Reclaiming America's Values

Late night talk show host and HBO® special host Bill Maher recently represented those opposed to Biblical values on Larry King Live. In response to a question about restoring the separation of church and state he said:

“I hate to sound like a broken record. It has to take place at the top. When you have a president (this took place during the Bush presidency) who is this openly religious and this openly contemptible, in contempt, rather, of the separation of church and state, I don’t think anything is going to change until that changes. This is a man who proudly says that Jesus picked him to be president. You said something about, ‘You have to respect people’s beliefs.’ I know that’s what we always hear—we have to respect. I’m sorry, I don’t. I don’t respect religion. I don’t respect superstitious thinking, which is what religion is.”

“We talked about this before, this whole gay issue wouldn’t even be an issue except it says it in the Bible. The Bible, that book that has people who lived to be 900 years old and says the world is 6000 years old, and that there are people who lived in a whale. That infallible work of genius and slavery is okay. You should stone a guy to death if he works on Sunday. That’s the book that says, ‘Sorry, no homosexuals.’ So I’m sorry, I don’t respect people who believe in religion. I was religious when I was a kid. We all had dumb stuff drilled into our head. It doesn’t mean when you get to be an adult you can’t drill it out.”

Many social and political leaders of our era are attempting to discredit the teaching of the Bible and eliminate any accountability to God. The enemies of God are willing to ridicule Christians, rewrite history, sandblast Scripture off walls, redesign city seals to erase the cross, change the Pledge to remove any mention of God so we can live as we please.

But if there is no Creator, no validity to the Bible, then there is no foundation for right and wrong and the result is national confusion and chaos. “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people” (Proverbs 14:34).

If you neglect your car, it takes a while for the engine to become so polluted that it breaks down. And if a nation neglects its moral values, it takes a while for the complete collapse to occur, but it’s inevitable. Arnold Toynbee, respected historian, wrote that, of the 22 major civilizations in history, 19 collapsed from within. That was written before the fall of the Soviet Union. We are not exempt. Let’s reclaim America’s values!

The Day I Learned About Worship

I can remember when it finally hit me. I was sitting in a hot, stuffy room that held about 25 people, but had 100 crammed into it. I was 17 years old, and had been a Christian for about 3 years, but never had fully grasped this whole “worship” thing. I knew all the songs that were being sung, but was just giving them lip service and nothing more.
I was in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. There was a Honduran man standing next to me. He was probably in his forties, but looked about 75 years of age. Years of poverty, working in the hot sun, and sub-standard living conditions had not been kind to him. There was a group of about 20 teenagers singing some devotional songs in English to a group of about 80 Spanish-speaking only adults and teenagers in a small community outside of the capital city. These songs, which were routine songs we had sung over and over again, had little to no meaning to me. I continued to sing, because we were supposed to, but my mind was on a trip to the soccer field later on in the day.
All of a sudden, while I was singing the song “Worthy Is the Lamb”, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I thought maybe one of the adult leaders of our trip needed me for something, so I looked behind me, but there was no one there. I looked next to me, and the older gentleman standing next to me had placed one hand on my shoulder, had his eyes closed, and had his other hand straight up in the air.
I already knew the man spoke no English, so he didn’t understand what our words meant. All he knew was that we were singing songs of praise to our God, and he wanted to participate in the worship as well. Even though we weren’t praising with the same language, we were both praising the same God. At that moment, I realized this “worship” thing was more than just singing a song, but it was an experience. It was something that I needed to understand more. At that moment, I felt a tear roll down my cheek, and I finally grasped that my worship to God was not just for my benefit, but was to first of all praise God, and second of all, to teach and admonish others.
Paul tells us in I Corinthians 14:19 that he would rather speak five understandable words to help others than ten thousand words in an unknown language. That day, this man knew we were speaking of God, His Love, and His Grace. Those words were enough for him to enter into his own time of worship. Today, we’re going to learn how to grow in our worship to God. May God bless our worship service today, and accept our praise to Him.

