Well here is a nice list of updates of what I have been doing the last 7 months:

1. I quit the Media Ministry. I went to one training session and knew it was not time to get involved.
2. I quit school. Was not the time either. I was not spending as much time with my family as I wanted. Also it was very expensive verses the return. 
3. Started making some good, steady, money from blogging which helped our cash flow.
4. In addition to the blogging I got a steady side part-time job doing web design.
5. In addition to that I have had more side web design projects then I have wanted (OK, I wanted them).
6. Prayed for the last 5 months about buying a bigger house and finally put the deposit down this past weekend on it.
7. Have been pretty steady in going to church during that time.
8. Had a “Connection” with my pastor. No, I have not met him but he said a couple of things in a service that I felt spiritually connected me to him/the church.
9. Joined a “Connection Group” from the church. Went to the first and only meeting so far. It was cool. Really nice people.
10. Feel like I am closer to God then ever. I am led more by His peace then ever before in my life. I am comfortable with not moving (if at all) until He tells me it is time to move.

That’s it. 7 months wrapped up in a 10 point list.

The last 7 months have been good and I really feel that God has been working on my character during that time. The biggest area that He has been working on me has been managing my time between being a good Christian/husband/father/son/employee/business owner. It can be challenging, some days are better then others, but I am here and still kicking.

I am not making any promises on when the next post will be or frequency of posts. I am still alive though and throw something up here when the spirit moves me.

Until then…

For me it was the other day. I was driving along and realized that I had not talked with God for a while. As soon as I started I began to feel some guilt creep in and then heard God tell me not to feel guilty. That is the thing, God is not the author of guilt we are. If anything the Holy Spirit will bring conviction but that is always before an offense, not after.

Anyway, we have not been to church in a few weeks. The reasons vary from the weather to the kids being sick to one of us being sick or tired. Life has a lot of things that we have to deal with on a regular basis and having 3 little kids does not make it any easier. This was the basis on the guilt that I was feeling.

Anyway, the thing is that I have actually been extremely happy lately which honestly is a pretty big deal for me (I feel like Nemo’s dad in Finding Nemo). Things have been going really well financially, at work, at school, and with our family. The thing is though that we have not been hanging out with God that much.

So where am I at with God?

I feel like I am in a better place with him then I was before. God was quick to remind me that i had made some pretty important decisions over the last few months and always checked my heart and went with the decision that had peace with it. That was me communicating with God without me even realizing it.

The other thing is that I feel like I am am taking care on my “call” from God more then ever right now. I believe that if you are a husband and a parent that your first call is to your wife and your children. I have been married for almost 8 years but my relationship with my wife always takes effort. With my kids they are still really young so establishing a good relationship with them now will save all of us heartache down the road. I really believe that if I take advantage of this time and season in my life to take care of what God has given me then He will find me faithful enough to entrust me with even more down the road.

That is the thing though, even if this is it, this is enough for me. If raising my kids so that they are respectable men and women of God in their generation is all that I am called to do then I view that as an honor. I am wiling to take all that God will give but I will be careful to take care everything that He has already given me.

I think are always looking to do something great for God. unfortunately though they are looking so hard sometimes that they look right past their own families. I don’t want to do that.

Anyway, that is where I am. I didn’t quite know that I was there until I wrote it just now but now I feel even better about what God is doing. Ain’t blogging great?!?!

Since I started school I really haven’t look for these types of opportunities and they have not been finding me either. I did get an email over the weekend though from a ministry that I did work for in the past. Several months ago before I even considered going to school I had told them that I would do some work for them and had the time to do it when I had agreed to it.

Well that free time is all used up now and so I was kind of torn on whether to help them or not. I weighed the decision in my heart for a couple of days but when today came I knew I could not do. The main reason for not doing it was not money, it was time. Time with my family.

I am at work for 40+ hours a week plus I am gone 2 nights a week because of school. Any more time away from my family would not fair to them.

What about the ministry you may ask?

They will get it done. There are plenty of companies and individuals out there that can and will do it for them. They will probably do a much better job they I also as I would have been in a rush to do it and would not of had time to do it right. It is really a win-win situation if you look at it right.

I am so proud of myself!

Technorati Tags: Priorities, Christianity, Ministry

This all came to a head a couple of weeks back when my boss and I got blamed for them not being able to do their job properly. My boss got pulled into a meeting with the CEO and a couple of VP’s to find out why we (I) was lagging (at least in their opinion).

Leading up to this meeting I was actually cornered (on the phone) by one of these individuals and chewed out for over a half hour on everything from ‘I have no idea what I am doing’ to ‘I have no idea what they are doing’. Needless to say I was pretty shook up. I am glad that I had people in my group that overheard and were supportive. I have to say that I was surprised at my reaction to this individual – or lack of it. Usually I would fight back but I patiently listened to the individual and and tried to worked with them. god was at work.

That wasn’t the only thing that God was at work in.

To sum it up the big meeting happened and it actually backfired on the individuals who escalated it to the CEO. They ended up getting chewed out for not doing their job and for relying too much on me when they had other tools that they were supposed to use. Before the meeting I just put it in God’s hands and He allowed me to come out on top. I did have a couple things that were actionables from the meeting but nothing major.

This reminds me of the story of when moses had just led the children of Israel out of Egypt and they were being chased by the Egyptians. They made it to the Red Sea but were trapped. In Exodus 14:13 it reads:

And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever.

Sometimes in life you have done everything that you can do in a situation and the only thing that you can do is put it in God’s hands.

This happened in another situation recently when my 1 year old daughter needed to have a minor surgery to remove a small cyst from here sternum area. Our concern was that she cries when strangers get too close to her and who is more strange then some person dressed in scrubs that is taking her away from here mom and dad. The other issue was that she was my daughter, and I love her, and did not like the thought of her having to have surgery.

