s amazing the affect our words have on people when we build them up with positive affirmation.  In a world where tearing down with words seems to be the norm – I believe that we can choose to be different.  Like this grandma, we can choose to build and inspire with our words…even when we are pushed :) .

Do you find yourself struggling to get a grasp of how you talk to others?  Do you want to build and not be destructive in how you talk?  Be encouraged, you can!  Begin by asking Jesus to change your heart.  And then put to practice the art of being purposeful in what you say by using words that release life and build people.  Looking for a great place to start?  Start at home with the people you are closest to and watch the difference it will make not only in your life, but in the lives of others.

Bloggers Block

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Well…I figured that it was time that I wrote something.  I guess one could say that I have been experiencing bloggers’s block.  I simply haven’t been motivated to write anything.  Today I am forcing myself to get back in the groove (if there was ever a groove).

Last week Luke and I went on a 11-12 mile hike and spent the night at Packwood Lake.  We had a wonderful time being out in the woods enjoying the wonders of creation and spending time with 7 other great guys.  I will list some of the highlights to our hike below.  They are not listed in any particular order in case you were wondering.

>Bathroom time in an outhouse

>Jumping off a bridge into breath taking cold water

>Amazing views of the lake and Mount Rainier

>Mice getting into my pack, eating my bagel and leaving a nice mess for me to pick up

>Spending time with my brother and his sons

>Hanging with my son Luke -he is one amazing 7 year old.  We had a lot of fun together

>Luke almost jumping off the bridge…I’m glad he didn’t

>Catching crawdads – it took me back to my  early camping days

Never been hiking?  I highly recommend it! As good as it would be to do it alone…it is even better when you can share it with others.  I would love to hear of a fun experience that you have recently shared with someone else.

Adversity and Strength

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“If you faint in the day of adversity, Your strength is small.”  Proverbs 24:10

The writer of this great proverb recognizes the importance of strength when it comes to overcoming adversity.  Adversity is woven into our system of life.  Whether it is the adversity that we experience from within in the form of fear, the adversity we experience in surrounding circumstances, or the adversity we encounter from others – there is no getting away from the reality of adversity.  It is the thorns and thistles of life.  It is the resistance that we all experience in our movement toward what we are becoming.  Once we get an idea in our mind of what Jesus wants to do with our life and we begin making movement toward that picture – we will encounter adversity.  There will be things in our journey that will attempt to know us off track, that will attempt to keep us from moving forward trusting what God has promised and purposed for our lives.  The key to overcoming adversity has to do with our inner strength.  External strengths like education and experience will only take us so far.  The consistent fight to overcome adversity comes from within.  It comes in understanding who we are and who we are not.  It comes in developing the right life perspective.  It comes in having our minds renewed by the washing of the water of the Word of God.  It comes in developing an ear to hear the voice of God and in following His lead.  To faint in the day of adversity is to miss the importance of relationship and the part that relationship plays in our inner lives.  Regardless of the adversity, we will find the strength that we need to overcome through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in us.

Do you find yourself in a place of great adversity?  What you do and where you turn will say a lot about what you believe.  As you strengthen the inner man through relationship with Christ you will overcome and rise above the adversities of life to realize and seize the promises of God!

Twitter: What are you doing?

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Thanks to Twitter, it’s possible to share short, bite-sized updates about your life
and follow the updates of people that matter to you via the web. Find out what
your friends are doing at Twitter.com. Watch the video to the right for a full
explanation of how twitter can connect all of us.
 
You can follow your updates of friends and family in a number of ways.  They
can be sent to your phone, desktop and or mobile device. It is a quick and
effective way to get information out.
 
Consider that your little infomercial.  Now for the practical aspect of how this
can help take us as a church to the next level in our communication and
technology.  You might be thinking what’s the point, who cares?  The point is
this – it is a great way to communicate and mobilize.  Let’s just say that we
wanted to mobilize a large number of people quickly to give an hour on a
project.  With a simple stroke of a few keys you will have gotten word out to
everyone following you.  Wow!  What a great tool.  This is just one of the many
ways in which Twitter can be used.  Or let’s say that a huge snow storm blew
in and we had to cancel service.  This would be a quick and effective way to
communicate that.
 
I am going to encourage everyone in our church to sign up today – even my wife!
 
Click here to sign up and follow.

Only in Oklahoma

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Amy and I just returned from Oklahoma on Wednesday (we had a great time by the way) and thought that we would share a few of our Only in Oklahoma moments.  Ready or not here it is.

Only in Oklahoma:

Pok Chop is a menu item.  Up here in the northwest we call them Pork Chops.

Every shower head I have ever used (of which are not many) I have had to bend way down to wash my hair.  I wonder why they don’t mount them any higher?  A good question I must say.

The toilets, at least in the girl’s bathrooms at the airport, have automatic toilet cover dispensers.  How cool is that?  Now I found this out from a good source – my wife.  She took a picture with her phone and I have still not seen it.  I will have to ask her about it later.

