Halloween '08

I will feel just like this pumpkin after eating candy this weekend. We spent our Halloween night at our churches "Trunk or Treat". It's a nice time and really allows outsiders to see how kind Christians really can be.

I also miss trick or treating in the neighborhood though. Usually neighborhoods like River Oaks and Cloverdale are packed with ghosts and witches and parents following kids in the cars (which I think is completely stupid.) But tonight the neighborhoods were desolate. Nobody was out, it was almost depressing to see an American pastime fading. I do believe the churches holding these trunk or treats is a safer way to do it though. But I am glad I grew up in the era of traveling the neighborhood (on foot) not in a car or golf cart. I'm sorry, but that is just lazy! That to me is a great memory, Halloween was always exciting. And every one will be etched in my mind forever.

I remember on Halloween we would do our neighborhood and then head on over to our Papaw's house for more treats. There was this one house we went to that the guy handed out records to his treaters. We would get excited when we got one, but the records were worthless. They were people we had never heard of. He was a Dj at radio station so he would just pass them out anyway. Happy Halloween !

Our Special Reason For Being Here

This is the sweetest little picture. This little frog is considered by God. A tiny little creature that depends on his Creator to make him work.

I often wonder about the make up of the bodies of such little creatures. I remember cutting open one of these boogers in 8th grade science class, and couldn't believe how small everything was. Everything was so tiny and yet it all worked just as God had intended. Amazing!

This little frog has a lot more worries than we do. His size allows him to be vulnerable to any predator in the wild. He doesn't have really any defense techniques to protect himself. I believe hiding under a rock or diving in the water would be the only way to protect himself. Yet God made him special for a certain reason. I don't know what his certain reason would be but to keep the food chain and the circle of life continuing. Yet he was designed by a living creator.

We like the little frog were created for a reason, God made us by special design. There is only one design of all of us, no one else in this world has our design. We are specially made by God, no body has our thoughts, talents or our desires for life. We all our humans and have the same patterns when it comes to skeletons, body functions, body parts. But not our DNA make up, God made us all the same but different in so many ways.

There is a reason that God designed us the way he did. I took a brief look at what i can do for people and the reason God designed me the way he did. Many people can make others laugh, but my ability to just pull things out of no where can just make people laugh hysterically. I don't know where it comes from, but I can do it so easily. I have always thrived on my humor and the ability to make people to laugh. I don't like to see people in bad moods and hurting so I bring a little humor to fill their lives. Maybe that one moment in time of laughter will make that person feel better.

I have a friend back home that is probably one of my favorite people to be around. Sometimes he was a pest, but we thrived off each other. When I was in a bad mood he brought me out of it by making me laugh and I did the same for him. That's all we did was laugh and laugh to the point of sore ribs and light headiness. I never saw anybody here at school enjoy laughing as much as we did. So usually when I need to laugh I call Heath and it's an hour of complete stupidity. It usually makes Shannon mad at me because I usually call when the kids are asleep and she's afraid I am going to wake up the kids. But it always makes my day when we talk. So my point of all of that is I was created to bring people the joy of laughter.

What is your nature or talent of being here? Find it by examining your daily life and remember you were designed for a reason. It may be a small thing but it could be huge to someone else. Getting back to the frog. We are just like that little creature though. we are all vulnerable to the predators of life. The bible say "We all considered sheep to be slaughtered." Yet we have a Savior and a God that loves us so much that he will protect us in any danger. Use your life as a gift and use it as much as you can.

A Sad Loss!

Well I hate to say it but because of an act of violence and hate, Arkansas has lost a sweet young lady. The news came on with breaking news and the anchor could hardly keep from crying.

She announced that tragically that Ann Pressley had passed on and that it would be heart breaking to all at channel 7 and all the viewers. What a shame!

Pressley was 26 years old and had just had a small part in the newly released movie "W". A young lady who had a bright future and career in television, yet cut short by an ignorant person. He deserves worse! I hope he gets it!

The Only Good Thing The World Has Going On!

You know I have really come to notice in the past couple of months that our world has more liars than I originally thought. We have more cheaters and ignorant politicians than I thought we had. Our finacial world is in ruin because of a bunch of liars. Our politicians are all nothing but a bunch of selfish evil people.

How can you have American pride when all this garbage is going on. The rich support the rich and they all keep getting richer, but little do they know that their tail ends are smoldering of Hell's smoke.

