Blog Surfing or Divine Direction

Just a short post...

I was reading my son's blog today and noted a link on his blog to one of his recommendations. It is a post by Lauren on Britt and Lauren's blog regarding the result of the recent elections. She reminds readers that God has not failed to be in control regardless of the outcome.

I appreciate the fact that there are young people in this country that:
1) Didn't fall into the 'Follow Obama' fad.
2) Still hear the speaking of the Holy Spirit saying I (God) am in control. Don't be swayed by every wind and wave in these stormy times.

The Spirit showed me the outcome of this election long before the votes were counted. I believe that our new president elect is one that God intends to use to attempt to awaken the comfortable, slumbering church. The truth of God's love and His Redemption for man is desperately needed in this increasingly narcissistic society in which we live. Only God can satisfy the longings of hearts and church of God is needed to spread the Good News.

Heavenly Father, pour out your Holy Spirit as you said you would in these last days.

Too, too long

It has been too, too long since I've posted. I've struggled at times thinking, I should go write (blog) something, and then sat down and not really know what to write.
So here I sit to ramble on for a few hopefully coherent moments as I now reflect on a year that is nearly 5/6 past and wondering just where it has gone.
It has been a busy year and a full year. Much has happened. Much continues to be happening.

• My wife is moving into having a career because it is where God is directing her. He has given her a vision for the church that puts her in the place where her employer wants her at the helm of the product development - because it is His vision for the church.

• My son, my oldest "child," has started his senior year of college and now has a wonderful young lady to whom he has recently become engaged. She is a joy and a welcome addition to our family.

• My oldest daughter is in her second year of college - nursing and is having a very good year - A redeeming year for her. Last year was a difficult and trying year for her, but it caused her to grow tremendously in the Lord. I can't say how grateful I am for how she is doing now.

• My youngest daughter is the "busy" one. She always has been and she continues to go at light speed from one activity to another. School musical - to music competition - to mock trial - to spring play - and whatever else she thinks she can squeeze in.

Me - I've had a good year. I've worked a lot. I trained quite a bit. I did a couple major mountain bike races. I got to go to the Interbike convention (the revealing of all the new years bikes and bike toys). I have enjoyed my family. I have missed having the time I would have liked to have had with my parents.
The year has gone by too fast. I consider that it is the middle of October and I look back and wonder how the time has flown by so quickly. I am decided that I am definitely not ready for it to be late fall with snow just around the corner any day.

This is a good life! Thank God for it!
There is much to look forward to in the days ahead. In another post perhaps I'll venture into the things that I see the Lord wanting to work in the hearts of His church, His people, His bride. There may be difficulties, but there will be exceeding joy - heart peace - for those who rest in God and trust in Jesus Christ.

-- Blessings

Racing the Clock Around the Clock

This last weekend I participated in one of the major mountain biking events I've been preparing for this year - 24 Hours in the Sage - a 24 hour race in Gunnison, CO. It is a race to see how many laps can be ridden in a 24 hour period. Some people ride it solo, some as a duo, some as a four man team.
I was part of a four man team that rode 16 laps and I think we did pretty well, even if we did come in last. ;) It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed the experience, including riding at night which I've only done one time prior and not on a difficult trail.

Now both of the major events that I had planned on this year, the Laramie Enduro and the 24 Hours in the Sage are past it is time to just ride and have fun and get some things done around the house that haven't been taken care of yet. I'm sure my wife will be glad of that.

Great Family Picture

I love this picture that was taken while my son was visiting.
Pictured from left-to-right:
Abi, Jaimie (in front), Chris, Beth, Kerry, David

Busy With Life / This and That

I see it has been a little while since I last visited my blog. It has been busy here. Not bad busy, just busy.
Shortly after my last post my son came home over the 4th of July weekend and brought along his sweetheart to meet the family. That was a great weekend and we had a lot of fun and had a short but wonderful time getting to know this amazing (my son's favorite adjective for her) young lady. She is from Texas and had never been to the Rocky Mountains, so my wife and I took them for a drive through the mountains and we had a wonderful day. The next several days were very full and a lot of fun. We've sure missed them both since they went back to Oklahoma/Texas (him/her).

