Fresh Cut Grass

As you can probably tell from the title, I spent a few hours today doing yard work. My weed-eater had been out of commission, so I hadn't been able to fully finish my typical mowing on the weekends. While I have mowed, not weed-eating is a whole different story. Little by little, grass started to overtake our flower bed and against our fence. Needless to say, I had a lot of work to catch up on and I am pretty tired from it all.

For the most part I really enjoy mowing and weed-eating because I get to see the finished product. In youth ministry that is not always the case. You can spend years pouring into a student and never really know if they got it. Maybe someday they will hunt you down to tell you how you impacted their life for Christ, but this can be few and far between. Many days at work it feels like I just put out little fires to only be faced by a dozen more the next day. Don't get me wrong. Ministry definitely has its rewards, sometimes here on earth and many times in heaven. It is just nice to have a couple of things in my life that I can see the beginning, middle, and end. I love seeing the yard when all of my work is done. For one thing I know when I'm done. There are only so many times you can mow a yard.

I think it also reminds me of how quickly our lives can change. Even though I had mowed and done the weed-eating just a few weeks ago, you probably couldn't tell that this morning. Little by little the weeds and the grass grew until it looked really bad. Sin can be the same way. When it is left alone, it grows and grows until you find yourself in a huge mess that you might not have seen coming. The lesson I learn over and over again is take care of the small stuff. Whether this be mowing the grass, weed-eating, or getting rid of sin, don't put it off.

Emily Being Emily

Okay, if you get tired of hearing about Emily, I am very sorry. But, seeing as how I am a stay-at-home mom, that is probably what I will talk the most about. She is so funny. She is really into her car right now. We only have one vehicle and Jason takes it to work everyday. At lunch time, when he leaves to go back to work, she will start crying because he took her car. In the afternoons, we he returns home, she gets so excited because her car is back. I just really think that is funny because it is such a big deal to her to have her car at home. I have also included a picture of her "helping" paint by putting tape on the wall. It is such a funny picture. The second one is of her sliding down her "waterfall." She thought of this all by herself. I think it is amazing how they just need the simplest things to entertain them, blue painters tape and a blue blanket and she was good to go. I will leave you with one profound thought and then I am fresh out; do you think God laughs when we try to maintain control of a house with a two year old in it?

Gotta Love Hanging Out With Youth Guys

Today I got to spend most of my time just learning from and hanging out with other youth pastors. We are very fortunate in Oklahoma to have something called OKYMA that exists to give youth ministers the opportunity to network with each other, to sharpen their skills, and to fellowship with their fellow laborers in youth ministry. It is so nice to spend time once in awhile with other people who understand what you are going through and just get you. Times like these remind me that I'm not alone in this journey called youth ministry. If nothing else, I also got to be out of the office for most of the day and that is a very good thing.

It was also a great day because I got to re-connect with a youth pastor and his wife that I met while serving in New Mexico. It was great to see them again and find out that they are now serving in OK. I look forward to continuing our friendship and ministry together. Not only did we get to spend time goofing off at Incredible Pizza, but we also were challenged to take care of ourselves as ministers. To surround ourselves with people that share our passion and help us grow spiritually. What I valued the most today apart from getting to meet new youth pastors was the insight into youth ministry from a husband and wife who have been serving in a local church for many years. Even though I have been a full-time youth pastor for almost five years, I am reminded all of the time how much I don't know and need to work on. Too many ministers are either leaving full-time ministry or just plain burned out. From day one I committed to this to the end. I don't want to be another statistic of a guy who used to be in the ministry. So, I keep pressing on. Growing, learning, and serving each and every day. Talk about one fun, exciting, uneasy adventure!

Defining Patience

I have come to learn that patience is not a word in a two year olds vocabulary. If I ever have to tell Emily to wait, I know a tantrum will follow. I don't know when she will finally understand what this word means, but it can't come too early. The truth is that we are the same way with God. If God tells us to wait, we sometimes throw a tantrum and tell him we don't want to. The funny thing about a two year old is that if you just focus their attention on something else, they will forget about whatever it is they wanted (at least for a couple of minutes.) Maybe we need to do the same.

