What an awesome book, a must read

Thanksgiving

A few weeks ago, I participated in a retreat like event called the walk to Emmaus. While there were a few things we did that I felt were just kinda weird, overall it was biblically based and some things that took place I will never forget as long as I live and for that reason alone, I suggested Amy do it. This past weekend Amy went on the walk and it was more beneficial to me than it could have ever been to her. My eyes were opened to some things that I had not seen before:

1) There are so many things that have to be taken care of....trash, laundry, cleaning, taking the dog out, feeding it, going to the store, getting kids dressed (Amy set me, Josh, and Haileys clothes out for the whole weekend and labled them for which day we were to wear them), bathed, fed, off to school, changing diapers, changing clothes.....everyone and everything demands little chunks of your time which does not leave a lot of time for yourself. And....I only had to do it for 3 days!!! At the end of every day, I was drained. I used to wonder why Amy wanted to go to bed at 1030pm and now I know why. I joked and said I would rather work manual labor for 18hrs a day than to be a stay at home parent because it would be less work I think.

2) How much in love with my wife I really am and what a treasure God has given to me.

3) How I took her for granted and how lost I would be in this world without her.

4) She is the glue that holds our family together.

5) How little I did to help her out.

6) How I was disrespectful to her in so many ways, and how I disregarded how important she really is to me.

7) What a beautiful woman she is.

8) How ashamed I am of how I have behaved toward her.

There are two things I am thankful for this Thanksgiving (and every other day):

The free gift of salvation given to me through Christ and the greatest treasure known to man, his wife!!

I LOVE AND APPRECIATE YOU SO MUCH AMY!!

Missing something

Have you ever had those times where you were so busy doing other stuff that you neglected to have your quiet times in order to have more time to do that other stuff? A short time ago, I was so busy with things that I put off having my quiet time which I usually do first thing in the am, to devote more time to doing stuff that is far less important. It was surprising how my attitude and general demeanor changed and not in a good way. I found myself getting upset easier and and reacting to, instead of interacting with my family and I questioned God as to why things were getting to me so easily and why would things not just go my way. I immediately wanted to redirect what was happening away from me an onto someone or something else. Paul says that the things he does not want to do he does and the things he wants to do he does not do. This is really true for me too, I don't want to get frustrated and upset at stupid things and I know that it is wrong for me to but I allow myself to do it anyway. I allow my emotions to control me at times and that is very dangerous.

One night I was up pretty late after work and I thought for a moment, if things get this hard (or I thought they were at the time) as a Christian, imagine life without Christ. I actually started to worry and get claustrophobic at just the thought of not having Christ in my life, I realized without Him I was lost and alone and I was so scared at that thought and remembered a time when I was not following Christ and that thought had never crossed my mind back then, I could have cared less and now He is the reason I breathe and without Him I realized I am nothing, I am doomed to a life of seperation from Him and just that thought brings me to the point of tears. The worst thing that could ever happen to me or anyone else for that matter, is to stand before Christ on that day and hear him say to you, depart from me, I never knew you! I am sick to my stomach just thinking about it. I am back on track and having my quiet times again and I feel a thousand times better now because I am closer to Christ. Over the past few years I feel like I have grown so much in certain areas of my life and in others I seem to still fail more times than not.

I went to visit Amy's brother this past weekend and surprisingly, I actually had a good time. We shared and laughed and talked about Christ and what he is doing and how He can turn a bad situation like this into something that can be used for good. He gets to read a lot and has read several C.S. Lewis books and said he has four bibles too that he has read several times over which is encoraging. He also mentioned the letters he has recieved from people in our church and what a blessing they really are to him. Thank you for that, it means a lot to Amy and I as well!!

Things in the life...

Hailey just turned 6 today!! That means Amy is another year older now too. She just loves school and she can't wait to go. I am sure if she could go everyday she would be happy too. I pray that her attitude toward school does not change. I never liked school much, my favorite part was study hall and when I skipped of course.

I have 6 classes left until I finish my Bachelors degree and it is getting pretty tough. Accounting is hard and I have Statistics next session which is going to be very difficult for me. I can't quit now though, I am too close.

I am at work sitting on a conference call that was supposed to happen at 1030pm and did not start till 1115pm. The last two I have been on for this customer have lasted until 330am. I hope this one does not follow suit.

I am excited to attend my new connect group tomorrow, I pray I will get out of here soon so I can get some sleep before the class. I may have time before my accounting class tomorrow at 10am to get a nap. Only 4 weeks of this class left so I will tough it out...

There is a layoff coming soon here and they are going to let go approx. 30% of the employees in this dept which means about 45 people will be out of work soon. I am not worried at all about it, I know if I am one of the people let go that my family and I will be taken care of. It just means that God has something better in store for us than where I am currently at.

There are so many things I want to get done but I never seem to have the time to do any of them, I barely have time to get on Facebook. My business is going well and I have work every week but I am afraid of getting more than I have now because I don't know how I would get it all done. Maybe if I get laid off I can do my business full time...

It has been a while!!

It has been so long since I have updated this, I had almost forgotten how to do it. I have been extremely busy though and it seems as this is not the fad anymore, everyone stays updated via Facebook.

Today my baby went to her first day of kindergarten. She was so excited to go off to school. Amy got in the car and went to the school to get some pictures of her getting off the bus and in her classroom while Josh and I stayed home and cried. lol.

I am getting close to completing my degree. I only have 6 classes left and it will all be over. At least until I start my master's program. I don't know what I will do with the free time not spent on studying. Just kidding, I don't study so there will be no difference!!

I was doing my quiet time today and I was in Philippians 3, or supposed to be but somehow at the end of my quiet time when I was posting to Facebook, I realized I had been in Colossians 3 instead. Must have needed that instead of Philippians. (see Facebook status)

We are having a couple over tomorrow night that Amy babysits for. We are trying to get them to come to church and to Christ. I have felt lately, that I need to be more of the Christian Christ called me to be and to start sharing my faith with lost people and showing them the love of Christ. Also to start giving more of my resources to those in need. I think it would be a shame if I had thousands of dollars in the bank and my neighbor went hungry because he didn't have any money. I bet Christ didn't have a fat bank account or kept a few hundreds in his fanny pack just in case.