Update on my sister

Here's an update on my sister. She had a small set back, but she seems to be taking it in stride. Please continue to pray for her. Its not the best news, but its definitely not the worst.

This is from her blog, which you can link to on your right:

The right side where there was no cancer was perfectly fine. No cancer in the breast and no cancer in the lymph nodes. The cancer on the left side was a smaller then they thought. It was 1 1/2 cm and all the margins were clean and it did not appear attached to anything. The sentinel lymph node that they took out first was a little larger then normal. At first glance in the operating room, there appeared no cancer cells. As they did a little more investigating, there were 2 specks of cancer in the lymph node. The largest was 1 1/2 mm (not cm, but millimeters).

Dr. Lawson wants to go back in and take a few more lymph nodes out and test them. She wants to do this to plan my treatment better. She told me that I might benefit with having radiation done on my chest wall. This will probably guarantee that I will have to have chemotherapy. By doing this, I can lower my chance of the cancer coming back in the remaining tissue.

I will have to have surgery again but this time, I will do it as an outpatient surgery so I can get home quicker. I don't know what the date will be but I will let post it when I find out. I have found that this is annoying. It definitely is not what I wanted it to be but cancer is not simple and I knew that from the beginning.

Right now, I want to back to some type of normal. I miss spending time with my kids and doing for them. I miss sleeping comfortably on my bed and I miss Kevin sleeping beside me. I miss fixing dinner at night (but don't get me wrong, I LOVE having meals ready to fix.) I really miss taking a long hot shower. Right now I am just whining and after a good night's rest, I will feel better.

This is just another step that I have to take to get back to being myself. I am will do this and get it done and fight my way back to healthy. Thank you for all your prayers and keep praying.

Her first birthday cake...followed by her first sugar rush

This is the sugar rush that came after her first bite of birthday cake. She had not enjoyed the taste that is sugar, and she rather enjoyed it.

She enjoyed it so much, that when I asked her how the cake was, she answered this way:

Guess who turns 1 today?

Josie on the day she was born!


A year ago today, we were all just anxiously awaiting her arrival. As we sat in the delivery room at Crestwood Hospital in Huntsville, AL, we knew our lives were about to change. Finally at 7:19 pm, Josie Layne Widick was born into this world. Never has there been a greater girl born.

A lot has happened in a year, especially the big move from Guntersville to Houston. And now, as we celebrate her first birthday, we have arrived at my parent's house in Lebanon, TN to support my sister as she is about to have her surgery.

I thought I'd place a few pics so you could see how she looks now that she's a whole year old.

Josie's new toy for her first birthday!
Josie takin a dip in the backyard.
Josie in her rocking chair holding the Raggedy Ann doll my mom made for her.
Josie and I about to go see the Alligators at Brazos Bend outside of Houston.

Praying for my sister

Tomorrow, Wednesday May 27, we will be flying home to Nashville to be with my family for my sister's surgery. We will be there till late Saturday afternoon, and then we'll fly back to Houston.

At this time, I ask you to all take a moment over the next few days and say a special prayer for Mary Anne. The surgery is scheduled for Thursday morning. They will check her lymph nodes first to make sure nothing has spread, and then begin the procedure.
My sister got a new haircut with the pink highlights, in support of Breast Cancer Awareness.
Faith got a pink hair extension put in her hair.
Even my mom got in on the action. Never thought I'd see this, but its pretty cool, to say the least.

While I'm not going to be putting a pink strip in my hair, or my beard (thanks to all that suggested it), I did buy a pink polo shirt and will be wearing it to support Mary Anne.

Getting fit is a God thing for me now

I joined the gym on May 4th. Since then I have been consistently, doing weight/resistance training 3 times a week, doing cardio on those days for 20 minutes, and then doing cardio two other days a week for 40-60 minutes.

I never realized how spiritual working out could be. I get the best thoughts and ideas while working out. Most of them are centered on God, and what I can do in my life to honor him. I have been to the gym now a total of 12 times since I joined, and there have been days when I didn't want to go at all, but I powered through and made it.

