Abide, Seek and Remain

The past few days during my quiet time with the Lord, I've really been sensing and experiencing a whole new renewing of the Holy Spirit. For me personally, I've been in such need of this "downpour" of revival in my heart. I don't know how or why it happened but it seemed like up until a few weeks ago, I was kind of lost on this barren plateau of spiritual wandering.

It's funny how these misdirections in your life start. A lot of times they're not a sudden, obvious diversion. No, most of the time they are just slight bumps that barely take you out of a direct path to where you're headed. However, as you begin to reach a point you previously thought you were reaching toward, you realize you are way off track and need to refocus your steps.

I believe this is how the enemy works in our lives a lot of times. When he's not attacking us outright and blatantly, he's scheming as to how he can divert us from the Lord's will. One of his more successful ways is to gently nudge us off course so that initially while we think we're still headed where God wants us to go, we're actually about to veer off the path in such a way that will see us miss the target by miles.

What are some of these bumps we encounter? For me, one prime example of this is my own "ego". This includes my literal ego, my pride, my own goals, my own agenda and my emotions. However, a friend of mine recently described the word "ego" in an acrostic.

EGO = Easing God Out.

How simple and yet how profound. When I allow my "ego" to cloud my vision, I begin to ease God out of my life...and then look where I end up.

In a spiritual wasteland.

For the past year or so, I've been fighting some big "ego" battles and of course, I realize how wrong I was. Granted, these are natural human emotions of disappointment, discouragment and occasional confusion. But we all need to learn how we deal with these emotions.

Do we continue to fight ourselves internally, wallowing in a cess pool of self-pity and whining like a spoiled child OR do we obey the Bible and "trust in the Lord" to show up and lead us to His will for our lives?

I was finally able to look past my own disappointments of the past year and trust in God that His will for my life was so much better than the things of life I wanted. My goals, my desires and my stuff pale in such comparison to the plans the Lord has for me. One of the books / devotionals I read in the morning is one called "Every Day With Jesus" by Greg Laurie. This daily devotion coupled with the Bible has so enriched my life and encouraged me to seek God's will for my life.

In fact, the past two devotions spoke about "abiding in Him" and "seeking His kingdom". These lessons have so quenched my soul, much like the rain is doing to the ground outside my window as I write this.

It's so encouraging to have prior Scriptures come to your mind at various times of the day that remind me that the Lord loves me, won't leave me and has so much more in store for me.

It's an incredible feeling to hear the Lord's voice comfort me in so many of the songs I listen to and the Scriptures I read.

It's a wonderful thing to commune with family and friends who not only share my love for the Lord but who also offer me such encouragement. Hopefully my words (spoken and written) will do the same for them. It's my hope that these words may become seeds of encouragement that point them toward God and eventually bear the fruit of His name.

Jesus spoke so often in parables and one that has really been on my mind a lot lately is the one about the vine bearing fruit. He spoke of how a dead branch with no roots cannot bear any kind of fruit and should be thrown into the fire. But, He also said that the vine whose roots remain planted will be fruitful.

John 15:1-8 says it like this:

"I am the true vine and My Father is the vineyard keeper. Every branch in Me that does not produce fruit He removes and He prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me."

I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me. If anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire and they are burned. If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be My disciples."

I am so grateful for His word and His promises. How they ennrich my life and encourage me each day!! I pray that my life will continue to remain in Him and that He will bear much fruit through me. I take such comfort in knowing I serve the God who is indeed THE everalsting God, the One who never sleeps, the One who comforts those who are weak, the One who sticks by us closer than any brother, the One who gives us strength to endure as we wait upon Him, the One who makes us soar like eagles, the One who causes us to run and not grow weary, the God who makes us walk and not faint.

Check this all out by reading Isaiah 40.

THAT is the God I serve!

What a great and awesome God!

Love Is In The Air

The past few days it's all been about "love" around our home and it's culminated today, Valentine's Day.

For starters and not to disregard by any stretch, Tuesday was Jennifer's birthday. She turned a wonderful ___ years old and grows more stunning each year. Notice how I didn't reveal her age, doing all I can to ensure brownie points later on down the road. I even did the "she's 25+" thing when I sent in a birthday greeting for her on our local Christian radio station. The DJ's got a kick out of it, laughing as they read her name. They were probably thinking that some husband who's trying to get some brownie points later on down the road did this...smart guy.

Seriously though, she does get more and more beautiful to me as the years go by. I often stop to think of how blessed I've been to have her as my wife, my best friend and my children's mother. I think of how she and I have been together as a couple longer than she lived her life single. A hint...she and I started dating when she was 16 and I was 18 so for those of you doing the math at home...it's more than 16 years.

And more than 18.

Uh oh...did I reveal too much? LOL

To think of being with one person that long, through everything we've been through together, the good times and the not so good, it's humbling to know that she still loves me and wants to spend the rest of her life with me.

And, of course, I with her.

Even though I'm well past the "love song dedications" on the radio stations I used to do back in our high school days, I still try to do those special things for her that show her how much I do love her.

