He said what???

Today, being Ascension Day, I was reflecting on Jesus’ last words prior to ascending to the Father…”go into all the world.”  Many people know Jesus’ last commandment to his disciples as the Great Commission.  What’s so great about it?  I would have to say a little something called the Gospel!  We have all heard the following analogy: “if you knew the secret to winning a million dollars, wouldn’t you want to share it with everyone?”  I know sometimes the “newness” of being a Christian wears off, however, we should always keep the Lord’s final commandment in front of us as we walk out our daily lives.  Not only proclaiming the Good News, but also be willing to “make disciples” which takes time.

Women’s Retreat

This is a simple post…
My wife left me all alone this weekend with my 2 girls.
Only one bruised back (Jocelyn decided to spin in circles and run into her dresser) and one scrapped chin (Callie fell when Jocelyn decided to put a clip in her hair).
Everyone ate 3 meals a day.
Had lots of fun.
We survived!

Nurse Made Elbow

I know…it’s been a while.  But life sneaks up on you and you have to prioritize…hanging with the family or writing on the blog?  Apparently I have been choosing the later the last few weeks.

Anyways, this past Sunday was a great day.  Church was awesome.  The weather was finally nice in NY.  All was well.  So, I decided to play with my girls in our yard and have some fun.  In a matter of 5 minutes, my daughter Jocelyn trips over her own feet (which mommy says she gets from me) and hurts her knee.  So she had to take a break.  So I was I spending time with Callie and decided to swing her around in circles (a typical dad maneuver).  Well, as I put her down and she began to cry immediately.  She continued to cry off and on for about an hour before my wife and I realized she wasn’t using her left arm.  See where I am going with this?  So I ended up dislocating my daughter’s arm while trying to be superdad.

Lesson: When your mother-in-law tells you “Don’t swing my granddaughter around by her arms or you could dislocate her arm”…don’t take it as she being paranoid.

By the way she is fine and has forgiven me

Vintage Gibson Acoustic

Against the advice of my buddy Joel, I have decided to sell my 1950s Gibson ES-125 on ebay. If you are interested, or know someone who might be interested in a great guitar, go check it out.

I know I haven’t posted anything in a while, but Holy Week tends to be a little crazy for me. I will write on some “post-Holy Week” thoughts some time this week.

How many 5 year olds could you take on?

I was surprised my number was this high. Thanks Joel for showing me this.

My number was 26.  How many can you take one?

Big Brown Eyes

Alright I know it seems like every time I post something it relates to my daughters, well that’s my life right now. God has been really revealing himself to me lately through my relationship with my girls. I know I am not the only parent to catch their child doing something and get a cute story out of it, but here is mine:

Bathtime is “daddy time” in my house. Lately, my 4 year old, Jocelyn, hasn’t been wanting to go to bed with her hair soaking wet, so I have been blowdrying. Yes, I know. Go ahead and snicker. I know you want to. Anyways, I told her to go wait for me by the hair dryer. I come around the corner behind her and she is playing with her mommy’s mousse. I sit her down and ask her “Do you have something you want to tell Daddy?” She sat quietly for a second and then looked up at me with her big brown eyes and said in the sweetest voice, “I love you, Daddy.” It took everything in me not to just forget that she was supposed to be getting in trouble. I waited for a moment, composed myself and asked, “Is there something else you want to tell Daddy?” She then “fessed” up.

It hit me just then that God must get the same feeling of joy when we express our love for him. I also thought, since Lent is coming to an end, how important it is to go to Confession. There is such a great release when we confess our sins. And I know for me personally, I get a glimpse of how much God truly loves me.

Randomness…if that’s a real word

True Confession: Against the advice of my friend Joel, I am going to admit something here…I have just switched over to Firefox. I will pause a moment for the gasps to subside………………………..I must say that so far I am loving it. Joel tried to get me to switch over about a month ago, but for some reason I wasn’t feeling it, but now I finally figured out how to use the add-ons and change the theme and I love it! So thanks Joel for pushing me to change.

Being a dad: I had a great “daddy moment” tonight. I give my girls, Jocelyn (4) and Callie (1), baths every night I’m home for their daddy time and to give mommy a break. We finished bathtime a little early and Katie had to go to a GAMMA class at church so I was left with the girls for a little bit before putting them to bed. We all cuddled up on the couch and I read Dr. Seuss’s The Foot Book (sidenote: Dr. Seuss is the greatest children’s author of all time). As I was reading, I just had this great sense of joy come over me as I realized that I am the luckiest man on earth to have such a wonderful family. Children really are a blessing. I am continually amazed by how much I love them and then it hits me that God loves me even more than that!