When people say that the Church is a joke and all they do is lie to its followers, they to me are foolish. Last night as I sat in church, I found no lies or any deceit come out of the mouths of those speaking. There was no name calling and nobody was bringing anybody down. The hour that we sat there and sang praises to our Lord and listened to a very uplifting message, I felt that this is the only good thing going good for our world. While Palin and MCain spend other peoples money for their own wardrobes. $150,000 in fact of peoples money. Many went hungry and had no place to sleep. But others on Wednesday night gave God his praise he was do, and prayed for those who needed prayers. This is the only place in America where no one will lie to you. People will build you up and not tear you down.

Our country is one big lie and I have had my fill of it, but I will never get my fill of Church and its love for one another. Follow the election and soak yourself in their lies or go to church and get filled with the spirit of God. I choose the church, will you?

God With Us

Emmanuel - God with us. That to me is a beautiful name and meaning. Do we really believe that God is with us? I do! But it is hard in this world to find him. Christians are to live by faith and not by sight. Which is a crazy idea to those who don't believe in a living creator.

Tonight in class we talked about "persistence", staying in belief until the very end. Squeezing tight to the rope of faith till the last moment in time. Seeing our divine path until it's our time to go away to the paradise created for us. We need to believe no matter what life brings us. Are we persistent enough to hang in there? Can we truly find God in this life? Many have gone other routes to find satisfaction in this world. People who were baptized and claiming to be in Christ. They just gave up and found another path to follow.

Many have wrapped themselves up in this election way to much. When people say Obama is the "Messiah" have lost their hope in God and have completely put their hope in the

"seen" instead of the "unseen." I believe most Christians have a good imagination to believe in something unseen. They see something that others can't, we see a future that is beyond our imagination. We believe that there has to be a reason why we exist. I look at the earth and just stand in amazement at it all. It's so complex to think about how it all was created. That I have to know and trust that there is something bigger than me behind it all. The other day I looked my arm and I just thought about the miracles that flow through our bodies every day. The human body is amazing to think about the unseen that is working to keep us living. We can't do anything to tell it to keep working, we just believe in our Creator that he will keep things running and pumping in our bodies.

We see miracles every moment in our lives we just don't think about them very much. God is with us. Don't fret about things and remember we who believe have a reward after this life. Live for the now and let the future take care of itself. Take on the world as if you had a thousand angels behind you at all times. Reach out to the unseen and faithfully take it on. Faith in God and his Son will be our greatest strength. No matter how beaten we are in this world acknowledgement of God is exactly what he wants us to do. Give Him the praise he deserves and live in His grace. Enjoy life, for God is with us.

Crazy Evil World!

Hate, violence and ignorance is something that seriously angers me a lot!!!! It's hard for us Christians to not want to seek revenge, but it states in the Bible that we must allow for God's wrath and we must not take any action. The incident that took place Monday morning on an innocent anchor women on channel 7 in Little Rock irritates me.

Ann Pressley does the morning news show on Channel 7 in Little Rock. She didn't make it to her shift on Monday morning because some unremorseful idiot didn't allow her to make it. She was brutally beaten in her home and left in critical condition.

I am disgusted by this persons actions, if they were present in front of me right now I would do the same thing to them. Probably worse. I just don't understand people and why they are so evil. I can never understand how bad of a person you have to be to take an action to beat or even kill somebody. I pray that this person (Idiot) turns himself in and has remorse for what they did.

We've had some break- ins in our neighborhood and it just puts me on the edge. I have been thinking what would I do if somebody breaks into my house. My answer is, that they better run cause I will defend my family to the end. I don't tolerate stupidity at all! I know bad things have always been happening since the beginning of the world. But I just don't have the temperament for it at all. When I hear a truck and their noisy pipes I get irritated, or a loud thumping car stereo I want to get out of my vehicle and rip it out. I just hate it!

Our world has gone to the dogs. I know the angels in heaven are on pins and needles to get the signal from God to end it all. How does He do it? How does He tolerate any of us? It really makes you think of how patient and merciful our God is. Because if the world was left up to me to rule, there would be many people gone by now. But that is why God is God and we aren't. Pray for our world and hope many repent from their ignorance and that this guy who attacked Ann will turn himself in.

Our Divine Path

"We were meant to live for so much more, and we lost ourselves."

"WE want more than this world can offer."

These are two verses from a song by "Switchfoot." Doesn't that sound true for all of us. We live our lives daily and don't realize we were meant to live for so much more. When you look at the ant and watch them work it's amazing. They constantly go on the hunt for food. But that seems to be all they do. When is their play time? When do they take a vacation, or go to the ant hill mall and shop. They don't! They have one goal in mind, and that is to get food to that ant hill. They know their purpose and that's it.

