Family

This past week I have come to realize how important family is. One of our coworkers at work lost her only child in a tragic murder. As I and another coworker were discussing this, she mentioned that she had lost both of her parents. She is young and the fact that both of her parents are gone is tragic. It made me realize how important family is. We often focus on sharing our blessings with those outside our family. But sometimes the ones that need our blessing the most is our family. As I often minister to those outside my family, I often have no time left for my family. That is not what I believe God wants for us. Our family needs our time and our ears. They need us to listen to and communicate with. But so often I find that I am in a rush and leave my family only with the time that I have left.
This is sad. And especially with our children. We want to make an impact on their lives, but how can we do that if we do not have a relationship with them. And relationships require time!
So the next time your children or parents or grandparents want your time, set everything aside and dont be in a rush! Listen! Relax! Be comfortable to be around! Enjoy! As you do you will cement those relationships and make a positive impact on your family!

Vacation

This past week we have been on vacation. It has been very relaxing and fun.  God lets us relax at times to refresh us so that minster better to others later. Sometimes He makes us "lay down in green pastures" and "leads us besides still waters".  So when God leads you into those green pastures don't resist! Enjoy! And let Him refresh you so that you can minister later to others with a renewed spirit and body!

Blessings of my Grandparents

March 26th would have been my Grandfathers 104 birthday. He passed away in 2000 but I have not forgotten him. I have many wonderful memories of him and I miss him and my grandmother very much. When I visit their grave, I often am overwhelmed with thanks to them for raising my mom the way they did. They encouraged her to seek a better life and to be a God fearing woman. They raised her in church and introduced her to Christ at an early age. My mom heeded their instructions and married my dad who also was a Christian. They had high standards for my brothers and me and taught us to stay away from drugs and alcohol. They taught us to adhere to Christ's teachings and to be good citizens. As a result I am walking with Christ as best I can and have been blessed to avoid so many of the pitfalls that I have seen so many of my friends and relatives fall into. I have a great job and a great family. 

And now I am trying to pass these lessons on to my children. 

But this all began with my grandparents and maybe their parents who I did not get the chance to know.  What a blessing they were to raise my parents to be such fine people.  And now I hope to pass that blessing onto my children!

Blessings2blessings! Taking our blessings God has given us and sharing them with others. 

Children

Time with our children is on of the greatest blessings that we can have for ourselves and for them. Currently I am on a hog hunt with my son. It's been a wonderful time together and we will have many memories to share. Unfortunately I know of many parents that do not take the time to spend with their kids. What a tragedy! Many may look back with regret that they did not take the time to spend it with their kids. Time spent with them is well worth it and is a blessing to us and them!

Bringing joy to others

Today I had to chance to bring joy to a couple of elderly individuals. One of these is a elderly lady who is celebrating her 96th birthday. Some folks from our church got together and brought her some cake and ice cream. Of course to her it was just the surprise that someone remembered her birthday and was wanting to celebrate it with her. She enjoyed the visit and the chance to talk with others much more than she enjoyed the cake and ice cream.
The other individual was my grandmother who is 95. She lives in the same facility as our birthday girl. Unfortunately I have not seen her in quite some time and this was my fault. I have not taken the time to call her or to go by and visit her. I realize now as I look back on my visit that for many of these individuals what brings them perhaps the most joy is someone who will take the time to come by and visit down and spend time with them. Someone will come by and listen to their stories of long ago. Just listening and spending time with someone can bring such joy to them and it is a blessing to us as well!

Family

I throughly enjoyed our Easter. I am blessed to still have my parents and my family. I'm also blessed to have to have all my children with me today. One thing that was such a blessing to me today is that I got to worship with my family today. As a pastor I am over one of our campuses. This is a different campus than my kids worship at because of the music. It was special and we got to share the Lords supper together as well. Afterwards we got to eat at my in laws and my patents came over as well. Thank you Lord for your blessings!

A blessing to me.

This past week we had very strong winds here in Texas. As I went out to feed the dogs yesterday I noticed that part of our roof had been damaged due to these High winds. So I contacted our insurance company to see if we can get this repaired. I was then told that we had about a $2000 deductible. Needless to say that was a little discouraging. So I contacted a couple of companies and one of the gentleman came out today to look at the damage to our roof. After a looking at it he assured me that the damage was limited to a very small section. In fact he had the necessary supplies to repair it with him and he would do so at absolutely no cost. What a blessing that was for me and my family. I am grateful for God's protection to our house so that there was not any other damage. And I am also grateful for this gentleman repairing what little damage there was at no cost. I hope that in the future I will be able to return a blessing to him. In fact I got several of his business cards and I will certainly refer any business on to him. I also hope that with the financial blessing that was given to us today that we can take our finances and bless others with them. It is such a joy to be able to bless others with the blessings that have been given to us!

