2011- New Year's Resolution

This year my biggest new year's resolution is to do a better job in leading my family in the worship of God. For years I have struggled to have regular devotions with the family with little success. The consistency was just not there. Looking back on it, I probably underestimated the spiritual battle that I was facing in trying to actually lead my family in worship.

But this year I'm more determined than ever. By God's grace, I AM going to lead our family in taking time to focus on God daily. My plan was to simply use the M'Cheyne Reading plan and simply read one chapter a day with the family. But after thinking through this a little, reading through an entire chapter straight from the Bible, which is written on a high school reading level, I thought this might be tortuous for my 6 and 4 year old. So instead, what I started doing about a week ago was reading through the Bible and breaking up the chapters into small "bitesize" chunks. And then from that, having a few questions for the kids about the content of the passage, along with one or two truths that we can glean from the passage. And then to finish it, I have a suggested prayer which is based on the Scripture reading. For any adult this would sound very elementary, but for a 6 and 4 year old, I think this will work out nicely. (Below is a sample of the Family Devotional)

The other thing I want to do regarding the family and worship is to have a special time on Saturday night in which we read the Bible, sing, pray, etc in order to prepare our hearts for going to worship the next day. I confess that I was inspired in this direction from a wonderful book that Andrea and I are reading entitled, Parenting in the Pew: Guiding Your Children into the Joy of Worship. We want to really train our children to really worship the Lord, to really look forward to going to worship and participating with the family of God. And for families with children, preparing on Saturday night in spiritual & practical ways, it simply is a must. So that when Sunday morning comes, we all can be in the right frame of mind, rather than being rushed, frazzled, and frustrated.

So, that is my biggest new year's resolution this year. The other one is to be more consistent in blogging. Not that I don't write enough in my job, but I think blogging or journaling can also a good spiritual discipline.

Sample
Jan. 2 – Gen 2:1-3
Questions to ask the children.
1. What did God do on day seven? (He rested)
2. Did God need to rest? (No.)
3. So, what does it mean that God rested? (He stopped working because His work was complete).
4. And what does the Bible say God did to the seventh day?
(He blessed it and sanctified it; i.e. made it holy or special)

What truth(s) can we glean from this passage?
God demonstrated for us that rest is good and appropriate. God knows how much we need rest and time to worship Him. This is why He provided one day out of seven to be a special day of rest and worship. So important was it, that He included it in His Ten Commandments. (Ex. 20:8-11)

Suggested Prayer
Dear God, thank you for giving us a special day each week to rest and worship you. Help us to keep it each week in a way that honors You and blesses us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Kid's Chore Chart

I don't know who's idea it was, whether it was mine or Andrea's, but either way I like it. Our boys, who are only 5 and 3 years old, already have chores that they have to do, some on a daily basis. The picture below is snap shot of our chore chart (you can only see Caleb's part). As you can see the chores are listed on the left side with a corresponding block for each day of the week. And each time they do the chore, they get a star. For example, Caleb's chores are cleaning the table (after a meal), feeding his fish, cleaning his room, emptying the dryer, making his bed, and taking out the bathroom trash. Because all of those are things that he can do. Taite only has 3 things: cleaning up his toys, taking out the recyclables, and emptying the dryer (b/c he helps Caleb do that).And at the end of each week, for every star they have, I give them 1 dime. I know thats not a lot, but I can't afford a quarter for every star and a dime keeps things simple. So, why are we doing this?

Well, because I want to start early teaching my children about the value of hard work and about the proper and correct use of money. When I was growing up, I never received any form of allowance. And even though I know my Dad's reasoning (everything I had he provided), I still think I would have benefited from personally learning how to use, save, and be generous with my own money. As they get older, the chores will increase in quantity, and their value will go up as well. But for now, I think this is a good start.

Daddy Day at Marbles Museum

Well, its like after mid-night, and I should be in the bed sleeping because I have an early morning tomorrow, but I guess that grande coffee at 6pm and glass of Coke at 8pm were too much for me. So, since I can't sleep I thought I would post a short blog about my day today.

I took the boys out for a "Daddy-Day." In case you don't know what that is, thats where it's just me and the boys all day... or most of the day. We left this morning around 7:30am to go to McDonalds for breakfast. And then shortly after, we headed to Raleigh to go to the Marbles Museum. (We were actually headed to a place called the "Playspace" on Glenwood Ave., but it no longer exists.) I wish the internet could be updated with information like that.

