So I know I haven’t blogged in a long time. Life has been crazy. For one Twitter has almost replaced my blog, but in the past couple weeks I have had many requests to get back to blogging so here it is.

I was sitting on my bed last night with my 18 month old daughter, and she like most 18 month olds is a little goofball. I love when she gives me kisses and she loves to not give them to me just to be a dork. So I am trying to get her to kiss me and she is being stingy with her kisses and finally I just grab her and plant one on her. at this point I start to cheer and act like it is a big deal that she kissed me. Well she responds by coming back and giving me another kiss. I then cheer some more and the cycle continues for like 5 minutes.

It ws in the middle of this at some point that God revealed something to me. We all want to love and be loved. You see all of us have love inside that we long to give away, but the thing is we want to know that the person we are giving it to is cheering for us and loves us in return. My daughter had love she wanted to share but it wasn’t untill i shwed her that I was excited about recieving her love that she felt comfotable giving me more.

This has so many implications in my life. For one who I am cheering on and giving my love to? Am I cheering for my family to show them my love? My kids? My wife? Secondly I realized that my little girls, the other one of which is 10, are going to give thier love to someone. I want to make sure that the understand that that person needs to show them he is cheering for them wholehartedly before they are willing to do that. Lastly I need to realize that I have a Love inside of me that is always cheering for me. The Love of Christ. How am I using that love to cheer for this world?

Just some thoughts to chew on today.

I was thinking a few days ago about some life lessons I learned from my dad and wanted to share some of them with you.

#1 Responsibility

When I was 10 or 11 I was really into hockey. No being that I lived in sunny, warm SoCal, ice hockey was not something that was available to me, so I played street hockey, but I loved watching the NHL (National Hockey League, which based upon their ratings i would venture you may not have heard of them ). Well back then the LA Kings had a certain guy named Wayne Gretzky, and they were a pretty good team. They had made the playoffs and were in a game 7 for the conference championship. Now, I don’t know how, but we somehow manged to get free tickets to the game. Needless to say I was stoked. (more…)

#5 Compassion
Yes I hate to say it but I can be an un-compassionate person every now and then, ok, ok, quite frequently. I do not always have the kind and caring thoughts when I come across situations or people. In fact sometimes my thoughts are down right mean. But that is not what God wants for me or my thought life.

#4 Patience
I have 6 kids, patience is something I need…. desperately. Unfortunately for my family it is something I struggle with. God is working on me though. I know one of these days he will perfect His patience in me. It is just simply a matter of how much I fight to hold on to my selfishness and anger. I am learning to give that junk up for His patience and peace.

#3 Purity
Well I am a man (surprise, surprise), so purity is a struggle for me. It has been a struggle in my life since I was young. I finally learned a few years ago that I can’t become pure. I can only rely on Jesus blood to purify me and keep me pure. It is a daily battle between my flesh and God’s will. Most days God’s will wins out, but every now and then my flesh sucker punches me when I am not looking. I am learning to deal with those days and instead of trying to recover from the punch and fight my flesh, I am learning to turn tail and run the other way, right into Jesus’ loving and forgiving arms.

#2 and #1 in the next few days.

Life is a constant state of learing. What is God wanting you to learn.

Yesterday was my little girls 1st birthday. It seems like just a few days ago I was in the hospital with her mom watching her be born. And it seems like not to long ago I was watching my other kids be born. Life is just so stinkin’ fast.

Makes me realize that every day that God has blessed us with is precious and should be treated as such. i need to take every opportunity to tell my daughters how beautiful they are and how much they are loved because if I don’t one day very soon some young man will be saying that to them and his intentions won’t be the same as mine.

I need to spend as much time as I can teaching my boys how to walk as men of God because if i don’t they will learn how to be men from some other place and won’t learn the values that I want them too.

I need to spend as much time cherishing my wife, building her up, and encouraging her growth spiritually for her benefit, but more importantly for my children’s. They need to see what a godly marriage looks like. My boys need to learn how to treat their future wives. My daughters need to know what a man of God looks like so they can make a good decision about their future husbands

Life just moves too fast. I often kid with my wife that I hate weddings because I am dreading walking my girls down the aisle. And you know what I am. I worry about weather or not I will have done a good enough job teaching and loving them in the time I had with them. I worry about weather they will be marrying a man of God, or a woman of God for my boys.

Life just moves too fast. Dang! Pray for me as I try to be the man, husband, and father God has called me to be.

Life just moves so freaking fast. Embrace your daughters, love your wives, and mentor your sons, cause LIFE MOVES FAST.

So I forgot to add this book to my recap of reading the other day. here are a few quick hits that I took form this book:

• Everything a church does creates an Impression, good and bad. What Impression are you making?
• If you don’t have a plan for guests they will notice and they will have a plan, to not come back.
• Marketing materials are a first impression. From the Web site on down to every printed piece in your building
• The building itself can leave an impression. Is it clean? Dirty? Cluttered? Full? Empty?
• Plan. Plan some more. Then Plan again. Make sure you are thinking of all the ways guests are going to come and plan for them.
• Put yourself in their shoes.

If you want to see why I was reading this book, check out this First Impressions Manual I put together for my church.
All in all if you are trying to do a better job with your guests this is a great read and will get your brain thinking.

I have just started Craig’s new book (See here for more info on how I got it). Let me start by saying that I am very excited to read this book, even though it is mainly advice for singles looking for a way to prepare themselves for marriage. after reading the Intro and first two chapters here is why i am excited:

1. I think that I can learn something that will beuseful in my own marriage.
2. I know that i will learn somethings that have to do with raising my own kids in way that prepares them for a good marriage.
3. I think that this will be a good book for singles/HS groups to look at for a study. (I am probably recommending it to our Youth pastor to read after I am done)

The one that makes me most excited is number two. My children’s purity and the purity of their future spouses is very important to me. Even though my oldest is only nine, she is going to be dating a whole lot sooner then I realize and it scares the crud out of me. I am looking for good solid advice on what I needs to be instilling in her, I think this book will help.

Anyway those are my opening thoughts on on the book check back for some thoughts as I continue reading.