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What in the World?

OK, ok, here's the deal. Youthful impetuousness (meaning: acting without thinking) led me to post the two opportunities on the blog. In so doing I failed to respect the fact that the opportunities were written up with me in mind and for sharing among like minded people. These were not intended to be 'public' documents for any and all to see. A personal blog, while conceived as a private environment is still a blog and is thus 'public'. To avoid any misunderstandings and to safe guard the ministries I am in contact with the two opportunities have been removed from the blog. If you wish to obtain copies of the ministry opportunities please email me and I will forward them for your review.

Blessings

PS you can contact me at birdchirp@gmail.com

5-Year-Old Wants To Be A Tractor When She Grows Up

JULY 11, 2008 | ISSUE 44•28 The Onion


AKRON, OH—In a statement delivered to friends, family members, and household pets, Kendall Garretson announced Monday that she would like to become a 13-ton, 275-horsepower John Deere row-crop tractor when she grows up.

Five-year-old Garretson as she will appear as an adult if her career plans shape out.

Garretson, who turned 5 in May, developed an interest in becoming the powerful motor-driven vehicle during a recent trip to her grandfather's farm. According to sources, the young kindergarten student made her decision based on a number of key factors, including her desire to have "big wheels," make holes in the ground with "a digger," and chase birds and butterflies through fields of sunflowers.

"I'm gonna be a tractor," Garretson said. "Tractors are fun."

Although Garretson does not have a six-cylinder diesel engine, independent-link suspension, or a comfort command seat with air-suspension swivel, the 5-year-old said she was excited to be both red and shiny someday. Garretson added that as a tractor she would sleep in the barn with the cows and the chickens, but not with the pigs, because the pigs make too much of a
mess.

"I'll drive around in the dirt, but I won't get stuck," Garretson said. "Because I'll spin my tires lots and lots."

Since making her intentions known, Garretson has set about preparing for her career as the hauling vehicle by talking about tractors, coloring in drawings of tractors, asking her parents where tractors come from, and walking around her house making "VROOOOM, VROOOOM" sounds.

In addition to performing her regular tractor duties, such as "mowing all the corn," Garretson said she plans to give rides to every one of her friends, even Brian Waldie, even though he is sometimes mean.

Although Garretson clearly stated her future goal of becoming a tractor, the unexpected announcement left a large number of adults feeling confused, with some assuming that the 5-year-old meant she wanted to be a farmer instead of a piece of agricultural equipment. In response to the off-base remarks, Garretson accused the adults of not paying attention, jumped up and down while shaking her head violently, and called everyone a "bunch of sillies."

"A tractor," Garretson continued. "Trrraaaaaccctooooor!"

Before settling on tractor, Garretson is said to have contemplated a variety of possible career paths, including a professional great white shark, a bouncy trampoline, "a doctor nurse just like Mommy," and the pink ballerina inside of her music box. Garretson went on to say that she would like to someday eat cookies for breakfast and be a mother to 17 infants, all of them girls.
When asked how she envisioned a typical workday as a tractor, the 5-year-old claimed it would begin with her mother waking her up early in the morning with a kiss. After driving into the farmhouse for breakfast, Garretson would rouse the horses, ducks, and flowers, and play with them until lunchtime. The rest of her schedule would reportedly consist of driving up and down the fields and skipping rope.

Despite having chosen tractor as a career, Garretson has shown little interest in soil cultivation or, at the very least, the hydraulic requirements for maintaining a properly functioning front-end loader. Instead, the 5-year-old has spent most of her time deciding which of her toys she will bring along to the farm. "When I'm a tractor, I'm gonna pull a wagon, and then I'm gonna put all of my stuffed animals inside the wagon," Garretson said. "And my dollhouse. And a bunny. And maybe a Halloween pumpkin. But I won't let spiders on it unless they promise not to bite anyone."

During several other statements about her future, Garretson maintained that upon reaching adulthood she would cross the street by herself and marry the family's English bulldog, Rutherford. Garretson also stated that her cousin Madison could not come to her wedding if she kept chewing on her crayons.