This was really hard for both my wife and I leading up to the day of the surgery. My wife finally broke down and started taking about it. Through our talk we came to the conclusion that there was nothing that we could except put the situation into God’s hands. My wife and I are not going to be there with our kids every waking moment but God can. Who better to watch over our kids them him?

Anyway, the day and of the surgery came and not a tear was shed when the nurse took her. She cried a little when she woke up but as soon as my wife picked her up she stopped. The only way that it could have been any better would have been if she didn’t have to have the procedure in the first place.

Paul understood that he was limited at times and said in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 -

And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Sometimes in life there are situations that the only thing you can do is go through them – you cannot go around them or avoid them. That was the situation with our daughter. As much as I did not want here to have the surgery it was something that she needed and was going to make her better. It would have been selfish of my to make her suffer because I did not want to deal with the situation (that is another subject ).

As much power as God has given us there are somethings that we need to rely on Him for. We need to know this and except it and let Him demonstrate His power. The best part of this is that when you give the situation to Him he gives you peace in return:

Philippians 4:6-7: Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Be blessed and learn to give th situation to God. He is a gentleman and will not take it from you, you have to give it.

Technorati: Christianity, Hardship, Peace, God, Salvation, Hard Times, Opposition

In last week’s service they announced the first of a few classes to become members of the church and eventually serve in a ministry within the church. Feeling good we signed up for class that was supposed to be this past Sunday.

During the week I picked up a little side job to bring in some extra cash since the wife is staying home now. I was gearing up to take on more projects on the side also. On Friday I got an e-mail from a company that wanted so refreshing of their web site and a little marketing direction.

After a 1 hour + “free” consultation on that Saturday and 4 e-mails from the company on Sunday (I did not respond to them) I was feeling pretty worn out.

We could use the extra cash coming in to make things a little more comfortable financially and that job would have been a nice chunk of change. The thing of it was that the little bit I was taking on was wearing me out to the point that I did not want to got to the first class that we had signed up for at Church.

In talking with the wife we narrowed it down to the fact that we are really used to biting off more then we can chew and then rushing around. This is really not what God wants.

We decided that we are going to give it another couple of months before we consider the whole membership/ministry track at church. Also, I am not going to pick up extra projects on the side, not right now, maybe somewhere down the road.

The thing is that we have small children that need us to be around. If we spend the time now to be there and nurture them then we and then are not going to face as many issues when they are older. We chalked this whole thing up to a “growing up” lesson.

Technorati : Christianity, Church, Family, God, Jesus, Ministry

Ever since my first child was born, my wife after 6 weeks of maternity leave would go back to work. With our move from California to Texas during her pregnancy she did not have a job to go back to this time. Therefore she started the job hunt.

Before we had left California my wife and I had a real heart-to-heart talk about what we really wanted for our family. For me it was to have a nice house, in a nice area, that we could reasonably afford. For her it was to stay at home with the kids. With the way that things were in California neither of these things were possible.

At the end of last year we jumped in the car and headed to Texas to “look” at houses to possibly move. Fast forward 2 months we were living in Texas in an apartment while our paid off house was being built. I cannot even begin to go into how much of a miracle this was and all the other things that lined up perfectly to make this happen (that is a post all on it’s own).

Fast forward 6 months more and our new son is 2 months old and it is time for my wife to find a job.

One month after starting to look and several “your too qualified” rejections by companies we know that something is not right. After all the miraculous things that God did for us to get us to Texas this job thing was not lining up.

After taking a look at our budget and doing a couple of adjustments my wife got her desire – to stay home with the kids.

One month into her being home God has confirmed in our hearts that this is what he intended all along. Peace has returned to our house and the kids are loving it.

The lesson in this is that God is a good God and when you make His priorities your priorities he backs you – 100% of the way. He really is able to above and beyond more then you can ask or think.

Technorati : Christianity, God, God’s plan, Stay at Home Mom

We went to 2 Wednesday services and 1 Sunday service. We missed one Sunday services because we were convinced that the kids were falling a sleep on the way to church so we did not go. They ended up staying up until well past when service would have been over. They are going no matter what next time.

The other good thing that has happened is that my daughter is not freaking out when we leave her in class. A few weeks back the had to flash our number on the screen to go pick her up because she just did not want to be there. Well this Sunday the had to chase her to pick her up to give her to us to leave – that’s a good thing.

The other good thing that has come out of this is that we have decided to attend the first of 4 sessions to become members of the church. The first session is a dinner with the Pastors at the church as the go over the history and vision of the church. I think that it is really cool that the Pastors still do this even though the church is a few thousand people now.

My wife and I have decided that we are going to go through the process of becoming members and then volunteer in the ministries that we enjoy. Her – with the kids. Me – in the media ministry. I’ve got my eye on their web site (don’t get me wrong, it is one of the best I have seen from a church, but it is not updated regularly and could use a little polishing).

Anyway, it is nice to be in the land of the living again.

Technorati : Christianity, Church, God. Blog, Jesus, Ministry, media ministry

Do you think that he would have been able to touch the world like he did in 3 1/2 years? I mean I know that he was fully God but he was also a man too.

I think that Jesus would have taken the necessary time off from ministry to make sure that His family was established and doing well and then I think that he would have slowly gotten back into it as the kids got older.

See these are the things that I think about from time-to-time about serving God and being a husband and a father. I have to remind myself that my kids are young and that they need my wife and I to do just about everything for them for the next few years.

The difficult part in this is that I feel that I am left alone to figure this stuff out by myself. Well I am glad that I have God there to show me the way .

Technorati : Christian, Christianity, Family, WWJD