Thankful

Today I met with a former professor of mine from Baylor. She is a very wise woman and has helped me immensely in the past and continues to share her wisdom with me. Today as we met I explained some of my feelings of guilt because of how blessed I am. When I look at all that I have been given and realize that it is only because of God's grace that I have received what I have sometimes I feel guilty. I could've been born in a country that persecutes believers in Christ. I could've been born in the ghettos of New York City where a crack addicted dad beats his wife regularly and then leaves. But instead God chose to place me in the United States where we have freedom to worship Christ. I was born in a family who had all they ever needed. I also was born into a family that encouraged education and encouraged us to get ahead. As a result I have a degree in religion and I also have a degree in physical therapy allowing me to work a couple of jobs. I also have a loving wife and three loving children. And although our family is not perfect we love each other and forgive each other. But as I relayed my feelings of guilt for feeling so blessed my professor reminded me that it was God who placed me where am. And because God placed me where I am, I am supposed to bloom where I am planted. But she also reminded me that I am responsible for the blessings for which I've received. If I choose to spend them solely on myself and solely for my pleasure then I have misused the blessings that I have been given. But if I use the blessings that I've been given to help others then I have chosen wisely. And I am reminded as I was able to bless a couple of people this past weekend that I am blessed for giving. There is an incredible joy that I receive when I give to others and by sharing the blessings that I've been given, I myself am truly blessed.

Pets

Pets are a huge blessing in our life. We were very blessed to buy a new puppy this past weekend. This little puppy in this post replaces one of our pets that we lost recently. My son was devastated by this loss but I praise God that we were able to buy a new puppy to replace this one. Since then he and this puppy have been great friends and they have enjoyed a significant amount of time together. I praise God for the blessing of sight and sound so that I can watch and hear them play together. We often take such blessings for granted. However when I look at my grandmother or other elderly individuals who have lost either their hearing or their sight I am grateful for mine. May we not take these blessings for granted and may we always remember to share what we have with others.

Prayer

I am the pastor of our senior adult group at church. This Sunday morning one of my senior adults called me. He has had cancer and has been suffering from significant pain. He was in significant pain this morning and asked me to pray for him. After I opened up the church I went out to his house and prayed with him for a little while. Then during the church service he called me to let me know that his pain was completely gone. What a blessing it was for me and for him to have a time of prayer together.
I often pray with my church members. Sometimes it is over the phone. In fact probably most of the time it is over the phone as I travel down the roads of our little town. Even though the prayer time may be short it is a blessing for them and for me to have this time together. And I certainly do not close my eyes while praying and driving!
Praying for others is a blessing. Even if you cannot pray WITH them, you can pray for them. One of the greatest blessings is to let them know that they are being prayed for. Sometimes I will let church members know that I am praying for them either by text or perhaps by a card.
I know that when I am in meetings and others pray for me it gives me a very blessed feeling to hear someone lift my prayer request up to God.
I would encourage each person who reads this to lift others up to God in prayer. In doing so you are a blessing to them and by doing this you will be blessed as well!

The Blessing of Time

Today I was blessed to spend time with my son one on one. (I hope it was a blessing to him as well!) We spent some time digging some holes for some roses. I didn't think that he would want to help me. However he was interested in getting a workout! And digging in the dirt near some trees made the digging difficult because of the roots. I wanted to put these roses near the trees because they are climbing roses. They are multicolored roses called Joseph's coat. These trees really aren't trees anymore. Rather they are very tall stumps. We lost all of our trees in our backyard due to the drought here in Texas and possibly Oak Wilt as well. As we dug we got to spend time together and talk about pets. He recently lost his dog to an illness and we were talking about getting another pet. It was a good visit and I hope it is one that he will remember.

As I write this blog I want to bless others with the blessings that God has given me. But so often we think about blessing those outside the family. Strangers, or friends that we find in need. But what about our family? They need our blessings as well. They need the blessing of our time and our ears. To listen to them and to take the time to spend with them. So many children and spouses want our time and we can bless them with this! Take some time to spend with your kids and your spouse. They need you!
As Christians we want to influence our children. But how can we influence them if we don't spend time with them? How can we get them to listen to us if we only see them at night before they go to bed? We need to be involved in our families lives and this requires time. By spending time with them we make an impact on their lives and bless them. In return we are blessed as well!

Small blessings

When I think about all that God has given me I realize that he has given me so very much. At times I then want to turn around and try to give big gifts to others. However that is not always possible. What we need to realize is that we can bless others with very simple gifts. I was blessed to be able to give small gifts to people today. I was able to visit a widow in the hospital and share my company with her. I was also able to visit another widow in the nursing home and shared many laughs with her today. I then was blessed to visit my grandmother. It is a blessing for her for us to visit her. One reason our visits are so important to her is that she has macular degeneration and has lost almost all of her sight. Since much of her joy in life has been lost because of the loss of her sight our company and interaction with her is of utmost importance to her. Sometimes the greatest blessing that we can give to another person is simply the gift of our presence. That is not because we are so important. But rather because they need human interaction and desire someone to listen to them and someone to talk to them. God has certainly given me big blessings. But while I may not be able to give big gifts to others I must not neglect giving small gifts when I can. As a result I was very blessed today to be able to share my company with others. For that I am very grateful.