My friend Josh was speaking at a conference this past Friday. He personally invited me to this conference, but I was unable to attend. Josh just currently did a blog post on a book that he read about choosing to cheat. Josh describes this book as at first it seemed to be "very far fetched." The concept I got from the book review is that in our lives we have only 24 hours in a day. 8 is usually taken up by sleeping. Some people less some people more, but for ease we'll say 8 hours. Now the other 16 are yours to do with it what you want. Most people do 8 at work and 8 with family. But that does not leave travel time to and from work, shopping time, hobbies time,etc... You are in charge of what you fill those other 16 hours with.
If you are married, I feel that you are obligated to share as much of those 8 family/not at work hours to your wife and children if you have them. This is what I was face with this past week. I know that Josh has confidence in me, and I am honored to know and feel that, but at the same time, the death of my father-in-law is a higher priority. When I look back at it, it is a no brainer, but when you are making the decision it is tough.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
When It Rains It Pours
I was talking to one my friends the other day about what is going in my life and he said," Wow you are really getting rained on!" My assumption is that he meant I was under attack. My wife's father, Gary Hawksworth, died on Thursday, September 13. He was not only my wife's father, but he was a father to me as well. I have not been in contact with my father for about 5 years now. I digress. We knew it was coming, just not so sudden. Before my son was born, 9 1/2 years ago, the doctors said that he had 3 more years and if he quit smoking they would give him 5. I think we kicked those doctors butt, personally. Gary was able to see 3 more grandchildren born and make a great impact in his community. It's kinda funny how your priorities shift when you know you are on a time table.
Along with the poor health of my father-in-law, my wife is struggling with some health issues. To make matters worse, and yes they can get worse, my wife can't talk about her health problems with her family b/c her father is diagnosed with cancer and is dying before there eyes. Now my wife's emotions are everywhere, and we currently have 8 children that still need a tremendous amount of our time and a father that has days to live.
During that same conversation with that friend I stated that I preferred that the storms would roll in hard, hit hard, then move on. I don't think I could handle the Seattle type of rain where it is not hard, but it is long and drawn out.
Along with the poor health of my father-in-law, my wife is struggling with some health issues. To make matters worse, and yes they can get worse, my wife can't talk about her health problems with her family b/c her father is diagnosed with cancer and is dying before there eyes. Now my wife's emotions are everywhere, and we currently have 8 children that still need a tremendous amount of our time and a father that has days to live.
During that same conversation with that friend I stated that I preferred that the storms would roll in hard, hit hard, then move on. I don't think I could handle the Seattle type of rain where it is not hard, but it is long and drawn out.
Monday, August 27, 2007
The Big Show
I was brought up from the minors last week. My friend Josh is our senior pastor and he just had a baby son. Gavin was right on time. So, to make sure that he had some time off around the due date he arranged for me and a couple of others to preach in his absence.
Sure enough that time came for me to be called up to the big leagues. I have preached on one other occasion, but there was not as much at stake that time. We were with out a pastor and there was little happening at the church at that time. Well now our community is growing like crazy, and I am among some great speakers, including Josh, the senior pastor. To say I was nervous would be an understatement.
When I was finished preaching, I stood in the back after the service and received nothing but complements. What a great feeling that was. My wife gets to nervous to stay and listen to me, so she leaves and helps out with the children. The following day my wife listens to me on our churches podcast and gives the greatest compliment. She said," This is good, this is really good." I felt so good at that point. As I write this a week after I still have people coming up to me and saying what a good job I did. I love being a servant of God!
You can listen to what I spoke about on our community blog, http://www.beginningsmessages.blogspot.com/. It was on Transformers.
Sure enough that time came for me to be called up to the big leagues. I have preached on one other occasion, but there was not as much at stake that time. We were with out a pastor and there was little happening at the church at that time. Well now our community is growing like crazy, and I am among some great speakers, including Josh, the senior pastor. To say I was nervous would be an understatement.
When I was finished preaching, I stood in the back after the service and received nothing but complements. What a great feeling that was. My wife gets to nervous to stay and listen to me, so she leaves and helps out with the children. The following day my wife listens to me on our churches podcast and gives the greatest compliment. She said," This is good, this is really good." I felt so good at that point. As I write this a week after I still have people coming up to me and saying what a good job I did. I love being a servant of God!
You can listen to what I spoke about on our community blog, http://www.beginningsmessages.blogspot.com/. It was on Transformers.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Just Finished
I have finished the longest book I have read since my collage days. To be honest I read more cliff notes in collage then the actual books. This book was a fun read. A lot of drama and suspense. I was surprised at the end, not to the point of disapointment.