Everyday, as I pull into the gym parking lot, I'm amused by people who are waiting on a car to pull out of a spot that is closer to the door. That just cracks me up. I also have a pre-gym ritual I do each time I pull into the parking lot:

1. Pray
2. Listen to the song "He's A Pirate" on the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack

I go into the gym, get changed, put my ipod shuffle on, and head upstairs to do my 20 minute cardio warm up. Then, on the weight days, I move on to my area to do my resistance training. On days when I'm just doing cardio, I will either stay on the same machine for another 20 minutes, or move to another one.

I've realized that there are some songs that really get me going while I'm working out or running. Here are a few, and if you have any other suggestions, let me know:

1. Baba O'Reily by The Who
2. The Distance by Cake
3. Here Is Our King by David Crowder Band
4. Stronger by Kanye West
5. Vertigo by U2
6. Nuisance by John Reuben
7. Separate Ways by Journey
8. Pierced by Audio Adrenaline

Anything I'm missing?

By the way, please remember to pray for my sister, Mary Anne Walton, who is having surgery on May 28. Lord willing, Kristen, Josie and I will be making the trip to be up there with her.

For a Lifetime

I can't even begin to count the amount of times I've posted about struggles with my weight. This would probably be the 6th or 7th time in past three years I've brought this up. However, I would like to hope that this time is a bit different.

Kristen and I are very budget conscious, and we have a very limited budget to work with. Now that we have a child and we are a one income household, some things have been restricted in our home. After we moved to Houston, we found that there were about 6 different gyms within a two mile radius of our home. As I looked around, I found that all of them were anywhere from $35 to $55 a month to join. I thought that was preposterous. However, in wanting to commit to getting in shape, I went and looked at one.

The one I looked at happened to be called Lifetime Fitness. When I walked in, it was unlike any gym I had ever seen. It was so clean, full of smiling happy employees going out of there way to make sure I knew where I was going. I spoke with a customer service guy who showed me all over the place, and I was sold. We had a decision to make -- do we both join for $100 a month, or do I join for $50?

Kristen is very happy jogging outside, and she does it quite often. She also enjoys doing her pilates dvd in the living room. She is real committed, however, I am not. We decided that I would join for now, and if we come into some money later on, she could join (they offer free child care as part of your membership, and child care area is stellar to say the least).

The first time I went to the gym, I was set up with a personal trainer who was tasked with the job of measuring how fat and out of shape I really am. With a sister who was just diagnosed with cancer at 35, and a brother who had a heart attack at 36, it concerns me greatly that I have not taken care of myself. With the test, the following was determined:

1. For a 6'2" guy, I weighed 254 pounds. This puts my body mass index (BMI) just slightly into the obese category. However, the BMI is rarely correct.

2. My cardiovascular endurance is in the very poor category.

3. My bicep strength is in the good to excellent category.

4. My sit and reach was in the poor category. This is that exercise when you put your feet against a box that has a guide on it that measures how far you can reach with your legs completely straight. I have no flexibility whatsoever.

5. Based on the computerized model taking into consideration my heart rate after a brief stress test, I am in the overweight category, almost into the obese category.

6. My overall fitness is in the "fair" category.

What all of this means is that I'm completely out of shape. Out of 254 pounds, 82 pounds of my body is complete fat. My body size should only have approximately 19 pounds of fat. I am told by their computers that if follow their plan for 42 weeks, at 3 times a week of working out and 5 times a week of cardio, I can reach those goals, and get down to 191 pounds.

The most sobering part of this was the actual age versus body age category. I am 31 years old, but my body age is actual at 41 years old. This is based upon my body composition, my cardiovascular strength, flexibility and my strength rankings.

So this week, I have been to the gym 4 times. Here's to many more weeks, and a greater health and total lifestyle change.

Introducing Henry Ian Cusick as...

