My Daughter

My daughter just finished 8th grade. This has caused me to reflect back on what has happened in her life so far. Here comes the nostalgia.

Thank You God for her birth. She was born five weeks early and had to spend the first nine days of her life in the hospital. Her lungs were not full developed and had to be watched 24/7. She was transfered from Mercy in Aurora to Lutheran General in Park Ridge. Not being able to hold your own child for the first nine days, very painful.

Thank You God for getting her through her heart surgery when she was a year old. She had a hole in her heart that should have closed by itself by the age of six months. It did not. So she had to have surgery. Thank You Jesus for answering our prayers, even when we weren't walking with you. I did not know You at the time, but yet You still kept Your hand on the situation. Looking at her today, you would never know that she had these problems in her first year of life.

Thank You God for her very first day of school in kindergarden. Her class would line up outside and then all go in together. She went in the building but somehow got seperated from her class. So she came back outside crying that she was lost. Good thing I didn't leave right away. I got her straightened around and she made it through her first day.

Thank You God for every parent/teacher confrence that I ever went to was a positive one. Every teacher from kindergarden all the way to her eighth grade, gushed about her. How helpful she was in class. How she did everything they asked her to do. Her awesome grades. Even when she changed schools, the teachers could not tell that she was a transfer. She adapted so easily. Thank You Jesus.

I thank You God for her musical and acting abilities. She recieved the highest score on her solo ensamble in sixth grade. She won an award for that. She sang the song "I Can Only Imagine" by Mercy Me. Made us all cry! She has tried out for and was awarded roles in every play from the sixth grade to the eighth. Not afraid to be on stage.

Thank You God for her softball ability. She is a really good player and understands the game well! I love being able to go out and play catch with her. Every Dad's dream right. To play catch with their kid.

Thank You God for her being a Cardinals fan and for loving the game of baseball. She actually wants to get a score book and keep score of games we watch on tv. Awesome! Her school went on a field trip last week up to Milwaukee to watch the Brewers play. Her friend wanted to walk around, but my daughter said that she came to watch the game! She would ask questions and give answers to her friend. I was so proud of her!!

Thank You God for blessing me with my daugher! I don't know what I did to deserve her, but thank You!

Crickets!

About a month ago or so, I was asked to give my testimony to our youth group at church. How I have been saved and for how long. Then I was asked to do a little Bible study along with it. I said sure I would do it. I was very excited for this oppurtunity.

So I researched and came up with some scipture that would go along with what I was going to talk about. My Bible study was going to be about what it means to be a new person in Christ. How your old life has died and you have a new life in Jesus.

So I read Romans 12:2, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Galatians 2:20 and finally pulled it together with 1 Peter 4:4-5.

 In my mind I was going to speak for the full hour. I anticipated group interaction and a lot of questions. In reality, it lasted only about 10 minutes and was met with silence. Like in the movies when you hear crickets chirping when something boring happens.

 I praise God for the oppurtunity to even speak in front of them. I praise God for giving me the courage to do so.

What it means to be Christian

What it means to be a Christian. My definition and your definition are probably different, but hopefully some of the points will be the same. To me being a Christian is to believe that the Bible is God inspired and the Word is true! To live out your Christian walk everday, not just on Sunday.

Recently President Obama made a statement regarding same sex marriages. He thinks that they should be legal. He has been quoted as saying that he calls himself a Christian. If he is a Christian, then he can not believe in this. The Bible says in Mark 10: 6-9
⁶ But ‘God made them male and female’^[a] from the beginning of creation. ⁷ ‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife,^{[b] 8} and the two are united into one.’^[c] Since they are no longer two but one, ⁹ let no one split apart what God has joined together.”

The Bible is full of all kinds of things that we are not supposed to do. I try to follow it as closely as I can, but I am far from perfect.

 Ephesians 5:18

¹⁸ Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit.

I have not had a drink since 2003. I just choose not to. The Bible tells me not to get drunk, so I don't.

Ephesians 4:29

²⁹ Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. 

The first part of this was a hard one for me to change. I worked on a shipping dock, with truck drivers around all the time. So changing my speech was very difficult for me. The Bible says not to use foul or abusive language, so I stopped. The second part of that passage is easy for me. I am always encouraging people, lifting them up. I always try to see the best in everyone. It's not always easy, I still struggle with this.

This can go on and on. I am just trying to say is that saying you are a Christian, you have to line up with what the Bible says. You can't believe what the Bible says and then go out and say or do something different. Like I said in the opening, this is just my thoughts on what it means to be a Christian. I love everyone the same. I may not like their lifestyle choice, but that is between them and God!