Representatives from the John Deere Corporation told reporters that Garretson was a "promising candidate" for the company's annual $25,000 scholarship aimed at helping young people become tractors.

Typical Night at Home

Alright, here are a couple things to keep your eyes open to

First, look at those hips shake, he gets that from Daddy
Secondly, we are taking baby steps towards crawling. Noah seems to think it is easier to scoot on his head instead of using his hands.
Thirdly, toward the end you can literally watch him fall asleep WHILE JUMPING in his jumper.

These are three of the little gracious gifts that were delivered to us the other night, that define who are little Noah is to us. A little different, yes. But all in ways that a parent can really appreciate.

Keep on gyrating those hips little guy. Some day the ladies will dig that!

Theft

We see shattered glass next to vandalized cars every now and again. Heck we even see the police helicopter circle overhead searching for a home burglary suspect on occasion. But until sometime last week this has always been something that's happened "to them" and never to us. Lulled into a false sense of security in our otherwise safe neighborhood Amy and I sometimes failed to lock the door to our garage below the condo we live in. I used to think "whats there to steal down there except an old Camry and a bunch of books about the bible!" Well that and the ipod I use when studying in my make shift office in the garage, oh and the 500 gigabyte external hard drive filled to the rim with precious family memories and photos, not to mention the 350 gigabyte 'digital' library I was building to take oversees that included among other things all of my 5 years worth of seminary work! That's what there was to take. Who ever it was that took advantage of our laziness did not appear to be interested in my library but the hard drive and the ipod were taken. The guy even left the ipod cover, just so I have something to reminisce about.

Moral: don't ever assume in a sin cursed world full of the living dead (Ephesians 2:1-2) that you or your belongings are EVER safe. The wickedness of men never sleeps and neither must our vigilance concerning both the things in this world and the truth that has been entrusted to ever slumber for a moment.

--ALSO--

Back up everything on your computer to an external hard drive and then quarterly or so burn all that stuff to a couple of DVDs. I thought I was smart following step one of my advice but quickly learned as I looked at the dust free patch on my desk where my hard drive used to be that it was not enough. Don't end up like me instead be smarter. There's no going back and undoing what was done but there is still time for the rest of you- act now!

Dr.'s, Dr.'s, Dr.s!

Most of you who read this will already be familiar with all the appointments our Noah has had and will continue to have with various doctors, but I thought I'd put a post up anyway.

Noah saw the pediatric GI doctor on May 30. He was referred to this dr. because of the problems he was having with tolerating certain foods. After taking a thorough medical history and examining Noah in his office, the doctor concluded that he was most likely dealing with an allergy problem and not a physiological problem. His reasoning was that if it was something physiological, Noah would not discriminate with the food--he would be sick with everything he ate. This conclusion was despite the fact that his blood allergy test came back negative. The doctor recommended that we see an allergist, so our pediatrician made the referral and Noah's appointment is on July 10th.

Noah had his regular 12 month check-up with his pediatrician on Monday, the 16th. We were obviously already aware of his motor development delays, but the doctor thinks Noah has some other delays as well, particularly in the areas of speech and growth. His main concern for this visit was that Noah's weight remained exactly the same since his 9 month appointment. Zero ounces gained. Some good news since the appointment: Noah is doing better in the eating department, and will now accept yogurt (good source of protein and contains more calories than regular baby food) and he is doing better drinking his liquids (though it is a very tedious process which involves a 1 mL medicine dropper. Thankfully Daddy is more than patient and happy to help in this department)!