The story is about a billionare that does something very questionable with his furtune after his death. The book has a large cast of characters, but a few main ones. There is one main character that is sent on an adventure to find someone and ends up finding himself along the way. While isolated on this adventure he finds out what means the most to him. I think that God tends to do the same to us. When we are isolated we tend to find we need to lean more on Him and build a stronger relationship with Him.
I have not read any other John Grisham books, but I might start after this one.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Missing the Point
Deadbeat dead? Teen’s headstone repossessed
‘That’s just business,’ company official says; classmates pay $750 bill
Updated: 6:11 p.m. MT July 31, 2007
SPRINGVILLE, Utah - The cemetery headstone for a teenager who died in a car wreck was repossessed after a $750 bill went unpaid.
“That’s just business,” said Linda Anderson of Memorial Art Monument. “If we give every stone to everybody, we’d be out of business. They’d repossess your car if you didn’t make payments.”
Brady Conger, 17, and two friends died when their car smashed into a sport utility vehicle a year ago Thursday.
Memorial Art said bills sent to one address were returned, and the business couldn’t reach Brady’s mother, who apparently had agreed last year to pay the balance. “The end result was that there was absolutely no one who I could talk to about this,” owner Mike Anderson said.
Brady’s classmates raised money to pay the bill, and the headstone will be installed again this week.
‘That’s just business,’ company official says; classmates pay $750 bill
Updated: 6:11 p.m. MT July 31, 2007
SPRINGVILLE, Utah - The cemetery headstone for a teenager who died in a car wreck was repossessed after a $750 bill went unpaid.
“That’s just business,” said Linda Anderson of Memorial Art Monument. “If we give every stone to everybody, we’d be out of business. They’d repossess your car if you didn’t make payments.”
Brady Conger, 17, and two friends died when their car smashed into a sport utility vehicle a year ago Thursday.
Memorial Art said bills sent to one address were returned, and the business couldn’t reach Brady’s mother, who apparently had agreed last year to pay the balance. “The end result was that there was absolutely no one who I could talk to about this,” owner Mike Anderson said.
Brady’s classmates raised money to pay the bill, and the headstone will be installed again this week.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
What's up with the weather
My wife and I get a date day once a week. It is our time to reflect on what we are doing and get reconnected. Some times we call it our business time. For the past several months we have done the standard, go get lunch and go to the movies. First, this gets expensive and second, and most important, there is little connection happening when you are in theater for 3 hours and not allowed to talk.
So earlier this week I suggested we go trail running. Christie and I are trying very hard to get into shape, and do it together. So today I woke up and got into gym shorts and an tank top and was ready to go. Christie didn't think I was serious until she saw me making breakfast in this outfit. We dropped the children off at 10:00 a.m. and were off for our adventure.
The trail we choose was more like hiking, not much running occurred, which was good b/c I am still in the getting in shape phase. We got about 40 min into the trail and saw something cool in the mountains and decided to go climbing to get to it. It was great. about 12 p.m. we started to get hungry. We did not plan to stay this long, but hay, we were loving the time together. So instead of going back an hour hungry we collected prickly pear fruit and tried to eat them. This was funny. If you don't know what these are , they are little fruits that are about the size of golf balls covered in cactus needles. Some how we managed to get through 3 of them and they we delicious. Painful on the fingers, but delicious.
We we covered by clouds this entire adventure . It was awesome. Christie ran out of water cleaning her hands from the fruit, so we had to head back. Not something you want to mess with in the desert. If there was an abundant amount of water I am sure we would still be there. This was our best date night yet. It is going to be tough to top this one.
So earlier this week I suggested we go trail running. Christie and I are trying very hard to get into shape, and do it together. So today I woke up and got into gym shorts and an tank top and was ready to go. Christie didn't think I was serious until she saw me making breakfast in this outfit. We dropped the children off at 10:00 a.m. and were off for our adventure.
The trail we choose was more like hiking, not much running occurred, which was good b/c I am still in the getting in shape phase. We got about 40 min into the trail and saw something cool in the mountains and decided to go climbing to get to it. It was great. about 12 p.m. we started to get hungry. We did not plan to stay this long, but hay, we were loving the time together. So instead of going back an hour hungry we collected prickly pear fruit and tried to eat them. This was funny. If you don't know what these are , they are little fruits that are about the size of golf balls covered in cactus needles. Some how we managed to get through 3 of them and they we delicious. Painful on the fingers, but delicious.
We we covered by clouds this entire adventure . It was awesome. Christie ran out of water cleaning her hands from the fruit, so we had to head back. Not something you want to mess with in the desert. If there was an abundant amount of water I am sure we would still be there. This was our best date night yet. It is going to be tough to top this one.
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