You know...things like doing the laundry (AND putting it away), cooking the meals, getting up with the boy in the middle of the night and wrapping myself up in a big red bow...what's not to show the essence of love in that, right?

In all honesty, I thank the Lord for bringing us together and blessing us as husband and wife and as a family. I quoted it last year on my blog that a husband is blessed by a Proverbs 31 wife and Jennifer blesses and honors our family in all she does.

Thank you, sweetie, for always living your life in such a wonderful, Christ-like manner and loving us as He does.

The second example of love deals with something I'll wrap up with in a moment but ask yourself first...

how many Lowe's associates and customers does it take to wrestle a lodged plastic army guy from the bath tub faucet? Think on that one for a bit.

Thirdly, today is Valentine's Day and I hope you have a special someone you can spend it with. How fortunate I am to have my valentine here with me today on her day off (even though we have an appointment with our accountant in a little bit...nothing says "I love you" like spending time at the CPA's office). I'm not certain if we're going to be able to escape for a nice romantic meal tonight since the kids are around, but hopefully this weekend we'll be able to do the nice dinner and a movie deal sans the chillins.

I'm thinking she's going to want to see "27 Dresses" instead of a heart warming film like "Rambo".

OK...back to my pending Lowe's question.

I ask it and relate it to today's topic of "love" because as any of us who are parents know, we'll do anything for our children. Why? Easy.

Because we love them and I'm no different towards my kids in that regard. Jennifer and I love our kids dearly and we're trying all we can to raise them the right way, teaching them love, respect, gentleness, kindness, goodness, humility and self-control. You know...the whole "fruits of the Spirit" aspect.

So, flashback to Tuesday night, Jennifer's birthday. We'd just gotten back from dinner out at Red Lobster and we'd convinced Kaitlyn to get a bath with Jake, operating under the directive not to splash a bunch of water on the floor, not get into a fight with him and do it all as quickly and as nicely as she could.

Jennifer went upstairs to get their PJ's out and the clothes they'd wear for the next day, leaving me with the job of overseeing the kids' bath. I'd just walked into our bedroom when I heard Jake call from our tub "Dad...come in here quick. You're gonna be mad."

I wondered what was going to upset me as I walked in and saw Kaitlyn trying to get something out of the faucet of the tub.

"What are you doing" I asked, calmly and collected.

"We got Darth Vader stuck inside the faucet" she mumbled with a look of near-fear on her face. "Please don't get mad at me...I didn't mean to do it."

I reassured her as best I could that I wasn't going to be angry and to let me see what I could do. Sure enough, I saw a red plastic toy figure wedged up inside the bathtub faucet. I tried to pry him out with a screwdriver but I only made matters worse by pushing him further down the pipe.

"Oh forever more" I thought.

I got the kids out of the tub and got them dressed and then really dug in to try and get Vader un-wedged from the pipe. Try as I might, I only made matters worse and eventually realized that nothing I did (sticking a hanger down the now detached faucet, poking at the toy with a metal tube, squirting it with WD-40, etc) was going to work. For grins and giggles I checked online to see what a new faucet would be to purchase.

Over $300.

Oh boy, I thought. I knew there was no way we were going to buy something that expensive just because a tiny toy was trapped inside, especially since it wasn't disrupting the flow of water much. So, I mentally made plans to take the faucet to Lowe's Wednesday morning.

I walked into the store, faucet firmly in hand, and proceeded to the plumbing department where I met Ron. He was a real likable, affable kind of guy who, after I told him of my predicament, laughed and said to let him see what he could do with a pipe snake.

We tried and tried and tried for about 5 minutes to dislodge a now firmly entrenched Darth Vader but to no avail.

"I think this is becoming a job for the guys over in the 'Tools' section" Ron told me with a slight hint of resignation in his voice.

We walked over to 'Tools' and met up with Dale and Ed. They both grinned widely when they heard of my parental woes and suggested another sort of pipe cleaner tube that had tiny fingers fastened to the end of it.

Once again, we succumbed to the Dark Side of the Force as our attempts to free Vader were thwarted. I began to wonder if we'd ever fix this silly thing as I silently began to recall all kinds of Star Wars references, specifically Princess Leia pleading "help me Obi Wan Kenobi...you're my only hope."

Ed and Dale, both scratching their heads, looking for a solution, said "you know, this sounds like it's more of a 'Hardware' issue...let's go see Eric."

So, all four of us (by this time) along with the still-clogged faucet, meandered over to the 'Hardware' aisle to find Eric. He was a younger guy who, like me, began to espouse all kinds of Jedi rhetoric as to my predicament.

"The Force is strong with this pipe" he grunted as he attempted to free the plastic toy. As Eric, Ron, Dale, myself and now 2 customers stood around this stupid pipe, trying to devise a way to fix it, Ed started to bend a long, slender metal rod to try again to force it out. After numerous attempts to get the metal rod around the bend in the faucet, we began to see the bottom of the red plastic emerge on the other side.

