"Never Say Never"

If I had a nickel for every time I said that I would "never" do something, and then did it, I wouldn't be writing this blog right now. I'd be paying someone to write it for me.

 I said that I would NEVER lace up my boots for less than $25 an hour (yes, I thought I was that good.) I now live on a faith based income and God has provided all my needs.
 I said that I would NEVER drive a mini-van. That is now the main mode of transportation for my family. That sweet ride has DVD, power everything, an auxiliary plug for our phones and music devices, a sunroof and leather seats. Many a time I've had all the windows down blasting some guitar music too loud for someone my age to do. You see that sweet ride in the picture? I got one.

  I said I would NEVER be that dad that showed up at school 30 minutes early, just so I could be first in line to get the boys. That's right. I beat out all the soccer moms and grandmas and the first thing all those kids see when they pile out the door is Braxton and Greyson's dad sitting there in all of my camouflage wearing, whiskered up glory. My boys aren't something that I have to do during the day, they are what I do during the day. 
I said I would NEVER raise my hands in church, or pray out loud in front of other people. Now I feel like that is the only way to truly worship. For years a wall of pride stood between me and a happy, healthy and personal relationship with God. All the people that I was trying to impress or not impress or fit in with etc. aren't going to get me in heaven or keep me out of hell. That's between me and God.

So all this talk of me saying "never" and then eating my words had me thinking about what the Word of God says on the subject. If God says He is never going to do something then well, you can take that to the bank. In all the thousands of years since Creation, he has never backslid, been wrong, or let anyone down. Why would He ruin His stellar reputation now?

According to one search, the word "never" appears in 83 verses in 71 chapters of the Bible. The two that stand out the most to me are on both ends of the spectrum. Deuteronomy 31:8 says " It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will NEVER leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed." What an amazing statement. If God says it, He means it. That's just what He does. On the other hand, if we choose to reject His love and do not do the will of the Father, Jesus Himself says in Matthew 7:23 "But I will reply, 'I NEVER knew you. Get away from me, you who break God's laws.'"

The word "never" is an absolute word. There's no way that we as humans can use it and know absolutely that we will never do something. The Bible is also a book of absolutes. It's the most absolute thing that we have in this world, having stood the test of time for thousands of years. We should never say never, but God can!

"Like a Boss"

Ever heard the old saying "too many chiefs and not enough Indians?" That seems to be the common thought among everyone in our house, including myself. Shannon and I brought our family into my parent's home around four months ago, after Mom's health declined and she needed full time care. Dad used to always say "two families don't belong under the same roof." I concur, Pops, but technically we are all kin. Sometimes things are good, sometimes not so good. I like to THINK that I am the head of the household, but yet it's not my house. It's mom's and she is quick to let us know that. Shannon is bringing home the bacon these days so she has a great deal of pull and rightfully so. Braxton (the almost 3 yr old) is in charge of entertainment. He loves the Wiggles.

 We have had them on two televisions at the same time AND playing on the DVD player in the van. I can play more Wiggles songs on my guitar than I can worship songs. All singing in the house/car has to be ok'd by him. The other day I was singing the family an awesome "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star/Older Women are Beautiful Lovers" medley and he shut me down. In a commanding voice he says, "THAT'S ENOUGH, DADDY!" Like a boss.

Greyson on the other hand just kind of goes with the flow. His older brother loves him but does things to get on his nerves, and he handles that pretty good. He sleeps in his "big boy" bed every night. He eats good. All is well with him UNTIL something doesn't go his way. To say he throws a fit is an understatement. The child will arch his back until the back of his head touches his ankles. Then he just falls out. Kick, scream, spit, cry, you name it. He shuts the whole house down. Like a boss.

A few weeks ago I watched an episode of "Undercover Boss." The CEO of an international luxury hotel chain disguised himself as a maintenance man and infiltrated the working class stiffs. He saw what was going on behind the scenes and in the end rewarded those who were doing a good job. Our Heavenly Father does the same to us. How do I know that? It's in the Bible.

Hebrews 13:1-2 says "Let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by doing so some have unwittingly entertained angels." Wow. Kind of like a Heavenly quality control. Talk about an undercover boss!! Our reward for living for Christ and striving to be Christlike is eternal life with Him.

No matter how much WE try and rule the roost or run the show, he needs to be the boss, not us. I know in my life, everything that I have tried to do on my own seemed to fall apart, sometimes quick and sometimes painfully slow. Proverbs 3: 5-6 says "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths." And He will do it, too. Like a boss.

"We Interrupt For a Commercial"

Technology. Love it or hate it, it's here to stay and it will only get better (or worse, depending on your take on it.) In our home we have TWO HD flat screens, one of which is in the boys room. It was in mine and Shannon's bedroom but we gave it up for the boys. What adult parents of toddlers have time to watch TV in the bedroom anyway? There's too much sleeping going down. We have I Pads, I Phones, I Tunes, I Pods and a coffee pot that makes coffee every morning at the same time. My wife can plug her phone into her van and hold a conversation through the speakers. We can pay our bills online without ever writing a check. The flag on our mailbox has been up twice this year. AT&T has made it possible to watch ANYTHING on demand, and the handy DVR allows me to watch only my favorite shows, fast forwarding through the commercials. Which brings me to my point...