We also got to see the pediatric neurologist at UCLA on Monday. It ended up to be an all-day event, but he evaluated Noah and ordered a myriad of lab work for possible diagnoses. He is trying to see if the problem is related to Noah's brain, muscles, genetics, or a combination of these things. He also said many times these things go undiagnosed as just a benign muscle issue and that would be the best. So, that is what we are hoping for. We had to return the next day to do all the lab work. Ten vials of blood and a urinalysis later, Noah decided that was not how he wanted to spend a Tuesday morning ever again! The poor little guy. But he did great in spite of the poking and prodding. One of the tests has to be sent out, so we will have to wait 2-3 weeks for the results. In the meantime, we wait and trust the Lord (though I am tempted to be anxious) and it is a good reminder that Noah is ultimately His child that He has entrusted to us. We will have a follow-up appointment with him in 2 months.

The pediatric GI, pediatrician, and neurologist all recommended that I contact the regional center on Noah's behalf. I don't know a whole lot about it, but it is a county-run program that provides early intervention with physical and occupational therapists. Hopefully they can set Noah on a program that will point him in the right direction for using those legs. It will most likely be about 45 days before he can actually be seen. Until then, we are continuing his exercises at home and just enjoying him for who he is.

It really does seem like Noah has taken leaps and bounds in the last couple of weeks. In the last couple of days, he learned how to click his tongue, make a 'kissing' noise with his mouth, and clap his hands with some amount of coordination. Last night he demonstrated his first recognizable 'sign'--he signed he wanted 'more' food by scratching his leg. I did it for him a couple of times, and then he did it on his own every time I asked him if he wanted more (probably 20 times in a row). He clapped his hands every time I said, "Good boy!" and smiled soooo big. He was quite proud of himself. While we continue to pray for his development and well-being, we are so encouraged to see little steps of progress along the way and we praise the Lord that our little Noah is fearfully and wonderfully made--whatever that may entail.

1

Wow, it has been a year. In some ways it seems like it has gone by so quickly...but in other ways--mainly because so much has happened--it feels like a very long time. But, either way, Noah turned 1 today! Praise the Lord!
Right now, some of his favorite things are:
--"chasing" his big brother Jonah (which consists of me chasing Jonah while holding Noah...but he laughs and laughs and the way he kicks his legs when I'm running, you'd think he was the one doing all the work!)
--scooting. Backwards. But hey, he'll take mobility in any form he can get it!
--spinning around in my arms
--swinging
--being tickled
Happy Birthday, Kiddo!

New Zealand Again

As many of you may know I, Scott took the 12 hour flight to New Zealand again. I arrived in NZ on Wens, 28th and mucked around Auckland for about 8 hours. I spent my first night in NZ with Peter Somerville and his family. They were warm and gracious hosts and their many kids made me miss my own mightily. Thursday I drove down from Howick (a suburb of Auckland) to Hastings (in the Hawkes Bay region of the North Island). During this 6 hour drive Peter and I spoke about a lot of ministry ideas. We arrived in Hastings in the evening and I met up with my conference hosts from last year, Denys and his wife.

The next 5 days were spend at the 'Impact Bible Conference'. Scott Ardivanis, the pastor of Placerita Baptist Church in Santa Clarita, and Dr. Michael Grisanti from TMS were the key note speakers. Their two respective series delivered powerful sermons on the grace of God and the Holiness of God.

The Wednesday following the conference I spent the day taking a tour of the cities of Hastings and Napier. This region of the North Island is well known for wine making and its Art Deco flair. This whole region was created in 1931 when a magnitude 7.9 earthquake tore the region. Uplift in the area reached as much as 9 feet creating 48 square miles of brand new land. If you have ever seen Agatha Christie's Poirot the Art Deco imagery of the movies can be experienced in real life in Napier.

I met that evening with a number a couple of ministry leaders to discuss possible future ministry opportunities. We had a warm and engaging conversation that resulted in the opening of a more serious dialogue about where I might fit in at the Shepherds' Bible College and the Riverbend Bible Church .

I left the Hawkes Bay region on Thursday afternoon by flying back to Auckland on a little Bombardier 400. The views from the air were spectacular, es specially when we punched through a layer of clouds at 10,000 feet. The only thing above the cloud layer besides us were a couple of volcanic peaks, the biggest being Mount Ruapehu. It was beautifully other-worldly to see.

