Let's Go Krogering

In my attempt to make life as an adventure for my wife, my boys, myself and for those around me...I went to Kroger this past week with my boys. Yeah I know what you’re saying, “Kroger is such an adventurous place that they should charge admission because of all the uncontained excitement that people feel when walking through their doors!” Okay much the opposite, but here’s the story:

We needed to get a few staple items in order to have food for the following week. It was kind of a drag because we didn’t feel like going to the store, especially with a 4 ½ and 2 ½ year old. So to change the situation I made a treasure map! I put dotted lines on a piece of paper with an X for the treasure. Then at the top of the paper I added the items that we needed to pick up. With excitement in my voice I told Cole and Owen that we were going on an adventure to find some treasure at Kroger and they were going to lead the way! So we all put on our toboggans, because every good detective needs a “cool” hat right?

You should have heard these little guys yelling, "MILK," BREAD," BOLOGNA DADDY," as they ran to these items! It was a little embarrassing because people were looking at me as if to say, “Why would he let his boys (with winter hats on) run wild like this! With my winter hat on too, I just smiled and followed my boy’s excitement! Cole made some wrong turns when it came to finding the deodorant, but I followed him anyway. I followed closely behind him in case he needed my help, but I wasn’t going to do it for him. See I gave him this role and I didn’t want to take it from him. After he found the deodorant we all walked away with a fun and memorable day trip to Kroger.

I’ve come to realize more and more that some days come with adventure, but many do not! So the next time your day needs a little more spice, it might be up to YOU to create the recipe for adventure!

Wild at Heart!

I’ve been going through a book called, “Wild at Heart,” which has really helped me step up my game in a lot of ways, as both a husband and a daddy! It has helped me to see that every day is full of adventure and can be exciting if I let it be. Here’s how my boys and I unveiled an adventure from 10.25.09.

Last night Holly, the boys and I went to watch our nephew (Andrew) play in a football game. Andrew is in 2nd grade and is going through his end of the year tournament in order to win “The Super Bowl.” As exciting as it was to watch 2nd graders run around the field chasing each other, my boys, Cole and Owen (4 ½ & 2 ½) didn’t find it as impressive as the unexplored woods and neighboring pond that sat right behind us. In fact, Owen (2 ½) yelled out, “DAHDEE…WAHERR” when he saw the pond!!! But since that wasn’t why we were there, I had them sit down beside me so we could watch a 2 hour game together…Well if you have or have had children this age you will understand that this is NOT how things played out! In fact after about 5 minutes of this they were ready for something else and ADVENTURE was calling their names! And if I’m being honest, it was calling my name too!

We headed over to the pond together where we scarred out some bass from their mossy coverings, beside the bank. We would stomp on the ground and the fish would take off, leaving a wake behind them. The boys were impressed by this and Cole basically jumped around the whole pond thinking there was one every 2 feet! Then we headed to the woods! Now getting to the woods was not exactly easy. It meant that we would have to go down a BIG hill! It was so big that Owen wanted to scoot on his bottom so that he wouldn’t fall down the hill. But Cole and I were ready for the adventure so we ran, letting gravity do its thing as our legs did their best to keep us from kissing the ground. Cole’s momentum was so fast that his legs couldn’t keep up…and down he went, tearing both layers of his pants and even the skin on his right knee. I thought it was bad at first but then realized his pants saved him from most of the damage. After we got to the woods and explored as boys do, we left taking with us some cool memories and stories from our adventure of being together!

Let me ask you a question. Are you more like Cole or Owen in this story? Like Owen, do you prefer to take the safest route when it comes to difficult or scary situations in life? Or are you like Cole, where even though a situation is tough or scary, you are still willing to go full speed ahead in order to explore new and uncharted territory…even though it means you could fall or fail? I’m not here to say that one is better than the other. But I will say this, as you look at this picture, Cole is pretty proud of his scar! In fact he was so excited to show his teacher at school today because, to him, it wasn’t just a cut or a scrape. It was his proof to everyone that he had been on an ADVENTURE!!!

What proof do you have from being on an adventure today?

