It Is Not Good For Man To be alone

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Genesis 2:18 Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is right for him.“
God knew that man did not need to be alone and I got to thinking about that. What is wrong with us being alone? Here are a few scenarios that I came up with.
1. The garden of Eden would have had a man cave. Man caves are places where men don’t worry about things that women tell us not to do. In a man cave, if you need to pass gas, you just do it. You don’t need to blame the dog or a child. Adam would have had the dog there, and because there would not be a woman, there would have been no children. But we wouldn’t need children, because instead of blaming the dog, we would be competing with the dog. Not only the dog, but without a woman around we could bring in the hippos. What man has not dreamed about having a hippo submit to our superiority, especially when it comes to passing gas. I mean, if you can get that to happen, then it would be time to bring on the king of the beasts, the lions.
2. Not only could we pass gas as we please, but we could have our own horse racing in our man cave. I struggled with what sport to watch because without women there are no other guys, so that means no football, but God did make horses and the garden was big enough for the man cave to be whatever size man wanted it to be and therefore horse racing would be in high def. live in front of us. And if the horses make a mess, no one is around to tell us to clean it up right in the middle of a race. In fact, we could go out after the race to get some munchies and clean up the mess when ever we want to.
3. The garden would have female monkey mud wrestling. Some are thinking why not have this sport in the man cave? Duh…a man needs to go out every now and then. And if we are going out, can you think of anything better to do if the aren’t any women? I know it’s not the same as what some of you are used to, but you also don’t have a wife to get mad at you for going to female mud wrestling. And instead of dollars, they would do it for a banana and because you are in the garden of Eden you have plenty of those.
4. Because men like to fix things, and women like to complain about us not fixing things, or how we broke even worse what we were supposed to be fixing, we would walk around making lists of improvements that we would get around to doing. Everything that God made was good, that’s what the Bible says. But every man knows, that with a little tweaking, we can make anything better. I am not sure if God would actually let us fix anything, so a list would be the next best thing. Making “to do” lists is as good as fixing anything. Men feel like we have accomplished a lot when we have a big list of things to do. Here is a list of things to do in the garden, without woman.
Pull up all those flowers and plant trees that have vines hanging from them. They look more manly and we can later swing from them. But we would need to dig a big hole and fill it with water around some of the trees so we could jump off the vines into the water.
Next we would need to get rid of all those cats. Men just don’t need them. After all, the mice God created were good, so no need for cats.
Then someone has to figure out how the duck-billed platypus works. So we would start taking it apart as soon as we build a table and some shelves to put the left over parts on in case we need them for a later project.
Finally, we would get back to work on the man cave, because we are going to need a wall to put a TV on when they get invented. You know that without a woman, a man must have a TV, with remote.
Now you know why it is not good for man to be alone. Thanks God, for that woman you gave us.

