Upside down

I’ve spent a lot of time lately pondering the innate upside down truths of the Gospel. Dying to live. Loving enemies. The meek inheriting the earth. All of it is foolishness … and yet, I have seen it, lived it, been blessed by it. My story is full of moments where what should not be was, and what man called impossible came to pass.

I bet yours is, too.

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Being equally yoked

Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? ~ 2 Corinthians 6:14

I’ve been riding the bus to and from work for years now, and while I find it more relaxing than commuting by car each day (not to mention the money saved on parking and gas), I must say, some days I would prefer the quiet of my own vehicle rather than be bothered by someone else’s very loud conversation. It’s not so much a matter of eavesdropping as it is that some people are just plain noisy or they really want to be overheard for the attention.

During a bus ride from work one evening, however, I couldn’t help but listen to a young woman begin a conversation with a young man, both of whom were sitting behind me. Continue reading

Perfectly imperfect

Dear lady standing next to me at the public bathroom sink,

Yes, I have an issue, and it’s called OCD. The chemical misfires in my brain tell me that if I don’t wash my hands exactly as prescribed by professionals, my hands will be contaminated with all sorts of nastiness from touching the stall room doors– to the detriment and deterioration of my personal health.

Of course, you realize this too, that’s why you’re washing your hands. But you don’t do it with the same urgency, the same conviction, the same desperate scrubbing motions and the “Oh man, I lost count there, am I at two minutes or only one and half?”

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Created by God

God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him. ~ Genesis 1:27

I was standing in the bathroom one morning with my wife, both of us looking at our reflections in the mirror, laughing at how we can’t seem to stop getting and looking older.

Despite the fact that the red hair once found in my beard is now mostly white, and my wife’s hair shows wisps of gray (I love it), what we really were saying was, “How did we become who we are? When did the ‘we’ that we see arrive and where did it come from?”

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Working together

Next to him Shallum the son of Hallohesh, the official of half the district of Jerusalem, made repairs, he and his daughters. ~ Nehemiah 3:12

Of my children, I have mostly boys. Two of them have reached the age where when they ask to help their dad, they actually are helpful! You know what I mean. I love my littlest boys, but I certainly know that if they ask to help me with a chore or task, it’s going to take twice as long, I’m going to get frustrated and finally send them on their way so that I can actually get the work done.

But not so with my older boys. Just the other day, I basically let the two of them put together a set of bunk beds while I supervised. I think they could have done it without me. And the oldest one was champing at the bit to put together a set of shelves I had purchased several months prior but wasn’t quite a high enough priority for me.

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It {what parents fear most}

We all blink. All of us.

Good parents blink. Bad parents blink. Even those of us in-the-middle, just-trying-to-be-decent parents blink.

In the seconds when we close our eyes– at night, when exhaustion consumes us, while our back is turned and we’re stirring the soup, in the millisecond it takes to reach into a diaper bag and retrieve a Kleenex for a snotty nose– things happen.

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Teaching the truth

“You shall teach them diligently to your sons.” ~ Deuteronomy 6:7a

I don’t know about you, but I think raising sons is sometimes harder than raising daughters. I’ve always felt like I must offer instruction to my daughters about what it takes to be a man, a husband, a father, a head of household leader because they don’t know what it means to be any of these things. God made them girls who by His grace and blessing will grow to be women. They’ll never be men, so I need to tell them what to expect and give them a strong example followed by words of wisdom.

For the boys, it just seems like these things ought to be innate within them and so it’s not so much for me to teach them as to let them grow, guiding them every once in awhile by example.

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Telling stories

Taking the child by the hand, He said to her, “Talitha kum!” (which translated means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). ~ Mark 5:41

Stories. In my house, we tell stories. My children love to hear stories of when they were young, when my wife and I were young, of brothers and sisters and relatives, of birthdays and holidays.

Many stories we’ve told before, and sometimes I wonder if I actually have any stories left to tell. But it never really seems to matter because they love to hear them over and over again, and as we all grow older there will be new ones to share.

There’s power in a story. It’s more than just history. It’s a chance to take a person back to a moment in time when something happened that left an indelible mark upon your heart. Some stories are sad, some funny, some a joy to tell again and again. And some will change your life if you let them.

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Four cute kids and some goo

We received a free product for the purpose of writing this review. Our family only reviews items that we actually find valuable and are able to be 100% honest about regarding our experience. We received no monetary compensation for our opinion. Links contained in this post may direct to affiliate sites.

We had the chance to sit down, mix some colors, and mash some goo. What happens next probably won’t blow your mind, but yeah, it was pretty awesome.

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