Anyway, we ended up finally getting there around 11:30am. So, we went ahead and ate lunch in the park before going in. But once we were in... Whoa, let the fun begin! There was so much to do and so many kids! Oh my goodness, it was like controlled chaos! I mean seriously, my boys played there for 3.5 hours and would have stayed longer, and we maybe did half the stuff you could do. But boy, they had a blast. I have posted a few photos below of our day.

Taite especially loved the HUGE Thomas the Train set...

Both boys really liked the water stuff. Here was a continuous running fountain layed out like a river with a waterfall at the end. They were a little wet after this.

This had to have been their favorite. It was the "peas and carrots" bin. (ball pit) They must have went in like 30 times. We even left for a while to go do something else, and ended up coming back to finish the day here. They loved it!

Here they were supposed to be learning about other cultures in the world, like how Eskimos sometimes live. I must confess, we didn't do much learning... just playing.

Not sure what happened to this last picture of Taite with "snow shoes" on... maybe my computer savy wife can figure it out for me.

My Traveling Partners

This is why I listen to audio books when I travel. :)

I Love his Curious Little Mind

The other morning, after our morning devotion, somehow Caleb and I got on the subject of angels. I asked him if he knew what they were. Of course he didn't. But he does know what soldiers are, and he knows all about swords, shields, and fighting and all that stuff.

Well, I began to tell him about the angels of God... I told him how they were strong and powerful soldiers in God's army and how they could fly very fast and far because of their great wings... and how they fought against the wicked spirits in the world. As I told him all this and more, it was so cool to watch his little eyes come alive with excitement and wonder.

For the rest of the morning, he took a little plastic figure that was supposed to be a wise man in a navitity scene, and pretended it was an angel. It was really cool. I know one day that wonder and awe will be gone, so I'm going to enjoy it now. He's so curious... thats why I really try to entertain all of his questions as good, honest questions, because I know he's learning. And hopefully, he's learning not only a lot about the world, but that his Daddy loves him enough to take time to explain anything to him.

By the way, the photo on my profile is of me reading a Bible story to my boys. We try to read a Bible story and have prayer together every morning. It's really cool now because if I'm slow getting there... Caleb reminds me, "Daddy, we have to have our devotion!" Who can ask for more?

Sometimes they don't see it coming

NO, My Kids Aren't Spoiled! (haha)

In case, you can't tell... this is my wife spoon feeding my two boys while they sip their milk and watch TV. In reality, this doesn't happen a lot. But it sure made for a funny picture!! :)

"Germy Bugs"

Well, it's 3:2o AM and I'm here typing a blog... why? Because of "germy bugs" as Caleb likes to call them. Last night around 3 am, Caleb came running into our room crying because he had thrown up in his bed and had to again. Well, he only threw up once and then seemed to feel a lot better during the day, though he still didn't have much of an appetite. So, I thought he was all better. But then again tonight around 1:30 AM, the same thing again... he came running to our room again crying because he was sick again. So, right now, he's resting on the couch watching Nemo and trying to go back to sleep while I type this blog (in a different room).

I'm pretty familiar with stomach viruses, especially the 24 hour kind. I probably got one once a year when I was growing up. Seriously, I had them on a regular basis. But I've never seen one like this, where you throw up once... go 24 hours nothing... and then all of a sudden you throw up again. (By the way, if you have weak stomach skip down to the next paragraph). And what really concerns me about this is the nature or consistency of his throw up. Not intending to be too gross... but his didn't look like it came from the stomach, it came from deeper than that... like it should have gone the other way if you know what I mean.

I intend to call the Dr.'s office tomorrow to see if something is going around, and if there is anything to be concerned about. I hate throwing up with a passion, so it breaks my heart to see my little boy hurting like this. I really hope none of the rest of us get it, especially little Taite. Things like this are so much easier to handle when you're able to at least partially communicate with your children.

The Newest Member of our Family: Taite Ezekiel

Just the other day I was talking with a gentlemen who suggested that I introduce my new son on my blog. I guess I hadn't thought about it b/c my wife posts gobs of pictures of both our children on her blog so I didn't see the need. But after thinking about it, I thought... that's a good idea.

So here he is... Taite Ezekiel. He was born on Dec 18th, 2006 measuring 19.5 in long and weighing 6.7 lbs. So, in this picture... he's about 5 weeks old. He's a good baby and we're so thankful to God to have in. In case you're wondering about his name "Taite" means cheerful - b/c he has certainly made us cheerful and happy... and "Ezekiel" means God will strengthen, which is our prayer for our little boy.

So, who does he look like?