End of School Year = Busy Week

Not much time to blog this week. Not even much time to read others blogs this week. Not much time to breathe this week.
Work has been all day meetings since Monday which is tiring all by itself. They are necessary and will help us produce a better product, but... I don't like all day meetings.
Every night this week has been filled with some activity for one or the other or both daughters.
Monday night: Teacher's Choice Awards and Senior Recognition. Youngest daughter was recognized by two teachers for being an excellent student. Oldest daughter is in the top 25 in her graduating class. [I'm very proud of them both.]
Tuesday night: Choir concert for both girls. Both sing beautifully. This is oldest's last H.S. choir concert.
Wednesday night (tonight): 3.75 and Educator Honoring Banquet. This recognizes the seniors that have maintained a 3.75 or higher GPA and those students get to recognize a teacher that has been special or influential. Oldest daughter did a fine job of speaking well while honoring a science teacher that she had all four years and noting the qualities that make him an outstanding teacher.
Thursday night: Band concert for youngest.
Friday night: Nothing planned that I know of or can remember... Phew! ... One more night to go... I think...

Our oldest oldest (Chris) has college finals this week. Oldest daughter has four A.P. tests this week. I'm sure youngest has more stuff going on, but I don't think I've seen her long enough to find out what.

Oh! And Mother's Day is Sunday... Can't forget that. My sister has been trying to get in touch with me for two days so we can solidify plans with family. Hopefully tomorrow I can connect with her. I think I'll send her an email. :P

I wish there was more I could add, but this is about all that I have left today. Bless you all and I'll try to catch up in a couple days.

Senior Prom Night!

My middle child, our oldest daughter (OD), had her senior prom the night before last. What an exciting experience for her. She had a couple girlfriends over and the "got ready." Actually I had two daughters going to prom last night. One of the girlfriends is our "adopted" daughter [so she is our middle daughter MD and explaining that is for a different post]. So in the picture on the right, MD is on the left in the light blue, OD is in the middle in pink and the young lady on the right is another of OD's girlfriends.

All three moms were on hand to help Prom preparations of this magnitude is definitely not a guy thing. This proud papa stayed out of the way and watched three already beautiful young ladies transform into princesses ready for Cinderella's ball. They were all stunningly beautiful! [Yes I am biased, but they were still exceedingly gorgeous!]

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Pictures and flashes and more pictures and more flashes. I think I took about 120 pictures.

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Their dashingly dressed princes arrived here to pick them up to start their evening. Young man 1 (YM1) My OD's date had his act completely together; he had the corsage and tickets and looked very sharp. The next young man (YM2) arrived and doing well, but not quite as well as YM1, had the corsage, but... forgot the tickets and his student ID (required for entrance to the dance). MD's date, YM3 was running a few minutes late. He showed up looking great! But... he forgot... uh, the corsage, the tickets, and I'm not sure what else. Keep in mind OD, MD, and YM3 have known each other all their lives. YM3 comes in shows off his tux and MD comes down the stairs. YM3's jaw dropped and he stuttered and stammered at seeing MD. "Wow! You look great!" is what I think he managed to get out.

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Pictures and flashes and more pictures and more flashes.

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Then suddenly they are ready to head off for dinner and the dance and all the mom's and this papa were left watching them head off. It is a momentous occasion for them and for us.

Ah the joys of having our children grow: mixed emotions galore!
I am happy for them; and then again I am sad that the time seems to have passed so quickly. (It also means I'm getting older, even though I don't feel it.)
My daughter that I was just yesterday singing the Collin Ray song "I Think About You" to, has gone to her senior prom and is about ready to graduate high school.

Wow! It has happened so quickly!

I think about you, eight years old, big blue eyes and a heart of gold...

Thank You God!

I just visited the blog for Especially Heather who I wrote about a few days back.
The Lord moved mountains for her to be able to have surgery for a brain tumor within literally about two weeks.
I have to confess that having her come through well (better than might expected for a surgery that traumatic) brings me to tears of gratefulness before God.
The number of posts to encourage her is over 320 since yesterdays post. That is a lot of support for somebody that most, like myself, don't personally know.

