Month: March 2006

yesterday we had a guest preacher at our church who made the following state:

a while back i was walking through a park and a saw a young couple being overly affectionate. i stopped and asked them, “would you be doing the things you are doing with each other if your mom was in the backseat of your car watching?”

the young man responded “no way!”

i then told him that GOD was always watching over him. that’s one of the lessons that our young people most deserparetly need to hear – GOD is always with them.

now before i say anything else i need to add that i love the guy who said this. he is one of those guys that you can listen to for ten seconds and simply know that he would be a terrific grandfather. though i love him i couldn’t disagree with him more on what he said. his point was basically that we should teach our teens that GOD is always with them so that they will feel guilted into not doing certain things. i don’t think that “immanuel” (GOD with us) is about making sure that we have a “big brother is watching” mentality with GOD. i deal with enough teens (and truthfully their parents) who walk around all day long thinking that they are scum and worthless. most people know exactly how evil they are. i believe that what most people need is someone to point them to the ONE who proclaims them to be valuable and precious.

while i disagree with the preacher’s motive i would atleast partially agree with our speaker on his main point – that kids need to know that GOD is with them – but i would do it for an entirely different reason.

the day i turned 16 i took the test to receive my alabama driver’s license. it was important that i passed the test because we had a
twirp” dance that night and having an early birthday i was the only one of my friend’s old enough to be the driver (“twrip” stands for “the woman is required to pay”). i had to passed this test or our parents would be driving us to the dance. being the ace student i am i easily passed the test and then decided to drive around to my friends’ houses to show them my new license. i drove from friend to friend showing them my license and making them jealous. i know my dad reads this blog so he can back me up on the next part. when i got home my dad sat me down and began to detail out everywhere i had been and when i had been there. i sat there in fear of my future – my dad had eyes and ears everywhere. i would never be able to get away with anything. what my dad said next still rocks my thoughts. my dad said:

robert, i know people all around this town and i want you to know that if you ever get into trouble or have something bad happen i’ll hear about it quickly and i’ll be there to help you.

my dad’s presence (or perceived presence) around the town was a great source of comfort for me. i had someone who was watching my back. that’s what i think GOD’s presence with us is like. it means we are not alone in this hostile world. there are times when we should feel guilty but that’s not why i want teens to know that GOD is with them everywhere they go. i want teens to know that they never have to worry about leaving GOD behind because HE will go everywhere with them and thus already be with them when they need HIM most.

this is worth watching.

the past two days pam and i have been working on the flower beds in our front yard. we had 6 cubic yards of topsoil brought in to raise our flower beds. while pam and i have been taking dirt and raising the beds adam and noah have found several more entertaining used for our mound of dirt. they have busied themselves playing “king of the hill” on the dirt pile and then digging a hole to the bottom of it. it’s been fun to watch.

i’m not sure when this website will be down. it’s supposed to have happened by now but obviously hasn’t. anyway, soon the website will be down for a little while.

i installed the cat5 cable necessary for us to hook our xbox up to the internet and thereby have xbox live. if any of you have xbox live send me your username and i’ll list you as a “friend.” then we can shoot each other to our hearts’ delight.

i installed the cat5 cable necessary for us to hook our xbox up to the internet and thereby have xbox live. if any of you have xbox live send me your username and i’ll list you as a “friend.” then we can shoot each other to our hearts’ delight.

according to my mother i haven’t been blogging enough. i learned along time ago that it is not a good idea to upset my mother (she looks all nice and calm on the outside but when she blows up it’s a raging inferno of calmness). so in an attempt to keep my mom in her normal calm attitude i decided to post. unfortunately i don’t really have anything to post about.

i could post about the fact that i wish i drove a tractor and had the right to run over people who would rather talk to their passengers or on their cell phone rather than drive – i hate when they continue talking and just assume that you are honking at someone else – surely they couldn’t be the idiot that you are honking and waving angrily at.

i guess i could also post about my turning into the saint patrick’s day police this week. about half the people i ran into during the week where wearing kelly green merely days before saint patrick’s day. i can’t say why but this bothered me. i found myself telling people that they had messed up by wearing kelly green on the wrong day. i never care what other people wear. it just doesn’t matter to me. yet, for some reason st. patrick’s day has developed an unknown meaning to me and therefore must be celebrated an appropriate manner.

i could also post about the fact that for the first time in years i am not in a march madness pool. i couldn’t find one to join this year and i didn’t start one on my own. it’s sad. i don’t feel as connected to the ncaa basketball tournament now. i’ve watched a little bit of the tourni but i haven’t been rabid about it and i know it’s the result of not being in a bracket competition. i did watch the iowa/northwestern state game today and shouted out loud when northwestern sunk the three pointer that won it.

i could also post about the fact that we will go to fort worth, texas april 13-17 to work with the beautiful feet ministries. i love going there.

still i think i’ll just post that i just finished clipping montana’s nails and boy was it exciting.

friday was adam’s birthday and all he wanted to do was have a few friends over to our local park for some air soft wars. so we let him invite a small group of friends and set everything up for these guys and one girl to shoot each other till the cows came home. unfortunately, one of adam’s friends didn’t show up and this left uneven teams. that was fine for the time that the kids were just running around shouting each other. but when i introduced them to the idea of capture the flag with the air soft guns there suddenly became a need for an additional player. not to worry because i love capture the flag and putting the ability to shoot people with plastic pellets into the mix just makes it that much more fun. so i joined the game.

i figured i would show this young whipper snappers how a real man plays caputre the flag. i started off fast and quickly found the other teams flag. shouting to my team to cover me i started to run back to our side of the field with the flag in hand. it was a great moment. the fans were cheering, my openents were standing in awe, and my children where beaming with pride that i was their dad. at least that’s the way i saw it until i went to jump over the creek (our center line) and win the game. my foot caught a root and instead of jumping to victory i did a header into the mud surrounding the creek. this is what i looked like after the face first dive into the mud.

it’s sad that i’m 38 years old and still a klutz.

noah was sick yesterday. not the bad kind of sick where you feel completely miserable all the time and just want to die so it will all be over. rather he threw up a small amount a few times and had a stomach that would hurt every now and then but was able to lounge around the rest of the time and feel decent.

i used to love sick days as a kid.

okay here’s the file to download for tomorrow’s service. DON”T LISTEN TO IT UNTIL CHURCH TOMORROW. just put it on your mp3 player and we’ll all start it at the same time tomorrow at the view (@ 6:15 p.m.).