So we're at church on Sunday morning. Calvin uses a video clip to demonstrate anger, from the film "The Gospel of John". I had no clue who i would see in the clip of Jesus overturning the money tables in the temple. Watch the clip below, at around the 7:00 minute mark is where we started our clip Sunday morning:



Striking resemblance to this man?



I never knew Desmond was also Jesus...at least portrayed Jesus in the Gospel of John.

Update on my sister

Mary Anne will be having surgery on May 28. She asks all of us to pray for her. One way you can keep up with what's going on is on her new blog: "A Journey of Hope and Peace" Please follow her journey, and post some encouraging comments on the way.

You can also join the facebook group: "Support for Mary Anne" started by her husband, Kevin Walton. I sent many of you an invite through Facebook, but if I forgot, please go and join!

In Need of Prayers

In the process of making the move, several things have kind of fallen by the wayside temporarily, and one of those things is this blog. I just wanted you all to know that we're alive and well, and things are going smoothly. We're still settling on a few things, but overwhelmingly most of our move is complete.

I know I have several readers, not many that post comments, however, but for this post, comments are not necessary, only prayers are needed.

Last night, I discovered that my sister, Mary Anne Walton, has developed cancer in one of her breasts. They went to do a biopsy several days ago, and it came back cancerous. She is faced with several big decisions as to what her next step will be in this process.

I ask that all of you stop what you're doing and offer up a prayer on her behalf. Mary Anne will be 35 years old in May. This just isn't supposed to happen, but it has. Pray for her that the cancer can be removed completely. Pray for her husband, Kevin, who works so hard and diligently to support his family. Pray for their two children, Faith and John Derrick, who are just wonderful kids and are a testimony to how Mary Anne and Kevin live their lives.

Both of my grandmother's had breast cancer, so this does run in the family I suppose. But its still just so alarming that it happened to her at such a young age. I know so many of you will help us out by praying. If any of you want to send her an email, send it to me, and I will forward it on to her at lanewidick@gmail.com

God bless you all.

Getting Settled

The past week has been a very challenging one. Josie got sick last Sunday with a Croup type cough, and made her first visit to her new Pediatrician. I was busy getting acquanited with things at the office. Kristen was unpacking boxes and setting up the house.

Then, I caught whatever it was that Josie had, and I'm just now starting to get over it. Fortunately, Kristen has remained healthy through this whole ordeal. If she gets sick, then the whole house will fall apart.

We've been here working with the church at West University for a week now, and we're getting to know the people more and more. Its a church that has a lot of hope and excitement, and wants to grow and prosper the best it can. Its a tough dynamic working in the downtown area of a larger city, especially since most people live in the suburbs. By the time they fight traffic to get home on Wednesday nights, they don't typically have a chance to make it back to evening services. Its just different than what we're used to doing.

Pray for our work here. I'm acting as an Associate Minister, which covers a whole lot of things. Some of the main areas I am working with is Worship Leading, Media Management, Young Families, and helping put together some sort of youth program. We currently do not have many teens, but there a whole lot of children. The problem is retaining them when they reach those teen years, because there's not a developed youth program. If anyone has any resources for me, I would gladly accept the advice.

Once we get interent set up at our house, I promise things will return to more of a regular pattern with my posting. It should be within the next two weeks or so.

God bless you all.

Moving Right Along

I just realized it has been several weeks since I posted anything, so I thought I would catch everyone up:

Tonight, I'm sitting in a hotel room in Hattiesburg, MS, on our way to Sugarland, TX. Today, the moving truck came and loaded up all our stuff, and it will meet us there on Saturday. (By the way, This Side Up Moving based in Madison, AL, is an excellent company, if you ever need to move). We drove about 5 hours tonight, and we'll drive the other 7 or so tomorrow. We're going to "camp out" in our new home tomorrow night in sleeping bags. How fun!

This past Sunday, we said goodbye to our family and friends at the Guntersville Church of Christ. It was a great day. I was able to preach on Sunday morning, with a sermon entitled "Deep Water Faith In The Shallow End". That night, they had a wonderful going away ceremony for us.