Of course, it was not going to come out as easy as we'd hoped. We'd already tried a pipe snake, another snake with tiny metal grippers, WD-40, a metal rod and some needle nosed pliers.

Not to mention the grunts and groans of no less than 5-6 middle aged guys whose efforts would hopefully pan out.

Eric said "let me try the needle nosed pliers one more time. I think I can get it now."

He pulled and pried when all of a sudden...POP!!

Off came Darth Vader's head.

However, the rest of his body still lay stuck inside. Thankfully, the pliers were long enough to reach it and we started up again.

Try to picture this in your mind. 4 grown men holding a chrome plated faucet no more than 14 inches long, grunting, groaning, straining and sweating as another guy pulled with all his might on a pair of needle nosed pliers.

I realized the sudden hilarity of the moment and blurted out without thinking about it "guys, you do realize we are a living joke, right? If someone walks by and sees us all wrestling over this, they're going to wonder how many men does it take to get Darth Vader out of a bathtub faucet?"

As we began to all chuckle about this, success finally looked our way as Eric pulled to now mangled plastic torso of Darth Vader from his metallic prison. This picture shows what remains of the source of our utter frustration. It's now been sent on it's way to the Death Star in a garbage dump far, far away.

The way we all hipped and hollered and patted each other on the back, you'd have thought we won a championship in some major sport. I was extremely grateful to all those guys at Lowe's who helped me and as they said as I walked away in triumph, I became a "lifetime customer".

If I could plug them right now, I hope you all check out Lowe's for all your home hardware needs and even plastic toy removals. Hopefully your experience with them will be as great as mine was.

As I drove home that afternoon to greet the kids and show them what I'd done for them...BECAUSE I LOVE THEM...I laughed and wondered if my parents had ever gone to such lengths for me 'cause I know I NEVER brought such "joy" into their lives.

Right?

Cheerleader to Basketball Shooter

It's unreal how busy we've been and how busy we're going to be in the next few weeks and months. In fact, by our calculations, we have 2 free weekends left between here and the beginning of April. Much of that travel is due to Kaitlyn's cheerleading competitions with trips set for Hot Springs, Oklahoma City and the final competiton of the "season" in Kansas City at the end of March.

Also during that time, we're planning our annual Spring Break trip to Destin which, again this year, we'll also be celebrating my birthday. Be looking for a picture of me with the traditional glob of butter on my nose too.

Yesterday, we got back from a trip to Hot Springs where Kaitlyn participated in a statewide free throw contest sponsored by the Elks Club. This is a national contest where the winner of yesterday's competition moves onto another contest in Paris, TN in March and all subsequent winners there will meet in Philadelphia, PA. She became eligible to compete after winning the contest at her elementary school. Then, from there she competed in a city wide / community wide contest at the Fayetteville Boys & Girls Club. She was in the 8-9 year old girls division and (wouldn't you know it) she won.

The day she won this contest was also the day when I was singing in our choir's Christmas concert so I wasn't able to see her win. However, I heard all about it when I got home and was told that if we won in Hot Springs, we'd "get" to go to Paris, TN and then if we won there, we'd go to Philly.

I already knew our travel schedules were going to be hectic enough with her cheer competitions and Spring Break so to be honest, the thought of driving to Tennessee and possibly to Pennsylvania didn't thrill me much. However, getting to watch my daughter compete AND WIN would more than offset my "desire" to travel.

So...let's cut to the chase.

We got to the gym in Hot Springs yesterday and watched our children compete. There were around 100 kids there from Elks Clubs all over the state of Arkansas and each child fell into a specific division.

Boys and girls, ages 8-9, 10-11 and 12-13. That meant that at the end of the day, there'd be 6 kids going to Tennessee in March to compete at that level.

Kaitlyn's division went second so we got to sit through the 12-13 year olds and see how it'd be scored. Each child would shoot 10 free throws, go back and sit with their group and then return for a final 15.

All this being done in almost complete silence in the gym.

How did we get Jake to be quiet for almost 2 hours? 3 words for you...

portable DVD player.

Oh yeah...with headphones. LOL

So once Kaitlyn's group began, it went by pretty quick. At the end of the round, after all the scores were tallied, we were thrilled to learn that Kaitlyn finished 3rd overall in her division!!! That means that out of all the 8-9 year old girls who participated in the state of Arkansas, Kaitlyn finished in 3rd place!! To me, that's a pretty cool deal!

We were so proud of her!! She seemed pretty excited too as she walked out with a good sized trophy and a bag full of other prizes (ie: t-shirt, water bottle, basketball, etc) although she later admitted she wanted to win the whole thing.

That's the thing about her...she almost wins these things out of spite and sheer determination. I think she and I had 2-3 dedicated practice sessions of shooting free throws and me giving her pointers on proper technique.

In fact, here's a picture of me giving her a few last minute tips before they started keeping score. For her to do as well as she did and score as high as she did with only 3 dedicated sessions, it makes me wonder if with a few more lessons she could have indeed won the whole contest.

I think we may have a star-athlete in the making here.

Way to go Kaitlyn! We're very proud of you!!