Love of My Life

Genesis 29:20

I wish I had known this verse when my bride and I lived apart for 3 1/2 years. Now it really does seem like it was only days but how neat it would have been to reflect on this verse during that time.

Rebekah

I wonder if it would be too much to ask God to prompt Pineapple's and Mango's future fathers-in-law to make these kind of of arrangements for my girls' husbands. It is a beautiful story.

Kid Parallels

It never ceases to amaze me how God uses children as a metaphor for us growing as Christians.

John 3:3-8
Hebrews 5:11-14

Recently Pineapple has been running to find Mango's pacifier whenever she thinks she needs it. And by saying "whenever she thinks she needs it," I mean, "whenever she thinks of it." It doesn't matter if she is crying, cooing, or sleeping - Pineapple will run to retrieve the nearest pacifier and run back to Mango and attempt to shove the binky in her mouth. I am quite sure that this behavior has mutated from the original version of mom & dad using the binky to calm Mango down when she is crying despite being fed, dry, swaddled and warm.

Is not Pineapple's immature and uniformed behavior like that of many of us? We see a piece of how God works in other peoples' lives (or perhaps our own) and so we become convinced that is the end-all to God's hand in their lives? Let me share some of my convictions that cause me to stumble less in my walk with Jesus:

- No TV
- Church once a week
- Christian radio
- Daily devotions
- Tithing
- Verse memorization
- Playing the piano
- Musing on my blog

You might be thinking, "I don't think any of that has anything to do with my race." Perhaps.

But let me confess something to you. Whenever I hear of someone who has money problems, the first thing I think is, "I wonder if they have been tithing." I don't think I say this in judgement, because I don't conclude that they must not be tithing and that is why they are having financial trouble. The thought just crosses my mind. It crosses my mind because I think my financially-trouble-free existence is God's response to my commitment to tithe. Whenever I hear of parents having problems with their teenage kids, I think, "I wonder how much tv they watch?" I don't think I say this is judgement, because I don't conclude that they must watch a lot of TV and that is why the parents are having discipline problems. The thought just crosses my mind. It crosses my mind because I think my walk with Jesus, growing fruit of the spirit, and respect for my parents has improved since I stopped watching tv routinely.

So maybe I'm the only one with this problem. The problem of taking God's solution (the pacifier) for our lives (Mango) and applying it to a situation that has so many more variables involved than what I can possibly perceive. I don't expect that I am, or God would not have mentioned the speck.

The Day of Rest

Has anybody cracked the code on how to take God's given day of rest once a week when you have kids in diapers?