Imitation--Day 175/Day 1/Day 1/Day 13

Gabrielle, Colton and I made it to Sunday School in time. Jim continued our work in Ephesians. The first couple weeks had more to do with God's love for us and what He did for us. In the remaining weeks, we will be discussing what we must do to "Walk the Walk We Talk". He pointed out and I especially like Ephesians 5:1-2:

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a scrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

To be imitators of Christ as beloved children is a fabulous (thanks Amber for that word) analogy. I love to see Noah imitate us as we try to teach him new words. I love to see Gabrielle and Colton imitate our good qualities. Most of the time, it is fairly easy for them to do so. To be an imitator of Christ should be simple as well, but many of us stray from the path too easily. For instance, I've felt easily angered the past few days. I attribute this to time spent away from His Word. We delve deeply into it on Thursdays but we missed the class. I hadn't written down the verse I was supposed to for Sunday School. I still want to do that and I plan to very soon. I don't think I opened up my bible on Saturday except to place the tabs in it. Each time I feel this way, I should open up the Good Book and read a verse or two. Perhaps I'll keep that verse from Ephesians with me along with a couple other verses I enjoy reading and/or the quote Ravi Zachariah likes to use that I have written on a notebook. I need to get back to 0 degrees (Day 163) more often.

Sunday School ran longer than usual and we got out of the class at just after 10:30. Mary and Roger sat in front of us today. As I've mentioned before, I enjoy seeing how different people praise Him. I watched Roger for the first time. He was quite difficult to miss. The music was upbeat today and he was dancing the whole time. Imagine trying to get someone's attention from 200 yards away. You might lean back a little, cup your mouth, and yell as loud as you could. Roger did everything but cup his mouth. He was really into the music and it was wonderful to see. One of the questions we were asked in Sunday School was whether or not our faith was maturing. I know mine is, but not at the rate I'd like it to. I'm being as patient as possible with it. That is not to say I'm mature in my faith, and sitting behind those two makes it all the more evident. Not just in the way they sing, but I know each of them has a very strong personal relationship with God. Many people there do. I wonder how many people do not. I'll pray for all of us.

The sermon was on prayer. That is something I'd been thinking about the last couple days after reading chapter 11 in The Purpose Driven Life which discusses praying without ceasing. This is something I'm working on. I signed a sheet of paper promising to pray for our leaders nationally and in the church. I also agreed to fast at least one meal during the week and praying during that time. I sacrificed my dinner tonight and prayed for about 20 minutes.

I spent my day cleaning up, watching football and playing with the boys. The kids did some raking of the leaves in a big pile and jumping off the swings into them. Good times. During prayer time later, Colton thanked God for the Father/Son time we had. Some of this included shooting our first gun ever. A friend of mine, while not a hunter, is a gun enthusiast. Before we got to the area, he pulled out the AR-15 (close to an M-16, he says), tells us about it and shows us how to use it safely. We got in his van and the first thing I noticed was the Christian music coming out of his radio. I wasn't surprised, but it was the first time I'd been in another person's vehicle with that playing. It made for a nice drive to the range(?) which also included Andy's discussion about his guns. The gun is incredibly accurate. I was able to shot what I was aiming at from 100 yards away or so after shooting just a few times. I had never even held a loaded gun in my life let alone used one. We had a good time.

Noah and I read some books later on. We read through one a couple times, but barely made it through a couple others. On the last one, I asked him if he knew what "that" was as I pointed to the train. He says "choo-choo". That was the end of reading. "All done.", he says and closes the book. "Come on, Daddy. Choo-choo." He pulled on my finger till I got up and we went upstairs and played with the train and tracks for a while. Not too long after this, though, he was ready for bed.

We said prayers with the kids and this time he stood on the side of the bed with his hands firmly clasped. After Colton finished with his prayer, we all said "Amen." Noah was the last of us to do so, but he said it with conviction. This all goes back to imitation. He doesn't know what he's saying, but hopefully Kim and I will be able to continue a life that we want our children to imitate.

And now, some words from Watermark and from my heart as well:

Wonderful Savior
My heart belongs to Thee
I will remember always the blood You shed for me
Wonderful Savior
My heart will know Your worth
So I will embrace You always as I walk this earth

Be blessed, be loved, be lifted high
Be treasured here
Be glorified
I owe my life to You my Lord
Here I am....

Beautiful Jesus
How may I bless Your heart?
Knees to the earth I bow down to everything You are
Beautiful Jesus
You are my only worth
So let me embrace You always as I walk this earth



Thank you, Wonderful Savior.



Games of Catch in the Fall--Day 174/Day 0/Day 0/Day 12

We got home very late Saturday night and I hadn't posted earlier in the day, So officially, there was no post on Saturday. I don't remember opening up the Bible either, which is unfortunate, since it was Saturday and I had plenty of time to do so. Colton and I played catch for quite a while. After playing for a while, he said we'd finish by both making 10 catches. I caught my 10th and it was up to him. He decided he wanted to keep playing because as the ball made it to him, he swatted it out of the air. We made it to six or seven a few times after that. Sometimes no more than two or three in a row. Finally, he made his 10th catch and it was up to me. I decided we weren't done yet and swatted it out of the air. We were both a little tired by then, but made it up to 15 each after that.

We went to Jane and Mike's to play some poker at around 7:30. We decided to pay the top four and I made it to second place out of 14. Technically, I could've gotten first, but Bill had a huge chip lead and was kind enough to split it $60/$50 so we could get another game going. It was 10:00 by this time and I asked Gabrielle and Colton if they wanted to stay a while longer while we played again or if they wanted to go. They said they wanted to stay so we did. I feel that was a mistake. Sure, we don't get time out with friends much, but we could've gone home and watched a movie together or something with the time we spent playing cards and leaving the kids to fend for themselves. I ended up with third out of 14 and, fortunately, they had decided to pay out only three places this time. I was fairly lucky all night. By the time we were done it was 1:00. Colton was sleeping, Gabrielle was almost there and I had put Noah to bed soon after the second game started. We had to get them all up to step into the cold night to go home. That's when I shook my head and realized this may have been a bad idea to stay. Fortunately, we got to put the clocks back an hour and we got enough sleep to plan to get up for Sunday School the next morning.