Back in Auckland I spent two nights with Jonathan McFarland at his parents house. 'Jono' as he is known by will be attending the Masters' Seminary soon. I could do a whole blog post about this guy but let it be sufficient to say here that TMS has been well forewarned! He was a great host and guide, taking me around to many of Auckland's beautiful parks and vistas. He also took me a 'Primal' meeting which is a church movement in NZ geared toward the 16-28 year old crowd. Again another blog post for this topic alone might be worth it but lets just say mix seeker sensitive with Charismatic spirit anointing with a Saturday night DJ dance club and you might approximate what the experience was like. The 21 minute sermon delivered by a 21 year old girl exhorted us to 'leave room for God' when facing life. I was crying by the end, though I'm not sure if was because I was laughing so hard at the lunacy of it all or whether it was because what I saw made my heart break. (Enough on that for now :) )
I next participated in Friday night youth night at Howick Baptist Church were Jono leads the youth program. We played a rousing game of dodge ball where I nearly knocked a guy out but had the favor returned a few games later. After adjusting my smashed up glasses off of my bashed in face, we all moved into a class room for the evenings lesson. Isn't Christian fellowship just fun sometimes!

The following Sunday I worshiped at Howick and the 200 some odd saints who call that church home. It is an amazing story, what is unfolding there (again another blog post sometime). But the Lord is working and bringing life back into that church. I had lunch that afternoon with an associate pastor named Calvyn Jonker and his family. As we consumed the world renowned South African borovos (sp?) sausage and steak, we talked about ministry in NZ and life in the States. I left lunch to meet with Peter and we worked out some ministry options if I were to come to Howick. In 4 weeks I will have an offer from the Shepherds' Bible college as well. When I do I will post some of the details on the this here blog and ask for your comments and feedback.

Whew! Then after that I flew home to Los Angeles. And here I am now typing the regaling story of my latest NZ adventure. We'll I feel that that's a good start for now. I'll post some more stuff later such as my now infamous photos of me herding sheep and what the sheep thought of that.

Welcome our Mysterious Iranian Friend

The company I work at uses Google analytics to track customer trends and stuff. I thought it might be interesting to apply this technology to my blog to learn a little bit more about who comes from where to read what. I checked the stats for the past 30 days and learned that not only do we receive more than 10 visits a day from folks but that one such visitor is straight from Tehran, Iran! Welcome to the birdnest family our mysterious Iranian friend!

A Wedding and A Lesson Learned

The whole family went North this last weekend to visit my mother. It has become something of Bird family tradition: when death enters the camp somebody gets married. First when my cousin Nathanael died, his sister decided to get married to her fiancé a couple of days before the funeral. Now that my mom has been diagnosed with cancer she thought it would be a good time to get married to her 13 year long fiancé! So this last Sunday a simple wedding ceremony was performed where I ‘gave’ my mom away. Talk about a strange month! And its only the 5th. So in the span of less than 10 days we will have dealt with graduation, cancer and a wedding. I think I might just ask for an honorary TH.M.

We learned just a couple of hours ago that mom was admitted to the hospital today for pneumonia. Amy has been calling her every morning for a few days to make sure everything is O.K. and to start her day off with a bit of prayer. Today when Amy called mom sounded poor and after a Dr’s visit and some x-rays a trip to the E.R. was ordered. She will be there for the week for observation and treatment.

A little lesson I though I might pass on. My mom has always had a very compassionate streak in her. She has always felt very sympathetic to those who have had hard or difficult lives. This extended to the type of men she dated throughout my childhood and teen years. My mothers new husband was one such man when he came into my life. I wrote him off the day he walked through the front door and have spent the last 13 years spending as little time as possible around him, yes I have on occasion even been guilty of hate (or as Jesus called it, committing murder in your heart) towards him.