Mother’s Day

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In case I get busy tomorrow, I wanted to be sure and get in my Mother’s Day blog. If there was ever group that deserves a holiday, it is this one. Mothers are awesome. There are two women in my life who have shown me just how awesome they are, my mother and my wife. My wife tries to tell me what to do like my mother did, but I never listened to her either, so get over it, dear.
My mom had some faults, but I know that without her I would not have been born. As much as my dad wanted me, he was not able to get pregnant and therefore married my mother to have me. Her first attempt to have me was a failure. Not a total failure, because it produced my sister. But my dad really waned me, so they tried again, and you know what they say, the second time is the charm.
When I was born they liked me so much that they tried to have another me, but it too ended in something not quite me, my brother. Don’t get me wrong, they liked them, but they were not me. I was my parents favorite first-born son.
My mom raised me special from the beginning. I did not get the first born’s hand me downs. I was the first of my siblings to learn to pee standing up. My sister claims that she could have done it first, but I guess it wasn’t that important to her until I started doing it. My mom dressed me in blue before the others and she also gave me the most masculine name of the first two of her children.
Mom cooked my favorite meals quite often. Chicken, burgers, and bacon covered anything were the top of the list. Often she would cook other stuff for the other children, but I know that she was only trying to not play favorites. It is hard for a mother to show favoritism when she has more than 1 child even though I believe she wanted to. Part of the reason that I think I was her favorite child is because she was my favorite mom as I was growing up.
My mom went to heaven several years ago. I believe she is there with no more pain from the cancer that took her life. I believe that she no longer worries about me and those other two she birthed. I believe she is trying hard not to play favorites when she tells God how thankful she is for having us, but I know that when no one else is around, she tells God how special I am.
My wife is the other mom that is special to me. I believe that it is something genetic that I inherited from my dad, but I too could not get pregnant. So I had to find someone who could. I wanted to have a child just like me because I was such a joy to my mom. Sadly I got stuck with those kids that we had to raise. They are okay, but they are not me. My wife, their mom, says that they are just like me, but we all know that would be too good to be true. I think that she loved me so much that she wanted more of me and sees those traits that make our children better. You can’t blame her for that.
My wife is a great mom. She made the children eat the same food I liked and rarely cooked them anything else. She dressed them like me often and even made our oldest, my daughter, learn to pee standing up so that she could be more like me. This is still very troubling to my daughter and her family now. My wife made all of our children promise to always say they love me more and taught them to be Gamecock fans. She never worried about how she was perceived, only how they perceived me.
In all the years that we have been married, she has treated me like she was my mother. She said that if she didn’t have any children that I would be her favorite child and believes that I will never grow up. Of course I am extremely mature for my age and this is just her desire to never stop being a mom. She cooks for me, cleans my room, makes sure I have everything I need to watch every football game the Gamecocks play, and always makes sure to leave to toilet seat up, because after all, I learned to pee standing up.
Happy Mother’s day to my two favorite moms and to all mothers out there. Sure, you don’t have children like me, but not everyone can be so blessed. Enjoy the kids you have and you can always teach them to be like me by continuing to read my blogs and teach them my ways. My two favorite moms did it with their kids, and you can too.

Children Deserve Better

Parents today have a hard time raising children. They can’t do what they want to do without fear of government intervention. Schools can’t do what they need to do because of fears of lawsuits and lose of funding, and that only leaves grandparents as the source of hope, and we can’t keep the kids long enough to straighten them out.
I heard on the news today about a 6-year-old girl who was handcuffed by the police because she was pitching a fit at school. She was throwing things in the office and turning over bookcases. When I did that as a kid, no one called the police. The principal grabbed me and busted my butt with a paddle and then called my dad who took me home and busted my butt with a belt. Six year olds don’t need the police called on them, they need what I got if they act out like that.
As I watched the news story about this event, of course they had an expert come on and make excuses for the kid. She said the girl probably had ADHD or PBDO, or some pshyco-babble disorder that needed to be understood and the schools needed to be better equipped to handle this. So we need psychologists and a police station in the elementary school? I think that if we better equip principles with wooden paddles we could solve a couple of problems. First, six-year olds would think twice about showing off like that because, and I speak with experience, paddles hurt, and kids would start wearing their pants up around their waist to provide a little protection from when they misbehaved.
When I heard that the police were called to handle this problem, I immediately thought that it would have been a good day to be a bank robber in that town. While our police force was handling the important job of raising children, bank robbers could be doing their thing with less of a chance of getting caught. I can only imagine when that police officer was growing up he was thinking about becoming a cop so that he could protect the world against six-year-old girls in elementary school. I would love to know when they would schedule that training at the police academy. Do they put it before or after what to do if a bank robber pulls a gun on you?
Children do not need to be abused. But they also don’t need to be handcuffed. Most of them do not need a psychologist either, unless this is repeated over and over again. They may just need a paddle across butt and the promise of another one if they do it again. Too many parents are trying to be anything but a parent to their children and too many schools are trying too hard not to be a place where kids get their little feelings hurt. Adults have a responsibility to teach children that there are authority figures in the world that deserve our respect. Children need to know that bad behavior has serious consequences from mom and dad or the principal. They need to know that they do have to mind and they do have to follow rules. If they don’t learn it as a six-year-old, they won’t learn it as an adult. It is kids who don’t learn this early in life that end up needing to be in handcuffs as adults. But they do not need to be handcuffed as a six-year-old who is just pitching a temper tantrum.
Our children deserve better.

What Does That Word Mean?

