Strong Willed Child?

Posted on February 27, 2006 by Jason

So, yesterday we go out to eat with some friends after church. We decide to take the kids with us, since they’re kind of our responsibility and we have to feed them and all. Big mistake. Abby Kate has started doing this thing where she arches her back and throws her head back and screams bloody murder when we try to put her in the highchair. She throws her food, refusing to eat, even though she’s hungry. I pick her up, she scratches my neck (thus the hickey-sized scar on the right side of my neck). Of course, when this happens, we get stares and looks from everyone in the restaurant. Stares that say, “Stupid man, why can’t you control your kids?” (By the way, those stares are very helpful and go a long way towards rectifiying the situation. If you’re prone to those kinds of looks, KEEP IT UP!) To top it all off, she sticks her hand in the mac and cheese (ordinarily her favorite food), which burned her, leading to a meltdown of nuclear proportions, which in turn led to even more glares from every couple in the restaurant over the age of 50. Apparently raising children was much easier back in the Stone Age.

My children are approaching their 2nd birthday, and I know we’ll continue to fight through some of this stuff for the next few years. But do any of you older heads have any advice / tips / medication suggestions (kidding) that would be helpful to Sunny and me as we train our kids? I have yet to get heavily involved in the spanking / non-spanking debate, but at times I wonder. I’m not prone to asking for advice, but my kids are too important to me. Anybody out there have any helpful tips?

Posted in Kids | 25 Comments

School Daze

Posted on February 27, 2006 by Jason

Sitting in 3rd week of grad class in the last 6 weeks. Having a hard time focusing. Probably not the best time to blog. Why am I doing this to myself again?

Posted in Grad School | 3 Comments

Dirty Words

Posted on February 23, 2006 by Jason

Have you ever said a dirty word?

I’ve uttered a few in my day. Not particularly proud of that, but it’s the truth. I remember repeating a couple of words I’d heard on the playground in front of my mother. I still remember her expression, a look of outright shock and horror. She arched her eyebrows as only she could and sternly warned that we didn’t talk that way. She certainly didn’t raise me to speak in such common manner.

I wish I’d learned my lesson. In high school, I continually struggled to tame my tongue. I was the “put-down” king. I was great at making fun of other people to make me look good. I still feel pangs of guilt when I think about the things I said to and about some people.

I’m sure my struggles are not uncommon. I know many people like me wrestle to “let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt…” (Col. 4:6). It’s a constant struggle, taming the tongue.

But I think there are two words that must be especially obscene in the ears of the LORD.

In Exodus 3, Moses receives a special call from God. The God of Israel speaks to him from the burning bush, commanding him to remove his sandals, thereby honoring the holiness of the moment. The place is not holy because of the bush. Rather, the presence of God imparts holiness. Where the LORD is, holiness follows. Yahweh then commissions Moses with a unique task: “So now, go. I am sending you to Pharoah to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

Yet, Moses balks. Claims he’s unfit for such a job. Says he needs to know God’s name. Argues that he’s not a great public speaker.

In short, he says the two “dirtiest” words he could say to God.

I CAN’T…

Moses failed to realize his call had less to do with his own ability and more to do with the empowerment of God. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was making himself present to deliver His people. When Moses said “I can’t,” he was in effect limiting the power of God to work through him to accomplish His purposes.

It’s not about what you can or can’t do, Moses. It’s about what I can and will do through you.

Sometimes I need to be reminded of that, too.

Posted in Devotional, Theology | 3 Comments

Cow for sale?

Posted on February 22, 2006 by Jason

We’ve gone through 3 gallons of milk in 6 days at our house. Anybody got a cow for sale? Or a goat?

Posted in Kids, Random | 1 Comment

Word Cloud

Posted on February 22, 2006 by Jason

I saw this on Free Thoughts and thought I’d give it a try. You can check out this site and create a word cloud from the key words on your blog. Gives you an idea about which words, concepts and people are a part of your life. Pretty revealing stuff. Here’s mine:

Posted in Blogging | 8 Comments

A few of my favorite things

Posted on February 21, 2006 by Jason

Here are a few of my favorite things right now.

* It’s tough for a news story to trump the official start of spring training. When pitchers and catchers report to camp, the smell of leather and freshly cut grass returns to my nostrils. No matter the temperature, I know spring will be here soon. But this week, even the inevitable return of baseball runs a distant second to the news coming out of Giants’ camp. According to a report published in USA Today today, Barry Bonds has declared his intent to retire after the upcoming season. Here’s hoping Bonds is a man of his word. He ranks 48 homers behind Hank Aaron on the all-time home run list. Make no mistake: Bonds is the greatest baseball player any of us has ever seen. But I’m personally hoping he won’t garner the most hallowed place in baseball’s record book. Good riddance, Barry. We hardly knew you.

* Derek Webb’s Mockingbird is a great album. If I could describe it to you in one word…scathing is probably the best choice. This is music with a message, a much needed clarion call for followers of Christ to step up to the plate and live with faith. This album is chock full of keepers, but the song I keep coming back to is A King and a Kingdom. It’s not for the faint of heart, but this album articulates what many of us have been thinking and feeling for quite some time. If you don’t have a copy, pick one up ASAP.

* Old friends. I mentioned this last week, but Winterfest is always a great opportunity for me to visit with some old friends. Friday night, Sunny and I had the chance to see our good friends, Matt and Cecile, although our time was interrupted by my part-time security guard job. I had the chance to hang out with Lane, which was also great. Lane is one of my oldest and best friends. (You remember our first Winterfest? Wooden sling-shots & Adam Dailey?) And I enjoyed seeing Johnny, J. Mac & Elisabeth, among others, even if only for a second. What a blessing.

