New Years Lock in

How many times can you hurt me?

When it comes to Major League Baseball I feel like a loving wife that has a husband who beats her, but I keep coming back becomes I know somewhere down deep he really loves me. I'll go back to the beginning and chronicle my love/hate relationship with baseball.

• My dad started my love of baseball, I remember as a kid he would take me to Texas Ranger games.


• I then began to collect baseball cards and I didn't stop for many years and many cards later, still have them actually.


• My cousin Marky gave me my first cards, I still hold on to them.


• My favorite player was Pete Rose as a kid. Why? My dad was a Red's fan since he was a kid, I saw Rose play hard, dive head first, break records hitting records. I began to collect every card with Charlie Hustle(for those MLB haters that's Pete Roses' nickname) on it.


• Rose then breaks my heart and is caught gambling. My first heartbreak.


• I then chose Nolan Ryan to be my hero, and I picked a good one.


• My dad and I continued to go to games together, one of my favorite things to do, baseball with dad.


• Then heartbreak #2 the players strike. Greed.


• After the strike I followed the MLB still but at a distance.


• I moved to St. Pete FL and lived 2 miles from Tropicana Field and the Devil Rays. I was back in love. Dad would come up and we enjoyed watching the d-rays lose as Yankee and Red Sox fans cheered.


• Last week the Mitchell Report, heartbreak #3. Greed again, illegal drugs to get an edge.

Should I go back to MLB?

Divorce is not green

Divorce. Forget that it tears families apart, messes up children involved, or simply breaks peoples hearts. Add to that financial struggles, power struggles, custody battles, promise breaking between God and the couple. Maybe this will help stop divorce.

Divorce Found to Harm The Environment http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/03/AR2007120301797.html

The above link describes how divorce impacts our environment. When people separate they create two household thus creating more need for energy, and water ,etc.

With "green living" or conservation being the buzz right now, I hope people don't stay together for Mother Earth. I hope they stay together for Mom, Dad, kids, family and the promise they made to each other and God.

I'm all for saving the environment, but saving the family environment is a much better choice.

Question to comment on or ponder: Is your family green?

Things I never thought I'd deal with (1 of 4)

Students came to me this week with three different struggles they where going through. All three I never thought I would personally deal with. I will blog about the near in the future and change the names to protect the innocent and in some cases the guilty. I'm glad they share and I'm glad I get to be a part of their struggles, but it really sits on my heart. It really weighs on me, emotionally and mentally. These are three stories actually all from the same day. This is a day in the life of Youth Ministry. Just when you think you've seen it all and heard it all. I may wait a while so people don't try to figure out who is who.

Questions to comment on or ponder? Every dealt with something you never thought you ever have to deal with?