Why can't this be true for us humans? Why do we venture from our divine purpose? My theory, we have emotions and feelings and want satisfaction all the time. We don't all find our divine path. We see it and walk a little bit of the trail and then go off in another direction. Finding ourselves lost and going in the wrong direction. We get side tracked by our desires and go off to another adventure. For some it's a path with a fork in the road. They know deep down what path to choose, but just don't. They keep God as far away as possible and never allow Him to exist or enter their lives.

I finished reading Max Lucado's book 3:16. He told a couple of stories about final moments of some peoples lives. One was an atheist another a Christian. These are true stories. The atheist denied God all her life and at her final moments, she kept asking, "You don't know me, you don't know me?" It's as if God had shut the door of heaven on her, she chose not to know him and he didn't know her. Scary but true. The second was a man who in his final days went into a deep sleep woke up and said he wasn't supposed to say anything to anybody about what he saw, because their were others in the room. The person who told this story said nobody else was in the room. Obviously there was, only he saw them.

Our divine path is at least acknowledging God exists and choosing to wash in the water of baptism. Our wants and our meaning in life should be found in God's work and a firm and faithful belief in him and his son. I don't want my last breath to be spent trying to identify myself to our living God. I want to go his homecoming and see all who have also been given the eternal reward.

What's Holding Back Your Dreams?

"Don't let your past determine your future."

You know that is a true statement. Many think about doing something in their life and they let past things keep them from doing it. They set their minds on heir inability or past mistakes. Many see themselves as already failures and never launch their dreams. I know there are things I could do, but I always look at the impossibilities. I know there is a growing need for a wholesale nursery here in Searcy. But I look at the economy and the fear of not being able to make any money in this town. I see a lot of landscapers coming into Lowe's and getting a 10% discount and that isn't enough to make any money on. But things stop me from doing anything about it.

Do you ever wonder if God has a plan for you? I do believe there is something planned for all of us. But trying to find it ourselves is difficult and very time consuming. I'm listening to a song by a group called Switchfoot. It's titled "This your life." Chorus goes "this is your life, are you who you want to be. Is it everything you want it to be, when the world was younger and you had everything to lose."

I need to be around people who are inspiring, then that inspires and motivates me. I'm usually not around to many inspiring people though. My friend Al who recently past away, inspired me. He loved what he did. He took every plant he potted and gave me a reason why he liked that plant. He was in his sweet spot,and he didn't want to be anywhere else. I love being around people like that. One person that inspired me was Brian Beckett. He loves landscaping and he is just a very positive person, I wish I had one half of his dedication and talent. I truly believe working for Beckett's showed me the responsibility to enjoy work and strive for perfection and love what you do. I'm thankful that I worked for them and still wish I did. But I am not really around that kind of inspiration, now I have to urge it on for myself. But I do love the nursery business, it's nice to be outside and be around nature. But I wonder if this is my sweet spot. This is a term used by Max Lucado in his book "Cure for the Common life." Your "sweet spot" is your calling in life. What you are meant to do or what you enjoy doing. But I think there is something for me to do.

We need continue to grow spiritually and mentally. We must seek a new adventure and not grow stagnant. Rivers and creeks must continue to flow, or they become stagnant and stinky. Try something new and become better at some thing you already do or never have done.

Whoever!

We serve an amazing and merciful God, who loves us very much. I started reading Max Lucado's new book, "3:16 The Numbers Of Hope. " It's really been eye opening, especially when you really look at the most popular verse in the Bible. But the word "whoever" he looks at. We often don't think about it looking at certain words in a verse.

We need to remember that Christ died for everyone. Whoever believes in him shall not perish. Whoever, is anyone who believes. No matter what color or income status or what country you are from. God accepts whoever. He loves all of us, even when we aren't living as we should. Isn't that amazing? That we are all accepted by Him. Many in this world don't feel accepted. They feel unwanted and lose all hope in life. We need to share with those who feel this way. Tell them how we feel loved and accepted by the Creator of the universe. That he sent his son to die for us all and whoever believes in him shall not perish.

Please Read This Before You Judge The Picture.

I failed today, but stood up for the right reason. I had to stop somebody close to me to end the conversation. It had been building for awhile. A certain person is upset because my precious Macy is playing with a black girl at school. It hurts me because this person has always been dear to me. When I first met they were full of kindness and loved all people.

That changed today. I ended the conversation because I was right, and they told me I had no right to tell them what to do. If it concerns my daughter I can do whatever I want to. I told them that is not the Jesus I serve. That they were in the wrong. Well the other person started on me and said I had no right to say anything about serving Jesus. I do! I have repented of all my mistakes, I have been and done things that I will never be proud of, but thanks to my loving Saviour Jesus I can live guilt free.