The other day Braxton and I were flipping through the 280,000 channels that U Verse offers and we ran across one of his favorite shows. Being the bad parent that I am, I hadn't saved any episodes in our queue (that's this invisible box inside the visible box that holds your favorite shows, movies etc. for later viewing) and I forced the poor child to watch live TV. It hadn't occurred to me that in his almost three years of existence, he had never watched a commercial. What happened next went sort of like this...

B: "What's that? Where did Bubble Guppies go?"
Me: "Son, that's a commercial."
"What's that?"
"Well, it's a break during your show so  people can sell stuff and the networks can make money."
"What's a network?"
"That's the channel we are watching."
"When is Bubble Guppies coming back on?" He's starting to get upset at this point. He doesn't care about networks or commercials or people making money. He also could care less about the stain fighting power of Tide.
"They will come back on after the commercial."
"When is that?"
"Just a few more minutes."

The thought that he couldn't have Gil, Molly, Bubble Puppy and Mr. Grouper right then and now was to much for his brain to handle. It floored him. Literally. I took a picture. 

He was devastated. It made me really look at myself and how devastated I can be when I don't have what I want ON DEMAND.

Psalm 46:10 says "Be still and know that I am God." My how hard that is to do in this day and age especially with all the technology literally at our fingertips. We have instant access not only to TV but to bank accounts, social media, email, encyclopedias, travel reservations etc. Anything that we need to know or will ever need to know in this world is just a drop and drag away. So why not, with our human brains, would we expect to have to WAIT on God? We don't have to wait on anything else. Not even potatoes.

Our God isn't always an instant God. Don't get me wrong, if He needs to do something in an instant, HE WILL. But a lot of times He needs us to wait on Him to do things in His time. Jesus told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit to come. They didn't rush Him. They waited and look what a blessing they received. Noah waited on the flood waters to subside. He didn't go off rowing or swimming for dry land. He waited on dry land to come to him because that's what God told him to do.

In today's fast paced world, I am convinced that God will put "commercials" in our lives to interrupt our "program" that we have designed for ourselves. Things that make us stop and think about Him and His Glory. It may be a sunset, a dove cooing in the background, a friendly phone call from someone, or a butterfly floating beside you on a hike. Our God is a jealous God, and nothing comes before Him. Thank you Lord for the commercials that you put in my life!!

Be Careful Little Ears What You Hear.....

"Be careful little ears what you hear.. be careful little eyes what you see... be careful little mouth what you say.. there's a father up above looking down with tender love, be careful little ears what you hear!"

Aside from "Jesus Loves Me" that is the only song I remember from nursery Sunday School. We would all sit around in a circle and put our little hands over our eyes, ears, mouth, etc. when it got to that part of the verse. I don't know if that was on the set list of all denominations back then, but it was a crowd favorite for my little Southern Baptist children's program. 30 (something) years later the message that little jingle conveys still rings true. Especially in parenting.

Have you ever put a sponge in a bucket of clean wash water? It soaks it up. Put it in a bucket of nasty sewer water. It soaks it up. Put it in a bucket of gasoline. It soaks it up. That liquid will stay in that sponge until you wring it out. If a sponge has soaked up something undesirable, it takes work to get it clean enough to be used for wash water again. Often it is discarded and a new one takes its place.

My sons are living, breathing sponges right now. They repeat EVERYTHING they hear, mimic EVERYTHING they see, and have NO scruples when it comes to saying what's on their mind. They just walk around soaking everything up. The good and the bad.

Greyson has somehow confused the word "no" with "not." So.. whenever something doesn't go his way or something happens that he doesn't like, he will sound off with a sharp, loud "NOT!!" He sounds like a ticked off Nazi. Braxton sees all his superhero buddies on TV flying around carefree so he assumes that he can too. Anything he can climb up on he will try to fly off of no matter what the height. He hasn't actually taken flight yet but when he does I will blog about it. One of their favorite movies is the "Wizard of Oz" or "woz" as Grey calls it. The other day B just happened to mention that he was headed out to "kill me a witch." SAY WHAT? I never looked at "woz" as being ultra-violent and creating behavioral problems in kids. I don't know.. they dropped a house on one witch and straight up melted another. Anyway, it spurred my eldest boy into wanting to go Old Testament on him a witch.

In the grand scheme of things, do I want my sons soaking up clean wash water that can be used for good over and over or do I want them soaking up gasoline that will hang around and never really go away. When I spit, they spit. When I yell, they yell. When I pray, they pray. Braxton already wants a beard like daddy. I used some of my camo face paint to hook him up.

Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:1-2 "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."
 Am I trying to imitate my Heavenly Father like my boys imitate their earthly father? Do I hang on His every word like my kids hang on mine? Do I really concentrate and listen when I KNOW that He's trying to tell me something, like Grey concentrates on me when I'm teaching him his letters? Am I careful what I see, hear and say? "NOT!"

I once heard an evangelist say that what comes in your ears and is seen through your eyes will settle on your heart and eventually come out of your mouth. It all starts with me and my relationship with my Father in Heaven. If I am on good terms with Him, then the anointing will roll down to my kids. If they see a God fearing, hard working, love-their-mamma man then they WILL imitate me. That's just what they do. They are little sponges. It's only by His Grace that I have been given the honor and privilege of being a husband and father. Thank you, Jesus!