Today I will switch gears a little and I want to talk about what God is dealing with me in my life. First you have to know that I am a person that constantly worries about situations or events and it is so that I can make myself sick in doing this. I lose sleep and my mind just races when there is a situation that I know could be confrontation (but for some reason I don't lose my apatite...lol). But here lately God has been showing me the scripture that says cast all your cares on me and He is teaching me that He is bigger than any circumstance that might come my way. God cares about the things that we go through but more important than that He wants to go through these things with us. He will not leave us by ourselves. God really has shown up in this area in my life and He has already started hearing my prayers and intervening in my life and the situations that have come up. God is do faithful and He is a great God. I have learned to walk in His presence more and more and to depend on His strength and not just my own. I am a person that when there is a problem or a circumstance that I want to be the first to fix it, but I am quickly learning that I am nothing without Him. He is my everything and He wants to be my everything. I just have to be willing to allow Him to be everything and allow him to be in control. The great characteristic about God is that He is Lord over all. He is Lord even if we do not want Him to be Lord of our lives. If you have not given God the Lordship that He deserves then I encourage you to do so today. He wants that relationship with you and He wants to bless your life in every way.

Hello again, Well my Sunday School class was great. There were 20 couples and we talked about Commitment. It was really a great time and I feel that the couples received it well. I will also say that while studying this topic I learned a few things myself. Commitment is not just for when everything is peaches and whipped cream. Commitment is through everything (the good, the bad, and the ugly). The commitment is not just a commitment between the Husband and the wife but it is a covenant that is made between you and God. We talked about all these things and I felt really good that I could be used by God to impart into people's lives. I give God all the glory for this. Our next class we will still be covering the commitment and what it actually looks like in a relationship. Let me start off by saying that with this past lesson and this next lesson it is not easy to speak because it requires death to the flesh. What does commitment look like in the marriage? Well let me start off by saying that it looks like flesh being burnt at the alter daily and each one willing to lay down their life for the other one. Commitment looks like one making a sacrifice for the other, taking responsibility for the marriage, for the children, for the home and for the mistakes that might be made by one. In everything that we do as a married couple we need to realize that our spouse comes before us. To live selfless towards them. I might have to put off something that I want or want to do so that my spouse can do what they need to do. If you are not ready to make a commitment then you are not ready to be married for long term, which is really how the world lives. The world treats marriage like taking a car for a test drive. If I do not like it I will just get another one. MAKE ME SICK. Now the world has such a crooked picture of a marriage that it is accepting the marriage between the same gender. Our marriage should mirror the marriage of Christ and the Church. The constant dying of self and giving of yourself for one another. Selfish living is wrong living. look at Christ, He never lived for himself but rather for the people that he served and broke bread with. Are we ready for that type of COMMITMENT?

The married life

Let's talk about married life and what a commitment that it is. This month at our church for the next three Sundays my wife and I will be teaching a Sunday School class to young married couples that have been married five years or less. The main theme for this class this year is commitment. That is a very big word and I really think that we have lost what it means to be committed to someone in HOLY MATRIMONY. Could it be that we believe that we see a commitment as a contract that can be broken because we don't feel like being in a relationship anymore or because our feelings got hurt. God made a covenant with Abraham in the Bible that he would be the Father of many nations and that the blessings would fall on him. God did not go back on His word but He fulfilled it and keep His promises no matter what Abraham did wrong or the mistakes that he made. God knew the heart of Abraham and He was willing to put His promises on the line for that man. We need to look at a commitment as a covenant (not a contract) that we make because God has lead us to that place and because we want to glorify God in all that we do. A contract can be easily broken without much of a consequence but when you break a covenant that you have made between you and God to be in a marriage with this person then you have major consequences to suffer for that. The married life has never been easy when it is done right. It takes a sacrifice on the part of both parties and most people are too selfish to make those sacrifices in their lives for the people that they marry. God does not make mistakes by putting people together and we hear it said all the time that God put this person in my life but when life gets tough we feel that God changed His mind on who we should be with or should not be with. The only way for a marriage to glorify God is for HIM to be the center of the marriage and all your trust and love are to Him and Him alone.

Hello All, I would like to write something in regards to the shooting at the elementary school last week in Connecticut. This was a horrifying act from an individual that made some very wrong decisions. Obviously there was something wrong in his life and we could set and speculate all day what that was but the truth is that he lacked having the presence of God in his life. None of these people deserved to die the way that they did, parents lost children, husbands lost wives, wives lost husbands and children lost parents. Was this God's plan for these people? Was this suppose to happen? Let me say this about that, when you live outside of God's presence anything can happen. Bad things happen outside the presence of God. God's will is perfect, good and acceptable when we live in it. God's will is for none to perish and fall short of His glory but there are so many that are falling short. We need to fall on our knees like never before and pray for this nation. I am praying that this attack will open the eyes of the leaders of this great land and prompt them to turn their hearts back to the First Love of their lives, Jesus. We all have the same opportunities in this life and we will make of our selves what we want to, whether good or evil. Pray that good prevails and walk in God's grace that He has given you.

it's all new

Well this weekend and most of Monday and Tuesday we have been moving into our new house. It is a beuatiful brand new house and everythign smells new. There is new carpet, paint on the walls, cabinets, and tile>

Monday night was the first night sleeping in the house and it was nice. The kids played video games as Tara and I went to bed exhausted from moving and unpacking. But we all slept well and got up this morning to bacon, eggs and toast for breakfast.

This week our nephew is staying with us and I told him that we appreciated him coming to help us move, he did not find that too funny. It has been hard keeping my kids motivated to help with the move since they would rather play with Caden(our Nephew. But they have done good.

The unpacking will never end. I think that we will have to get rid of some things.

Exciting times

My Family is so excited because our new house should be done and we should be able to move in next week.

We are very thankful for the housing that we have and we are blessed to live in such a place like Heartland where all the houses are nice and beautiful.

The house that we are moving into we were given the privilege to pick our all of our flooring, the paint colors for the walls and the counter tops for all the cabinets. What a blessing to have.

Thank you God for all that you have given to us as your children and help us not to loose the gratefulness for the many blessings in our lives.

Been a while

Well it has been a while since I posted anything so I thought I would write today.

Last Saturday our kids returned home to us as we went to Camdenton to pick them up and I think for the most part they were ready to get home and back to the routine of life. My wife and I missed our children greatly and are glad to have them back.

My wife and I did not have a great week while they were gone, we were not fighting or anything it is that it went by too fast and it seemed that everynight we had something going on that we could not be together. But we survived and now life is back to normal.

This week at my house we have decided to leave the TV off and to just be together as a family. We are wanting to have more interaction with our kids and to have more family time than just sitting around and watching TV or playing video games.

Monday night we had a baseball game and so we were gone the whole evening. Tuesday night we spent the evening at the house. While one child was doing school work the others were helping mom can tomatoes. I went for a run after fixing dinner and eating. But the whole evening just was peaceful since the TV was not on and it seemed to go very well. We will see how the rest of the week will go.

I am so excited that my brother and his family are coming this weekend. We have not seen them in a while and so it will be good. Also excited because we are going golfing...