I am a bit of a stickler when it comes to people using words that don’t mean what they think it does or perhaps they have no clue what they mean but they are trying to sound smart. I had a professor one time use the word flabbergasted as he was trying to tell us how good it would feel to be healed completely after you met Jesus. I thought the word meant something negative but it was in fact proper use of it because it means to be overcome with astonishment.
There are lots of words that people use because they hear them on TV or in a song or in a conversation. The word surreal is one that I hear a lot and I don’t think it is always used properly. I hear it in about every interview on the news when something happens that people think is special. It may be close, but not what the intent of the word is supposed to be. I have a friend who got in the habit of using the word phenomenal. Everything that was better than normal was phenomenal, but if that was so, then nothing would really be phenomenal.
Lately there is a word used by our president that bothers me. It is not a hard word, but I don’t think he is using it correctly; fair. The word fair means free from bias and so how can you tax someone more than others for any reason and call it fair? Usually it is used when talking about the rich not paying their fair share. But how can anything be fair if there is bias based on income? What about those of us who don’t have minor children? We pay more in taxes than someone who make the same wages who has minor children. Is that fair? And my biggest question of all is who elected anyone for the purpose of telling me how much of my money I need to give them to spend on fairness?
If you want to be fair, perhaps we should use a standard percentage for everyone to pay no matter how much they earn. 20%, and that is not the amount I am suggesting, would be the same percentage for someone who make $10,000 per year or $10,000,000 per year. That would be fair. And forget about deductions for children or houses or anything else, just pay your percentage and it will be fair.
There are very few things in this world that are fair. I find fairness in the Bible. God says that all believers should give 10% of their income. No matter if that is a penny or millions of dollars, 10% is the standard and it is fair. It teaches that everyone is a sinner in need of forgiveness. Everyone will have to either die for their sins or accept Jesus’ death for their sins. That is fair. Anyone can be forgiven, no matter the sin or amount of sins and the fair thing that God requires is that everyone ask to be forgiven believing that Jesus died for our sins. God has no favorites and it is not His will that even one soul perish, but that all should come to know His great love and forgiveness. That is surreal. That is flabbergasting. It is phenomenal. It is fair.

Child Addiction

My wife is addicted to little children. Our own children are grown and cannot or will not produce babes fast enough for her. So she has a plan to have every baby and little kid at our church think that she is their Mimi too. I am pretty sure that this is not dangerous, but I do think it is an addiction.
Last night she went to help a couple with a baby that is only a month or so old. Both of them are sick and they are new parents and they were just worn out. My wife is a very compassionate woman. She will help almost anyone. But when she sees an opportunity to hold and spoil a baby she quickly jumps to feed her habit. I got the call that she was going to their house about an hour before she got off from work and was told that they were desperate and needed her help. I immediately knew that she just needed a baby fix.
Guess what she is doing tonight? Going to visit our son who lives a couple of hours from here so that she can “help” them. And guess what they have at their house? Yep. A baby. She is staying there for the weekend and my suspicion is that she is gonna be so wired up on baby that she won’t be able to drive home and that is why she is staying the weekend. She really does not know how to take babies in moderation. As an ex addict myself, not to babies, I know the signs. You always try to justify what you are doing, but no matter how much you try you always end up over indulging. There have been times when she would come home from “helping a friend” and she would smell like baby or small child.
Don’t misunderstand, she is not dangerous and I am not scared of her when she is using. Rarely has she ever missed work and she has never lost a job because of it. She has never threatened me seriously with violence and for the most part it does not interfere with our marriage. There are times when I will choose to sleep on the couch because she is so strung out on babies and children, but it has not approached the point to where it threatens our relationship. From time to time she will stretch the truth about her habit. The other week she said that she was only going to have one or two kids and it ended up being six kids at once. I can tell you that one kid will take the edge off, but she is not satisfied until she is totally loaded with kids.
She tries to limit getting children from only people that she knows. Family and friends are her biggest suppliers. But she will quickly run to anyone who comes into our church with a child and try to, as she likes to call it, “love on them”. I have seen her trying to talk to strangers about their children but for now, I feel she can restrain herself.
I have to watch her closely. We cannot have children anymore. I thought that doctor had fixed the problem, but occasionally she will mention adopting. I am strong for her and I remind her that she is an addict and does not need children in the house all the time. Sure, I should probably put my foot down and get her some help, but without children, she can be difficult to live with, so I turn a blind eye and just try to help manage her addiction.