I've been working and trying to be mountain biking quite a bit trying to get ready for some long endurance events coming up, one of which is this weekend. We'll have to see how that turns out.

My wife and I went up to Fraser, Colorado this past weekend for a bike race and to enjoy having some husband/wife companionship time together. It sure seems hard to have time for one another when we're at home and busy with house work and chores and running the daughter to and from work and teaching her to drive.
We're both exhausted!

Our regular worship leader is at a family reunion in South Carolina, so I was blessed to be able to fill in this past Sunday. The Lord really led and anointed the time and many were blessed, so I too was blessed. What really is there that is better on this earth than time worshiping God? Nothing I can think of or have experienced.

All that said, God is so very good to us and we are immensely blessed and we thank Him for His blessings each day.

May you be richly blessed in Christ Jesus the Lord.

Grateful Beyond Words

Yesterday was my wife's and my 23rd wedding anniversary.
I cannot even begin to express the gratefulness in my heart for the blessing of having such a wonderful helpmeet - one whom God has made to be one with me - and my very best friend.

My wife and I went out for a nice dinner Saturday evening to celebrate and I was able to provide a surprise gift for her. That was fun!

All in all, yesterday was not a really eventful day, my wife spent the morning home from church resting, trying to fight a sinus infection which she is going to the doctor about today.
In the afternoon we had some time with my parents and sisters (the youngest of which is up from Phoenix with her kids for a few days), and it was good overall. Yet, it is always harder when my wife is not feeling well. She left early to head home and rest some more because the "gunk" has wiped her out. I struggle when she gets sick, because it seems there is so little I can do to help her, except try to be understanding.

I had a wonderful talk with my son last evening. He hasn't been home since last Christmas and we are all looking forward to being together again. An additionally exciting part is that he is bringing an amazing (his favorite adjective for her) young lady along for us to meet and begin to get to know. We are all looking forward to this event and are praying that she is able to be at peace and comfortable in our home. We know it can be a stressful event to meet your boyfriend/girlfriend's parents and family, but we know God is bigger. ;)

That's all for now.

Father's Day

Thank you Lord God Almighty for being a good and perfect Father!
Thank you Lord Jesus for revealing the Father to us through the Holy Spirit and Your word.

When I consider myself as a father, I see my imperfection. I know the many times I've fallen short of being the father I've wanted to be able to be.

I'm grateful for my wife who has helped and continues to help me be as good of a father as I can be.
I'm thankful for my children (now mostly grown) who have helped teach me how to be a father.

-- Blessings!

Quick Note

I've added a link for a new blog I've created called Gearing Up. It may not be too interesting to some, but I wanted a place to capture some thoughts about my training for biking events this summer and I figured I might as well link to it. ;)

Cheers!

A Quick Trip

*** I hadn't realized how long it's been since my last post. ***

This past weekend my wife, my two daughters, and a third "daughter" took a quick trip up to Rapid City, South Dakota for the high school graduation of a wonderful young lady. We have been family friends with her family for many years now and we have spent many an hour in prayer for them as the United States Air Force has taken them from Colorado Springs to Oklahoma to Alaska and now to South Dakota; and in the midst of that has deployed the father to Afghanistan and now to Iraq.
We went up to S.D. to celebrate a wonderful accomplishment, but we also were able to make it a mini-vacation. We visited Mount Rushmore and even Sylvan lake, which were both shown in the movie National Treasure II (with a little bit of digital magic thrown in).


We had a blast and daughter number 3 kept us all laughing for the better part of the trip.
We also visited a cool little tourist trap called Bear Country which has an assortment of wildlife from the western U.S., but especially a lot of... you guessed it... bears. Everywhere it seemed, were bears. There were bears sleeping, walking, bathing, and even um, procreating, which was an interesting experience for all.


There were even baby bears.


So I hope you enjoy my short update about our recent adventures. Maybe in a day or two I can add a little more.

God Bless!