I think the thing that made the transition easier for us was that everyone understood and supported our decision to get out of youth ministry and into a different role. Thank you to all those at Guntersville for making the last three years great.

As for an update on my car that had the tree fall on it, it is finally fixed. The first day that they "fixed" it and I drove it home, I realized the driver's side mirror was rather shaky. I took it back up there the next day, and they said they would order another mirror. When they got the new one in, it was still shaky. Since that one didn't work, and both of those were aftermarket mirrors, they ordered a factory mirror. That didn't work either. They started to look at the door, thinking that when the tree hit the mirror, that it bent the door frame, so they ordered me a new door.

The new door came in on the Wednesday before we were supposed to move. They ran it through quick, and I received a call late Wednesday afternoon. They told me they had the new door on. I said "GREAT!! Did that fix the problem?", and they said "No, it did not."

So after three new mirrors and a new door, the problem still was not fixed. As a last resort, they asked me when I was leaving, and I told them today at 2:00. They asked if they could keep one more day, because they had found a used mirror on in a town about an hour away. They pulled off a junk Accord.

Today, at 1:45, they called and said it was done. It was fixed. So after 3 new mirrors and a new door, the problem was that Honda's new mirrors are no good. They told me that the used one weighed about two pounds more than the newer ones. No wonder the mirror shook like a leaf in the wind.

I probably won't have internet access till later next week, but I wanted to keep all those remaining readers up to date on the situation. Pray for us, and look for a new web address for my blog in the next few weeks, since I am no longer a youth minister, it just doesn't make sense!

Visions of the future

While we were in Houston house hunting, we went to a local mall. We had left our stroller at the hotel room, so we rented an alligator stroller with a steering wheel. This is a look into the future, and one that I know will come all too soon.

New home pictures and other things that may interest a few of you

If you would like to see pictures of our new home GO HERE!!!

Of course, we still have to finalize everything, but I think its all going to work out.

Its hard enough to close on a house locally, but its even more complicated to try to close on a house four states away!! Trying to find an insurance agent, finalize the mortgage lending requirements, and making sure all goes smoothly is a rather exhaustive task, but we'll make it, nonetheless.

Update on my car:

Still not fixed. Apparently, while we were gone last week to house hunt, they shipped the wrong hood to the body shop two different times. Also, two of the dashboard lights came on, and now we have to wait and see if they came on due to the tree falling on the car. They have to prove it was the tree's fault. My question is, how do you prove it wasn't the tree's fault? They didn't come on till after the tree hit the car!

We are having a MOVING SALE this weekend at our house. We're selling furniture such as two audio/video towers, a full size bed with frame, mattress, headboard, and a couple of chairs.

We're also selling a surround sound system, a slightly used Bowflex, books, clothes, a 27 inch tv in great condition, dishes and much more! We have to fit all our stuff into one 26 foot truck!! If you're interested in any of this stuff, let me know.

Hopefully it will be a good sale. We're having it in the parking lot of the Guntersville Church of Christ. Come on by and visit.

House Hunting update

Well, here's the update on the house hunt:

Monday, we went and looked at about 40 homes all around the western side of Houston. It was all rather overwhelming. Some of the homes were wonderful, some were not so much. Josie was a little trooper, getting in and out of her car seat over and over again. She had a wonderful time! She loved looking at all the homes (except the really gross ones!)

There was one home in particular, about midway through the day, that we really loved. It was a smaller home, and at the higher end of our budget, but it was the home we kept comparing the rest of them against. But, being at the higher end of our budget we were unsure whether or not it would be a fit for me.

After looking at all the rest of the homes for the day, we decided to sleep on it, and go back to the one we liked the next day. After we looked at it a second time, we knew that it was the home for us. We had a few things we had to consider and factor in, however.

First, I had to call my CPA and ask him to rush my numbers for what I would need to set aside for taxes the upcoming year. When he told me what my take home pay would be after taxes, it had us falling short about $150.

