The New Year

With the new year brings a new perspective and in some ways a mystical feeling of a fresh slate. This year I hope to...

Work hard and work smart.
Drink a hot cup of coffee most mornings and a cold glass of beer most evenings.
Be kinder and gentler with my kids.
Talk about things more with my wife.
Spend time with Jesus more closely.
Spend time reading, studying and critically thinking about His word.
Eat new things I've never eaten before.
Write more.
Draw and paint more.
Play with my kids more.
Plan just a little more.
Hit the cigar bar with the guys consistently. This kind of "me" time is so refreshing.
Go to Oregon with my fam and my parents (and hopefully my siblings who live so far away right now).
Call my brother and my sister just to talk and catch up often.
Hang with my dad.
Love my wife more tangibly and passionately.
Teach my boys to pray. Teach my church family to pray.
Exercise and play sports a little.
Walk my tiny dog Phoenix in the evenings.
Put more effort into my schoolwork.
Play my guitar almost daily.
Be faithful. Be kind. Be a servant of my Father.

Here's me at a little pub and brewery in Boulder this last weekend when Jess and I took the boys to Celestial Seasonings for a tour and a family day... don't worry, those 4 glasses in my hand were "tasters" just to decide which brew I wanted to order :) HA!

And here's me and the boys when we were Caroling at a couple nursing homes on Christmas morning:
Happy New Year, and the Lord bless and keep you and make his face to shine upon you and give you peace.

Pics from 2007 and earlier

Kids

Here's a couple pics from our visit over to our friends the Ramirez's place yesterday. Virginia gives us haircuts and we love hanging with this family...

Here's some of the kiddos hanging out.

Here's me and my godson Jayce.

I hope to post lots more pics in the future.

I have a friend in my current LTG who is about 46 years old. When he was a child his parents called him "stupid" and "dummie." This was his nickname by his father while growing up and he tells how he was almost invisible to his parents and that he would sometimes leave the house for days at a time and come back and they would never know he was gone. One time a couple of his childhood friends ran away with him and they lived in a treehouse for almost three days. When his friends parents found them he watched his friends getting spanked with switches and getting laid into by their parents for running away.

He remembers telling his friends how lucky they were for getting laid into by their parents.

Because he was told he was a loser all his life by his dad his self image was so bad that he never learned how to read and today still only reads a little. By the grace of God, though, he is learning to read his Bible and has a whole new self image. Thank God that in spite of his upbringing, he is now one of the best people and dads that I know.

The Bible tells us that children are the heritage of the Lord, and they are our reward in life.
Sometimes with the busy-ness of life we let our kids innermost needs slip through the cracks... If we do not sacrificially love our children -- spending time with them, teaching them the ways of the Lord, and truly being there for them as patient mentors as they grow, we will lose the greatest assett we have been given by God, and will be in danger of the judgment of God. Let us pray that God makes us better parents.

Thank God for our parents and thank God for our children.