Blessed With Great Kids

Sometimes I am just overwhelmingly blessed at how really, really great my kids are.
Sometimes it takes hearing about some of the difficulties other parents are experiencing with their kids to make me stop for a moment and really appreciate just how very blessed my wife and I have been. That our children have tended to make good choices as they are growing and learning can only be a testament to God's incomparable grace.
Some might say that it is because we have been good parents, and while I certainly try to appreciate the compliment, in my mind and heart I know that I (we) have made so many mistakes along the way that it really has little to do with me (us).

What brought this to mind and made me consider this was having a dear friend, who was looking very troubled, share with me the difficulties his son is having in college (failing two classes this spring semester). Not that my friend's son is a bad young man in any way, it is just that he struggles applying himself to college and not taking seriously the consequences for his lack of self-discipline (and the dad is footing most of the bill for college). This young man has missed classes because of oversleeping, not sought out help from the profs or TAs, and has not tried to find others to study with, but he is blaming the professors and how hard the classes are, and everything but himself for his failure. It breaks my heart for this young man and for my friend. My friend is a very responsible man. I know my friend has not raised his son to be irresponsible like this. He has tried and tried to teach his son how to be responsible. Also, it isn't because the young man is not capable - he had all A's and B's the fall semester of this school year.

I'm really praying that this summer will be a time of maturing for my friend's son. This young man is going on a Summer Project with Campus Crusade which is a missionary project to a big city. I am praying and trusting for the the Lord use this time and place as an opportunity for this young man to grasp hold of the maturity that he is called to as a young man - putting away childish things.

- As I consider this one instance, I remember that my daughter, a college freshman, who has struggled (though not failed) in one class all year, and try as she might, she just hasn't been able to do well on the tests, and she will have to take the classes over to be able to get into nursing clinicals. The difference - she has continued to try even when she may have really wanted to give up; and she has A's and B's in every other class.
- I also consider my son who just finished his junior year of college and has been on the dean's list every semester. He's a bright young man, but he also applies himself diligently even when he doesn't like or agree with what he has been assigned. He absolutely detests what he considers busy work, but he does it anyway.
- Finally, I consider my youngest just finishing her sophomore year of high school. She pours herself into working hard to get good grades. She participates in extracurricular activities and has had a job for the last year.
These are but illustrations of each of them and their many positive qualities.

By the way... I am not paying for my kid's college. Not because I don't value college, rather I very much do. We have set our kids up that college is what they will do after they finish high school. It isn't really an option. It's just that I believe if they have to work for all of it, then they will appreciate their investment in themselves like I appreciate having to work my way through college.

Each of my children have wonderful, tender hearts that long to follow after the Lord and what could a God-loving, God-fearing parent desire more for their child.

Thank you Lord God that you have blessed my wife and I with great kids.
We can never express it enough.

Recapping 'Life of Late'

Post of the month? It's sort of early in the month yet, so we'll see.

My last post noted my busyness of late.

* Work has still been very, very busy.
* I made the time and went skiing with my daughters Monday and Tuesday of their spring break and my wife was not able to go with us. :(
* All total I ended up doing five pieces of music for our Church Easter celebration.

I have sneaked in a couple opportunities to ride my bike, but only a couple (bummed about that).

Springtime in the Rockies always means windy. This year, the March weather was one or two little snowstorms a week. April has started the same way. We'll have a high of 60 degrees one day and 35-40 the next. Sunny and warm - cold and wet. Ah, you have to love it!

My chuckles of late come from the conversations with my son, that are happening about every week-and-a-half... I just keep hearing these phrases, "she's just so amazing...", and "when you meet her I know you'll think she's amazing too!"
I teased him a bit the last time he said that, saying, "What if we don't?"
He assured me that we would. ;) Too funny.
Young romance is fun to watch. It is just weird to me that it is really my son. Not because of him, but because of me. I don't feel old enough for him to be old enough. Then I have to remind myself that when I was his age, I was engaged to a wonderful and beautiful young woman that I was most fortunate to be able to marry. I'm pretty sure I never went around saying she was amazing, like Chris does about his interest, but that doesn't mean I don't thing she is. :)

Anyway, this post has been all over the map. Maybe you'll be amused by reading it.

God Bless!

Life of Late

I just have not been much into blogging lately.

I've been busy with work. I had a deadline the end of the previous week and then demos and meetings this last week.
I have had WAY toooo much time spent in front of the computer. I've posted a couple times on the the stories page for the bike shop where my daughter works, but not much else.

