Been a while…..

The past couple of weeks have been pretty stressful. Here are some things that have been going on:

1. My wife and I are expecting a son in August, so we have been trying to get stuff done around the house. Getting the baby’s room ready, doing some work in our 3yr old daughter’s room, and rearranging our multi-purpose room (play room, office, media room, craft room and classroom).
2. In the office at FPC, I have been slowly making some improvements to our financial processes. There have been a few obstacles this summer, but I like the direction we are moving in. I hope that before too long I will be sharing the successes on this blog.
3. Class hasn’t been bad this summer, but with everything going on I have had a hard time focusing. Cost Accounting has been a very helpful course for some of the things I have been working on at FPC. I wonder how well I will do in the fall with a new baby?

Life has been a little busy. What is difficult is when my mind starts processing multiple things from all of the areas above. I just need a little focus and a little more time. I can do something about the focus, but not sure on the time. Any advice on how to gain time.

This Weirded Me Out

Yesterday as I rode to Faith Promise Church with my wife and daughter our daughter started singing. She was singing “Come…….come………..come”. That is her version of “Come, now is the time to worship. She said, “That is the only part I know.”  So I started wishing I had that song on CD for her to listen to.  Then I thought, well maybe God will just play it on the radio for her.  As the thought process continued, I started thinking about how improbable it would be for that song to play at that moment in time. I was actually wondering what the statistical odds were the song would play.  My guess was bordering impossible.

This entire thought process lasted about 15 seconds at the end of a song that was on the radio.  What happened next?  The song she was singing came on the radio.  Now, you could say this was coincidence and that is fine, but to me in that moment God was telling me, “I love your daughter and what you can’t do for her, I can.”  This absolutely floored me.  You might think this is stupid or silly, but let me tell you that it was one of the most intimate moments with God that I have ever had.  When it happened, without sharing my thought process with my wife, she looked at me with eyes wide opened.  

If  you know me, you know that I am a practical person that struggles with stories of miraculous. Not because I don’t think God does the impossible, but because I am skeptical of people.  (That was gut level honesty, so don’t rip me over it). All of that being said, I believe that God worked a miracle yesterday.  It might have been small and maybe silly, but that just shows me that God is with me in the little things as well as the big things.  Oh yeah, and God loves my daughter more than I can because he played her song for her on the radio at just the moment she wanted to hear it!!! I am alright with that!!!

I Won

My wife Kerri and I will be celebrating our 9th wedding anniversary on May 27th.  It is crazy how fast nine years go and what all you can fit in that amount of time.  I just want to use this post to share why Kerri is such an amazing person.  The most important thing to me is that Kerri is ultra trustworthy and I know that no matter what I am going through, she is there every time, all of the time.  This has been a crazy year and I haven’t been able to spend a ton of time with Kerri, but not once has she complained.  She just continues supporting and loving me.

She doesn’t need a pat on the back because her reward is in serving.  I have to continue to learn not to take that for granted because she is truly an amazing wife, mother and friend.  I also appreciate that I laugh harder when I am with Kerri than when I am with anyone else.  She is so much fun to be around and we always enjoy the crazy situations we get ourselves into.  

The main thing I have learned in marriage is to commit 100% to the relationship.  That commitment will motivate you to do everything possible to resolve struggles and support each other in all things.  After all, why wouldn’t I commit?  I won and married Kerri and all of you other guys lost out.  Sorry, God must have pitied me and decided to give me the greatest prize.  I am pulling for you all to get lucky and get second prize!!!

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” (Eph 5:25)

Sink or Swim?

Over the past few weeks I have been working on a financial review, software implementation and found myself to be the only person in the Finance office at Faith Promise Church.  Safe to say that at times I felt as though I was stuck in the middle of the ocean with nothing to hold me above water.  I knew that I had planned a crazy first part of the year, but little did I know that God had a few more surprises for me.

