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.

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!

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

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.

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

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

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.

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!

Okay people…I know this may be a bit premature and some of you probably don’t even care, but I am only three hits away from 1,000.  Which to me is amazing.  I thought maybe I would hit the 1,000 mark if I kept up with this blogging thing for a couple of years.  I am truly amazed that ya’ll (my roots are still in the South) would even be interested in anything I have to say.  So thanks.  I hope I can keep you coming back.

I can’t believe it has been almost a month since I have written a post on this site.  I was talking to my buddy Joel Klampert today and he called me out on it.  So thanks Joel.

So anyways, things have been pretty crazy in my life over the last month.  Fr. Terry Gensemer, director of CEC for Life, asked my to come on to the board of directors for this awesome ministry.  I was, and am, truly humbled to be involved in such a great ministry, surrounded by great men like Fr. Terry.  One of things I have been asked to do on the board of directors is to contribute to CEC for Life’s new blog site.  So go and check it out.  Click here.  I am going to be writing on that site about once a week.  I am also going to recruiting other people to contribute.  So if you are interested leave a comment and let me know.

I am sure that nobody else in the world has experienced this (sarcastic tone), but have you ever been so focused on a task at hand that you forget the joys of being a parent?  I truly love being a dad.  I am also a man that tends to get hyperfocused on a task.  My wife tells me I am horrible at multi-tasking, like most men I know.  This evening as my wife was leaving for a class at our church, she noticed the zipper on her vest was stuck.  So being the man I am, I had to fix it right then and there.  Meanwhile, she had to leave so she wouldn’t be late and I was left with my 2 daughters.  As I was fixing the zipper, my daughters were having a wonderful time climbing up and down the futon and pretending it was a slide.  Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t neglecting my children.  Neither one of them tumbled off the futon and hurt themselves.  However…I didn’t join in on the fun.  I was so caught up in my task that I missed a great opportunity to enjoy my daughters.  How often do Christians do this with ministry in the Church?  One of the great dangers I face working in a church is to miss just spending time with God.  I get so busy doing “His work”, I forget to enjoy His presence.  It is my prayer this evening for myself, and all those in ministry, is that we don’t lose sight of keeping a close relationship God.