Second, we called our mortgage guy, and asked him to run the numbers based upon what we were offering for the house. After he ran the numbers, believe it or not, it ended up being $150 less per month than what he had initially told me. Bingo, that's what we needed to hear. We made the offer, and they accepted!!

However, yesterday, at the home inspection, we learned that the house's roof was at the end of its life. We were nervous that they might not take care of that, since we had asked them to pay our closing costs. However, they realized that if they didn't replace it for us, they would probably have to replace it for someone else.

This morning, I'm meeting with our mortgage guy, and then I'll go back over to the Realtor's office to finalize everything, Lord willing.

Say a little prayer for us this morning, that all will go well. Thanks for all the prayers so far!!

House Hunters

Hey everyone. Kristen and I are spending the week in Houston, house hunting. Some markets are great, affordable and safe, but those markets are an hour commute from the church.

Other markets are at the tip top of our price range, and would make our budget tight, but is in a very safe area, 20 minutes from church, and has a high resale value.

We have been praying hard, and we're asking all of you to do the same, so we can get in the best home for us. Its a huge decision, especially when you only have a week to make it!

We'll keep you updated, if you promise to pray.

If a tree falls on your car, and no one is around, does it crush a car?

Yesterday was not a good day. At around 3 in the afternoon, our doorbell rang. I was holding Josie, trying to calm her down, and Kristen had gotten up to put some laundry away. Kristen came in to open up the front door. Living next to the church building, we get a lot of "can we borrow your keys" moments. That is what I was expecting on a Sunday afternoon.

What I heard was a "Is this your white Honda Accord out here?", and then a "OH MY GOODNESS!!!" from Kristen. I got up, and discovered this:

So, anyone know a good body shop guy in Guntersville?

I was going to say that this is the worst time for this to happen, but the more I think about, is there ever a good time for a tree to fall on your car?

Now I'm on the phone with AT&T, trying to get someone to come out to fix the phone line that came down with the tree. We're also waiting for the Insurance people to call. I don't mind things happening like this, its just all the seeming bureaucracy that one must go through to get things fixed.

This too shall pass.

And to top it all off, the letter "p" key on my keyboard just popped off.

Sigh.

Time for a change

No, I'm not quoting Barack Obama. This is not a political post, but very much so a personal post.

I'm getting out of youth ministry.

Let me say that again: I'm getting out of youth ministry. I know some of you are in complete shock. Others of you are shaking your head in agreement. Those of you who know me understand this is the best thing for me.

Kristen and I have been very prayerful over this. Since I left a complicated situation in Memphis, TN, I have been working in a career that I was not fully comfortable doing. Youth Ministry is a wonderful calling, and it takes a very special person to do it. I, however, have been feeling a pull to go towards a different area of ministry for a while now.

We had talked to a few different churches, looking at a few different roles, when one jumped to the head of the pack. It was an Associate Minister position, in a little town called Houston, TX.

We went to visit, and fell in love with the church family, but most importantly, it seemed like the position was the perfect fit for us. We got back on a Monday, and by the time I had woken up on Tuesday, they had offered us a job. We prayed over it for a week or so, and saw other doors closing, and this one opening wider.

I will be serving as their full time Associate Minister, working with pulpit minister to fill in for him when he is gone. I will also be working with Evangelism, helping do Bible studies. I'll be teaching adult classes, particularly to young families. In addition, I'll be helping grow their small groups, be responsible for all the media and presentation for Sunday morning worship, and help out with a budding teen group.

I have enjoyed my time here in Guntersville, and there are many individuals and families here who have helped me and Kristen grow. I'll always remember it here, because this was Josie's first home. Speaking of Josie, she'll be 9 months old tomorrow. Here are a few pictures:

Josie loves these "stacking rings", but doesn't use them to stack. She loves to take them with her everywhere she goes. Usually she has the orange and yellow ones, but sometimes she goes for blue.

This one just looks like a mug shot.

But she has a gorgeous smile. It'll just melt your heart!

And of course...Josie is now mobile. Look out world!!

