Flossing

I have never been a real lover of flossing.  The traditional rolls of floss were always a pain in the rear and didn’t do the job that well because they required me to put my fat fingers into my mouth and get between all the teeth.  I always felt like it took forever and I never did a great job.  So, I was never much of a remember-to-floss-daily kind of guy. 

That is until the advent of the new floss pick kind of devices.  They are so easy to use, the floss there is strong, and it doesn’t seem to take forever.  Now, I’d never say that flossing was exciting, but these make it easier to do and has made me a regular flosser, as Dr. Colahan says I should be.

I mention flossing because the other day when I was flossing God hit me with a thought.  Anybody can floss when they feel something between their teeth.  However, the regular flossing keeps a person’s teeth clear of the little bits of buildup that their tooth brush can leave behind. 

When I relate that to my spiritual life, the tooth brush is prayer.  I do that daily in order to clean away the garbage from my life.  However, if I want a better cleaning of the sin that can build up in my life, then I have to study God’s word, get into devotionals, and actually live for Him.  Anyone can pray, but a true follower of Christ will do the things every day that are needed to make sure the buildup never happens in the first place.

So, my question for you this week:  Have you flossed lately?

Memorial Day

I have to admit to you, I love Memorial Day weekend.  It’s not just for the day off work, though it does help!  When I was growing up this was always the start of summer in my mind.  In my hometown of  Port Clinton this is the weekend of the annual Walleye Festival.  That meant a parade, and just lots of stuff going on in town.

Now as I’ve grown up the Walleye Festival has become less important to me.  In fact, if I don’t go there at all I’m fine with it.  Yet, we always end up going back to spend time with my parents and enjoy the parade (aka enjoying the kids who enjoy the parade).  It brings back memories and is always an enjoyable family time.

I mention all of this because  in reliving my memories we’re hopefully also creating memories for our kids.  We’re trying to pass on the good times and have things that we do that are traditions.  These kinds of things will hopefully be things that our kids will remember when they have kids of their own.  It’s those lasting memories that we feel are important for a family and that bind all the generations together.

What kind of memories have you created for your family, or do you want to create when you have a family?  If you truly want a loving family atmosphere with kids that love God as much as you do, then you have to spend time together.  So, why not spend time creating memories/traditions that will have a lasting impression.  Grow close to your kids, and hopefully they’ll be able to pass that on to their families as well.

Lastly, I’d like to take the opportunity to thank all of those who have spent time in the armed forces and local support services or had loved ones who have done so.  I thank you for protecting our freedoms.  God bless you all.

Different Is Good

A month ago, as we were traveling for a basketball tournament, I discovered a radio station in the Toledo area.   It’s a Christian station that plays  a lot of the Christian alternative music that I enjoy.    Red, Skillet, Toby Mac, Lecrae, Family Force 5, Hawk Nelson, Capital Kings, and Owl City are in regular rotation on this station.  They also play a number of different shows that are informative.  The best part for me is that I can stream it online. 

Now this station may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I am really enjoying it right now.  I often listen to 97.7 out of Castalia, 95.5 The Fish from Cleveland, and the national Air1 streams.  But having more variety in my listening is making me happy.  Depending on my mood comma  I now have even more options for good, quality Christian music to listen to during my days. 

As I stress over and over again, it’s all about putting God first.  Part of that for me is putting God in my mind first and foremost, and I do that by listening to quality radio stations that remind me all day long of His love for me.  Maybe this station isn’t the one for you, but then again maybe it is.  Check it out if it may be:

http://www.yeshome.com

Lose The Weight

I’ve decided that losing weight is just too hard for me.  As I noted last week, our schedule is too rough and we end up eating at strange times, and often we don’t have time to make a good-for-us kind of meal.  But to me that isn’t even my biggest problem.  That would be the fact that I love all the things that just aren’t good for me.  I love chocolate.  I like pop.  I LOVE bread.  I am not a big fruit eater, though there are a few that I do like.  When I am hungry between meals, peeling a banana or orange is just too much work when you compare that to putting my hand in a bag of chips and getting some out. 

Yet, with all of that said I’m not happy with where I am.  I know a lot of that is just an excuse.  If I truly wanted to lose the weight I could, right?  It would be much easier if I talked to God about it and let Him lead my weight loss, right?  So the only way it’s going to change is if I make a step in the correct direction.

This is almost parallel to people and their relationship with God.  There are many people in the world who think that having a relationship with God could be a good thing for them, but they aren’t willing to give up the things in their lives that they like.  They like going out drinking and partying all the time.  Their favorite rock band or singer curses all the time and they couldn’t see giving that up.  Maybe they love porn or cursing themselves and couldn’t see giving that up.  It’s also easier just to stay where they are than to make the move into the unknown.

