God & Kids

I was amazed the other day at the love that was in my heart after my kids had just both been absolutely horrible. Like the spawn of Satan horrible. That’s pretty harsh, but they were being redonkulous. I’m just trying to keep it real people. Stop being so religious. Just keep reading.

We had a rough afternoon, they were crazy disobedient and I’ll be honest, I was mad, I was frustrated and I was just having one of those moments you have as a parent. If you have kids, you know what I’m talking about.

We put them down for their nap and I prayed, repented, and asked God for grace to have a better attitude and have more patience. I then went into their rooms and it just took one look at them taking their naps and my heart melted all over again. I was in love, I immediately forgot the frustration and the anger in my soul.

I then just had the simple thought of  ”Wow, if I as an imperfect, earthly, mortal can love my kids that much, right after they have been bad, I just cannot fathom the love God has for me when I have been acting like the spawn of Satan and have been completely terrible.” The best part is, its immediate, and constant, his love never stops like mine does momentarily.

His mercy and compassion is new every morning and it blows me away.

Sanctification

Being a parent may be the greatest tool to sanctify us as humans that God has ever had. That’s it.

Just thinking about how much my kids expose my sin and short falls and how far I have to go.

Random Thoughts On Education (Part 2)

Here’s why I don’t think that throwing money in schools will make a huge difference in our education system. I now live in Washington D.C. I’ve been told D.C. has statistically the worst schools in America. After living here for almost two months, I have found that it may be the most compelling place to learn in America. You can’t beat all the Smithsonian Museums and all the history here, its awesome. But yet, it has the worst schools in America. You can keep throwing your money away, that is not going to fix it.

If you can’t be inspired by not just simply reading about the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence, but actually going to the National Archives and seeing it with your own eyes, then your pretty much hopeless. I’m not saying that some schools don’t need any more money, I’m just saying its not going to save our education system. It hasn’t yet.

We need parents at home to push their kids, to challenge their kids, to just be there and be good parents. My fear is that our country will waste billions, and these days, trillions of dollars and we will simply see minor changes but nothing will really change. I realize this is not the only thing that needs change, but in my mind it is one of, if not the most, fundamental.

As Linda Richman would say, “I’m feeling verklempt, discuss.”

Random Thoughts On Education (Part 1)

I like thinking about how to fix problems. One of the things that is a huge problem in our land is education. We are convinced that smaller class size  for the kids will really make it better. I’m an educator by no means but here is my theory for what its worth.

Class size is important with younger kids, I have two who are almost 4 & 2. When you get a bunch of those little jokers in one room, its insanity. The more self controlled kids get, the easier it is to have more kids in a class. I don’t think class size is so much the issue when kids get older, but rather self dicipline. I think we are trying to put a band-aid on the bigger problem. Are we really doing kids a favor by having “more access to a teacher”? What ever happened to learning on your own? I’ve learned more in the last few years about lots of stuff than I think I ever did in school. It wasn’t the teachers fault, it was mine. I wasn’t disciplined enough. Many times I think its the result of little to no discipline in the home and no father in the home or no father actively fathering his children.

Work hard, be disciplined.

Help Those In Need Through Micro-Financing

So I attended Catalyst in Atlanta a few weeks ago, with my new church family and staff, National Community Church. If you are not familiar with Catalyst its a conference for church leaders that numbers about 12,000 every year in October. Its always a great conference and this year was no different. Catalyst has become known for doing big things and doing them on a grand scale.

This year one of the things they did through an organization called Hope International was give all 12,000+ attendees and envelope with $10 in it. Yes, they really did. I thought it was a joke at first. But they were serious. They challenged us to take that $10 and turn it into $100 to send back to Hope International so that they could provide a small loan to someone in another country to help pull them out of poverty. Awesome concept, I love it.

This small gift they can loan has the potential to change the life of a someone in another nation for the rest of their life.

So here’s what I am asking of you. I am obviously going to give $10 which brings us up to $20:) I am asking you to either send me cash for $10 (I am not going to steal it people, good grief I am a pastor:) so that I can place it all in the envelope and send to Hope International or you can make a check out for $10 to Hope International (if you think I am a thief) and mail it to me.  You can leave a comment on this blog and I’ll follow up with you to give you my new address.

We only need 8 others to pull someone out of poverty in another nation and give them hope they may have never had. I’d love to give more than just $100 so let’s see what we can do! Be generous!

Go For It!

As I’ve gotten a little older and more mature in my relationship with God, its interesting to me the things that seem to begin to change theologically and methodologically in my life. Fear not I’m not a heretic now, just subtle things.

One of the things I’ve noticed changing in my heart over the last few years is the desire to just go for it. I think I used to play it safe cause I was scared to fail. But at this point in my life, and I might recant this statement when I’m older and wiser and have even less hair than I already do, but what I mean by that previous statement is simply this: If there is a dream that God has placed in your heart, just go for it, do it! If you fail, at least you won’t regret not trying.

I think more people will regret what they did not do rather than what they did do in many circumstances in their life.

What I think we have to balance in our lives, is what is God calling me to do and what is my desire. I’m not saying that we should run out on a whim and leave all our responsibilities for someone else to worry about, but we can make an exit plan if we feel God calling us to do something.

Many times I think our desires are our callings. Those things that God begins to stir in our hearts are the seedlings of  a calling in our lives.

If you are thinking about embarking on an adventure, just go for it! Give yourself 2-3 years to try something different and just do it, reality is 2-3 years will go by in the blink of an eye and in the span of our lifetime is almost nothing.

R.I.P……..R.I.P.

I’ve been holding on to the hope of being able to sleep in until 10am or so maybe once every month or two. When I do have the chance to sleep in it is generally until around 8. In a time of life where there is a lot to get done and having two small kids, there is just no time or realistic situation for sleeping in. So I am officially killing that dream today.

So to resting in peace I say, R.I.P. its been a great run sleep, but this relationship is officially over.

No Matter

Its just this simple. Either God is good and faithful or He’s not, and He doesn’t exist and this whole thing is a big sham.

I think he’s good and faithful.

No matter how I feel.

No matter if I think life is fair.

No matter if I have enough money.

No matter if things aren’t how I want them to be.

God is not as concerned with how I feel, but rather how I respond to my feeling.

Crazy Love

Don’t worry my blog will not turn into nothing but book reviews, I’m  just in a good groove right now reading wise. This book was by Francis Chan who pastors a large church in Simi Valley, CA called Cornerstone Church.

Anyways, I really enjoyed this book, the Christian Living category can be kind of fluffy most of the time, but this book was different, it is just a very challenging read from beginning to end.

He just has a fresh perspective on how much God loves and cares for us, he talks about it from a scientific perspective to a purely relational perspective. This book is not full of pithy sayings about God and how we should love him, which I really appreciate, its just a call to give God everything, surrender our whole lives and love Him passionately.

One of my favorite parts in this book is at the end when he tells stories of different people who had given everything, moved to other countries, or just done radical things for Christ here in the states. I loved it, they were very challenging stories. One thing that I love is that he said that his church in Simi Valley gives away 50% of all that they bring in. No matter what your size church, that is an incredibly challenging percentage to sow.

From someone who has heard the message of surrender and preached that message for years, I still enjoyed it, I would recommend it.

Sowing & Reaping

You sow a thought, you reap an action.

You sow an action, you reap a habit.

You sow a habit, you reap a character.

You sow a character, you reap a destiny.