God's Family Part 2

Deuteronomy 6:4-5
4 "Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.
5 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.

Notice that Moses doesn’t say we’re to fear God or study Him or even serve Him. In this passage, the command is simply to love. As parents, that should be a very natural thing. It also should be the most important thing.

However, training up children begins with moms and dads learning how to love God with their whole person – heart, mind, will, strength. If parents can't do that, it makes it impossible for us to teach our children about the love of God.

Even though Paul was not married, he possessed that kind of strong character, and he passed it on to his followers as a father would do to his children.

PHILIPPIANS 4:9
9 Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.

The basic truth demonstrated by Paul, for all parents to remember, is that nothing can happen through us until it has happened to us. We cannot give what we do not have. We cannot train up our children to love God with all their heart, soul, and might if we don’t love God with all of ours. Its not enough to just send them to Sunday School, and hope that they "get it" while they are in "church". In fact, that’s not even close. Real parenting, the kind God wants accomplished in the home, relies completely on the reality of the parents’ own love for the Lord. If its not there, whatever instruction we give our children will likely come off as a noisy gong or clanging cymbal (I COR. 13:1) And the longer and louder we bang out our sermons, the more our children will probably just cover their ears.

Come on, our children are smart, and they see right through us when we aren't living how we expect them to live. Let's give the children of this generation a bit more credit. As we learned at Winterfest this past weekend, Love God, Love others. Our children have to see us love God and love others for them to believe it.

Cardboard Testimony

There are many churches that are doing "Cardboard Testimonies" now. If you haven't heard about them, it is where a person rights where their lives were before Christ/before present relationship with Christ/etc., and then they flip it over to reveal where their lives are now.

One of the more moving ones I've seen was done by Richland Hills Church of Christ, and its worth going to watch. Please visit their site by clicking HERE and watch the video, and then come back and tell me what you think.

The problem for me is, I don't know if I'm quite ready to flip the cardboard over.

God's Family? Hardly.

For the last few months, I've been fascinated with the idea of taking our youth ministry into a new direction. I feel like too often times, our ministries become too closely associated with who is in charge, who is involved, or what is going on, instead of focusing on God.

This is not a slam on any parents here in Guntersville. I have some of the best parents to work with that a minister could ask for. The problem is, just like with the rest of America, that time is a precious commodity that not too many families possess.

When I was a child, my father, my mother, my brother, and my sister and I always ate breakfast together during the school year, and on Sundays. We ate dinner together probably 99% of the time. It was important. Even if nothing was said, we were there together.

A recent Cornell University study revealed that fathers in America, on average, only spend 37 seconds a day with their children. I know part of that takes into consideration the deadbeat dads that want nothing to do with a family, but a lot of that is because of how much we work in our society.

A typical family of four now a days all wake up at a different time. They may or may not even eat breakfast. Dad goes to work, mom usually goes to work, kids may catch two different school buses or two different car pools to school, or they may drive separately. The family is separated for at least 7 hours during the school day.

After that, kids may come home, or have extra curricular activities at school to practice for, and may not make it home till 5 or so. Regardless, parents may not make it home till 5, so that's another 2 hours they are apart. Son goes to his room, daughter goes to her room to work on homework or play on the internet. Dinner may be together, but most often it is grab what you can before an evening activity, such as a ball game or practice for something. Parents are home just enough to sit down and get right back up.

They come home from an event, practice, etc, and separate at the door to go to their rooms to get ready for bed, or finish (or start) on their homework. Mom and dad are exhausted from work and other things during the day, and one may go to bed while the other goes to watch some tv and relax for a bit. They all may go to bed, before the whole process starts again. In this model, the families are together for about one, maybe 2 hours a day.

So enter Wednesday nights, what can we do to make our families more involved together on Wednesday nights? I fully believe if we offer a family based ministry instead of the typical youth group model, that it will fundamentally change our families and how they interact with each other. The sad thing is that most families don't have family devotionals, pray together, open up the Bible and read together, or other spiritual activities.

