We’re doing Advent again this year and I really love it! After dinner each night, we take about five minutes out to light the candle, read the scripture, and talk about our Savior’s birth. If you’ve ever thought about introducing family devotion, then Advent is the perfect introduction. Besides, family traditions are important and this is a great one to add to the list.
This year, my youngest son wants to do everything. He lights the candle (with a little help) and often volunteers to read.
That’s it! Forgive me for my self indulgence but I’m as proud as can be of my boy. He reads Isaiah like an old pro! Enjoy the video!
We decided to visit my parents for Thanksgiving this year. Something we haven’t done for years. It’s fun to have everyone pile into the folks house, raid the cupboards, lay around, and laugh about whatever. For some reason, it’s actually easy to forget about all stress and responsibility of ministry, bills, and business while I’m here.
This morning I woke up to the smell of a very large turkey in the oven and the mere smell of that bird cooking made me feel grateful. We’ve had a tradition of sharing what we’re thankful for around the table for so long that all it takes is the aroma to stir up a sense of gratitude in me. Take that Pavlov!
The thing about thankfulness is that it’s so good for you! When we’re really grateful, it’s hard to stay proud because it acknowledges that someone else has met your need. It’s hard to be bitter when we’re thanking Christ for His forgiveness. Thanksgiving really does refocus our perspective! It helps us to think positively and there are a lot of families out there that could benefit from less negativity in their homes! The more I think about it, the more I just love this holiday!
2nd Corinthians 4:15 tells us thatthanksgiving brings glory to God. What more motivation do we need? My prayer for you and me is for a thankful heart EVERY DAY.
“Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” – 2nd Corinthians 9:15
Today was our last full day in Ireland. We spent time with Paul Houghton, father of Rachael, who is seriously considering the Furnace Midwest internship. We would love for her to join us as we run hard after God and learn to take others with us. She’s a great young woman and her dad is a man of God.
After our visit with Paul, we checked out Mellifont Abbey, a 12th centuryAbbey in County Louth. It was out last historical visit on the trip. What a wonderful time we’ve had here! It really is hard to say goodbye to our friends and such a beautiful country. We’ve seen God move in great ways and have hopefully poured fuel on the fires of prayer here. It’s been a massive honor just tp play a small part in what the Lord is doing in Ireland.
To my wife and wonderful sons, I miss you so much and I can’t wait to hold you again! I love you. Thanks for releasing me for this time!
Tonight I got to take a turn putting my 6 year old to bed. We were snuggled up together reading a book. It’s so great reading with him because he really gets into the story. He’s learning to read and often wants to tell parts of the story to me. I kept looking up at him, amazed that he’s really my son. I stopped reading for a moment to tell him how blessed I am to have him in my life. I told him how big he’s getting and that I can’t believe he’s already 6. He turned, pressed his buttock against me, and farted.
One thing I love about having three boys is their instant willingness to do anything silly or disgusting. With this commercial parody we did them both!
Granted, Cole didn’t want to have a mustache painted on, but he was a great sport about me photoshopping him in some goofy pictures. In one picture he really is crying. He was in a strange pre-teen mood that day and I was trying to cheer him up by taking some funny pictures. The cheering-up effort didn’t work…
Hudson was a natural. A couple of takes is all it took. He refused to get out of costume or wash off the mustache for the rest of the day.
Forrest took the brunt of the abuse. We spent a loooong time shooting in the bathroom. He was fully aware of how silly he looked but dove in enthusiastically. He wants to make films when he grows up so I try to provide opportunities like this to have fun and walk him through the process.