The Artist

I'm not an artist by any means! Well that might be an overstatement because I can draw some pretty sweet stick people! Alright even though I'm not an artist, my wife is! She can draw, paint and sketch almost anything really well! For those people who really know art, they can point out exactly what painting belongs to which artist. They can look at a painting by "Monet," a color splashed canvas by "Van Gogh," or a masterpiece by "Michaelangelo" and identify those paintings accurately!

Same thing for those who really know music! For me, if someone just gave me the intros to these next songs I could easily nail down who the artist were. For instance, give me the guitar intro to Lynyrd Skynayrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama,” the stomp clap intro to Queen’s “We Will Rock You,” or even the high hat intro to Vanilla Ice’s, “Ice Ice Baby” and I could easily tell you who those artists were! (“Alright stop, collaborate and listen, Ice is back with my brand new invention…WOW I don’t’ know what’s more embarrassing, me writing these lyrics, or the fact that you just sang them and could have kept on going!)

What I want us to see is that each of these artists have a style all to themselves, which is how we usually identify their work. I believe the same can be said about God! If God truly is the Author and Creator of all creation as the Bible points out in Genesis, then everything that has been designed (including us) HAS to reveal the Designer…or “The Artist!” David says it this way in Psalms 19:1-3:

“The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;

night after night they display knowledge.

There is no speech or language

where their voice is not heard.”

My question to you is...

"What will YOU find today that identifies “The Artist?”

Answer to yesterday's blog is...

Yesterday I posted a poem entitled, "Saved" and gave some options as to who wrote it. The answer is D: “A prison inmate.”

If you’ve been keeping up with my blogs, you might remember me talking about a friend of mine who is currently serving time in prison. “Jess” is the name I’ve given him on my blog. I just received a letter from him yesterday and he sent me some pictures which I’ve tried to photograph with my iphone and post for you here. (Not the best pic, but I felt the visual was valuable) Anyway here is a picture of him and three other guys that he has become friends with during his time there. He has been encouraging these guys a lot lately which has now led to them studying Scripture together and praying together! “Jess” mentioned that one of the guys recently asked him, “What do I need to do to become a Christian?” (A follower of Jesus) Pretty amazing, especially for “Jess” because he has seen this as confirmation that God is still willing to love, forgive and use him, despite his shortcomings, failures and mistakes!

With God as the lens through which he views his life,
he now responds to his current situation with these words:

“God has taught me about unconditional love and the fruit of that being grace, mercy and forgiveness.” “I have grown closer to the Lord and I’m a much stronger person because of it. I am humble, grateful, and blessed to be where I am today. My attitude has changed and my values of life are now prioritized and I owe that all to God.”

What lens are you using to see your situation today?

Poem entitled "Saved"

"Born into darkness as black as night,
no answer for my sin.
Down from heaven came The Light
and cleansed me from within.
He gave his life and paid the price
with every drop of blood he shed.
What once was darkness as black as night,
was now stained crimson red.
The Temple was destroyed and placed in a tomb
where forever he would stay.
But, three days later he rose from the dead
and rolled the stone away.
I had to die in order to live
so I plunged beneath the sea.
No longer stained crimson red,
my soul had been set free.
He clothed me from my head to my feet
in wool so pure and white.
I never would have survived the dark,
if it hadn’t been for The Light."

Who do you think authored this?
(Choose one below)
A) A friend from college
B) My Grandmother
C) Me
D) A prison inmate

...I'll have the answer in tomorrow’s blog

Gone Fishin'

This past Sunday I decided to take my oldest son Cole out fishing with me. Before we left the house, I talked about the ADVENTURE that we were about to embark on and how he was going to lead the way! (Cole is only 4 ½, so I knew it was going to be an ADVENTURE!) He immediately got dressed and was ready to go when he and his brother Owen, who’s 2 ½, got into it. After I separated them, both were crying. Cole still continued to get dressed and I told him, “What you did was wrong wasn’t it?” With a sad face he stopped and looked up at me saying, “Yes.” I followed by asking him another question. “Do you think you should still be able to go fishing after you just hurt your brother like that?” As tears began filling his eyes, he said, “No” and began to cry harder. At this, Holly and I looked at each other and were a little taken back by his answer! We didn’t expect that answer from our 4 ½ year old! Before we almost broke out in tears ourselves, I knelt down and talked with him.