Just like with weight loss, it’s easier to give excuses and not make a change.  It’s easy to see the benefits but hard to make the change.  The incentive seems so far away, quite often to the point that it’s too far away.  Yet, just like weight loss, when you start to see little progresses in your life they become addictive in their own right.  When you lose five pounds you think that maybe the end goal might be attainable.  Same with your life changing when you get a relationship with God.  He will take your life and change it little by little until it’s so much better. 

Can you do it?  Yes, 100% yes.  Don’t give up, go towards the goal, and enjoy the small victories that are leading toward the bigger ones.  You are worth it, and a life with God is worth it as well.

It's Not Easy

When I first started to think about having kids I knew that it wasn’t going to be an easy thing.  I knew that diapers weren’t going to be my friend.  I knew that there was going to be the birds and the bees talks as well.  Yet one thing that I didn’t think about was all the time I was going to be investing.  I knew there would be helping with homework and sports (ok I was hoping there, and thankfully it has been realized!). 

My weeks are almost completely run by my children’s schedules.  With three kids and their various events it’s all that Traci and I can do to keep our heads from spinning off.  Almost every night we have at least one kid with a practice or game.  Then you add on their homework and other school events and that is a busy schedule.  Then, as a Christian family we also have church events that we add in there.  Oh, and Traci sells Pampered Chef, I move tables and chairs at our church, and we both try (she more than I) to get workouts in, have meals to make, laundry and housekeeping stuff to do, etc.

That is a pretty busy schedule, one that I never had dreamed of when I first thought about having kids.  People often ask me how we do it all, and I’m extremely honest with everyone.  If it wasn’t for us not only having God in our lives, but having Him first in our lives, none of this could be accomplished.  We might not always make it to church on Sundays but we live the Christian life every day.  To me that is the key.  God has to be #1 for us.  Then my family comes second, then everything else. 

God never promised any of us that life was going to be easy.  He never promised that raising kids was going to be easy.  (Especially in this day of social networks, the internet, cell phones, video games, and the list goes on.)  Yet, through it all I love this task that God has given me.  I can’t predict how my kids will end up as adults.  However, I know that God has His hands all over the three of them, and that with His guidance we’ll get them to where He wants them all to be.  It’s not going to be easy, but living our lives with God is worth it.

Tragedies = Heroes

I have been reflecting on the Boston marathon bombing over the last few days. I have been thinking about how horrific that had to be for anyone who was there. I have also thought about how messed up someone has to be in order to even plan out and execute something like that.

However, the thing that is really getting my attention is the fact that so many heroes come out of events like this. How people stop all that they are doing and are willing to do anything they can to help others.  Some do this by responding with their physical abilities right when they are needed. Others do this by donating time and/or money after the events.

Yet the biggest lesson that I get out of events like the Boston bombing, the recent hurricanes, and even 9/11 is how we as a people come together when we stop dividing ourselves. The people who responded didn't look at someone needing assistance and ask them if they were a Republican or Democrat before responding. They didn't ask people what religion they were. They certainty didn't go help someone else instead of the one person in front of them just because they were a different skin color.

God doesn't want us to be divided in this world. He wants us to be united as one people, His people. He wants to bring us all together to win over the hearts of non-believers for Him. It doesn't matter your political affiliation. It doesn't matter if you are poor or rich. You can be white, black, or green behind the ears. None of that matters.  When we stop dividing ourselves and instead work for a common goal we can truly be a force in this world.

As you reflect on the recent tragedies in the world I hope you see all of the heroes out there and how they all banded together to improve the world around them. When you see this unitedness I hope you get a glimpse of God in everyone working together. And I pray that this will help to energize you further to get out God's message as well as have tolerance toward those around you.

God bless America.

Bungee

Have any of you ever wanted to bungee jump?  I can honestly say that it’s not really something I’m ever going to be interested in.  I’ve seen it done a number of times on TV, and that is more than enough for me personally.

The other weekend I heard a reference to bungee jumping that got my attention, and I thought it might interest you as well:

Quite often as Christians we go about our lives as if we are at the edge of a bridge and about to jump.  But instead of the strong relationship with Christ that we could have that is like a bungee cord, we instead jump into every day with just a piece of string.  Not fully willing to trust in God, we instead act like what we have is strong enough, and when the string breaks we often wonder why.  God then lowers the bungee cord to save us, the cord that was always available if we had just trusted Him.

So this week’s lesson is this:  The stronger your relationship with Christ is, the easier the bounce back will be when we fall.  Let’s be honest, we are all going to fall at some point.  We are all sinners so let’s not act like we’re not.  We need huge amounts of God in our lives that make the bounce back from those sins smaller.  With only a little bit of God in our lives the string will break, and we will fall hard.  I don’t know about you, but I prefer a stronger cord than to fall on my face when I do fall.