Being involved is work

So I'm trying to figure out how I can be more involved in the church, and how to encourage others. Part of me wants to help out with the nursery just because there is such a need for workers there, but I feel I would enjoy working with the youth as a small group leader more.

All of this is pretty easy, but how do you get others to care? Why do people feel that participation in a baseball league is more important than equipping other believers with the knowledge of the Son of God. We are called to serve, not play sports.

Families seem so busy. I guess not only family but just people in general. It seems if we don't have something going on we are instantly bored. But at the same time you constantly hear about people needing more time to get things done.

So what can we do?

I Night in My Wife's Shoes

So, had a terrible time going to sleep.
Woke up at 3am to babies crying and got up to calm them down.
Woke up again at 7:15 to spouse's alarm clock
Finally got up for the day after 8am to crying baby.

So, for the record, my night is usually going to sleep quickly, getting up to my alarm. Nothing between them. So, I now have some more empathy for my wife, but would really like to go back to my norm.

Beautiful Morning

Beautiful is a good word for this morning. 63 degrees when I went out wearing my work clothes. Great ride, except for one stinky truck that I could smell when it was about 100 yards in front of me.

I really would like to do more biking than just commuting to work. But I think I need to tune up the other bikes so the whole family can go.

Now that I think about it, I have to do maintenance on all the vehicles. I think both cars need oil changes and could use an overall check up. Perhaps this weekend I'll have some time to handle that.

I'm thinking it is worth it to do the maintenance myself. I just need to get someone else to help out, it makes the work so much more enjoyable.

What about you? Do you maintain your own vehicles or take it in? Do you follow the recommended maintenance schedule or take longer between oil changes and other services?

Time of Quiet Listening

Luke 6:40 "A pupil is not above his teacher, but everyone, after he has been fully trained will be like his teacher."

Who are your teachers? Mr/Mrs ________?
Who has a strong influence in your life? Oprah?
Who do you want to be like? Mike?

I know one teacher that I want to have is Holy Spirit.
John 14:26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you."

We need to spend time in the word of God, listening to what the Holy Spirit has to teach us. We need to know what Jesus has said for it to be brought to our remembrance. I've learned that a quiet time is not a bible study. A bible study (in my opinion) is a guided look at the Word of God. Instead of allowing the scripture to speak we are trying to make the scripture say something.

The Bible is the Living Word of God (Heb 4:12) For the Word to be our teacher we need to study it, not a lesson someone else made, that makes the author of the lesson your teacher.

In Discipleship For Leadership (DFL) we were encouraged to use our quiet time to do the homework, but after memorizing Luke 6:40 I realized I'm not having God as my teacher, but the DFL teacher. Now the DFL teacher is a great teacher and I don't mind being his pupil, but I also want to be a pupil to God.

So what about you? Do you follow someone's lessons such as "Our Daily Bread" or "My Utmost for His Highest" instead of having a time with just God?

Back to the original purpose

So I started this blog with thoughts of life and now it turns out to simply be my random thoughts. Usually dealing with my own life, and not so much digging into God's Word.

So what do you the readers think? Should I change to a more focused blog or is everyone happy with whatever I happen to be thinking at the time? Not like anyone really posts comments, so maybe what I'm doing is fine. Maybe the question is whether or not I'm happy with it. I'm the one who posts. I recently looked back over some of my original posts and thought they were pretty nice. Not too sure what I should do. I have a journal, that I can use. Should I journal here, or there?

Getting It Together

Well, time to make some changes in my day to day routine.

• Have Quiet Time in the morning instead of the DFL homework. DFL homework examines the scriptures with leading questions and doesn't really let the Word speak on its own. Do DFL homework at night.
• Stop making excuses and ride the bike.
• Start journaling each day to record opportunities to show the love of Christ. These opportunities could be taken or missed, but the idea is to be more mindful of them.

That should be a good start. I rode in this morning taking it easy. My throat is bothering me again and I'm uncertain why. But I finally decided that not riding doesn't seem to change anything, and I really enjoy riding. Had a great ride, mid 50s temperature, no wind, low traffic; all around very pleasant.

