TRUST AND OBEY

Psalm 40:4 says, "Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust."

I have a little book entitled "Hope for Each Day" by Billy Graham. We actually picked it up at the church yardsale for next to nothing, and it has happened to be one of the best little treasures that I have ever stumbled upon. It has a verse and a 2 to 3 paragraph story for each day of the year. Nothing superduper fancy that sticks out about it at all on the outside, yet the words coming from within are powerful!! Example:

The most recent title is "Trust and Obey". What's the first thing that comes to your mind? For me, it's the hymn. I bet I have sung the words to that hymn 1000 times since I was little.

Trust and obey, for there's no other way, to be happy in Jesus.......but to trust and obey.

Such simple words, yet how many times do we fall on our faces because....
1.) we don't fully trust
2.) we don't obey

I love the story that is mentioned because it so applies to all of us. He talks about one day when his kids were little, someone gave his little boy a dollar. Upon first instincts, the boy says, "Here dad, hold this for me" and he runs off to play. A few minutes later he comes back and says, "Dad, I better keep my own dollar" and takes it back to put in his own pocket. Well we all know how this story is going to end because we have all probably done it before. The boy comes back with tears in his eyes and says "Dad, I lost my dollar. Can you help me find it?"

I say that we have all probably done this before, but how many of us are actually doing it right now in our lives at this present day? We say, Lord please handle this matter, and then when the Lord doesn't act in the timeframe that we want him to act in, we decide that we can take matters into our own hands. And I would say that everytime we end up like the little boy in the story, coming back to say "Lord, I messed it up. Can you help me because I am in trouble?!!?"

Obedience begins with a listening heart. If we are not pursuing God daily, how do we know what He is asking of us to be obedient about. How many times does God impress something upon our heart and we become too afraid or too lazy to act on it? Have you ever felt God telling you to move/act in a moment, a right then and there moment, and you feel yourself starting to sweat and your heart starts beating 90 miles an hour? It might be for you to go pray for someone or with someone. It might be a moment where you need to stand up and give a testimony right then and there. He might impress on your heart to call or email someone. It might be that you need to go ask for forgiveness or tell someone that they have hurt you, and you need them to know so you can forgive them and ask them to forgive you. These are just a few to throw out there, but God calls us to be obedient.

I pray that we will all be able trust God in all phases of our lives. To trust Him to protect, to trust Him to provide, to trust in the fact that He knows what's best for us and will always love us. So today is a call to trust and obey.

IT'SSSSSSSS MOVIE NIGHT!!!!

Since summer provides so much time with the children, we decided to try to do some things to really make being home fun for the summer. When school is in, the routine day would consist of Shannon and I both working, getting the kids around 5, eating around 6, bath at 7, and bed around 8. It's pretty routine, but keeping our kids on that schedule has really made life easy for us as they have gotten older. Well summertime is a much different animal. For whatever reason, the time span of 4 to 8 seems like an eternity, if there is nothing setup for the little ones. :) I will be the first to admit that many times the "please go to your room and watch a movie" phrase sounds very appealing. But they are of the age now where they want to be with mom and dad doing stuff. They don't want to go watch TV or go "play." Now don't get me wrong, they can do both very well. But many times we think summertime is about being "off", "vacation", "chillin", and all little people under five don't grasp these concepts very well.

So we have decided to implement some different stuff throughout the summer to mix it up for the kids and make summer and family time fun and adventurous. We decided tonight to do a movie night. We will not name Monday nights "movie night" yet, but I am sure down the line that will be something that we want to do. We grabbed our blankets and mom popped us all some popcorn, and we let the kids pick their movie. They decided on Tweety bird movie. What a great movie.....not. But it made them happy and kept them watching for at least a little while.

I know that it will not be very long before the kids will think that they are too cool to hangout with mom and dad, so we are soaking up every minute we can while they still like us. :) The Lord has truly blessed us and I know our children will continue to like us for a long time.

Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from Him. Psalm 127:3

THE POWER OF A MAN

I just finished a book entitled "The Power of a Man" by Rick Johnson. The premise of this book is basically to challenge all men to stand up and be the man that you were created to be. As men, we all have people in our lives our age, older, and younger who look to us as an influence. This book challenges you to use your influence as a "man of character." As a teacher and coach, I teach and work with kids every year who are growing up in a household where there is no male role model available. Since they spend more than half a day with me everyday for 188 days, that's plenty of time for me to make an impression, be available, and choose for myself what kind of model that I want to be for these kids. Just like my 2 little ones at home, they watch, they see, they mimick. My prayer is that my words and my actions always line up. I know at times my human condition will cause me to falter and make mistakes. But in a consistent timespan, I want my kids to know that I walk the walk that I talk.

