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More than anything else – I want to grow spiritually, closer, to my loving Father, my Lord.

To do that I have to do a self-valuation to determine the areas that I need to grow in the most.

Here are my areas – the ones that I need to grow the most in:

Purity: Our world is saturated with impurities. Now just porn (but that too), but subtle impurities that show up in all kinds of places throughout our day. They are splattered everywhere, particularly in media (TV shows, movies, video games, magazines, newspapers). The REALity is there is a heaven and there is a hell, and we have an enemy who is very crafty. He hides impurities everywhere that are ‘designed’ to weaken our faith. As our faith weakens, our relationship with God (the source of our power) weakens. That matters because there is only so much room in our hearts. Our hearts contain both Light (the Spirit of God) and darkness (our sin nature). But how much of each is determined by our de”fences” and our choices. To the degree we have pure hearts, is to the degree we are close, full, of God. And here’s the deal, you cannot hear God (which is required to do His will on this earth) unless our hearts are pure. Not perfect – but pure. “Father, PLEASE help me be ‘fully’ committed to you and all things pure, and help me say “no” to all that is impure.”

Integrity: You cannot build anything of ‘lasting’ (eternal) value unless you have integrity. Integrity is the foundation in which all things lasting are built. For me, I need to focus and grow mostly in two areas: Integrity in my finances (managing our budget), and integrity in my follow-through (doing what I say I will do when I say I will do it). I realized I am great at giving excuses for not managing my finances and budget well. I do “ok” at it, but I know I can do much better. I find myself saying “I’m just not good at math” or “I’m just not a good bookkeeper.” The REALity is that any human being (including me!) can learn something new because our brains are designed by it’s Creator to learn new things. My main problem is that I have been LAZY. “Father, help me not be lazy in the areas of follow-through and financial management any more. Help me be a man of my word (and go shopping with the girls:) and do my very best at being a good steward of every penny that you give me.”

Prayer: I do pretty good at giving God the first part of my day and reading God’s Word every morning, but I’m finding out that there is NO way that I can HEAR God if I am not CLOSE to God, and that takes both quality time in His Word, and quality 1-on-1 time in prayer (i.e. prayer closet/just me and him time). The reason that is so important is there is no way we can be truly successful in our relationship with God (be in His will) unless we are DIRECTED by Him. To be directed by Him – we must first HEAR him. I believe that 1-on-1 prayer is JUST as important as reading His Word because it is faith in the truest form. It puts us in the physical position of humility and surrender. Following Christ and accomplishing His will is about alignment. The closer we are aligned with him, the greater our spiritual success.

“FROM THIS DAY FORWARD Lord I am stepping up my commitment in purity, integrity, and prayer.” How about you?

Amazing thought… a new “decade” is upon us.

Question: Where were you, and what were you doing, ten years ago?

Okay. I have this son. His name is Robert. He is fourteen. And he is amazing. Problem is, I have these “dad moments” that send the wrong signal to my son. These moments communicate that I am in a hurry, grumpy, and don’t understand my son. Actually moments is probably not the right word. It’s more like dad freak outs than moments.

Anyway, this morning my amazing son could not find a shirt. He was already not feeling very good because his asthma has been flaring up. I knew that but did not think about that (pretty smrt right?). So he couldn’t find a shirt and he got behind getting ready for school. The bus came. The bus went. He was standing in the front yard. And you guessed it, dad freaked out!

Now I could have… calmly walked outside and said “Son, hop in the car and I’ll take you to school.” Or, “Hey Robert, we all have a few bad days, don’t worry about it, we’ll figure it out.”

Instead I went on this rant about how “its just a shirt” and “you better not miss the bus” and “you are going to be in game timeout until you’re 33 if you don’t get your butt in gear.” It was not pretty.  I was not pretty.

Two words explain what I did: Parent-FAIL!

It all worked out in the end and here’s why. I said the two most important words in parenting. “I’m sorry.” I forced myself to pull back and while driving Robert to school told him I was sorry for my part – for my parent FAIL. I didn’t point out what he did wrong. Why? Because I am the leader of my home. The good example is supposed to start with me, the right response is supposed to start with me.

I’m also going to print out this post and lay it on his bed. And then when he gets home I’m going to remind him how amazing he is (and how lucky I am to have him in my family), and then I will say one more time – just to make sure he hears it – “I’m sorry.”

I’m crazy about him, and I hope that somehow he can keep loving me even through all of my parent FAILS.  :)

I am still amazed by the statistic that approx. 70% of the people living in our communities don’t attend any church. The “nochurched” as I call them are everywhere. Why? And more importantly,  what are we going to do about it? These dear people are too precious to God to not try new ways to introduce them to God’s amazing grace and love found in Jesus Christ.