Iron Man

I chose the title of this post because of my son's (Rocky) crazy obsession with superheroes. (Although his obsession may be my fault) It's great to see him get excited over the same characters I got excited for when I was a kid. SUPERMAN was and is my favorite comic book character!! Just Sayin'! But as I watch him, I wonder how he see's me. So many times I ask myself am I the man that God is calling me to be. Am I serving Him in all areas of my life? Well, the answer there is NO. There are so many things that I need God's help with.  Ask Emily (wifey) she'll have a list for you. But God thankfully is continuing to reveal these things to me! As he did tonight.


 Emily and I were sitting at dinner and I remembered a book that we started reading together. Not sure what made me think of it. But as soon as I thought about it, I instantly remembered that we had only gotten to chapter 3 before our lives (only as busy as we make them) got in the way. This for me is another failure at an attempt to be the Man that God has called me to be. I am to lead my family. How can my wife respect me when I forget something as simple as to read a book with her. I know she has remembered it and has been waiting for me to say "let's read our book tonight!" Well tonight we are!! 


And me being the Man I am suppose to be should be prioritized in the following order: God, Emily, my son's.


So many times I think we, as men, get things backward. We get comfortable being everything to our kids and not living up to being a husband. I want to make sure that I live out the example to my boys of being a husband that my wife can respect and that she deserves. This is a must if I want the same for my boys. If I want to be there IRON MAN I need to be my wife's IRON MAN first and before that I need to be GODS!


I DO NOT want to live my life up to a low expectation! I want to exceed the expectations of my family because of who I am in Christ!

Small Group - Big Results

So last night was small group night and we wrapped up our study on James! 5 week study drawn out into 9 weeks due to vacations and holidays! As we were wrapping up one of the last questions was "why is it important to pray for others?" What an awesome question that allowed us to spark conversation into looking back in the past (2) years and see the awesome things that God has done within our group and how He has answered our prayers!!

It was so refreshing to see the journey that God has taken us on! To see how God has taken our prayers and answered them no matter how big or small they seemed. All we had to do was lift them up to Him and place them in His hands. And be faithful and see them come into fruition.

We have seen things like group members receive jobs, relationships with co-workers be transformed, sick family members healed, etc.....

But the most amazing thing was to see how God has transformed our lives through our small group. The relationships that we have with God has grown closer because of our relationships with each other growing closer. It's funny to put into perspective and truly see that God is a relational God, not interested in us living our lives separate from others but together with others and with HIM.

Excited to see what God has in store for us next in our small group, growing closer to God, and seeing Big results!

@ the end of the day

A lot of thoughts go through my mind at the end of the day. What time do I need to wake up in the morning? What time do I need to be at work? What do I need to take care of at work? What do we have going on during the evening? Questions.......questions.........questions..

Here's a trick, clear your mind! Focus on one thing! God! Give him your thoughts! Cast all of your cares unto Him and see Him move in your life!

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Ranger Code

Along time ago I use to recite the following words "With God's help, I will do my best to serve God, my church, and my fellowman; to live by the Ranger Code; to make the Golden Rule my daily rule." Little did I know that I was planting a seed that would grow and God would bring to my attention years later.

I grew up in church and every Wednesday I would  participate in Royal Rangers. (those of you who are AG know what I'm talking about) But if you do not basically it's a lot like boy scouts that puts emphasis on God!

Lately, God has been really showing me areas in my life that need a lot of work. It started with listening to a Joyce Meyer podcast and she was talking about how we complain how God doesn't move in our lives but we sit on the couch 40 lbs overweight and wonder where God is at?!?!?!?

Those words really hit me, wow! God wants to move in my life but maybe I am not fully giving every area of my life over to Him! At that he started reminding me of the Ranger Code. To be physically, spiritually, mentally alert! He started revealing to me how my life isn't balanced.

He started showing me that I need to be physically, spiritually, and mentally fit!! And all this time I thought that Royal Rangers was just a part of my life for that period when I was a boy. I never thought that I would be revisiting or that I would have remembered the Ranger Code, but I am glad that I participated in Royal Rangers! I am glad that that seed was planted!

And am I excited to see how God is going to stretch and mold me into a balanced life and an even more intimate relationship with Him!

My sons' mother rocks

Although Mother's Day is over I wanted to end the day by writing about the most important woman in my life! My sons' mother! Also known as Emily Kate, Babe, Hottie, or quite simply my wife! Although most of the time I am pretty good with coming up with nice ways to acknowledge these hallmark holidays, today I was at a loss. It was already set up for failure from a Mother's perspective. My family planned a 90th birthday party for my grandpa, a huge accomplishment absolutely, but what it meant was spending a few hours in the car driving a few hundred miles and spending a day focusing on everything except Mommy.

Thankfully my wife is understanding and didn't make to much of stink about it, a few comments here and there, but I don't blame her. If it were Father's Day I doubt I would have been as understanding as she was. I tend to be a little selfish sometimes. Anyway after a long day of traveling and visiting with family members we made it home and I couldn't help but see a little bit of disappointment on her face. Not a whole lot of acknowledgement for her today although it was much deserved. We did decide to devout next Saturday to her but it still must have been pretty hard to get through the day today.

So I have decided to post a list of things that I love best about my sons' mother!! I love you Emily and hope you realize how much I know I don't deserve you but am happy that I got you!!

