The 3rd of 3

So, today is my birthday. The third and final celebratory day of “My Week.” It is amazing how life’s changes affect differently the special times in our life. I remember as a child not being able to wait for my birthday to come around. I had it good. My birthday was pretty much half-way between Christmases. Presents – 6 months – presents – 6 months – presents, etc. I remember 2 days of the year REALLY trying my patience: December 1 and June 1. That was because the holidays of the month were so close, yet I had to wait a good portion of the month to get to the holidays.

Now that I am grown, I still am excited for holidays, but not so much for the gifts. Yes, it is still fun to get new stuff, but the excitement for me comes in a different form – making memories. Last night, my 3 year old daughter, as I was putting her to bed, put her hands on my face, got 2 inches from my nose, smiled the biggest smile she could, and said, “Do you know what tomorrow is??? Your birthday!!!” I think she was excited enough for the both of us. Actually, I think she was excited enough for the whole state. But it was so special to see how excited she was for me. I hope and pray she never loses that excitement in her life.

Another effect this birthday has for me is that I am now at the age where Christ began his ministry. (give or take a year) It makes me realize what he had ahead of him – the crowds, the friends, the pain. I think about all that I have not accomplished for eternity by this point, and pray that God will give me a ministry – witnessing opportunities, mentors, students, and passion. In conjunction with my b-day, I have decided to begin a study of Jesus Ministry, but from a people perspective – who he influenced, talked to, befriended, offended, when, how, why… It should be an interesting journey!

8 Big Ones!

Well, today is my wedding anniversary. 8 Years ago today, my beautiful bride decided to stick with me for a long time – forever to be exact. I will never forget the sound of her voice when she said “I will” to the promises of marriage, on that stage, infront of thousands of people. (ok, couple hundred, maybe) That to me was when she said, “Michael, I truly love you.” The cool part is I live that love every day I see her smile, see her laugh, see her cry, see her love our children, see her pray, see and see her live whole heartedly for God day after day. I thrive on the love she choses to give me every day. She is the embodiment of true love – Agape love. It is because of her that I have become much of what I am today. I am the father today because she has helped me to be. My relationship with God has been strongly encouraged by her faith. I remember in high school praying specifically for her, even though I did not know who she was. I asked God for someone who I would always love, be perfect for me, and would always love me. How neat is it to see your prayers answered 15 years later, right in front of your eyes!

Thanks, Sweetie, for being “the love I know”…

Romans 1:12 “That you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith…”

“My” Week

Well, here we are almost halfway into June, and I look at the calendar and wonder where time is going! June for me is quite a busy month, this year even more so. I have to laugh when I think about next week. Within 6 days I will get to celebrate Father’s day (yea!), my anniversary (yea!), and my birthday (whoo hoo!). I used to think what a jip it is to have all those days land so close together, but I have more recently grown fond of “my week.” (Ok, celebrating my birthday on my honeymoon was a perk.) I call it “my week” not to consider myself “celebrate-able”, but more to realize what I have accomplished. I see this as a week to remember the many, many blessings God has bestowed on me, all of which I certainly don’t deserve.:

Father’s day: Reminder that I have 2 beautiful, healthy, wonderful little girls I get to take care of

Anniversary: Reminder what a perfect (for me) life partner God gave me to help me through all that this life can throw at me. (and becoming quite a cook, too!)

Birthday: Reminder that I am alive, healthy and able to do so much that others cannot, and that I have the chance to live each year for the God of the universe that has blessed me with so much.

Sometimes it is good to just sit back and take inventory of what we have been given. I just happen to get a special reminder on the calendar every June.

AC180

I wanted to let everyone know about a new blog I have been part of for about a month now. AC180 stands for “A Complete 180″ and it is a blog by guys for guys, with an eternal twist. There are about 10 different guys contributing to the site, so it is a busy place. There is all kinds of stuff on there for guys, but I guess the gals can check it out too. But ladies be warned – you may not understand everything there. That’s the “man code.”

Check it out-> AC180.com

Bragging

Ok, I have to put this in because it’s one of those “proud” moments. If you have never “googled” yourself, you oughta. We googled Abigail last night for kicks. She does this every once in a while to make sure there isn’t anything floating out there about her. (She’s pretty good about keeping her info off the ‘Net.)

Well, after a couple searches we found an old paper of hers that is being used by one of her former professors as an example of an “exemplary” writing for current students to use. I think she was pretty humbled by it (although I have always known she is the best at all she does) and we had a good laugh reading her old paper and looking at the names of people that also were listed with good papers. But I thought it was worth bragging about for all of you reading this. Kinda cool, I thought.

If you are interested in the website, e-mail me and I’d be happy to shoot you the link…

Coffee Table of Tomorrow

Probably a little more than I need for keeping my beverages off the floor…

Microsoft Surface Teaser

Weekend Update

It’s Monday morning and time to reflect on my weekend. It was a busy one. I (with the gracious help of a friend) installed a new folding door (complete with new framed and painted wall above the door), bought and painted a new computer armoire, did some homework and took a quiz for a class, was a church, and somehow was able to spend time with my girls. And I’m not too exhausted. (I was Sunday, and was a able to take a little nap thanks to a wonderful wife.)

I did have a revelation this weekend that I thought was cool. Why is it that so many of us are scared to and even avoid turning out like our parents? Now I know there are some parents that aren’t great models and have some serious problems, but I bet most of us have parents that loved us and were great examples for the most part. I was in the kitchen with Abigail and for some reason looked at her a bit different. She was working very hard on a couple different things, including a dinner for a family in our church, a dessert for friends that were coming by, and trying to keep the house clean. I realized what a servant’s heart she has, and how she is fulfilling so much of Proverbs 31. I commented to her that it is so cool to see how she has inherited many of her parents good traits and characteristics and she is living them out. She has Godly parents and it is neat to see how she has grown and become a testament to her parents hard work in raising her in a Godly manner.

I just hope she can say the same for me, because I have a great mom and dad – not perfect, but really great. I hope I have inherited many of their Godly characteristics and traits and am living them out. So when she calls me “Lynn, Jr.”, I know its a compliment – right dad?