I've also been trying to work on music for our church Resurrection Celebration (aka Easter program), which will actually be in two weeks, even though Easter was today. I am providing guitar accompaniment for our Friends group (7-12 year-old youth group) doing a song; accompanying my oldest daughter singing a song; perhaps doing one or two myself; and I think one with my wife.

Phew... it doesn't sound like much, but it is surely enough to keep a guy busy.

My daughters are on spring break, so for next couple days I'm taking them skiing. Unfortunately my wife has the deadline at work this week and cannot go with us (I'm very sad about this, but will attempt to make the best of it.)

So for you, my friends, that visit my blog from time-to-time, I'm still here, but only sharing occasional snippets.

Still Cleaning This Gun

I've been hearing this song by Rodney Atkins on the radio fairly frequently lately. I've decided that I really like it.
I posted previously about being a protective father to two very beautiful girls, so If you read that post, you'd understand that a song about a guy dating a daughter with a chorus like this could seem pretty appealing:

... But there is one speech from high school I'll never forget
Come on in boy,
Sit on down and tell me about yourself.
So you like my daughter, do you now?
Yeah, we think she's something else.
She's her daddy's girl, her momma's world.
She deserves respect, that's what she'll get.
Ain't it son?
Now ya'll run along and have some fun.
I'll see you when you get back,
bet I'll be up all night,
still cleaning this gun.

I won't put the entire song here since you can click on this link to listen to it and see the lyrics along with it. If you have teenage daughters you might find you like this song too.

Meanwhile, I'll probably be up all night, just cleaning this gun. :D

A Bike Ride With My Daughter

Saturday morning I had a wonderful opportunity to go for a bike ride with my daughter (youngest). It was a wonderful learning experience for her and I'm extremely proud of how she did.

You see, she has been working at a bicycle shop for nearly a year now, and late last summer she bought herself a very nice mountain bike. The interesting part of it was that she has never really been much into riding bicycles and really wasn't much past just barely knowing how to ride.
-- I tried to do the good dad thing and taught her how to ride when she was around 6 years old, but she just never got into it. --
So last year, we took several nice easy rides so she could get used to riding a bike. Nice smooth trails (like glorified like dirt roads without the cars), nothing even remotely close to difficult. Then on last Labor day we went with the guys that run the bike shop and their families up to some relatively easy trails up in the mountains. The girl tried really, really hard, but to me it just did not seem like it would ever come to her.
Well, over the course of the winter, when she wasn't busy with some other thing, she would go to spin classes to help strengthen her legs and conditioning, but she didn't go often enough to realistically expect much gain from it. But as the saying goes, "every little bit helps." And it did.

On Saturday morning when we went out, we went to a park here in town with trails around and through it. I mulled over what trails would be good for her planned out the best route for her to ride and enjoy success. The planning paid dividends along with the time she spent conditioning.
I'm not saying I expect that she'll go out and win any races this year, but the quantum leap of how Saturday was compared to last labor day... inconceivable (and yes the word means what I think it means). The girl did remarkably well and her papa is extremely proud of her.
She fell a couple times and endured some scrapes and some bruises, but at the end of the ride she was saying that she wanted to come back to the park and do it again so she could work on doing better. That is an overcoming spirit and it is a wonderful thing to see in your children.

I'm not sure when the next time will be that we can get out to ride together again, but I am very much looking forward to whenever it is. Hopefully it will be soon.

A Daughter's Heart

Last night I had the awesome privilege to take my beautiful daughters out for a special evening.

The event we attended is called A Daughter's Heart and it is a daddy-daughter dance.
A local couple, Ed and Renee Behr have organized and sponsored this event for the past 11 or so years. Their mission: A non-profit ministry created to help foster the relationship between Fathers and Daughters.


We had a wonderful time. We danced a lot. I got a little teary eyed a couple times during the evening... Especially at the beginning when they ran a slide show to the song Cinderella from Steven Curtis Chapman; again at end when the band closed with the Bob Carlisle song Butterfly Kisses and I held both of my girls close and we just had a kind of group hug for the whole song. (Disclaimer Warning: Listening to these songs can melt your heart.)
It's really hard to relate just how special this is for me, and I know that it has been really special for my beautiful girls both years we've gone.