I am tired of all the racism. This has been boiling for awhile and I told my sweet wife when something is said in front of me about this situation I will straighten it out. Well they felt they were right but they are in the wrong completely. It broke my heart to hear such Christians talking down about this little innocent black girl. I watched the two little girls running and holding hands and it made me see Jesus. He held hands with whoever. He is God and I know he smiles when a Little white girl and sweet little black hold hands in unity.

Everybody is so worried about Obama possibly becoming President. Let him. I'm not voting for anyone but let God turn the world the way he wants too. He is our protector and he created us in all varieties of color. I threw my arms up and walked away from the situation. I wasn't going to punch somebody or get into a verbal fight in the middle of Harding Academy campus. I've worked to hard to build up a good reputation with these people and this blog. I was the bigger man in this ordeal, and left the way Jesus would have wanted me to. Yet I am still angered. And need the prayers of all who read this to handle this situation in the right way. I fight for all, I believe in all and believe this world can be better if we don't worry about little things like this. May God forgive me for my harsh words, and hope things will get better between the two parties involved. I'm going to leave this world a better place than I found it.

Investors and Bankers Need A Good Spanking!

This looks like the faces of Wall Street this past week and including today. He looks like he just got totally busted. That should be the look for many who are the cause of this problem. Their sneaky greed tactics have caused lots of panics and a lot of selling on the Dow.

I remember working on a landscape job for Beckett's. It was the old Dieckmans house we were landscaping, and I looked around at all the new houses being built and I was just in amazement. Because growing up In Wheeling you just didn't see a lot of new construction. It just seemed like such a rapid pace of construction for my home town. I looked at one of the guys and said "The housing market will crash one day." That is a true statement. I guess I saw it way before anybody else did. I am no way a financial expert, but it was just unusual for Wheeling to be growing so fast. But look 10 years later look what has happened.

Our greed in this country has failed us in so many ways. We as Americans look for an answer to get us out of it all. Bush says he has an answer, and maybe he finally has one to save our country and save his Presidency.

Everybody needs to quit selling, it's killing our stock market. The experts say take a loss, and quit fearing. The market will continue to go down if we live in fear. We as Christians need to pray hard for the situation and believe God will get us out of this mess. Faith in him will be the result of a good outcome of this mess.

I believe punishment for those who put us in this mess should be top priority. They should be forgiven but put in the slammer. The CEO's of these companies should empty their bank accounts and give their money to those who lost their shirts because of greed. No more games with peoples money, no more crazy loans. I don't even know why anybody would sign a house in their name on a sub prime loan. That's crazy! But many were talked into these loans and didn't no any better. I've decided to not listen to any of the news anymore. The get me anxious. I will go to my CEO in heaven and ask him what to do. He won't scam us!

Macy, My Only Real Steeler Fan!

Macy is the only child of three that loves to get her Steeler gear on and wave her towel. Brayden doesn't really care about sports.

But I thought I would share some pictures of her fan support for the greatest team in the world.





The last picture picture is of me. I think I kind of look like Mike Tomlin A little! I did this on a website called Yearbook yourself.com. That's not really my aafro.

Maybe We've Got It all Wrong!

As I was driving to work this afternoon, I saw this sticker on a truck. It made me think about what's going on with our world. With all the hype about the downward spiral of the worlds economy and all the fear the media has put into us. Maybe we're thinking the wrong way about things. Instead of God bless America, maybe it should be "America, Bless God." We always put our needs first and always put Gods last. Maybe this is another wake up call from God, like 911.

Sometimes I believe God lets bad things happen to give us a wake up call to the way we live. I'm not saying God does things evil things, but I think He allows things to happen that just lay us down flat on our backs and gives us a chance to look toward heaven. He opens our eyes and allows us to see how we're acting. How horrible we live out our daily lives and how irresponsible we really are. It's always me,me,me. Not, what does God need me to do for him today. Instead it's all about our lives and our schedules and how we are going to fit all this junk in our lives into a 24 hour day.

It's time we turn things around and fit our fast paced fully scheduled lives into a Godly outlook. I try to get our family to look at things like this. I don't like to be rushed around, I'm never in a hurry about anything. It can drive Shannon up the wall. She looks way to far ahead into the future and I just look forward to the next day. I don't want to be like everybody else and be all in a rush about everything. It's time we get our heads out of the scheduled life and focus on what we can do for God.

