Saturday, April 25, 2009

Taylor concert



Last night Saraya and Dana got to go to the Taylor Swift concert. They also got a special treat. Dana has a cousin, Stephen, who we are close with, who is in the country band Love & Theft. Last year L&T opened up for Taylor on a lot of her tour. As a result, Stephen and Taylor became close friends and Taylor even wrote a song about Steven called "hey Stephen" which is on her new album. So Steven was nice enough to get a couple of passes for Saraya and Dana to go back stage and meet Taylor. Saraya seems to be impressed the most by the fact that Taylor knew Dana's name. She has told the story to everyone she has talked to about the concert.

All and all she had a great time, but I got a text from Dana about 10 last night asking if I could come to the concert and pick up Saraya. She was tired and her knees were hurting her. I went and got her and she told me all about the fun she had, but she was ready to go home even though Taylor was not done singing. I guess the moral of the story is that Taylor is great, but when a little girl gets tired even Taylor Swift's star is not shiny enough.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Pirates & Gorillas






The other morning, Saraya was in my room while the news was on the TV. It was the morning they were reporting about a boat being attacked and prisoners taken. When the reporter was describing the attackers he used the term "pirates". I happened to look over at Saraya and the look on her face said everything. She then asked me if there were any Pirates in Jonesboro, with a really worried look on her face. I tried to assure her that the people they were talking about were not pirates like she was thinking, but I could not get the point across to her, so I just assured her that there were no pirates any where near us and that she was safe.




The incident reminded me of when I was small and saw a lot of reports on the news about "gorillas" attacking people, in what looked like jungle to me. I never asked any questions about it, but I thought that actual gorillas were attacking people in the jungle. I remember thinking, why do those people keep going into the jungle if there are crazy gorillas out there attacking people? I also remember seeing men in green clothing with guns tromping around in the jungle while they were reporting on it, and I thought, good, they have some men out there trying to stop those crazy gorillas.




I think that kids are unable to see reality some times because of their limitations. Adults on the other hand just refuse to see reality because they don't want to. To often I let my view on reality cloud my judgment and then I foolishly act on it.




I hate when that happens!

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Taming the tongue


Well, I did it again, I managed to hurt someones feelings with my big mouth. Last night was our small group night, we call them cell groups, and we had a pretty good one. That is until we started taking prayer requests. A member of our group was sharing something important with us, and I was just not paying close enough attention to the conversation and did not realize what was being shared. So, I made some dumb joke, which had nothing to do with the request that was being shared, and made some other members laugh and talk. This of course ended up hurting that one members feelings, which I did not mean, and would never do on purpose.

Why do I do this? This same thing is something I have struggled with for many years. I just let my mouth get away from me and it gets me in trouble. When I realized what I had done, I went and apologized, and I have no doubt that our relationship will survive. While this was a good opportunity for us to practice some confrontation skills, I am going to try me best to avoid this same mistake in the future. However, I am sure I will one day do it again and have to end up apologizing once again for my words. It is amazing how powerful words can be, and not just what words, but how we say them and even at what time we say them. This has also been a good reminder to me to make sure I am aware of the seriousness of certain situations.

You know, some times life is hard, and some times I make it even harder.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Soccer star......Not!



Well, yesterday was Saraya's first Soccer practice. Let me just say that it was not a huge success. For most of it she tried to do what the coach told her to, without taking her hands out of her sweat shirt pockets. In her defense, it was cold and windy, and she was playing soccer, so her hands really weren't needed.

At one point, the coach decided he would split them up and try a scrimmage. This was not a good idea! Not a single one of them had the remotest idea of what to do, and Saraya just stood there with her hands in her pockets watching the other kids chase and try to kick the ball. When I walked over to her and tried to encourage her to get in there and play, she started to cry and ran to me. Saying that she wanted to go home. Even though I wanted to give into her, I made her get back in there and try.

On the way home, she cried again and said that she never wanted to play soccer and didn't know why I was making her. I told her that she could not just sit at home and do nothing, to which she responded that she just didn't want to play any sports. (that hurt a little to hear)

We are going to continue to make her play. She has never been very good with new things. She still wont eat skittles because they have an "S" on them instead of the "M" she is used to. Once she gets used to it, I think she will do fine. Plus her friend E is on her team and once he goes to practice with her, I think it will be much easier for her.

She may not ever love sports, or be a soccer star. But I think it's good for her to get used to trying new things. We can't go through life being afraid to try, and I don't want my daughter crippled by her fears later in life just because it was easier for me to protect her.

Friday, April 3, 2009

group life

I am a part of 2 small groups. One of them is on Wednesday nights and the other is on Thursday nights. The Wed night group has been going for a while and everyone in it kinda knows how small group is done and helps make sure that it runs smoothly.
The Thursday night group is a very new group. They are both new to our church and new to small group life. They are the perfect example of the busyness the world loves to put us through. My Wednesday night group meets around 6 and we are usually all headed home by 8:30. The Thursday night group is so busy and their schedules are so packed that we have pushed the start time back to 8:00, and most of them don't usually show up until 8:30. By the time we eat, talk and just get people settled down enough to start, it's at least 9 or some times even 9:30. Don't get me wrong, I love my Thursday night group, but most of the time it is really a struggle to concentrate on what God has for us that night for longer then a 5 minute stretch. There seems to always be something. I am not complaining, because I have seen some great things come from the times when we do concentrate on God, but last night I was just hit with the reality that a small group home study is not a natural thing with all people.

When new people come into an existing group they can just sit back and fallow the lead of the other members that know what to do. When you start a new group with all new members, you find out quickly that things you take for granted are sometimes things that your group does not even think about.

Again, I'm not complaining, I am just reminded that modern day Christianity is a culture in itself. With habits and norms that are especially particular to that culture. I am just hoping that I never get too caught up in all of that, making me unable to reach out to the lost, unchurched or to just some people that are new. It's a little tougher some times, but well worth it.

Just last night we had a child come down stairs and lay across both parents and fall asleep, another child texting the asleep child, the mother of the child answering the text, a conversation about cell phones, a breast feeding, diaper change, conversation about hair and pictures, burping, light discussion about burping, and an unsanctioned bathroom break. All of this occurred during the 20 minutes or so we were trying to have a lesson.

I think God used the time though! It's all good.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

I'M BACK!

I know, it's been a while since my last post. I got really busy for a while, and then I just got out of the habit of blogging. Then it became a thing. It was this thing I was avoiding because it was hanging over my head. I knew I needed to get on here and post something, but there had been so much time since the last post that it seemed like it had piled up and it was to much for me to want to deal with. So I just avoided it. I even avoided reading any blogs. It was like when I was in Jr. high, and I had a big project that was coming due, and I had put it off for so long that I just didn't know where to start because there was so much to do and not enough time to do it all. So you just keep putting it off until the next day, and when tomorrow comes, you just put it off until the next day.
So I decided to just forget about catching up on anything and start new. I may or may not post anything from the past few months. Besides, I don't think anyone reads my blog that does not have regular contact with me anyway. So all 4 of you know what has been going on with my life anyway.
At least I have started, and now it should not be that difficult to continue on posting. Now I just have the pressure to constantly come up with good stuff to post. Will it never end?