A Few Things I have Been Learning

Over the past couple of months I have learned a couple of things that... well they suck to learn these things the hard way.

-Too much fast food disrupts the normal flow of things inside your body. I don't think I need to expand on this too much, but I will say this... Everyone needs to eat a salad every now and then!

-I am not an island! In the great movie About A Boy, Will (Hugh Grant) learns, the hard way, that you need people to get through life. In the past two months I have tried everything to keep myself away from people, because they make things messy! People have a bad habit of crowding you. They need things and can have a way of hurting you. But the farther you distance yourself from people... well, loneliness has a way of replacing the freedom you felt from people. Things can get pretty dark in a place like that.

-Community and Fellowship aren't a walk in the park, either! Just because I learned that you need people, doesn't make dealing with people any easier! The hard part about having fellowship with people in a community that you willingly are a part of is that you are forced to give something of yourself. You have to listen, care, and mean things. Who wants to do that? Who wants to sit with people and tell them that you are all screwed up inside, and you aren't sure things are going to get better? Who wants to listen a bunch of people talk about their "struggles"? Well... deep down we all do. It is a need that God put in us. So, I need to learn to be with people a lot better than I am right now!

-Community and Fellowship do not replace the need to be with God in the private places of my life. Fellowship is just a reflection of my relationship with the Creator and Savior of my life. No matter how much time I spend with a group of people that lift up and encourage me, there is no substitute for the time I spend with my God. I will never truly know His word unless I spend time with Him in it. He is the only giver of peace in this life, community is just one way He administers His peace.

-It is healthy to try new things! I tried Tofu for the first time. I liked it! I have also found a love for Yogurt. Up next: I will try to not be a jerk at work (I doubt I will like that as much as the yogurt!).

-Don't promise things you can't deliver. I have promised things to people with the best of intentions, but with a small hope that I never have to deliver. It is horrible when you don't do what you promised you would (especially to family!). How small of a man am I when I don't have the guts to give up a small piece of my time and life for others! I need to keep my emotions in check, so I don't hurt people with broken promises given in anger or sorrow.

There are millions of other things that I could say, but I am sure they wouldn't be as authentic as they should.

Lets all learn to love ourselves in our struggles. Lets learn to praise God for the small stuff like: toothpaste, the clanging of forks before a meal, toilets that work properly, and toilet paper (ohh, how I love the toilet paper!)

Family And The Times We Share

Nice picture, huh?! I have spent a lot of time thinking a about family (again) and this life we live in. I will spare you most of my useless thoughts, and just tell you about the beginning of my year.

I finally got to see my entire family at the beginning of the year. Because of the line of work all of my family are in, and the distance that is between us, my family celebrates Christmas at the beginning of the year. We have the tree, a big feast, and the whole nine yards. In previous years there have been many things that have caused there to be a strain on this time together. Whether it be relationships that have been strained, poor health, or whatever; my family has had a hard time in the past enjoying the time we spend together... not this year!

All three sons where back under my mothers roof. All the grand kids where accounted for. Everyone was smiling from ear to ear pretty much the entire time. Mom was in reasonably good health; her voice was strong... I swear she looked great, almost glowing.

The three of us boys stayed up with Stan's wife Misty, and our mom. We stayed up talking about past Christmas'. We shared our favorite memories, and corrected the lies that have crept into each others stories. We laughed so hard when Stan recounted the morning he and Nathan woke up early one morning to play with the new presents, then they got kicked outside in the freezing weather for being to loud! Nathan chipped in with his favorite memory. Mom told us about the Christmas when her brothers got a miniature cannon (that's right a cannon)... well you do the math: little boys and a cannon... of course something got broken! I held my breath when she moved from that memory to a memory of when she and my dad where still married. She told us of a time when Sr. and Jr. when standing around the tree... there was nothing special about the story except the fact that she remembered it (There is a long journey that lights the path she has traveled to get to the place where she could tell such a story... I love my mom!). We stayed up for a long time finishing wrapping the gifts for the kids... and we laughed. The weekend was filled with good times. We had more family drop by, and it just made it even better. I cannot remember a Christmas this good.

I found an even deeper love for my entire family at the begging of this year. I watched Larry (my step-dad) melt over my mother. It was amazing to see the two of them laugh and love with each other. They seem to be moving closer together as the years go by, isn't that amazing?

It was amazing to feel such fellowship and community with the whole family. Have you ever had part of your family at odds with the other part? It makes it hard to enjoy being in the same house. But it makes for an amazing experience when everyone is enjoying the time they spend with each other. We laughed deeply. We shared our hearts to each other, and found loving embraces. We eat and drank with smiles for the people around us. We told more stories that bordered on lies, and we made new memories that will last us a long time. Isn't that the goal of family?