We live in a society today where the entertainment industry is dominating the rules and regulations of how we live day to day. Kids wear what they see on tv, act like folks act on tv, and have adopted their way of life based on what they are seeing. This book is a challenge for all men to step up your game in the roles that you are now living in, whether that's husband, father, sibling, mentor, whatever. It starts with what's going on inside your home. Are you being the husband to your wife that you need to be? Are you the father to your kids that you need to be? How many people are inside your daily "circle" that you are influencing and what kind of influence are you?

In today's world, the defintion of a "real man" has become very broad, yet also very skewed. Many think that you become a real man based on your status within your job or how much money you have. Some believe it's about how you are with the ladies. And others believe it's based on how many people you can beat down in any given evening. These would be very flawed definitions and there are many other flawed defintions not mentioned. But throughout this book and throughout my life, God has revealed some basics for "real men." Here are a few that I would consider essential:

A real man ......
1.) is the spiritual leader of his home.
2.) protects and provides for his family.
3.) uses his God-given influence to serve others.
4.) is accountable to God and other men.

These are just a few of the things that I have pulled out throughout my life and have been reenergized with throughout reading this book. I would highly encourage it for all guys out there, especially if you are a husband and father. Our generations to come, especially the males, are absolutely dependent on us teaching them what it's like to be a "real man." We need to not just talk about it and teach it, but to model it and live it so that our kids have the best chance possible to live a life for the Lord that they were created to live.

"Be on guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong."
1 Corinthians 16:13

CAMPING WITH THE CLARKS

As the wife headed off to the beach for a girls trip on Friday, the rest of the crew had plans to go camping with the Clarks. This was actually make-up plans from a couple of weeks ago when daddy messed up the plans by having surgery. So Caden did his usual calendar count by keeping up with "sleeps". It's a funny little thing that he does. He doesn't want to know how many days until we do something, he wants to know how many times he has to go to sleep before the time arrives.

So Friday finally arrived and what a packed day/weekend it turned out to be. Meme and Granddaddy took the kids to AL Adventure that morning/afternoon. The kids played their hearts out and had a blast. I went to get them at 4:00 and they were still zonked out napping. They finally woke up around 5:00 and we headed out. The kids were pumped and doing "daddy daycare" for the next couple of days, I was pumped as well!! :)

We arrived and let the madness begin. I say that in fun because there really wasn't any madness at all. The 4 kiddos have grown up playing with each other and always have a blast and play well. We had pizza for dinner and "awesome" spiderman cupcakes for dessert. (Check the pics on those!! LOL)







The boys gave us plenty of entertainment during the evening playing the Wii. They love the swordfighting game on Wii Resort. Caden and Cole are probably the most competitive 4 year olds in the world. They definitely take after their daddies!! It's scary, though, that they are 4 and are better at most of the games than we are. The girls played with the Cinderella Castle and dollhouse. They love playing with each other as well.



As the sun began to go down, we decided to set up the tent outside and give it a shot. It has been so hot lately, we didn't know if it would be worth attempting to stay outside the entire evening. We set it up and the kids loved the tent. It was as if they had their own cage and they ran around inside of it as if they were caged animals. But they were having fun.







As the sun went down and it got dark. The kids wanted to tell ghost stories. So Linc and I were chilling in the tent with the kids listening to them tell their own ghost stories. The imagination of little people is amazing! Well, then they wanted Linc and I to tell them some stories. That's when it got really funny. I told the best ghost story that I could create and scared them pretty good. Then Linc created his own story. The funniest thing during Linc's story was watching my son creep further and further away from Lincoln as he was telling the story. By the end of the story he was all up in my lap!! :) It was pretty funny. He then decided that he was seeing things outside the tent, and so camping outside in the tent had now come to a close.

WAY TO GO, DADS!!

I will be honest and say that it was strategy on my part because I wanted to sleep inside in the AC. LOL! So we turned outside camping into inside camping and it was just as good. The kids all piled in and slept in the inside tent, slept through the evening, and didn't wake up at the crack of dawn. That's what I'm talking about!!

We got up Saturday and played through the morning. That afternoon, we went over to Lincs neighbor's pool and swam forever. The kids loved it! Caden is becoming very brave but not quite there yet. I am sure he will be by summer's end. Lala wanted to stay attached to daddy, but that was fine and we had fun. It's safe to say that pools are the best preparatory activity for a great nap! And ours slept well.



To finish off the camping weekend, Linc and Les were having some friends over cook out. They had a big water slide brought over for the kids and we had to stick around to let Caden and Lala enjoy that. So they spent the next couple of hours playing in the backyard and wearing out that waterslide.





I wish we kept a counter to see how many trips were made on that slide. I would say that 1000 would probably be a reasonable number.





All in all, we had a blast with the Clarks and can't wait to do it again!!

THE THINGS WE DO FOR OUR KIDS!!