I thank God for the opportunity to share such a blessed time with my girls!
Thank you my girls for the time you spent with me and blessed your papa!

Finally Getting It Right

After all these years, I think I might have finally gotten it right for the first time.

I remembered Valentine's Day.
I had a card for her on the side table Thursday morning when she went downstairs to read her bible.
I had flowers delivered to my wife at work.
I had a date arranged for us to meet for lunch.
I had arrangements for dinner on Friday evening along with tickets for a concert for an outstanding musician named David Templeton who played piano and guitar.

Don't worry, I won't let it go to my head.

Mostly because it has taken me way too long to at last get close to being on top of the game the way I should have been all along.

You see, I'm pretty sure I had it figured out when I was wooing her to try to win her heart in the beginning. I would take her to dinner and movies. I would write her love letters, call her on the phone and we'd talk for hours (and it was expensive to call long distance in-state in those days - before cell phones and unlimited night time minutes). We would go for hikes and long drives just to be together. We went to see Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith in concert. This unheard of guy named Rich Mullins opened the show. What a fun time we had!

After we got married and started having children, life happened. I had to change careers just so we could eat and attempt to keep a roof over our heads. I started college and spent ten years doing that and working full time. In all that, I forgot to remember how to spend time winning my wife's heart. Our dates became everyday tasks like going to the grocery store. Going to see a play meant spending the evening at the middle school or high school when our kids were in them. Musical events were the same thing. Seeing a movie, meant renting a video and watching it on our TV. The pizazz and romance had definitely disappeared.

Now, with almost 23 years together and two of the three kids out of the house, I'm remembering again how to invest in the most important person in my life.

Sorry honey that it has taken so long! There will be more good things to come!

So hopefully, I'm finally starting to get it right again.

Protective Papa

There have been several incidents in the past few months involving my girls... a couple in the past two weeks.

As a father I am VERY protective over my girls!

Be off with ye scurvy dogs!

One young man who had been dating my oldest daughter said some mean and hurtful things to her... and my thoughts about him at that time were not quite charitable.

The Powerful Art of Persuasion

About two weeks ago two different young men decided they could talk in quite UN acceptable ways to or about my youngest daughter.

One young man (a long time friend of hers) made an inappropriate comment to her and she quite adamantly made it clear that he was NEVER to talk to her like that again. His sheepish response was that it was a slip like he was talking to one of the guys. She then demanded, "Do I look like one of the guys?" [I was and am very proud of her!]
Never-the-less, it has been, shall we say, difficult for me not bring a stern admonition to this pup.

I be inclined to cut out his tongue.

The second young man made comments about body parts of youngest and one of her female friends during a practice time for an activity they are all participating in. Youngest still has not been willing to share with me what, exactly the comments were. She again handled it well (smacked him for a start), then spoke with the teacher/sponsor of the activity regarding his sexually harassing comments. The teacher addressed it with him and he has been on much better behavior since.
But just to back it up, I'll be wearing my leather jacket and a mean looking scowl to the activity competition.
As a side note, I'm not sure what my daughter has said to him since, but tonight she told me that he was intimidated knowing that I would be at the competition. I smiled at her as I replied, "He should be... he should be!" (said with a Yoda voice for effect).

Now for clarity, I am a law-abiding citizen and don't go around threatening people, but... if you mess with my girls, I'm definitely willing to mess with you.

No REAL Biking - Trainer Weary

Alas, it is winter time in Colorado. There is snow on the ground and every time it gets warm enough to start to melt, we're getting a fresh blast of winter depositing more of the fluffy white stuff on the ground.
As I've become more of a biking enthusiast in the last couple years, I've also grown more impatient with the few winter months we have.
All the biking I've been doing for the past several months has been indoors on a trainer. 90 minutes, three times a week, trying to keep my muscles in some semblance of riding shape. I know it will pay off for the days when I can actually get back on my bike outside, but until then, I'm growing a bit weary of the pedaling, pedaling, pedaling, and not going anywhere. And honestly, I'm getting kind of tired of looking at the guys in my spin class. Just as sure as they are probably getting tired of looking at me. ;)
Sometimes while I'm in the spin class I'm actually wondering to myself how many hundreds of miles I would have really ridden if I'd been on the trail during all that time, or at least had a odometer on my back wheel to get an idea.
But so life goes.
In the meantime, it's only another month or so until I'll be back out on the dirt (and mud) being able to look at the beautiful Colorado as I'm riding along through it.
Until then...
I'll be pedaling along merrily on a trainer and longing for the coming days of spring.

