Okay - I must be the world's worst daughter! In the midst of my own "stuff" I TOTALLY forgot that today was my parents anniversary! I cannot believe it! It's been 35 wonderful years for them today and I totally blew it! Mom...Dad... if you're reading this - please forgive me.
But really - I have two of the most incredible parents on the PLANET EARTH and I am grateful to them in more ways than I can count! They are truly a blessing to mine and my family's lives! I am thankful to them for their love and support and encouragement over the past 33 years! For their patience and guidance and understanding. For always being on my side - NO MATTER WHAT!
I was enjoying a family moment with my daughter Olivia earlier this evening and had an “oops”. One of those what was I thinking?moments.
Both of our girls love to ride their bikes around the loop in our subdivision. Jocie has mastered riding a bike with no training wheels and Olivia has mastered (sort of) riding a bike with training wheels. The loop is fairly large - especially when you are riding a small bike - so Kevin and I will put on our rollerblades and go with the girls. Jocie has fewer wheels and bigger wheels so she rides faster than Olivia. So Kevin goes with one and I go with the other.
Tonight I was with Olivia. We are meandering down the street at a pace one can only achieve with a small bike with even smaller training wheels. We had been talking, but at that moment she was pedaling and my mind had wandered off thinking about an arrangement of a song. All of a sudden it dawned on me that I hadn’t been listening for cars. I looked back and there was a vehicle following several yards behind us - waiting patiently I might add.
I tell Olivia to move over to the gravel at the side of the road and I oh-so-carefully come to a stop. (Notice how I didn’t mention earlier that I have mastered my rollerblades?) I see Olivia has made it to the gravel. I turn so I can wave at our soon-to-be new neighbors and mouth the words “I’m sorry” as they drive by. At least that was my plan.
What I didn’t take into consideration was that in her haste to get away from the car, Olivia didn’t stop at the side of the road. She continued on into the grass and down into a small ditch. Somewhere on the way to the ditch, she lost her balance. I turn her way just in time to see the slow motion toppling that only child on a bike with training wheels can do.
My mother instinct finally kicked in (can’t tell you where it was a few minutes prior to that) and I fought the urge to tear off my roller blades and rescue my little girl. Logic told me that if I attempted to removed the objects that were fastened to my feet, I would be toppling over in a way that only a slightly coordinated adult on roller blades can do. Instead I found a way to go down the ditch by side stepping with my rollerblades. I help Olivia get up and we climb back to the road (all 5 steps that it took) and resume our bike ride & rollerblading.
No bumps or bruises on Olivia, just some lovely grass-stained pants. Did I mention that I do laundry just about as well as I roller blade? I’ll have to save that for another post!
I received this in an email yesterday afternoon and I really enjoyed these and wanted to share them...
"The only thing worth stealing is a kiss from a sleeping child." Joe Houldsworth
"There is no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes." Doctor Who
"When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare and compete, everybody will respect you." Lao Tzu
"You don't stop
Today, I was reading Reflections of Psalm 8 (Part 1) by Louie Giglio from the book The Heart of Worship.
Worship is about God, not us. We worship Him because of who He is. He deserves all the honor and all the credit - no less. You may have heard that before, but knowing how selfish and self absorbed we can be (it’s human nature), continually reminding ourselves and asking God to remind us of this is vital.
So Louie’s take on this is that leaders of worship need to be little leaders. That is people who take the light that shines on them and reflect it back to God. How does one know if he or she is a little leader? Louie gives us one quick indicator to use.
So if you want a quick glimpse into how small you are as a leader, take note of which pronouns consume you: “His,” “He” and “Yours”; or “I,” “me” and “mine.” Little leaders use “he” a lot. The big ones use “me.”
Is Louie Giglio a little leader? Well, I did a search on the web using Louie’s name because I intended to link Louie’s website with this post. If you visit the site and do some digging, you will be able to find mention of Louie, but it is fairly obvious that the site is about Him, not Louie Giglio. Way to reflect the light back to God Louie!
So I bought a new camera this week. An Olympus 720. Its shockproof and waterproff. They claim you can drop it from 5 feet onto cement with no visable effects. Based on what happend to my last camera that was a good thing. Well I was sitting on the couch watching tv playing with my new camera when I saw the largest spider go ripping by our door. So I grabbed a shot of it. This thing was CREEPY... how a 2 inch bug can feak out a 60 inch dude.. Ill never know....
Wow!!! What a day yesterday was. Kid Fusion premeired on Crossroads' main stage and it was AWESOME! Everyone from the Worship Team to the people on stage, to the people who created the stage, to the people who did all the tech stuff ROCKED!!! Families connected, people laughed and danced, and loved it! We got so many great comments. People were blown away. One couple told me it was the best thing they've ever experienced (and they're grandparents who's grandkids weren't even with them). One of my volunteers who's been doing stuff with kids at Crossroads since before I was around said "we've done some great stuff in the past, but this was the best yet." Pete, Crossroads' Tech Pastor, talked to some friends of his who were visiting from another church and they were very impressed. Several parents told me they couldn't wait for next week. All I can say is Yeah God! It was only through His guidance and leading and power that Kid Fusion happened yesterday on such a high level and it will ONLY be through Him that it continues that way every week from here on out.
It's hard to believe that my BABY (and I say this very quietly so Chloe doesn't hear me call her this) is in First Grade this year! Where does the time go? Someone once told me that time would FLY once I had kids... I never would have believed it until I sent her into that big girl school all by herself just one year ago.
This is Chloe's first grade year and that certainly means a lot of "frists"
Back in the day I used to get work with some killer killer bands, one of which was the guys in Damien., in a later band called Fetish Doll. Not the most holy of stuff, but amazing musicians and really great guys. One of my favorite "brutha's" was Johnny Capepletti who is THE HEAVIEST HITTING DRUMMER I have ever seen. I watched him literally break a snare drum ( the actual drum) just by hitting it during a take at my former studio. Anyway the last "pro" project I worked on before going into ministry was Johnny's album the worm. (don't go look for it, GREAT SONGS, great musicians, the content will curl your hair though :) ). Anyway God is so cool! I got an email from Johnny today and he now has a relationship with Christ and is playing at Cedar Creek and has a kickin new band that I cannot wait to go check out. This guy is the real deal in everything he does so I cannot wait to hook up with him and see what God is doing in his life! Yeah!!!! This whole thing just keeps getting better!