Lastly, they are not overly concerned about another terrorist attack.  My friend who lives in Oklahoma City said that he was recently able to take his son up to the top of the Chase building and nobody said anything to him about his purpose or about the backpack that he was wearing.  Here in Washington – most major companies are practically on lock down.  They are secure areas and it involves a process to get in, and once you do, you have to carry a visitor’s pass and they are going to want to know where you are at all times.  And this from a state (WA) that has never been bombed?  Anyways…just an interesting thought.  Quite possibly Oklahoma is a little more laid back than we are here in the northwest.  Maybe it’s the rain :) .

We loved our time in Oklahoma.  The people and the experience was great.  We especially loved the downtown area of Oklahoma City called Bricktown.

Do you have any Only in Oklahoma experiences?

Obedience and Parenting

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Which is more important to you as a parent, obedience or relationship?  Not that it has to be a case of either/or – but our answer to this question will say a lot about our parenting style and what we perceive our role as parents to be.  Is our intended end to produce children who easily comply and do everything that we want them to or is our intended end to train our children in the way that they should go (Proverbs 22:6).  If we want compliant children it doesn’t take a whole lot of work.  We can just tell them what we want them to be and do and then expect them to do it based on the rules and parameters that we have set up for them.

What happens though when they fail or are unable to live up to what we have set up for them?

If we want something more, like training our children to think, to act, and to respond to life from the right heart attitudes, it takes a lot of work.  It takes working at the relationship and putting ourselves in the place to allow them the freedoms they need to learn while remaining in the same place of our homes.  For this to happen though, we as parents have to be willing to let go more while working with our children to help them develop the right heart motivations.

I want my children to obey, not because they have to, but because they want to – because they want to honor and respect mom and dad and others in authority.  For this to happen though it takes work and time – it takes building a relationship.  It takes allowing greater freedoms while enforcing fewer rules.  When done right…a person doesn’t need a lot of limitations to make right decisions – they just need a lot of love.  May we cultivate these kinds of environments with our children.  They are worth it!

Hope is Not a Strategy

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A pastor friend of mine said something once that has stuck with me every since.  He said, “hope is not a strategy.”  There have been plenty of times in my life where I just hoped that the situation, the relationship, the whatever would get better and guess what – they usually don’t.  That is, without a plan.

Maybe you find yourself in a situation hoping that a relationship you have with someone will get better.  Among your many possibilities; you could do nothing and hope that things will get better or you could come up with a plan and begin to work the plan.  The problem with getting a plan and working the plan is that it requires work.  Work, now there is a word that we sometimes shy away from because it requires thought and intention. If I am frustrated over my financial situation, but never give thought and intention to improving my budget and financial outlook, then I am in no place to see my situation improve.  I can will it to improve and never see a change.  I can hope that it improves or I can put a plan in place to begin movement in the right direction.  As we all find out in life, as much as we sometimes would like to throw the life switch in autopilot and kind of cruise our way through it, without intentionality we will not get to the place that God is leading us – we will not get to the place we want to go.

We may see the need to change.  We may even talk about change.  But are we willing to do the work to change?

America and Judgment

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There is an email circulating from a fairly well known pastor who is talking of coming judgment upon America.  Recently, I was asked to share my thoughts concerning this email.  Below you will find my response with a few added sentences at the end.

Click here to read his message.

I guess at this point I am still navigating through where I see myself concerning some of the things that he (this pastor) has come out and said.  While I don’t completely want to dismiss the potential for such devastation – at the same time I am not quick to jump on the band wagon that some of these things will happen or are happening as a result of God’s judgment on America.  America is not perfect and has never been perfect.  Even in our supposed Christian beginnings we fled from the religious strong hold of England and came to the New Englands to establish a religious ideal of freedom and then in our freedom drove the Indians off their land in bloodshed.  I say that to say that I don’t know that we as a nation have ever gotten it right.  When does God say enough is enough?  We have Biblical signs.  On a global scale they are all around us.

Aren’t you thankful for the mercy and kindness of God?  What about His patience?  Because of these attributes we are given the opportunity to know Him and to make Him known.  These are exciting times, where opportunities abound to be salt and light.  This is definitely not a time to be neglecting matters of the kingdom or to be surprised with no oil in our lamps Matthew 25:1-13.

On a practical side, I do think though that it is a good idea to be prepared in the case of a local or national crisis.  I am not there yet, but see the necessity.

I am interested in hearing your ideas.  Your comments are welcome and thanks for being part of this conversation.

Good Fictional Read

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For those of you who like a good fictional read like I do, I highly recommend Ted Dekker’s The Circle Trilogy.  The trilogy is a high paced epic that keeps you on the edge of your seat.  It has all the elements of a good story.  Suspense.  War.  Loss.  Betrayal.  Love and redemption.

Thomas Hunter, the main character in the book, finds himself living between two realities.  When he dreams in one world he wakes up in another.  Throughout the course of the book he learns the significance of both realities, how they are interconnected, and the role that he is to play in the epicenter of both realities.

Definitely a good read!

Have any recommendations of your own?