Please join me in giving thanks and praise to God for His mercy to Heather and her family.

My Wife the Writer

Just some thoughts that came to me after reading my wife's blog today.

Oh, how I have tried to encourage my wife Kerry in her writing only to meet with the resistance of something like, "I can't do that yet, we haven't covered it in the writing class I'm working on."
She is already a very good and very capable writer. I try to gently remind her that the class is to help her develop the tools needed for "successful" writing, not for just writing.

I pray for her to be able to just be free to sit down and begin to pour out the multitude of treasures hidden within her heart and mind and put aside all the other stuff, including self-critique, until after she is done getting the thoughts down. I know it will come. She is a creature of habit and it is difficult for her to break those habits.
And my contribution to the matter... far too often has just been expressed frustration with her because I am more of a "just do it" personality. I attack things get the bulk of the thing done and then go back. When that applies to writing I may edit 46 times after I've finished, but if I don't get the thought out and down, swoosh, out of the brain it goes and it just may never come back again. Really!

Anyway for those of you that read this, I invite you to pray with me for Kerry and her writing so that she can know she is successful, not because of accomplishments, but because God has said that she is more than able through Christ who strengthens her (and us).

Humbly Grateful

I've been praying for a lady I don't know named Heather.
Why, you may ask, would I be praying for somebody I don't know? Because God has moved my heart with compassion for her and for her family is the only thing I can reply.
Heather has a tumor on her brain and is currently wisely seeking for medical expertise. Heather is a Christian woman with a strong faith.

Why does God choose to allow some people to walk through extremely difficult circumstances?
I don't know.
Why does God allow the same people that have had one difficult circumstance to go through another, and maybe another, and maybe another... maybe what seems like a lifetime of one thing after another?
I don't know.
Why does God allow His saints, His people to endure these kinds of difficulties?
I don't know this either.

As an example, we have personal friends that have had many difficult things in their lives over the past many years: Multiple Sclerosis, cancer, tumor, family estrangement, other medical problems.
Sometimes it just seems like it will never end. I know from the Bible that God does not impose these circumstances on His people, but I believe from reading Job that if it occurs, it is because He permits it; and from reading Jeremiah 29:11, that there is a purpose in it.

These people are strong, well-grounded believers in God; they believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He came in the flesh as dwelt as a man; that He died for the forgiveness of our sins as the perfect atoning sacrifice; and that He rose again from the dead three days later and after appearing to those who had known Him, He ascended into heaven to be seated at the right hand of God the Father.

Then I consider that there many others that believe the same, but for some reason are not touched directly by these seemingly overwhelming trials. I am humbly grateful to fall in this category. Thank You Father God.

Jesus, it says in Your word that Your heart was moved with compassion for those that came seeking You and for the healing You have the power to give: paralytics, blind, sick, diseased, oppressed and possessed by demons; even the dead. You touched them and healed them and made them completely whole and set them free. Oh Lord, we long to see Your glory fall in these days for healing and deliverance. We desire to see Your majesty manifest in these days that many souls would come to know You and worship You. We live in a lost and dying world that desperately needs the hope and life that ONLY YOU can give. Come Lord now in these days and display Your power for all the nations to see. Lord we need You! And Lord... I love You!

Our Gifts of Life

I walked down the aisle,
With my new found wife beside
We stepped on through the door,
To live the gift of life.

