Stll learning....

This morning was one of those mornings. Hannah (six months old) was up and at it @ 6:30 a.m. and the Sadie (two months shy of 3 yrs old) woke-up about 6:45 a.m. Sadie was not herself this morning, but she taught me alot about myself. Sadie had a cough and a cold and is under the weather a little so it's to be expected somewhat. Here is what happened and why I'm still learning....

Sadie, Hannah and I were watching some cartoons in our bed enjoying the early morning, I got the girls dressed and ready then myself. As we were sitting there Sadie started to jump around and about dropped a knee on Hannah's head so I said, "No, more jumping please, you just about kneed sissy in the head." Sadie got upset but stopped jumping. She then while watching some blissful cartoon kept almost kicking Hannah, I once again ask her to stop, she once again got mad, and this time reached over and pinch/scratched/slashed my eye (impressive WWE move the eye rake). I told Sadie she hurt me, she didn't care. I asked a few times, "You hurt daddy, what do you say?" She deliberately ignored it and ran out of the room. A few more times throughout the morning I asked her, "what do we say when we hurt someone?" No answer, no care.

As the morning progressed in was time to do Sadie's hair, which is like trying to brush the mane of a lion, the lion doesn't like it, it's dangerous, and the lion will just mess it up in two seconds anyway. I come with brush and hair tie in hand and ask Sadie to come get her hair brushed and she takes off running from me, like the brush is a knife and I'm Micheal Myers (cue the Halloween theme music). As she runs she gets under the table and then bangs her little head really hard as she tries to go around the table. There is one nano second of complete silence after I hear the bump at before the crying and tears.

She now runs towards me and I scoop her up and hold her, telling her it will be okay and and kissing her boo boo away. Then I start to tear up...

Because I see myself in a two year old. I see myself hurting my heavenly Father, knowing I messed up, knowing I'm wrong, but refusing to say I'm sorry and not really caring. Then I replay my words again...You hurt daddy, what do you say?

I see myself running away from Him when He just wants the best for me. I wanted to brush Sadie's hair so she looked as beautiful as possible, not wanting to hurt but to help. I run I bang my head, I get hurt, I feel pain. Guess who I run back to, my Father.

I have learned more about God being a Father, then I ever have listening to sermons, going to Bible college, or any retreat, and I'm still learning.

One last thing...About 40 minutes after all of this morning mayhem, I asked Sadie one last time as I held her little hand and we walked into school. "Is there something you still need to tell daddy?" She responded, "Yeah, I'm sorry." I stopped and told her thank you and that all is forgiven and that I loved her...then teared up again.

Question to comment on or ponder...Is there something you need to tell your heavenly father, or are you still running from Him?

Family @ Thanksgiving

I am truly blessed. I have a unique family situation. I have had thanksgiving this year with four different extended parts of my family, I'll explain.

• My family, Mom, Dad, and Grandma.


• My in-laws


• My sister-in-laws-in-laws (is that a word?)


• My brother-in-laws parents

What does it mean? I ate a ton of food, and put on about 5 pounds easy. I live close to most of my family. But most importantly, I have family on both sides that actually get along. I'm blessed that all the family listed above believe in and follow Christ, both mine and Sarah's family. Now we are not perfect and we all have our quirks, but it was a perfect, loving, buffeting time of celebrating family, blessing and calories. I am thankful for family.

Question to comment on or ponder: How was your thanksgiving? What are you thankful for?

Desires of Youth

A few Sunday's ago in Sunday School as we are trekking through the book of 2 Timothy we hit the section of scripture that talks about "fleeing the evil desires of our youth." We know that Paul is writing to Timothy here encourage him a he is a young pastor and he reminds him to flee his desires of his youth. So I asked the students what where the desires of a normal everyday youth, they should be the experts. The picture to the left is the list they came up with.

We then discussed which of the desires were evil or good, but we ended up thinking some could be a good desire or evil desire depending on how you use it. Check marks are good, X's are evil, and - are evil/good desires depending on how you use them.