Over the last two weekends I have had a great opportunity to talk with Steve and learn some tremendous things that I had never known. I now understand him in ways that for 13 years I had tried to avoid. And while he is not what most of us might consider a knight in shining white armor the Lord melted my heart for him on Saturday April 26th. I was confronted with the choice of continuing to harden my heart towards this man but as I reflected on the 13 years he and my mom have been together and the extraordinary lengths that he is going through to care for my mom I was ashamed that this unbeliever could show so much more unconditional love toward my mom that I had shown to him. I professed a God of compassion, mercy and love but had not demonstrated any of those things to this man but had chosen instead to join the chorus of naysayers and those critical of him.

While there are elements that can be criticized any weakness in my mothers new husband, these weaknesses ought to have been met with the strength of God’s love, compassion and ability to save. I failed as an evangelist in this regard because of the hate in my heart towards him. I repent of this and would ask you if you have withheld the compassion of God from some person in your life because of hate toward that person? If so remember that God came in flesh to save those just like the person you may now be thinking of. You may object that you don’t really hate the person- have you held their hand and explained the Gospel? If you haven’t then you are like I was and are walking in the footsteps of the lawyer, the Scribe and the Pharisee while the man you hate lays bleeding and dying at your feet. Be the humble Samaritan and do what no one else would ever expect you to do- stop look at your Savior and then turn to minister in humility and compassion the witness of God. Confess your error and forsake your hatred and you will the compassion of God with which you must approach the former object of your hatred. I can tell you now that God does not bless hatred, even toward an unbeliever. He does bless compassion and mercy. I don’t turn a blind eye to sin now but neither do I turn a blind eye to the tremendous needs of this man either. The compassion of God has allowed me to embrace one I have spent so much time hating and to accept him for who he is where he is at right now in his life. The only hope for any of us- you, me and Steve is Jesus Christ. The people you hate will never see this through you.

Cancer Strikes

You know that its going to strike your immediate family sooner or later. I've been fortunate to be on the latter end since in 28 years I've experienced very few deaths in my family. My grandmother is with the Lord as is my cousin Nathanael. But its different when death enters your camp. My mother called me tonight to tell me that she was diagnosed 4 months ago with terminal lung cancer that has already metastasized and is now present all over her body. I will be heading up tomorrow to be with her and to work out all the details of life and death so she has nothing to worry about. Since our blog has also developed into a sort of online family scrap book I will post periodic blogs about this experience that I hope will be of benefit to read and provide an opportunity for you to give some feedback and counsel. I will attempt to refrain from eulogizing the living but will also pass on any interesting family trivia or facts. I am keenly sensitive to preserving family history and will pester my mom to the grave (in this the pun is intended) for her life story. Please pray for me as I try to the best of my ability to love my mom to the end of her life and to do so with compassion for all of those who are in her life now. Lest there be anyone who might read this and take an opportunity to charge my God with cruelty I would point out that in the diagnosis of cancer is the wonderful grace of time. I could have received a phone call from my dad letting me know my mom died in some horrible car accident. But with the news I did receive I know that my mom will have the time to make things right in her life with everyone and with God. Most important we will have the time(s) between now and then to tell each other everything we want to. I will not see my mom die with the regret of not having told her something (even if it means I have to eat a little crow, participate in a little confession and ask for lots of forgiveness)!

Just For Fun

"Excuse me, what are you reading?"

We still aren't quite sure why Jonah felt the need to pick the statue's nose...

Update-Noah

For those that have asked, I thought I'd post an update. We are still mainly in the 'waiting to hear' stage with the doctors, but we are making progress in terms of getting him appointments to see someone who will hopefully be able to help. His pediatrician ordered a stomach x-ray and we had that done on Tuesday. He has also referred Noah to a gastroenterologist. In the meantime, Noah seems to be doing better in the eating department, and last night even opened up his mouth to eat his apples/blueberries! He finished the whole jar in about 5 minutes, and Scott and I were floored! Praise God for that. Having a fuller tummy also helps him sleep (he's still sleeping as I type this--at 8:13 am. Perhaps I should check to see if he's alive?) He has slept through the night this whole week, which is a welcome change for me. :)

Oh, I hear him crying now. It's 8:14. He must have just known I was writing about how good he sleeps! Silly guy. I'll go get him now...