I love best.........
The way you remind me how important it is to be consistent with our kids
The way you have a schedule and routine and you rarely deviate from it
The way you love our sons
The way you focus on parenting, making sure that you don't create another idiot in the world !!
The way you keep our house clean, it shows how orderly your mind is
The way you always make sure that we have clean clothes to wear
The way you don't settle for less, you know what you want!!
The way you trust me to provide for you
The way you teach our children
The way you laugh
The way you think your the funny one.........maybe you are.....maybe
The way you listen to me when i come up with a new idea or dream
The way you encourage me to be a better, father and husband
The way you light up a room when you walk into it
The way you have a magnetic personality that people are drawn to.
The way your honest and say exactly whats on your mind
The way you treat everything as black and white, there are no grey areas with you
The way you d-party it up! ( if you know what this is then I'm sure you love it best about Em too!!)
The way you use your creative mind to decorate our house
The way you put all of our needs before your own.
The way you love me!!

None of these are in any particular order but they are just a few reasons why I love you best and how my sons are so lucky to have you as their mother!

Happy Mother's Day Emily!

a life plan already chosen

It has always been a relief for me to know that my life has been planned by God. I don't need to have a master plan I just have to follow my master's plan! He has a plan, a perfect plan for my life and the only thing I have to do is listen to Him and obey. That's it! How come something that is so easy to say, and so easy to write is so hard to live out.  Even though it is a relief, my flesh takes over and I start to pile on surmountable amounts of pressure and ask God to fix it when I realize that I can't do it by myself. And He always reminds me that it wasn't Him that piled things on, He allowed it but it was the result of my own actions and decisions. It can be as easy as I say it is or write it is. Just listen and obey. That's it. It is hard to listen when the white noise of my own selfishness clouds my thoughts. If I focus on God, pray to God, worship God, spend time with God, then the easier it is to obey and the less pressure I pile on myself. God's plan is far better than anything that I could ever imagine or come up with on my own. My prayer is that my choices would be simple, obedient of Him, and thoughtful of others. I do not want to be consumed by myself but consumed by an awesome God! And the plan that He has for me will be lived out because my choices and decision are not selfish but obedient and honoring to God!

Relationships

The one thing that took me a long time to truly grasp the complete concept of is relationships. Sure, I have/ had plenty of relationships in my life that matter to me. Some relationships were just for a season and others have been for longer periods, and I know that there are some that will be for a lifetime.

 But one thing that I have been learning that there is one relationship that is the most important. And if I don't learn how to have a healthy relationship with that one, then I will never make it with any of the others. That is my relationship with God. His relationship characterizes how I treat every other person in my life. It's funny how I often put Him behind others, or downplay Him.

But one thing I know, the stronger my relationship is with Him, the stronger my relationships are with my wife, my sons, my mom & dad, my brother and sisters, my friends. If I continually make Him first the easier it is to communicate, the easier it is to love, the more patience I have. It is amazing how He is so powerful that my relationship with Him can have a positive affect on all of the other relationships in my life.

I am excited to make him priority #1 in my life. Without Him, I know that I wouldn't have as many positive relationships in my life.

What's my Motivation

It was the spring/ summer of  2005 that I finally knew what it meant to have a true relationship with God. After a couple of years of trying to live life "my own way" which basically meant ,on my own without God, I finally got to a point where I was telling myself that this is not the way life is meant to be lived, alone. I mean I wasn't alone by the world's standards I was alone without God. I was surrounded by friends and family and people all the time. That was part of my problem, and my wife to this day will stay say that I need to have some "me" time. Which is a real hard thing for me to do. It seems like I have been wired to make sure that I am surrounded by someone at all times, I do not do good by myself, but that is probably another post. Anyway, I got to this pivotal point in my life that I realized I needed Him. God. And I could not stand to do things on my own anymore. And since I made that decision things have not been the same. I could only imagine where I would have been if I never would have came to that revelation. Thank God that He is a God that chases us, right? There was a lot of things in me that I needed to change. The biggest thing I needed to do was put all of things that I was trying to do by myself on the back burner. I needed to focus on God. And I knew that he would have my back and make sure that I was going to be alright. So that is what I did. After a few months I was at church on a Wednesday night I received a word. Matthew 6:33: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added unto you." I knew right then and there that I was doing exactly what He wanted me to do. I was putting Him first and He was reminding me that He has my back. What an awesome feeling. I was so excited after that. Fast forward a few more months and God was doing big things in my life. Through the help of my Pastor I was leading a young adults group. One of the first things that God had placed on my heart was to focus on young adults like me that were caught in the world and needed some help to find their place in the world as Christians. This wasn't that big of step for me as far as leadership goes. I have always had a leader quality.  I learned a lot putting that group together! Good times! Fast forward a little farther and I hit a milestone. A huge milestone. I met my wife, Emily. June 2, 2006. We met after one of my softball games, Spent a weekend together hanging out, went to a Tigers game, to a movie. It was an awesome week. I knew that after that weekend God was adding more into my life. He gave me a wife. Fast forward a few years later and here I am. A Husband. and a Father of (2) remarkable boys.  So basically after all that I am sitting here writing my first blog. When starting this, Emily told me that I needed to have a motivation for blogging. So I thought about it and decided that my motivation was to expand upon my communication skills, which is an area I struggle in a lot. And hopefully I can write down some thoughts that God is speaking to me and inspirations. And maybe some of my experiences will help someone that may be going through the same things. One thing I know is that the things that we are going through are never anything new. There is always someone, somewhere that may be going through the same kind of experience. So here it is. And I thought what better way to start, then to explain a lot about me in as little words as possible. It may have turned out a little longer than I planned but that's OK.