Here is the thing I'm 31 and I still have some of the same desires a high school student would have. I have fled many but some I have not. For example, the one I get stuck on is technology, if you were to look at my cellphone or computer or my house, you would find a techno junkie. I desire new, flashy gadgets, and I like the bells and whistles. I'm sure God shakes his head as I purchase the newest and latest and greatest, great thing to desire Brian. The fact is there are still desires that I need to flee and run from.

Question to comment on or ponder: What desires do you need to flee?

It's all about me..even when I'm gone.

I just read an article about epitaphs in Canada and how a good number of people are no longer writing simply "Rest in Peace." Here are a few examples from the article.

• "I'd rather be in Boston watching the Red Sox"


• "I told you I was sick"


• "He who dies with the most toys wins"


• "Gone Fishing"


• "To be continued..."


• romantics - "We'll dance in the moonlight"


• "I'm not here, I'm havin' a beer"

The last statement in this article is the one that stood out to me a really made me think.

"Well, I suppose you don't dress like everyone else," said Millar. "You want to be noticed a little bit out in the graveyard. It depends on the person, just like what we pick to wear."

We are pretty pathetic. We are so stuck on ourselves that even as people walk through a cemetery we want people to see us and notice us.

Question to comment on or ponder: When will it stop being about ME? How can we beat the ME complex?

Mr. Mom

Anyone remember the movie in the 80's Mr. Mom? Micheal Keaton stars in the film, and he gets fired from his job and decides to stay home and take care of the kids. He makes it but he does it alotdifferent than mom does it. I see myself in that movie once and a while.

Thursday through Saturday I'm watching Sadie and Hannah as Sarah goes to women of faith in Tampa, I'm glad she gets to go. Watching the girls makes me appreciate Sarah more than ever. I'm usually the one gone on trips or something else and she doesn't even act like it's tough and never complains. It helps me realize I need to be gone less and be more of a help when I am here. She does it with such ease it seems. I'm blessed to have a great wife who is a great mother and I love the times I get to play Mr. Mom.

Question to comment on or ponder: Why is that when we put ourself in someones shoes we see so much clearer?

Hi..my name is

I'm getting really excited about Sunday nights teaching time. The theme is "Hi..my name is." We are going to talk about how important our names are, in reference to:

Proverbs 22:1 “A good name is more desirable than great riches”

David Buckham is going to help shoot a video to jump start the teaching time out at Bay Pines Memorial Cemetery showing names carved onto various headstones as I introduce the topic.

I've done some research on names and found a bunch of interesting things, here are a few:

• According an article in the Harvard Gazette a good Ebay seller reputation will get you 7.6% more money than a bad seller rep. So it pays to have a good name. http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2003/02.27/17-ebay.html


• Coca-Cola retains multiple lawyers on staff to stand guard over their trademark name "Coke". (and this was in 1977, they must have an entire division now) (Time Magazine, October 10, 1977)


• A museum in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates has agreed to attach the name "Louvre" to it's muesum, with a price tag of 520 million dollars. A good name cost a great price. (Time Magazine, March 6, 2007)

Question to comment on or ponder: What are you doing to protect your good name like Coke, what's your name worth to you?

Let me be totally honest with you...

Nobody trusts anybody anymore, trust me.

We have camera's at numerous public places, babysitter cam's stuffed into teddy bears. We have prenup's, contracts, the TV show Cheaters, private eyes shooting photo's, clothing and other things worth stealing have a large plastic button or a metal bar codes that go crazy if you walk out the door. It's so bad we had to invent a machine that detects lies. A few generations ago it was the promise sealed with a simple handshake. I mean even deposits for room damages to rental cars all go back to the factor that there is no trust in the world.

Even as a kid you must make binding contacts on the playground. Thus cross my heart hope to die stick needle in my eye, and my favorite promise and one of the strongest the pinkie swear.

So often we have to make promises and sign our name or show proof or a credit card. Jesus tells us something that would really help us.

Don't swear by anything. (Pinkie or Prenup)...Let your yes mean yes, and your no mean no.

We need to live that way. I bet if you and I were honest with people and just used Yes and No, there would be no need, for us to promise the moon or swear with a pinkie. People would actually believe the words that come out of our mouths.

Do you have a problem with honesty? No, that's a lie, I swear.