We are also still waiting to hear about the neurologist. He was referred to one at UCLA and it is the kind of thing where they review the case and give you an appointment. Well, they scheduled Noah for July 8, which is too long to wait. Thankfully his pediatrician agrees with me and they are doing all they can to expedite his appointment there. The pediatrician faxed more information to the neurologist to justify moving up the appointment, and I should hear back today or tomorrow, hopefully. Noah will occasionally put his feet down--more so when his hips are bent at a 90 degree angle.

I'll continue to update when there's any more news to share. Thanks to all who are praying for him. He is a treasure for sure.

Feeding Noah

If anyone is up for a challenge, I invite you to come to our house to try to feed Noah. This kid gives new meaning to "stubborn." In his defense, I think he now associates eating with being sick (he will not tolerate rice, oatmeal, green beans, peas, or corn, and the list continues to grow). And the foods he does tolerate he does not enjoy. It often takes 3 sittings, a couple of hours, and many tears to finish 1 little jar of baby food. Even the foods he used to "like" (and I use the term very loosely) are now becoming a struggle to feed him. I tried applesauce this morning--a former favorite, and after gagging on it, he put his fingers in his mouth to try to scrape all he could off his tongue. I think we're down to carrots and prunes being the foods he will eat most consistently. The poor little guy has had a cold for the past couple of days, which I thought would make it easier to feed him (if he can't breathe through his nose, he's got to open his mouth, right? And if he is opening his mouth, it will be easier to feed him, right?) Wrong.
I am calling his Dr. again tomorrow to see if we can't get him in to see a gastroenterologist. Please pray for him, and for me as well, as it is very taxing for me to keep up with his nutritional needs right now. We'll keep you posted.

Spring

The days are getting longer and warmer, and this week has been such a great time for the boys to get outside and play. These pics were taken today, while we were waiting for the choo-choo to go by and watching for Daddy to ride his 'bicyle' home.
Does anyone know how to rotate the picture of Noah? I have the original rotated on my computer but when blogger uploads my vertical pics, this is how they come up. I believe this problem started when we got our mac (which I love in all other respects).

For Hope

Jonah just loves his cousin so much! Hope is such a sweet girl. This is just a short but cute video from when Jonah was on his way to mail Hope a letter yesterday.

Deep Sadness

Scott's cousin was tragically killed on Friday night. He was 21 years old and per family request cannot offer any more detail. Nevertheless the experience has been sobering, saddening and numbing. Scott and his cousin were close as children so the loss has been pointed for him. If you would like to please pray for the family of Scott's cousin, they are understandably upset and grieving. Pray for us as we work day by day through our response. There will be a memorial service within the week, please pray that our believing family may even in the midst of such dark grief find the joy of Jesus Christ. For our unbelieving family may this tragedy even be redeemed through a powerful gospel witness and compassionate love.

The only pearl of wisdom we can offer is that if you have little ones hug them a few extra times tomorrow. We continue to confess with singular devotion that despite the bitter hand that has visited us the Lord our God is good,- perfect and without reproach in his ways and worthy even in this- to be praised and glorified.

Check-Ups

I took both boys in for their well-baby check-ups this week. A huge praise is that I finally found a pediatrician that I like!! He is willing to listen to my concerns and he was good with the boys, too. He found a vaccination that our previous pediatrician missed with Jonah, which meant an extra shot for him, but now he's all caught up.

At two years, Jonah is 36 1/2 inches tall and he weighs 31 1/2 pounds. He's a big boy but very healthy and right on track with everything.

