Family Building

I have been trying to connect with the men's ministry at our church more recently. I was able to attend the men's retreat weekend a month or so ago and this weekend was blessed to be at the men's breakfast on Saturday! Hearty food and even better teaching.

I have been really hearing it from the Lord lately on being busy. I am too busy. It is a way of life for me. But I have admitted it, confessed it and now I'm going about claiming my freedom. In light of that struggle, there was a scripture that I ran across lately that came up this weekend again. It is this:

Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the LORD guards the city, The watchman keeps awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, To retire late, To eat the bread of painful labors; For He gives to His beloved {even in his} sleep. Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one's youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them; They will not be ashamed When they speak with their enemies in the gate. Psalms 127

I've been rolling that one around a lot lately and it hits home ... hard. I work hard. I work late. I take on extra projects and duties. I rarely stop to even consider relaxing. I am a work-a-holic in a lot of ways. It is easy to justify this - two kids, single income, etc. but the short of it is that I work so hard that it easily can sap time and energy from my family. The scriptures are clear that we should be industrious (Pr 6:6) and do good work (Col 3:23), but they are even more clear (above) that our work has to honor the Lord in every area.

My work to build a family is far more eternally consequential than any amount of stuff that I do in the workplace. In 100 years (if the Lord taries!), no one will likely remember any of the websites I've built, nor even my name. But, in Christ I can build a legacy of faith. Each generation will have it's own decision to make but the heritage is eternal.

It is the Lord that builds me and mine; it is time for me to stand back and let him.

Moblog: The Perfect Snack

Cheryl and I have a funny little trick that we learned on accident. One day after leaving a Dr. Pepper inthe feezer for almost too long, we discovered that if it is rally close to freezing when you pop the lid it will feeze up instantly into wonderful, slushy goodness. We've now got this down to a science! We can generally time it just right and the result is shear tastebud delight! Warning - if you leave it in too long you get a popcicle that tastes like flat DP ... and you waste a good DP! That would be tantamount to sacrelidge!

Our Little Engineer

Isaac is quite the builder these days. He has gotten very adept with blocks and train tracks. This AM he came and got me to show me his latest creation - he called it his 'playscape'. While the description involved play areas, it also included a cooking area (the stove's chimney can be seen on top of the nightstand - round, red block. He lost me a bit on a system that 'heated caulk', but it did include a pipe system that went through the whole thing, the floor and at some point ended up in the ceiling fan!

Cheryl mentioned the other day that he might be just about ready for Legos - Oh yeah!

SeaDoo Fun

Wow - what a great weekend. We took the singles group out to a local lake and enjoyed the day waterskiing and riding on two jet-skis. Let me tell you - these were no ordinary jet-skis. These were the high-end kind. ...The high-end, blow your hair back kind. ... The high-end, 0-60 in close to 3 seconds, rocket across the water at 70 mph, fear for your life, "man, I wanna buy a jetski" kind. I haven't been blasted forward like that since riding the Greased Lightning at Astroworld as a kid. Wow.

Cheryl took a brief turn in the driver seat but seemed content to let me to the drive. ...So I did my best to make it fun (read "terrifying!") We did laugh a lot and it was a blast! Julia didn't take a turn but Isaac did give it a go. Sadly as choppy as the water

What is really funny is how biased I used to be about them. I used to say things like, "How fun could that be?" and "It would just be like a motorcycle stuck in a big flat parking lot!" Yeah, I was wrong. Ahhh, another expensive hobby! That will have to wait.

Here are a few more pics...

Moblog: Makin the best of it

Well - we're out of the house again. Another showing. Sadly the hope and anticipation of showings has just about gone away entirely. We are still showing the house but with interest rates going up ...

But if we have to be out it can still be fun. We decided tonight to go to the mall and get an ice cream from Chick-Fil-A. The kiddos generally are taking this in stride. They found the kiddie rides in the food court and had a ball. I'm not sure if I should worry - Isaac spent the majority of his time role playing wrecks!

Moblog: Sorry, Babe

I love my coffee mugs! I especially love the ones thnat have been given to me as gifts. I'm sad today because my very favorite mug broke! This was a gift from Cheryl for my last birthday. It is the one I use at work and have put a lot of miles (gallons?) on it it the months since. Man!!!

Sorry, babe, but for my next birthday you've got it easy!