Maybe things will get better if we bless God and do his will. Ask in your prayers how we can be of service to Him and not worry so much about ourselves. It's time we all lose our selfishness and start living for the one who graciously gives us all things. Yes, the economy is bad and it will gain its strength again. But , God is a "jealous" God and needs are full attention. He needs are arms and legs to move his will forward. He will remain steady at work on the economy, but we need to pay attention on his needs. He wants to be praised, and heard. He wants our time. Not a certain scheduled time but all our time. Focus your schedules around His time not our time.

Little Jimmy can miss a soccer practice every once in awhile, but a missed prayer time can be devastating to all of us. Pray unceasingly is what the Bible states. Any time you have or any free time pray a little prayer. Talk to God and give him the thanks he deserves and then give your request to him. As I blew the garden center out tonight, I didn't think about what I have to do tomorrow or anything else. I talked to God and had some personal time with him. It felt good to be alone and be able to thank Him for all things that were good and bad today.

Its time America blesses God. Ands then He will bless America even more.

Debate

Well, the debate was alright. A little boring in some parts, but I think Obama did the best job. He came out and directly told his plans, where McCain just talked about his record and his service to his country. That's great he has done all that, but Americans want to hear about the things that are the big issues. Like the economy. Where is it going? And how do we fix it?

So the Dow dropped again and things seem to be getting worse. At least that is what everybody is saying. We have become a materialistic nation instead of a realistic nation. We Singers have decided to cut back on a lot. No more eating out, no more wasting gas and a very small Christmas. I told Brayden that Santa Claus was on a budget this year. He asked "Why?"

I said "Santa was having employment problems with his elves. They went on strike. So they are not making as many toys and reindeer gas went up."

We all have been overly spending and now our country is paying for it. I haven't worried about it that much, but it's scary when you don't know certain the future. But remember we as Christians need to bring out our ability to show how much we trust in our loving God. That we need to show everybody its time we come back to Him. That he is the answer to our economic problem. We need to pray to Him and ask him to forgive us all of our greed and that He might be able to protect us from all this mess. That we may live humbly and live within our means. That we give thanks for what he has provided us all with. Our basic needs like food,shelter and clothing are things we all take for granted. Many in this world don't don't have all three, and some are lucky to have even one of those listed. These are luxuries to us and to some it's a struggle to have.

I'm listening to a song by the group Story Side B called "BE Still" We need to all remember to be still and remember we are not alone. God is with us.

Greedy People Should Be Ashamed!

This man should be full of shame. While being the CEO of Lehman Brothers firm he hoarded money beyond belief. While all their share holders lost everything, he took home $489 million.

Our country is suffering for our very own greed. I don't believe we will ever get out of this mess. We all need to pray about our greed. And hope God will answer us soon.

This man should take all his millions and pay it back to those who lost out on the bankruptcy. Then he needs to get a job slopping pigs and learn the humbleness of God. When asked if he thought it was right to take home such a large sum of money and his shareholders lose everything, he went around the question. His greed wouldn't let him answer. It states in the Bible: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to go to heaven." Pray we will all make it through this financial problem, and we can all learn to live within our means. That includes me also!

Birthday Tri-fecta!

Well, it's been a few days since I have written anything. Been busy!!!!!

But I am going to be more on the blog than I have been lately. I've had some blogger block.
This past weekend we celebrated our 9 year anniversary and my 35 th birthday so I have been tied up a little.

I can't believe it's been 9 years already. Time is quickly sliding by. I did get the birthday trifecta. WVU won, Tony Stewart won and I just got done watching a Steeler game that was very good, but a nail biter. In my case a Terrible Towel biter. But you can't ask for a better way to go out on your birthday. Including the Penguins OT win over the Senators. What would you call that? A Quad- fecta!

Anyway, we had a little excitement in our neighborhood Friday night. Somebody walked into our neighbors house and walked into their bedroom and attacked them. It happened about midnight. Four police cars came to the scene, and we slept right through it. The victims are members of our church, and I had spotted them at the academy football game. Which is weird that I specifically spotted them there. It was like God had put them near me because they might need a prayer. He walked right past me and then I spotted her right after that.

The great testimony about this was that whatever happened that night God was with them, because God knew he had to lead singing this morning. And he did, I thought it was one of the best song service he had ever lead. I thought about it the whole time while he was leading. The creep who walked into their house could've taken them away from this Earth, but it didn't happen because God was there in that moment and took care of them. Isn't that a wonderful thought. God moves in mysterious way! Take every day as your last, and live to the fullest in Christ. May God bless us all!