I go back to my verses for the year, Hebrews 12:1-3.  The message in these verses is to persevere and keep your eyes on Christ.  So in the midst of a tough few weeks, I have to ask myself if I will sink or swim?  The only option is to swim, but don’t swim so hard that you wear yourself out and sink anyway.  Swim knowing that land is a longways off and it will take endurance to make it to shore.

Lately, I have found myself doing something that I haven’t done in a longtime.  I am taking uncompleted things off of my “to do” list.  I find myself measuring the consequences of leaving things undone, so that I can accomplish the priorities in my life.  I am sure I will make a few people mad or hurt some feelings, but I don’t have the energy to swim as hard as I can and make it to shore.  I need to pace myself and conserve energy to finish the swim and land in the arms of Christ.

Snow Day – Part 4

Snow Day , Snow Day – Part 2 , and Snow Day – Part 3 all had an underlying theme.  They were my attempt at explaining why I struggle to kick back and relax on snow days.  My conclusion was that sometimes God blesses us with unexpected interruptions.  It is His way of giving us a much needed break.  Yesterday, was by far the best snow day I have ever had.  So when today became a snow day, I had to make a decision, do I stay home and have another great day with the family or do I go to work and try to catch up?  You would think, based upon what I have learned the past few days, I would choose to stay at home.  Well, I didn’t, I went to work.

While I fully believe that God blesses us with unexpected interruptions and we should fully enjoy those, there comes a time when God may use an unexpected interruptions to increase our productivity.  I sought God’s direction on whether I would go to the office or not and He was very clear.  He wanted me to go.  The reason was simple, if I missed today, not only would I be behind at work, but Faith Promise Church would be negatively impacted.  The nature of my job makes it difficult to miss too many days in a row, but I do have the benefit of not working nights or weekends.  The truth is that it was quiet enough today to accomplish exactly what I needed to accomplish.  I have learned that God can send us unexpected interruptions for a variety of reasons.  We just need to seek God and try to respond as he leads.  That means sometimes we enjoy the interruptions and sometimes we take action.

Snow Day – Part 3

Today was the best snow day of the three we have gotten so far.  After breakfast, my daughter and I went out to play in the snow.  It turns out that the great snow we had yesterday had all but frozen.  At first we were disappointed as we couldn’t really play with the snow, but we quickly learned that it was perfect for sledding.  Several of the kids in the neighborhood came out and we all had a blast.  I even got into the action.  

I was able to completely focus on my family and we had a great day together.  In the past, I would have worried about work and all that I needed to accomplish.  The reason for this is that I don’t like to get too far behind and miss my self imposed deadlines.  It also doesn’t help that I absolutely love my job.  I have been very blessed to do the type of work that I am passionate about and do it at a place I love.  I spend a lot of time thinking about work, but it isn’t because I worry, it is because I love it.  All of that being said, there are times to just enjoy unexpected interruptions.  I know that I will have a ton of work to do to catch up when I get back to the office, but I wouldn’t trade it for the past couple of days with my family.  

God, I am learning.  Thanks for this blessing.

Snow Day – Part 2

This week was setup to be the busiest week we have had in a long time.  We have our annual audit scheduled this week, we are working on implementing new accounting software and I am going to be out of the office in a couple of weeks.  It is safe to say that I needed to get a lot done.  Late this morning, we got an e-mail that our Senior Pastor was sending us home due to bad weather.  My first reaction was to stay and get as much done as possible.  Then I realized that I needed to let go of my control and follow what God was doing.  God orchestrated this day, so I need to follow.  I am really focusing this year on the fact that I can’t do everything and sometimes an unexpected interruption is a blessing.

When I came home after I received the e-mail, I played in the snow with my daughter.  She is taking a nap now and then we will go for round 2.  I am glad that God gave me the opportunity to spend this day with my family and that He has a plan for everything that needs to be done in the office.  It is amazing how comforting it is to give up control.  I just hope that snow days do not consume too much of this week, as there is too much to do.  There I go again, trying to control things I can’t control.