Oh, by the way. Yes, the Saints lost and I was very disappointed. However, we were playing the defending World Champs, Payton Manning, and on their home turf. I am okay with that and I think that we will do really well the rest of the season.

Go Saints!

If you know me at all, this post should come as no surprise to you. Tonight, the New Orleans Saints take the field against the Indianapolis Colts. I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am that football season has begun. I really want the Saints to win but if they don't, I wouldn't be that sad because the Colts are my second favorite team. Jason and I really like Payton Manning and usually root for them. However, they are playing my team, so GO SAINTS!

I know to some of you this is not a big deal. It is such a big deal that my daughter says "Go Saints, Go Colts, or Go Cowboys (Jason's team)" every time we watch a football game (even college). So tonight she should be a little confused. I really don't have words of wisdom to share this time, I just thought everyone needed to be rooting for the Saints tonight.

Only The Best

This past Labor Day, I got to spend most of the day working on painting our living room and kitchen. My mom and dad came over to give us a hand with the project and to of course see Emily. This turned out to be a productive but draining day since we worked almost non-stop. By the time I climbed into bed around 1:45am, I was physically sore and ready to sleep. You may be wondering why I would spend a national holiday working instead of taking it easy. For one, this was the first day that my mom and dad could help with the project when I too was free. We have been wanting to paint ever since we moved in last December, but time seems to fly by so fast these days and here we are almost a year later before finally getting to paint. I also like the look and feel a new paint job does for your house and for your soul. I always want to give everything only the best I have to offer, and this includes my home. Not only does the new paint really make our living room and kitchen look great, but it makes me feel good about all of the hard work I did. Since I am a homeowner, I feel that it is my responsibility and right to take care of my house. As a husband and a dad, I have a great level of responsibility to provide the best environment I possibly can for my family. That is why I didn't mind working on my extra day off this week and why I felt pretty good about the day when I started seeing an end in sight. I still have a few places to fill in and some spots to re-touch, but it is all downhill from here. Of course, we still have the rest of the house to work on, but this is a great start.

With the work done from Monday fresh on my mind, I was reminded again of the importance of giving God only our best. For the past two weeks, we have been looking at Acts 2:42-47 to better understand the makeup of the first century church. As you read through these few verses, I believe that these first followers of Christ understood the importance of give everything to God. Too many times we tend to give God our "leftovers" and that is not what He deserves. From waiting until the last moments of the day to say a quick prayer to putting off reading His word, He doesn't always get my best. Some of the very first opening words from The Purpose Driven Life teach us the life is not about us and is all about God. He is the reason we are here on planet Earth and He is the reason we live and move and breath. When our focus is shifted from ourselves and making our name great to making His name great, we can only long to give God our best. I know that this sounds easy to do, but for me this will be a lifelong journey that is worth working towards. May we all strive to give God our best in all that we do.

Naked Child

Well, this is officially my first blog. I know what I am going to talk about because it made my whole day. Emily, my two year old daughter, has recently been working on potty training. Since we are having our second child in January, we are really letting her do this at her own pace and not push her. A few months ago, she decided that she did not need naps anymore, (actually I decided this because she would be cranky the rest of the night and not get to sleep until really late.) Anyway, you may wonder what these two things have to do with each other until today happened. My daughter does go in her room for an hour of "rest" time. She usually plays in her bed with her babies or looks at her books. This morning, she told me that she was not wearing pull-ups anymore but she was going to wear big-girl panties. I tried to get the pull-up on her, but she really did not want it on. Since we are at home all day, I decided not to fight this battle and just let her wear her big-girl panties. She did pretty good and went to the potty most of the day. Then, "rest" time came. I told her that she needed to wear a pull-up and after "rest" time, she could wear big-girl panties again. She was okay with this arrangement. However, after her hour was up, I went in to get her and she was naked. She had taken her pull-up off and was playing with nothing on. I asked her if she went potty somewhere and she told me in her pull-up. I checked but her pull-up was dry. She did not go potty anywhere else either, so I put her big-girl panties back on and decided not to make a big deal about it. I thought this was so funny because I thought she understood the situation perfectly, but obviously she was not happy about the option. She teaches me all the time that just when I think I have control over a situation, I lose it. I guess that is a life lesson we all need to be reminded of.