Having a 4 year old has been a blast! Caden is now at that age where he is curious about everything, always asking questions, and soaking in every bit of everything. With this wonderful curiosity also comes challenges for mom and dad. Will we step up to the plate and attempt things or just push them off to the side? I always try to do different things with Caden and he loves to be my little shadow. He is now of age where we can play the Wii together, Playstation, and he loves when dad will "shoot hoops" with him. I am taking every second I can right now because I know that in a blink, he will be 18 and graduating from high school and probably out of here.



So the challenge of the decade came on Monday. Caden has had this rubix cube since Christmas time. It has been in his room forever and for some reason, within the past week, he has been infatuated with it and wanting to know how to solve it and make the colors match. So he comes to me and says "Dad, I know that you are really smart.....will you do this for me?" What's a dad to say? NO? No way that I can say that to my little man when he has huge expectations from dad. So I get home from summer school on Tuesday and start at it.
Below is a link to the best teacher in the world!!!! I don't know you dude, but your video rocked!! :) Using these 2 tutorial videos, I was able to master the chaos of the rubix cube.





Mastery of the cube did not come without a price though. :) I worked from 1:30 in the afternoon till 9:45 that night trying to figure that stupid thing out. And at 9:45, I threw it across the room and gave up for that moment in time. I was highly ticked that I could not conquer it in the timespan of that day, and my wife was ticked as well. She was wondering how in the world a grown man will spend an entire 1/2 day trying to figure out a toy.
Oh, what we will do for the children.
Wed morning arrives and I am the type who gives up on nothing!!! So I took it with me to summer school. I had a little bit of time in the morning before summer school to get 3/4 of the way done. It was the last 1/4 that kept messing me up. I finished summer school and came home to take care of the kids. When I arrived, by the grace of our Lord above, all 4 children were in the bed and asleep. So what was I to do??? CONQUER THE CUBE!!!!! So I pulled it out and went at it. It only took me 1 hour to finish it up and finally conquer the "brain cramp" of a toy.



I was so excited!!! I can't tell you the last time I was so proud of myself. I sent my wife a text pic of the cube. She laughed at me because she thought that I was texting stressing out about the kids. When Caden woke up, I was able to show him as well and he was ecstatic.





My favorite quote of the day...."Dad, I knew you were really smart like that."
So, although the conquering of the cube was very satisfying for me, the main purpose in the first place was to make a 4 year old extremely happy and show him that his daddy is "one smart dude!"



The picture above is one of my favorite within the moment as well. After checking out the cube, he decides to spin it a few times himself and then yells...
"HEY DAD!!! LOOK, I DID IT!!!" :) GOOD JOB SON

BAMAJAM 2010

So Shannon and I have been huge Kenny Chesney fans since we have been married. We have seen him in concert at least 8 different times. So this past fall, my buddy Linc (and Les) finds that Kenny Chesney is coming to an event in Enterprise AL called BamaJam. I will be honest and say that I have never heard of it in my life, but was very intrigued. As we did more research, we found that it was a 3 day festival event and they were bringing in much more than just KC. The other wonderful part of the equation was that Les's sister Hallie and her husband Jimmy (also Linc's best friend) were able to drive over and bring their RV. So we decided that we were going to take a stab and try BamaJam.

WHAT A GREAT DECISION AND WHAT A BLAST WE HAD!!!

From rockin out to Zac Brown Band, jammin with train, and then the final evening was capped off by Jake Owen, Gretchen Wilson, Rodney Adkins, and finally the showstopper Kenny Chesney.



The weather was wonderful, the food was great, and the company was the best!!! We had an absolute blast. It has been a long time since I have been able to rock out till 2 in the morning, especially 3 consecutive nights in a row. But we owned it. We got a little bit of a light shower on the last night, but the time Kenny was ready to come out and shine, the rain was gone and the weather was wonderful.





We were able to spend the day just chillin do fun stuff like.........
Playing cornhole, batchi ball, reading a book, takin a nap, or just sittin around and having great conversations (therapy sessions...whatever you want to label it) LOL



The crowd was phenomenal as well. There were over 100,000 people there on the last night alone. The show was out in an open field, no secure seats, no major restrictions on how to lay out your chairs, just come and chill. I was worried with my recent surgery about how much I was going to be able to do and how bad I was going to hurt. But I kept feeling better as the weekend went on and was not limited at all.....or very little...you gotta milk it some :)

We didn't spend too much time taking major pics because we just wanted to enjoy the weekend and enjoy the show. But throughout are some great memories of the weekend.



Thanks to Linc and Les for finding the festival!



Thanks to Jimmy and Hallie for bringing the RV and allowing us to chill in style!



Thanks to the fam for stepping in and helping us with the kids so we could enjoy the weekend!! DOUBLE THANKS THERE!

WE ALREADY HAVE 2 RV SPOTS AND TICKETS FOR BAMAJAM 2011!!! HOOTY HOO!!!
WONDER WHO'S A COMIN TO PLAY FOR US NEXT YEAR???