The journal idea came from the memory verse for this week:
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 sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma." Eph 5:1-2
How did I do? "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; ²and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. " I really messed up the punctuation, but did well with the words, which makes sense. I have not written this verse out much so I miss a lot of punctuation just learning it orally.

The point of the quiet time is that I don't want to try to extract specific points from the scriptures, but to read the scriptures for what they have to say. DFL homework makes you examine the scripture with specific points to extract from it.

I would like to add working out somewhere, but I think I need to get these as a routine first then add workout in a week or two.

Finished Boat Bed Pictures

Happy boy with his new bed, and a book. The door is closed, which he doesn't get to see this side of it much.

Here is the inside. This is where he sleeps. The door is down on the right side of the picture. The stairs up are already broken. I should have added a stronger edge on this piece, but that is pretty easy to fix, no real harm done.

Here is the top. This is a look at the captains quarters.

Here is a nice overall view of the boat which takes up so much of the room.
Looks like David didn't make his bed this morning.

So what has been happening

Not sure why I haven't had time to post anything, but I've been meaning to. The boat bed is done and looks great. I've been trying to get some pictures to post here, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Angie and Jason did a wonderful job painting a faux wood grain. David loves his new bed, I have some video of him on it, maybe I can try posting that too. Though that won't be till the weekend when I transfer the tape onto my hard drive.

Started riding my bike again. My annoying cough that has been lingering is finally gone, so I don't mind breathing in the cool morning air. Today it was about 48 degrees, and I over dressed. I'm thinking just my work pants and not the windbreaker over them. Also a lighter top layer, I wore my yellow long sleeve pull over.

Easter was a great time, but very exhausting. We have way too much chocolate too. David loved it, but I think we had too many eggs for the kids. He would pick one up and try to open it instead of gathering them all first.

DFL is going well, but I think I need to have my quiet time on top of doing my DFL. This will require a lot more time, but I think it is needed. I have really missed have a more relaxing QT.

Our house is still somewhat of a wreck. Especially the garage. I need to get it cleaned up from the boat bed project. We also need to get our house cleaned up from having company stay with us. But hopefully that can get done this weekend.

The kids have been doing really well. Katie is sitting up easily, David is talking more and more, you can now ask him if he wants water or milk. Katie rolls over, but doesn't seem to be that interested in crawling yet.

Things have been pretty busy at home, and I need to take advantage of the time available to get things done. We have been failing at doing any workouts which needs to change. Hopefully this weekend we will get the rest we need and be able to get the house in order.

Pictures

Well, here are some pictures of the Noah's ark bunk bed I have been working on with the help of others.

Here is a picture of the front side. The door way up top will have a hinged door on it, and the doorway on bottom will have a drawbridge type door.


This side of the structure will be against a wall, so the lower portion will remain open. The front top will have 1/2 inch diameter rope through the holes as rails.

So much happening

Man, I'm so excited about this boat bed. I have it assembled with the help of Angie, Jason, Dad, and Papa. I finally decided what I want to do for the door and plan to put that on Thursday. Then I need to get some help and pull the thing apart. It has a coat of primer, but one gallon isn't enough to cover the thing. It only covers about 2/3rds.

Haven't been out on my bike recently because I have this annoying cough. I think I may have been a bit sick or something, but I'm not sure. It may just have to do with all the saw dust I've been breathing. But I'm done cutting, and the temperature is rising. So I should be able to ride some more. After I get my lawn mowed. We have had so much rain I haven't had a chance to get out and mow. The plan is to do it today after DFL. We should get home around 8:40pm. But if I don't do it today I may miss my opportunity because more rain is in the forecast for tomorrow/tonight.

The kids are doing well, but they have had some nose issues. David had an ear infection that is over with now, and Katie had a runny nose and hadn't been sleeping through the night. But I think we are all better, or close to it.

Birthdays are coming up now so my next two weekends are going to be busy. I'll need to recruit some help getting David's room ready, getting the mattress, and finishing the boat bed. But everyone I've talked to so far seemed interesting and available, so may try to arrange a full day at my house and feed people and have a good time.