I Have a Vision

This is a picture of the back wall of my office as I began my "three month office remodeling project". That's what I call it now. When I started, I was going to "paint my office".

"So what has changed?" you ask. Nothing. I have no remodeling plans other than painting, but it is just going to take a while. But I have a vision!

Several years ago, while visiting Brooke's paretns, I looked at the white wall, black trim look of Brooke's Dad's office and thought to myself, "I like that". As I was thinking about hanging some new pictures in my office today, I finally decided to go for it, and the painting began.

But my vision is bigger than just white walls and black trim. I am a VERY proud Texan (wasn't born here, but I was one of those who got here as fast as I could), and I have decided my office is going to become a Texas room. Once my paint job is completed, I am going to start with a Texas flag on the wall right where the two homemade posters hang in the picture above. After that, I'm going to add "Texas stuff" to my office as the budget allows.

I'm doing one small section at a time. No moving all the furniture to the middle of the room and painting the whole thing at once. I want to enjoy the project and not stress out over it, plus I'll have to buy the supplies a little here and a little there. I began with the "poster wall" tonight. I'm taking down all of the trim so I can paint without having to tape. I am not a very big painting fan, but I HATE having to tape and paint. Of course, the house was home made (the people who lived here before us literally built the house 40 years ago) and some of the building materials are not exactly up to today's standards. The trim is actually some sort of coated stryofoam! As cheap (quality) as it is, I'm saving all I can. Once it's painted black, it will look good and that's one less item I have to buy.

My goal for tomorrow is painting the trim I have taken down (to see if the leftover black paint I found is going to look OK) and to paint half of the ceiling (with the leftover ceiling paint I found). I have to take down more trim before painting the other half of the ceiling. We'll see how it goes, but I have a vision!

Amanda's 10th Birthday in Alabama

Birthday Boy

This is Sully, and today is his birthday. Actually, today is the day we celebrate his birthday. We rescued him from the pound so we don't know when his birthday is for sure, so we celebrate December 17...the day we brought him home from the pound.

I believe it was in 2002 we were looking for a second dog to keep Boo company. We were leaning toward another Cocker Spaniel (Boo is a Cocker), so when one became available at the pound, I took Boo to meet the new dog. My Mom is the one who saw the Cocker at the pound, so she went with me. The Cocker was not very friendly and did not want to have anything to do with Boo. I was disappointed and ready to go when Mom said, "Did you see that Snauzer over there?" I really was not interested, but she insisted, and so we let him out into the outdoor pen to meet Boo and me. He immediately ran up to Boo and wanted to play, and then he came over to me and wanted to be loved. That is about all the time it took...I was hooked and I took him home.

Brooke and Amanda welcomed Sully (the name we gave him) right away. It took Boo awhile since she was used to being an only dog, but she loves Sully now and I think she would be lost without him.

Happy Birthday, Sully. We love you!

12 of 12 - December 2008

9:26 AM
I was at school (ECIA) helping a teacher learn how to use Engrade, the online grade book selected by the school. Stopped by the front desk and saw Brooke and Brad hard at work!


11:25am
Pastor picking me up to go play some racquetball. He won 2 out of 3 today! :+(


1:35pm
Yesterday I replaced the wood trim around my garage door and caulked it. Today, I filled in a couple areas that needed more caulk.

Caulk, like make up, covers a lot of blemishes!


2:04 PM
Happy Hour at Sonic is 2-4pm where soft drinks and slushes are half price. We stop by at least a couple times a week. Here's our Friday stop.


2:19 PM
Tonight is our church leadership Christmas party and we always have a gift exchange. This year, again, the guys are buying tools. Best place to shop...Foster Hardware.


2:44 PM
Ending up choosing an LED flashlight for my exchange gift.


3:49 PM
Wrapping Christmas presents. Yes, I'm the wrapper at our house. I am wrapping Brooke's present from Amanda and Daddy here.


6:18 PM
Brooke taking a quick rest before the leadership Christmas party tonight. Of course the dogs felt the need to rest with her.


7:16 PM
Church leadership Christmas party. Ed, Rob, Mark, Bill and Mike (left front to back, right back to front).


9:07 PM
Ed ended up with the gift I bought. I heard he was going to give it to his grand daughter.


10:08 PM
Picture of Brooke with full moon in the background. Although the moon does not look too big here, it was a full moon and the largest moon in the past 15 years...tonight.


10:34 PM
This screw driver set is the exchange gift I ended up with at the leadership Christmas banquet tonight. Cool!

Don't talk too much, for it fosters sin.
Be sensible and turn off the flow!

- Proverbs 10:19, NLT

The Heart of Faith

Thoughts from my Bible reading time today.

Daniel 3:16-18, NLT
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."

Seems to be a number of statements or levels of faith here:

1. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace... - I had not seen this one before. Perhaps they are saying, "God can keep us from being thrown into the furnace in the first place.
2. The God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O King... - clearest statement, "The God we serve is able..."
3. But even if he does not... - This, to me, seems to be the greatest statement of faith. They were saying, "Even if God does not do what we think he will/should, we will still trust Him and not bow down to the idol."

Some today would say they were not speaking in faith by allowing "even if he does not...". But what is faith? Is it confidence in God or confidence that God will do what we are asking?

I don't know. On the one hand, Jesus had confidence that God would do what He asked. But on the other hand, today we have people telling God what His Word says and tell him that He is obligated to answer their prayer because of it.

I do not feel God is "obligated" to do anything for me. He has done more than enough through Christ. My faith is in a God who is true to His Word, but it is NOT in my ability to understand and apply His Word correctly 100% of the time. That's not an excuse to stop praying and believing according to my understanding of the Word, but it ought to give caution to the notion that I can order or obligate God to do anything.

Lyrics: Snowball Fight

One of my favorite Christmas CDs is one I picked up when I was a youth pastor. It is Ska La-La-La-La by Bunch of Believers. I'll be posting some of the lyrics...because I just love this CD!






Well I'm walkin' in a winder wonderland
With a cold one in my hand
Yeah, I want to be a blessing to someone
God's given me a gift
Like Nola Ryan, if you get my drift
Today the youth group wants to have some fun

The other side is slow like Eyore
But I'm bouncing like Tigger
You've got to pick your hiding place
And I wish this tree was a little bit bigger

Now I know why God made snow
One, two, three let's go, it's a snowball fight
Snowball fight, snowball fight, snowball fight

Well I don't want to miss the mark
But I just hit some bark
It was enough to scare Roberta half to death
And if you look behind that shrub
Boy, they're gonna need some deep heating rub
I know they're back there, I can see their breath

Now if I hit you in the face
Well I mean it all in love
Cold, white flakes of fun
Sent down from above

Though your sins be red like scarlet
They will be made white as snow

Tis the season
To lose all inhibition
At Christmas-time I just praise the Lord
And pass the ammunition