New Link in Other Blogs Worth Reading

Shameless plug...

Our Olde Bike Shoppe (aka Ascent Cycling) has started a blog so they can post about different stuff, so I thought I'd add a link to them. Not much there yet, but I'm hoping it will get interesting as the guys start adding to it.

I admit that I am biased, but it is the best bike shop in town, so check it out if you can.

Ponderings

Sometimes I love reading my son's blog. God has given my son the ability to ponder and perceive in ways that, I don't know whether I don't know how to, or just don't take the time to consider.
My son gets insights that I just don't seem to be plugged in to. I read what he has written and I think to myself, "You know, he's right. Hmmm. I wonder why I never thought about that."

God has given us all gifts. Wonderful gifts. Sometimes though I kind of wonder why it seems like some people seem to get more gifts than others of us do. ;) Not that that is really the case, but it sure can seem that way sometimes. Our gifts are just different.
I liken it to a friend of ours whom God has given a wonderful ability to communicate things the Lord has shared or revealed to him, and I think to myself, "Gee, I'd really like to be able to communicate things like he does." But then I remember that if I am comparing myself to my friend that the Word says I am without (spiritual) understanding. So I get to live with the gifts I have been blessed with. Sometimes I wonder though, does anybody ever think to them self, "Gee, I would like to be able to do ... like David does." Of course, I'm not really sure what anyone would think like that for. Silly huh?

Anyway... That's what I'm thinking about tonight.

Seasons Of Change

These days we are in are seasons of change...

Today was the first day our church has started meeting in a home for our Sunday service. There are many financial reasons that sum up to insufficient funds for us to rent a building at this time; but to be clear, lack of tithing by our congregation is not one of them.
For the past two years, up through last week, we had been meeting at an elementary school and that had been okay, but it became clear that we were to move on. For nine and one-half years prior to that we rented a building from another church until that church decided they could/should get more money than we were able to pay.

Today's service was very much a blessing! We are where God wants us to be in this season. What more can we really ask for? It was an intimate time together.

Our church doesn't seem like much when compared to the many mega-churches in our city, but it is more than okay because God hasn't called us to be one of those. I believe that we get caught in the trap of the standards by which today's churches are judged against other churches and the "successful" church is the one that has grown to have thousands of people and built large edifices and have multiple services. If you don't have that and don't look like that, your church appears to be a failure. There were times that Jesus had a church of thousands. Most of the time he had a dozen or so followers. If that was good enough for Him, shouldn't that be good enough for us if that is what he has called us to? I think it is. Additionally, His Word tells us that when we judge ourselves against others we are without understanding spiritually.

On a different but kind of related note, our son left to go back to Norman, Oklahoma yesterday. He needed to be back this evening for his job as an RA. Originally he was going to leave today, but prompted by the Holy Spirit decided it would be better to drive part of the way yesterday afternoon and then complete the drive today. We had been keeping an eye on the weather in relation to his need to travel, but the forecast on showed a very slight chance of any precipitation or possible bad weather through today, but we each one had that feeling from the Spirit that he needed to leave yesterday. I'm glad we heard that prompting so clearly.
Snow started falling this morning about 6:00 a.m. and we had about 3 to 4 inches in less than two hours. Roads quickly turned to sheets of slick, icy, packed snow, and I'm sure that similar conditions existed all the way to the South where he would have had to drive today. That would have been pretty lousy conditions for him to drive in.