Maybe its time when we come to church as God's family, to have an opportunity for our families to get together every now and then. Maybe have a class where families can meet together, and gain strength and support from each other.

More thoughts on this to follow.

Super Favorites

I've been gone for the last week, so I'm just now getting around to this. I thought I would post my favorite Super Bowl Commercials. This year, the commercials were not nearly as funny/good as in past years, but here are my 2 favorites:

Pedigree Pets


Cash 4 Gold

25 Random Things

Okay, so I have been tagged on Facebook and numerous other blogs to do this "25 Random Things About Myself" post, so I thought I would go ahead and do it. Here's for all you who think you know me, or who don't me at all.

1. I have been going bald since I was 17 years old.
2. In high school, I was the star of many plays. I played Conrad Birdie in Bye Bye Birdie, Captain Von Trapp in the Sound of Music, Tommy Albright in Brigadoon, George Bailey in Its A Wonderful Life, and Wilson in the play Harvey.
3. I dated my wife for about 5 months, broke up with her, didn't talk to her for about a year, and then we started dating again, while we were 900 miles apart!
4. I have an unnatural addiction to diet soft drinks. Preferably Diet Dr. Pepper, but if that's not available, Diet Coke will do.
5. I was the Assistant Coach on a Girl's State Championship Basketball Team in Houston, TX -- The Westbury Christian Lady Wildcats.
6. One of my all time favorite movies is the movie "Grease"
7. I have preached from the same pulpit that Alexander Campbell once spoke from.
8. I was one semester away from having an Elementary Education degree before I changed my Major to Bible.
9. I directed two Makin Music shows, one got second, the other got first.
10. I never finished behind Sigma Rho in a Makin Music show while I was at Freed Hardeman.
11. I proposed to my wife on Christmas Day. She said yes.
12. I have met Lute Olsen, Bill Self, Rick Pitino, and Mike Krzyzewski. The funny thing is, I'm not really that big a fan of college basketball.
13. I was once mistaken for Bill Goldberg. That was back in the day when I worked out everyday, shaved my head and had a goatee.
14. I preached my first sermon when I was 14 years old.
15. When I was a kid, my goal in life was to be a movie director/movie writer/or a novelist.
16. I absolutely love playing strategy games, especially Risk. However, I have recently taken to a game called The Settlers of Catan.
17. I worked as a camp counselor for 4 years while I was in college. I spent every night outside on a porch all through the summer, in west TN, in 98 degree heat and 99% humidity.
18. I have never taken a sip of coffee. I never will.
19. I have never had one drink of alcohol. I never will. (Not that I'm judging anyone who does drink, but I never will!)
20. I love God, I love His Church, but I can't stand the Politics of the church. Somehow, I just don't think God intended for it to be this way.
21. I love volleyball. I coached a high school team which produced two Division 1 college players, I coached a travel team here in Guntersville, and I married a wonderful woman who played at Freed Hardeman.
22. I have never seen Bambi, Cinderella, Snow White, or many other Disney movies.
23. I know absolutely nothing about fixing cars. I can change a tire, that's about it.
24. I can't fall asleep unless I am watching something on tv. 99% of the time, I have old Friends episodes on DVD playing.
25. My first job was working and cooking for a catering business in Lebanon, TN.

There you go! I won't tag anyone, because no one I ever tag ever does these things. However, if you're a reader, consider yourself tagged!

You've Just Got To Read This!!!

Okay, well it may not be all that exciting to you, but it is to me and several million other people tonight.

The most amazing television show ever produced comes back on tonight. LOST returns on ABC. Be sure to watch it. I'm sure they'll be some dialogue on it tomorrow on Jason's blog over at Already and Not Yet.

Which brings me to another thought: What are your favorite television shows of all time? Some of my favorites include --

1. The Office
2. Friends
3. The A-Team
4. Survivor
5. The Cosby Show
6. Everybody Loves Raymond
7. American Idol
8. The Simpsons
9. Sportscenter (not sure if that counts or not)