And the days just seem to fly,
And the years keep flowin' on by,
And the days just seem to fly... away

I looked into his eyes,
Our new born baby boy
A gift of heaven above,
To fill our hearts with joy

And the days just seem to fly,
And the years keep flowin' on by,
And the days just seem to fly... away

I looked into her eyes,
Like a dove, she seems to fly
On wings so pure and gentle,
A beautiful daughter so full of life

And the days just seem to fly,
And the years keep flowin' on by,
And the days just seem to fly... away

I looked into her eyes,
Our little giver of joy
Her smile so full of laughter
A gift so pure and bright

And the days just seem to fly,
And the years keep flowin' on by,
And the days just seem to fly... away

They seem to grow so quickly
The time just seems to fly
Yesterday they were babies
Now they've filled our life

And the days just seem to fly,
And the years keep flowin' on by,
And the days just seem to fly... away

They sure have grown so quickly
The time has sure gone by
We're blessed that we've received
Our Gifts of Life
We're blessed that we've received
Our precious Gifts of Life

And the days just seem to fly,
And the years keep flowin' on by,
And the days just seem to fly... away

I wrote this song a few years back; not yet knowing as fully as I now know, and still not yet as fully as I shall still come to know.
My oldest daughter is but a few weeks from her high school graduation and getting ever closer to leaving for college. It was not an easy endeavor taking my son to college, now almost two years ago; I can only venture to guess that it will be harder to leave my little lady. Our youngest is now only three years from graduating high school and I cannot, dare not, will not think about that now.
Grace for those days does not yet belong to me.

And the days just seem to fly... away

Getting Tuned In

Have you ever had to mess with an analog radio to try to get it tuned in? Do you remember those, the kind with a little dial that you have to move back and forth just so to get it so you can hear the radio station without the static. I know those are fading into the past in this digital age. Today the tuners on our car radio still have a dial that you can turn to the left and the right to change the station, but it moves from one digital channel setting to the next so when you get to the exact frequency the radio station is broadcasting (like 98.3 MHz), you have a corresponding digital setting.
I remember when I was younger, before everything was digital, radios had dials and the tuning knob would take you through all the space in between 98.1 and 98.9 when you were trying to get to 98.3 and getting it set could sometimes be just a little touchy... and radio stations didn't announce that they were broadcasting on the decimal somewhere in between the whole numbers, they rounded up or down; the local station that broadcast on 92.9 announced its location as 93. Simple.

I started considering this this evening after an adventure...
I am trying to find new places to go ride my mountain bike in hopes of actually getting this decaying body back into something resembling being in shape again (which is no small task). So even though the weather forecast was gloomy and the skies were threatening, I went out to ride in a city park close by that provides some moderately challenging terrain. I was hoping to get about a five mile ride in before the weather got bad. I had mapped out my route before going, but since I had not ridden there before I was not familiar with where all the trails went. I was having fun and I missed the place where I had intended to turn off to the trail to take me back to my pickup. About that time I was crossing an open area on the top of the bluff and it started lightning and thundering pretty intensely.
Now I often talk to God while I'm on little outings because it is usually a good time to do so. There generally aren't too many interruptions. [Sometimes I also ask for help to keep breathing.] Well I mentioned to Him that I noticed the static electrical show that was dancing around me was impressive, but it was also making me a little uncomfortable and that I understood that I needed to get back, but the trail was leading away from where my truck was parked. I reasoned that it shouldn't be too much further to where the trail was supposed to head back the other way so I went on a little farther, maybe another 1/4 mile. *** This is where it ties back to the fine tuning. ***
I need a digital tuner so that I can clearly GET the frequency God is broadcasting to me on. Somehow it seems that I am still using an analog tuner that gets a little fuzzy from time-to-time and I am not quite getting the clear signal. And I think the lightning was messing with the reception too.
I know God speaks clearly, so the reception problem has to be on this end. God said, "You should stop and go back that other way to the truck." What I got was something like, "You should <crackle> go <crackle> that <crackle> way to the truck."
Okay, so not really... there weren't any static crackles in the reception, though there really was plenty of electrical static. I confess that there was just that stupid thing in me that says "just a little further and I can turn around there and go back..."

"I'm sorry Lord. You spoke. I heard, but I only kinda listened. Thank You for having mercy on this servant and only allowing me to get a little wet, when if I had really listened I would have been back at my pickup before the rain started to fall. You truly are merciful."

Oh, and as for the analog tuner, I think I need to replace it with a digital tuner attached to a PA system so it can get through my hearing difficulty.

--God bless.