The time our son was home, short though it was, was very much a blessing. When he is home, the average decibel level in our home escalates unbelievably. His voice is resonant (a.k.a. loud) when he isn't being attentive to keep it down. That's okay. That's just who he is. We had some good talks and just enjoyed being together as a family again. Also, as he noted on his blog recently, he is perhaps as happy as anyone can remember seeing him in a long while. Hurray!
I am grateful beyond words for the work God has done and is doing in him. What more can a parent ask for?

Our older daughter (middle child) was home from her first semester of college as well. She had a very rough first semester, but we are able to see God's Hand at work in her life. There is much He is desiring to teach her about herself in this time. It is hard as a parent to wait and watch as this process takes place. We have this desire to want to save, or at least help, our children when they are in difficult places in their lives. Our daughter came home very down and very discouraged. She had a hard time making new friends which is odd for her. She had a hard time getting plugged in with any of the college ministries because she found there wasn't the depth there that she was expecting. She was talking about wanting to change schools, change majors, wanting to change pretty much everything. There were many difficult emotional things that occurred and our feeling is that she felt like she just wanted to run away from what this semester of school has been. Fortunately, she has calmed down and started to hear the Holy Spirit speaking His peace to her heart and spirit and soul. We're praying for this next semester to be better for her. We are also praying for her to invest in the ministry where God calls her to.
She will be home for a couple more weeks before returning to college and I'm hoping for more opportunities to talk with her during this period of time. This is her season of change...

I want to take a line and note for my kids that I am so very proud of each of them. Each one is special and each one has their special gifting and nothing can take away from who God has made them to be.

It is a season where many of us are reflecting on things of the past, things that are happening in these days and considering things that will soon come about. I could write pages of the other things that this relates to for us, but I think you get the idea.

I am so thankful that we have the One that cares about us and leads us in these changing seasons.

May God bless you!

Not A New Year's Resolution

I've never been a big one for New Year's Resolutions.
I kind of tried last year.
Kerry and I joined the local Fitness 19 in December '06 and we were going to be working out together. It was a great plan and was working okay until January 3, the beginning of our annual New Year's ski trip with the kids, and Kerry's back went out almost as bad as it ever has. We had rented a condo up in the mountains so we could ski for 3 days. As Kerry was getting dressed that first morning, she bent over to pull on socks or something and slipped her disc. She couldn't hardly move much less ski. Needless to say, she wouldn't be working out when we got home. It took many months and physical therapy for her to recover. Since I had joined the gym with Kerry mainly to encourage her to go, my motivation to go by myself was pretty low, so it was pretty much done when she was injured.
When spring came around last year, I went back to riding my mountain bike for some semblance of exercise. I realized then that I probably should have continued going to the gym. ;) Anyway, after biking through the summer and fall I got to be in the condition I was wishing I was in back in the spring... So my challenge for this winter has been to not lose the conditioning gained in the past year, I've been going to "spin" classes at my favorite away-from-home hangout, the local bike shop (LBS). Spin classes, for those of you that may not know, are where you put your bicycle on a stationary trainer, get on your bike, and torture yourself (with the encouragement of an instructor) by pedaling at varying speeds and levels of resistance for an hour and a half. Occasionally (about once a week) engaging in this joyous activity has helped get me through the holiday eating season with only somewhat minimal weight gain. But now that the eating season has passed I have resolved to attend these classes in earnest, which means about three times a week.
This is not a new year's resolution, hence the title of the post. This is a goal to enable me to better participate in some of the biking activities I'm planning on this year. These planned activities include (barring schedule conflicts):
* Riding more, maybe all, of the mountain bike races in the Winter Park series (I did two of six last year);
* Riding in a 69 mile endurance race in Laramie, Wyoming;
* Possibly riding as part of a four man team in a 24 hour race in Gunnison, Colorado;
* Courage Classic to benefit 'The Children's Hospital' (this is looking less likely now because it conflicts with the just announced schedule for the Laramie race).
This should fill up most weekends of the summer.
Until then I'm going to be busy trying to rid myself of about 20 unneeded and unwanted pounds and whip myself into shape to be able to give it everything this 44 year-old body can muster.
Sound crazy?
It may be, but it'll be good.
Care to join me?
And since I've never been big on New Year's Resolutions...

It is Not A New Year's Resolution!
It's an achievable goal.

2008

Happy New Year!