Vacation...Disney style...

My family and I are on vacation right now. My family is sound asleep in their beds in a Disney Resort while I peck away at the keys. One of my two youngest should be the first to stir here in a few minutes as our day is about to begin. At the conclusion, this will mark the longest vacation I have ever taken as an adult (6 days).

On day one, we hung around the resort. Day two was the Magic Kingdom and yesterday was Epcot. Today, we mercifully hope to just hang around the resort pool all day because we are just plain worn out. The goal was to "sleep in" today but a fluke 6:30am wake up noise started my day a little earlier than expected. So I decided to write.

It's a trip like this that become memories for a lifetime. The photos we cherish and the stories we will relay to loved ones the rest of our days. I can't tell you how many times my wife and I these last few days have referenced past trips to these spots. And we hope to create special times for each of our kids that they too will be able to relay to their own kids.

No, these memories can't compare to a birth or a baptism or a wedding. Or even an unexpected special moment shared on a trip to school between you and your child. But these are special memories that we will always store under "summer family vacations." For the kids especially, we are just hoping that this trip is stored under the sub-heading of "special" and not "horrible". I don't know about you but I can think of more than a few in my childhood that fell under that latter heading!

Animal Kingdom and maybe a waterpark await us the rest of the week. And maybe tomorrow, I will get another opportunity to "sleep in." If not, I am still having a blast spending time with my family and making memories of a lifetime.

Preaching update...

For those of you who might be wondering how last Sunday went during my first time preaching a sermon, it was awesome. Now, I can only speak for myself obviously, so I have no idea if the crowd really liked it. There were 40 in attendance and my family and friends came as well. Thanks for the support from my beautiful bride Kellea, mom, Katie, Stan, Matt and those who were unable to attend. I felt the Holy Spirit keep my calm and I felt comfortable with the material so God blessed my first experience.
One small note: When my parents had me, my grandfather was not too thrilled. He basically said, they needed a fourth child like they needed another hole in the head. My grandmother reassured my mom by saying, "Oh, don't listen to him, this child is going to grow up to be a preacher." As far fetched as that has sounded all my life and even if it's the only one I ever lead, for one day at least, my grandmother was right...

Perfection or bust...Father's Day edition

I can't tell you how thrilled I am to be a dad. When I came home last night from our Adult Basketball League games, I went in to look at each of them sound asleep in their beds. With out fail, every time I look at them asleep in their bed, I feel that same deep love for them as I did the day I first held them in my arms. Precious is the only word I can use to describe them. I can't think of any thing else I would rather do than to hold them and spend time loving them with all my being. I also tell myself that I need to see them everyday in that same light and with that same mindset. That child who becomes a little monster sometimes is still that same PRECIOUS being I was watching sleep. Yet I tend to deal with her as if she was an entirely different person. But it's not. (I must include that this same point holds true with our spouse. That same picture of grace and beauty that stood beside you on your wedding day, should be loved and cherished the same way today.) And I must continually remind myself to strive for loving and raising them like I am commanded. And before I or anyone else tries to chalk failure up to "life" or being "realistic", I must point out that is not acceptable. For some of you, I hope this next example is all you need to read to get my point. Until I am up in Heaven, I will never be as perfect as Jesus but that in no way let’s me off the hook for trying. Does it?

(If you wish to read the continuation of this, part 2 is below)

Part 2...Perfection or bust...Father's Day edition

Like the saying goes, if you aren't getting better, you are getting worse. And who loses when we get worse? Our kids do. How fair is that? If that were the case, each parent should be forced to look at their child in the face and say, "You know I could be a better parent, but that's life. It's not realistic for you to expect me to be a perfect parent. I only have so much time/energy I am willing to commit to parenting, the rest I need for myself." Yikes. Which to me says I must always strive to be a perfect parent. No, that doesn't mean I will ever make it and no it doesn't mean I have to beat my self up all the time for not being perfect. But if that is my reason for NOT trying, we should be ashamed of ourselves. Notice how those statements work? "I will never be a perfect parent. I am not going to take that view because I don't want to beat myself up over failing." One word. Selfish.

Ok, try this on for size. "Mom, I am not going to try to be the son/daughter you are trying to make me because I will never be that perfect." Would you accept that from your 6 year old? Why can you say it to him/her? Obviously we don't actually SAY those very words, but our actions do.
Now some of you may be asking, who is this guy and how does he know that others parent like this? Well, I make no bones about the fact I too often settle and don’t strive to be the best parent I can be. But I don’t give up the goal of being that perfect dad. I fall off but I at least get back up on that horse. Some were never on it and some have no desire to try again. And how do I know this? I see it and I hear it. In my dealings with coaches and parents in youth sports, I see first hand the parenting that goes on. I hear conversations in the hall and in the stands and on the sidelines. And all too often they are parents "settling" because that's just life. "I am sorry Timmy, it's not realistic for you to expect me ________. I have life to do. My job, golf, Desperate Housewives, 24, college football, yard work, surfing the web, talking on the phone, rolling my hair, reading my magazine are more important right now. Maybe later."

Do all those things have a place in our lives? Of course. Some more than others. But if those same life things begin to continually prevent you from doing even the most basic of parenting tasks; it becomes easy to see why we would feel it is impossible to "perfect."

If you are raising your child in a Christian home, let me pose this question. Is it your job to make your child the best basketball player or violinist or to raise them to be strong Christian men and women? Do your actions and activities show that to them?

If you don’t miss a day taking them to gymnastics but find it easy to skip church…

If you teach them in great detail how to throw a curve ball but never how to study the bible or pray…

If you sit and read the paper every day but they never see you open your bible…

If this is you, what can you realistically hope to produce? I’ll tell you. A gymnast who thinks of church as secondary to life… A pitcher who will one day be too uncomfortable around the bible to even teach his own kids about the Word…Someone who is up on world events but only opens the bible when trials hit close to home. Because that is the life they were shown.

If this applies to you, it’s not too late to make a change. Need help along the way? The bible is the great direction book for the world. Show your kids the importance of opening it, using it and living by it. Abandon life for a Godly life. And never stop striving.

Camden County Here I Come

I can't really explain it any other way other than to say the Holy Spirit is working within me. You see, this Sunday I am preaching my first sermon. At least in front of adults anyway. I wrote a while back in my blog about how I felt when I put my name in the hat to be used where and when needed to preach at the Camden County campus of Christ's Church. Now the day is getting closer and I can't explain how excited I am. As I was preparing my sermon notes last night, I just couldn't get enough of it. I hated crawling into bed because I wanted to keep at it.

There is also little doubt that God's hand played a part in the topic of the sermon series we are in this Sunday. It's titled Man-up and it deals with being the kind of man God has designed us to be. We look at it from 4 different view points and the first deals with our role as husbands. This is something dear to my heart because my wife and I have attended our share of marriage seminars and I have a deep desire to be the husband He wants me to be. Regrettably, I fall very short. A lot. But I keep plugging away and pray that God will continue to refine me until I at least resemble the man in Ephesians 5.

I pray that God's words will be my words this Sunday. I also covet your prayers for a safe journey.

PS. Please feel free to post a comment. I explain the ease of doing so in the previous blog. Thanks!