* One text has continued to supply me with hope and strength over the past few days. Romans 11:36, For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. Praise Him.

Posted in Baseball, Music, What I'm Loving | 11 Comments

No More Ice For Me…

Posted on February 16, 2006 by Jason

Check out this disgusting article and let me know if you agree.

Posted in Random | 10 Comments

Winterfest

Posted on February 16, 2006 by Jason

This weekend, our teens will be joining nearly 13,000 young people and adults from across the country in Gatlinburg, TN for Winterfest 2006. WF is always a spiritually formative experience for our young people and we’re anticipating more of the same this year. If you don’t mind, say a little prayer for us and our group. We’re hoping for safe travel, but also that our teens will encounter God this weekend.

WF is also a special time for Sunny and me to visit with some old friends. A lot of my youth ministry buddies will be there this weekend and I’m looking forward to seeing them and catching up on how things are going for their families and their ministries.

May God bless us richly on the mountain this weekend.

Posted in Random | 2 Comments

Born in Zion

Posted on February 15, 2006 by Jason

Psalm 87 is a beautiful celebration of Zion as the city of God. As a proper name, “Zion” originally was a way of referring to the mountain the city of Jerusalem was eventually built upon. Later, the term became a moniker for Jerusalem itself and, finally, a reference to the heavenly city of God. This Psalm, likely a post-exilic composition, reflects this final meaning. Along with the prophetic words of Isaiah, Micah, Daniel and Zechariah, this Psalm anticipates the ingathering of the nations into the Kingdom of God. At this point of reckoning, Yahweh records the names of His people.

The LORD will write in the register of the peoples: “This one was born in Zion.”

Lest I forget, the Word reminds me of my new birth in a Kingdom yet come. Just as the earthly Jerusalem prefigured the heavenly Zion, my rebirth is both a present and a future reality. Indeed, I experience the blessings of this rebirth now while anticipating the hope of what this rebirth will be like in the life to come.

LORD, grant me the faith to see you in the Great City Zion, on Your holy mountain on that day all creation groans for.

Until then….

Posted in Devotional, Theology | 5 Comments

To The One I Love

Posted on February 14, 2006 by Jason


I’m sure the blogsphere is humming today with many posts similar to this one. Many a blog-savvy amateur writer (like myself) will wax eloquent about his / her significant other on this day devoted to love, chocolate and a fat little cherub with a bow and arrow.

No matter. This marks my 11th Valentine’s Day with my beloved and I honestly can’t remember what life was like before we were together. She came into my life when I was 18 years old; in many ways, I’ve grown up with this girl by my side. We met at Friendship Christian School when we were in high school. Good ol’ FCS was (and is) a small Christian school in the cowfields of rural Lebanon, TN. I was a year older than Sunny (still am) and before we started dating, I “went out with” another young lady who shall remain nameless, although we never “went” anywhere (certainly not “out”) and if we ever did go anywhere, we certainly never went “with” each other. Thankfully, though, my involvement with this lass led me to one of the best decisions of my life: I enrolled in the FCS chorus for the second semester of my senior year.

Now, if you’ve known me for any length of time, you know a few things about me. One, I have no sense of smell. None. My nose is purely ornamental. Second, I love baseball. Seriously…it’s unhealthy for a grown man to love a game as much as I love baseball. And finally, I can’t sing. Not a lick. Don’t even know how to read sheet music. Not my spiritual gift.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: Why would a young man so bereft of vocal ability purposefully and willingly enroll in a class designed to showcase said vocal ability? All I can say is, you do crazy things when you’re in high school. This young lady convinced me to take chorus with her, and I followed suit. Smitten as I was with her, our relationship quickly soured, leaving me stuck on the back row of Mr. Herring’s choral classroom, looking like a chump.

But that’s when I began to notice this young blonde in the soprano section. As I said, my school was a small one and everybody knew everybody, but I tried my best to get to know this pretty girl with the beautiful voice. With a little help from our school lunch lady (I still owe you one, Mrs. Burroughs), I began striking up some conversation with her. Alas, our relationship was short lived, at least at first. Little did I know that Sunny already had a boyfriend, a fact she made me well aware of in a little conversation we had in the back of the chorus room.

Thinking she was already spoken for, I began to turn my attention elsewhere, only to find out that Sunny actually was beginning to take an interest in me. What can I say? When you’ve got it, you’ve got it, I guess. We talked some during February and March in chorus; we started talking a lot more come April, when we started practicing in earnest for FCS’s 1995 production of The Sound of Music, headlined by my good buddy Lane as Captain Von Trapp. Yours truly made his musical debut as Rolf. Seventeen goign on eighteen, baby. (Knocked ’em dead with my dance moves, too.)

By May, after months of laying the groundwork, I mustered up the courage to ask Sunny out. Our first date was my last day of high school (barely making us high-school sweethearts). I picked her up at the Mt. Juliet Little League park where her brother was playing and sprung for dinner at Wendy’s. We caught a dud of a movie, Forget Paris with Billy Crystal. I don’t remember much about the evening, except that I hated to see the night end. We began dating steadily over the course of the summer; on June 2nd, 1995, I asked her to wear my high school ring. We haven’t looked back.

11 years, 3 jobs, 2 babies and a minivan later, I’m still thankful for my girlfriend. Sunny, I never could’ve imagined what God was up to so many years ago when He brought us together. Other than Jesus, you are the greatest blessing of my life. Thank you for being my best friend. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for teaching me how to be loved. And thank you for letting me love you.

Baby, You’re the Greatest!

Posted in Sunny | 3 Comments