I have learned SO MUCH about God through my privileges of being a parent! What I learned in that moment was this:

Like Cole, even when I get excited about the adventures of being with “Daddy” I easily become distracted by life, quickly forget about the invitation and totally screw things up! It’s in those moments that reality sinks in and I acknowledge that I’m not much wiser than a 4 ½ year old. However the way that I chose to “discipline” – (correct & train) Cole that day was due to my understanding of who God is! Although in my immaturity I mess things up, God (lovingly) still invites me into each day, knowing that there is more for me to see and to learn from! That’s how I want to be a daddy to my boys!

By the way, YES, Cole and I still went on our adventure for that day! Although we didn’t catch any fish, it’s all he talked about for the rest of that night!

Hallmark

Yesterday was a pretty cool day. I received several cards fom children between the ages of 4-5 years old which made my day! The first part of the card read like this: "I like you as my Children's Minister because..." and here's what followed that phrase.

You are good to me--Nathan
You give me a hug--Logan
You make pictures for us--Jacob
You give me hugs--Matthew
You teach kids--Isaiah
You give me hugs--Hayden
You are kind to other people--Cole (my son)

What else can I say, "pretty cool!"

Brown County Fair

Here's a picture of me and Cole at the good ole Brown County Fair last week! We are close to being at the very top of the Ferris wheel in this picture. No big deal huh? Well then apparently you're not afraid of heights or at least "fair rides!" Cole actually did better than me on this because I'm not a big fan of heights, especially being on a rickety, 2 bolt secured, put together in one day, Brown County Fair, Ferris Wheel. Yeah, I could barely hold my phone still to take the picture.
I started off good and was even rocking the cart back and forth at the beginning until I read this on the cart in front of me: "Danger DO NOT rock carts!" WHAT??? Are you kidding me? Yeah that makes me feel real good! Because when they stopped us at the "very top" my cart was rocking and all I could think about what was why they had to put that sign on there in the first place. Some ole boy probably got on this ride after loading up on some elephant ears, funnel cakes and cotton candy, then rocked his seat right off those 2 bolts! (See my hands are getting sweaty all over again!)
I guess some new words of advice from me are, love your family, take lots of pictures and enjoy the ride. "Just be sure to read the signs!"

I've Got Friends in Low Places

I was thinking about all my friends today and I realized…I am really nothing like them. I mean I’ve got some friends whose lives are seriously messed up! For names sake I won’t give you their real names, but take “Tim” for instance. He is on his 3rd DUI/DWI and continues to drink himself further away from the success that he’s capable of!

“Brandon,” “Wess” and “Roger” all three have strayed from their wives for what seemed, “at the time” to be a better opportunity…only to embrace heartache and regret from a marriage & family that is now severed because of those decisions.

How about “Jess” and “Mitchell?” Both have experienced life in prison from making some STUPID decisions!!! “Jess” still continues to serve time because of his choices! I just wrote “Jess” a 2 page letter yesterday letting him know that he has a friend several states away that still loves him with a love that God has for us both…

You know something? I am SO FAR from being perfect! At times I let my inner turmoil and deceptive thoughts drag me further away from the success that God knows I’m capable of…like “Tim.” And like “Brandon,” “Wess” and “Roger,” at times I have let my mind stray from the love of my wife, and so have severed a daily joy from having a pure heart! And like “Jess” and “Mitchell,” I am guilty and therefore am worthy of being punished.

Here’s what it boils down to. We all need the saving grace of Jesus to be poured into our lives, whether we acknowledge that part or not! We are all guilty and worthy of judgment when we compare ourselves to a PERFECT and FLAWLESS Savior! But what we find instead of judgment is One who holds out His scarred hands and reveals a forgiving and redemptive love…then, in some Divine way, embraces us and empowers our broken lives with that love! THAT is what I have in common with all of my friends, and hopefully have with you!!!

You know, I was thinking about all my friends today and I realized…

I really am a LOT like them!!!