At nine months, Noah is 28 1/2 inches tall and he weighs 19 pounds on the nose. His growth slowed down a bit since his last check-up, probably in part due to the trouble he's had in the feeding department. The Dr. referred him to a neurologist for a few concerns that he saw, primarily because Noah is not yet bearing any weight on his legs at all. He wanted to make sure to rule out any problems with him right away, because the earlier treatment is started in the event that something is wrong, the better the results will be. Hooray! I've addressed this concern with 3 other doctors over the last 3 months, all of whom treated me like I was one of those mothers who if their child is one day past reaching their milestones on time, they freak out and assume the worst.

After their appointments, we all went over to our friend Lynda's house, and went on a beautiful walk to pretty little park where Jonah played 'til he dropped! So fun!

A Long, Long Way...

I didn't sleep much last night. Noah was up for much of the night...again. I'm tired. The first thought I had this morning was not "God, thank you for the sleep I got and for your sufficient grace to get me through today" but rather it was more like, "God, don't you know that I need--I deserve--more sleep than this?!? Especially since I have two energetic boys to tend to today...why didn't Noah sleep so that I could get the sleep I need?"
I am not predisposed to exercise much patience with my boys today. This was already clearly demonstrated in a very ironic way this morning. Knowing my weakness but also wanting to remain faithful in my quiet time, I opened up my study this morning to find that the passage would be Romans 2:1-6,17. I had a rich time in the Word, gleaning much from the Scriptures and finding myself thankful for God's gift of repentance to me. As I studied, Noah began fussing. My sin welled up inside and I sharply, impatiently, told him to Stop! In my heart, I was mad at him for first keeping me up all night and then distracting me from my Bible study. (After all, I'm trying to be godly here!) And then I looked down at one of my verse 4 in my passage for today, which says,

"Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?"

Some thoughts:
*I found myself being thankful for God's lovingkindness to us as sinners while almost simultaneously demonstrating the opposite quality to my son. Shame on me.
*What am I trusting in for righteousness? Why am I tempted to think that I can only succeed if I receive an adequate amount of sleep the night before? This attitude smacks of trying to do things in my own strength rather than walking by the Spirit. Of course I'll fail if I try to obey without the help of the Spirit.
*At the end of the day, there are no excuses. It doesn't matter how much sleep I got or how fussy my children were or any other circumstances. These various happenings are what God ordained for me that day.
*It is my own sin that makes me short-tempered...not a lack of sleep! The lack of sleep is just the circumstance that brought about the sin that was already there in my heart.
*I am called to demonstrate God's love to my children. I oftentimes fail.
*I find that I'm even more vulnerable to sin when I'm trying so desperately to do good and fight sin.
*God never sleeps. And He's still longsuffering. That's really cool to me right now.
*I'll take the opportunity for a nap today, if the opportunity presents itself (i.e. if I can get both boys down for their naps at the same time). Taking care of the body's basic needs allow more room for self-control when I'm tempted to sin.
*I've got a long, long way to go in demonstrating Christ-likeness.

Quite sobering.

My Kind of Prison

This is Scott here, been a while since I posted but I was just captivated by this video! As many of you know I am involved in rehab and prison ministry. One of the most distressing things is to see is the effect that the shift from punishment to rehabilitation has had on so many. The lock up used to be a deterant to crime but talk to many and prison time is now just an 'expected' part of life. Prison wasn't meant to be pleasant but the shift in emphasis from punishment to rehabilitation has only exacerbated the problem. Now petty homeboys are locked up with gang veterans who in essence disciple their younger homeboys. Add muscle building activities and our prison s #1 export is the hard bodied, street wise homeboy. This isn't to say the guys who get to prison don't deserve to be there. If you've ever been around one you know why they exist. I just don't think the rehabilitative model is producing the kind of guys Lady Justice would feel comfortable going on a date with!

In other countries people do thing differently. Instead of lounging around becoming more depraved prisoner, in the facility on this video achieved something visually stunning. Sure it may just be a stunt but think of all the time, dedication and effort put into learning how to pull this off and you soon will realize that all the time, dedication and effort put into this was not put into other more insidious enterprises. Look, if we can't bring back chain gangs and work crews then at least let us be entertained by them!