Golden Child

I was reminded earlier this week of a conversation I had with a co-worker a few years ago. We worked at a manufacturing company in the shipping department. I had only been there about two years, my co-worker had been there about twenty four years. So quite the distance in time between us in years of service. Since I still considered myself a "new" employee, I would do whatever needed to get the job done. Come in early, stay late, whatever. He was a forty hour a week guy and out the door. So he started calling me the "golden child". He told me that according to our boss, I could never do any wrong. He kept making fun of me about this.

I asked him what he meant by calling me the golden child? Did he mean that because I would do what the boss would ask me without complaining. Did he mean put in the extra time, again without complaining. Did he mean never calling in sick or missing time. I told him I did what was expected of me. My boss expected me to be there everyday. He expected me to do my job. So apparently I was making my co-worker look bad by doing all that.

I told him that I wasn't working for my boss or even the company. I was working for Jesus. Just like the book of  Colossians says,

Colossians 3:23

New Living Translation (NLT)

²³ Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.

So I urge everyone that is working at a job. Do it willingly. You may not like it, but God has you there for a reason. I know this first hand! Praise the Lord for my job!

Misguided Thinking

So the other night at our park district girls softball practice, the subject of being gay came up in conversation. Amongst the girls, not me. They were talking about the tv show Glee and how some of the characters are gay. One girl started saying how it is ok with God to be gay. That's when I got involved. I told her that it is NOT ok with God. Homosexuality is a sin, and if you practice it you will not inherit the Kingdom of God. I told her that as Christians, we love the sinner and hate the sin. Then she proceded to tell me that it says in the Bible that it is ok to be gay. Really? Tell me where. It is not in there anywhere. I asked her when the last time that she read her Bible was. She couldn't tell me. I told her I could come up with a couple of Scripture passages that show that God is against this sin.

1 Corinthians 6:⁹ Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, ¹⁰ or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God.

Then 1 Timothy 1:8-11.

Then she wanted to know how come God made them gay. I told her that God didn't make anyone a homosexual. He gives us free choice. We can either choose to live for Him, or not for Him. He let's us choose.

She kept wanting to argue, but I just said enough was enough and continued practice. I feel for this younger generation. They are lost and need to hear the Truth. Not worldly lies.

You Never Know Who is Watching!

I received a text message earlier this week from my niece, asking me a question I didn't see coming. It was an awesome question and one that I was very eager to answer.

Let me set the stage for you. The back story if you will.

My niece is a starting varsity pitcher for our local high school girls softball team. She is very good and very  talented! She told me a little while ago that when she pitches she recites a Bible verse before every pitch. How awesome is that! A high school softball player reciting a Bible verse while pitching in a game. I was blown away!

So now for the question. She texted me and told me that for the last two years she had been reciting the same verse, and now she wanted a new one. One that had to deal with strength. She wanted to know if I knew of one. Wow! I was beside my self. Of course I knew of some. I emailed her two or three of them and I gave her my favorite one. Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

I texted her this past Wednesday to see which one if any she had decided to use, and which one had she used in the past. She told me that for the last two years she had been using John 3:16, but she wanted one more relevant to her situation. She told me that she has them all written down on a piece of paper and puts them in her back pocket while she is playing. The one that she recites is the one from Philippians. AWESOME!! I am moved beyond belief that she reached out to me for scripture verses. That just goes to show...Live and act like Jesus at all times. You never know who is watching you.
God bless my niece!

South Carolina

My mom called me last Wednesday to see if I would be interested in going on a road trip with her and my brother to South Carolina to see my nephew play baseball. He plays college baseball at North Greenville University, in Greenville, South Carolina. I told her to give me the details and I would let her know.

They planned on leaving Thursday night, driving all the way through. And then leaving on Saturday night, driving all the way through. I thought about it and decided to go. How often to I ever get alone time with both my mom and brother? Never! So my brother picked me up and then we went to meet my mom. We headed out about 8:00 Thursday night. The trip down was about twelve hours.

We watched his game on Friday, which they won by the way. We went out to dinner and then walked downtown Greenville. If you have never been, you need to go. That place is awesome! The only good night sleep we got was on Friday night. We spent the night in a hotel. We got up on Saturday and watched two more of their games, which they won also. A three game sweep. Awesome. My brother who lives in Virginia came down and meet us all on Saturday also. Praise the Lord. We all went out to dinner with my nephew and his girlfriend. We headed for home about 10:40 pm. We arrived home at 11:00 am. So all in all, twenty four and a half hours of driving. Three baseball games. A real good sunburn. Lots of laughs and fellowship with my family! PRICELESS!! I thank GOD for these times! They don't come around very often, so when they do, I cherish them. Cherish every moment you have with your family, you never know when it might be the last. God bless my family! Every single one of them.