Christmas meal

Yesterday was our church’s annual Christmas meal and this has become one of my favorite things about our church. We take all the chairs that normally form a semi-circle seating pattern for worship and set up tables and chairs for a family style eating extravaganza. Extravaganza is one of my favorite, but least used words in my vocabulary. The men and women of the church cook turkey and ham and all the favorite holiday type foods that you can imagine and after a brief, yet wonderful sermon, we eat and laugh and hang out until most of the food is gone. Then those who are able, load people into wheelbarrows and take them out back to sleep it off.
Our church is my family. No, I am not dissing my wife and kids, but this is a special relationship that we all share and it is truly family. We share food, share laughter and share tears. No one is left alone and everyone does their part of making it all work. Like in most families, there is always the grumpy person and the weird aunt or uncle that everyone tries not to act like we are avoiding, but other than that we can’t get enough of this special fellowship.
God wants His people to have a closeness. We are told that people will know that we are His because of how we love each other. I don’t think that there would be much doubt of that if you were to have been there yesterday. And, I can proudly say that most anytime that you visit, you will find the same love among the people. None of us are “holier than thou” and many of us are as “messed up as thou” and that makes it easy to find common ground.
As in most churches, there are always a handful who work hard to manage the chaos and organize the efforts. Those who did it this time are amazing in how well it was done and the love at which they used to bring us all together. It was not just a list of things to do but an effort to think of how people’s needs would be met. I believe the biblical term would be ministry, which means serving, which Jesus says makes you great, and I can only say that there were some great people organizing this whole thing.
The day did not end when the meal was over. Lots of folks stayed to help with the clean up. After that, many of the guys and youth stayed to watch football as many of the moms took the younger kids to see Santa. They are the brave souls in the crowd.
Later that night our youth had their Christmas party and another group of servants showed their greatness to make that happen. With nearly twenty youth and a handful of adults, the music was loud, the games were wild and the family was happy. I was the smartest of all; I went home after welcoming them and opening the party in prayer.
Christmas is a special time and can be difficult to those who don’t have family. Some people are alone because they have moved, other because of hardship. Some have been shunned by family and friends and others have condemned themselves because of past experiences. My plea is that you not allow the past to ruin the future. God can and will forgive you for whatever the past holds. God will provide a place and people for you to celebrate if you chose to seek it. I would like to invite you to be a part of my family and our celebration of God’s great love. We don’t judge, we don’t condemn, we don’t exclude. We are The Body, A Church for Anybody, and especially you.
Merry Christmas!

Born Gay?

Every time I open my messages on Facebook and see one from “my friend” I cringe. Here is her latest subject. What about homosexual relationships? What does the Bible say about them? Are people born that way or do they choose? What do you think about gay marriage and gays raising children? Thanks my dear friend. No one will be able to get upset about this one.
Some of you are probably wondering why I even accepted the challenge to blog about this. I could have just ignored the question or answered it privately. But I chose to blog about it because there is no reason for Christians to not be able to express how they feel or be able to say what God says about anything. So tighten your seat belts and let’s do this.
My first task I think, is to answer the marriage thing. Merriam-Webster’s defines it as this: a (1) : the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law. Now if you continue to look there are other definitions that have been added through the years to include same-sex marriage, but this definition has been the one that has been accepted for hundreds of years. It also meets the biblical definition of marriage and as far as what is legally acceptable as marriage, this fits too.
So I do not believe that gay marriage is right. For as long as humans have been around, marriage has been defined as a man and a woman. Why all of a sudden do we have to change the meaning just because a certain group of people wants to? It would be like deciding to call 2+2=5 because someone decides that they wanted it that way. Call a gay couple something else, but not a marriage. There is no place in the Bible that tells two members of the same-sex to live together as a couple in holy matrimony. The Bible is not old-fashioned because God has decided what marriage is to be and He has not changed His mind. So, gays living as a married couple is not biblical. And by the way, neither is a man and a woman who are not married, and that will be addressed later.
As far as gays raising children, I don’t believe that it is the best situation.  It would be best for the birth mother and father to raise the child. But I do know that children need love and that anyone can love a child. Some good friends of mine, who are gay, are raising children, and in both cases, these children are well-behaved, loved, and certainly much better off than if they were in an orphanage somewhere or with a couple who did not love them. No biblical problems here.
Now to the big issue, are people born this way? I can’t give a definitive yes or no, but, let me explain. All humans are born in sin. No one has to teach a child to lie and lying is a sin. Sin is the driving force in the human flesh. It is selfish, pleasure centered, and totally against God. Without the power of the Holy Spirit, humans are unable to defeat sin at any level. We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. Because we are all born with a sin nature, that sin will manifest itself in our lives somehow, someway, somewhere.
The Bible is very clear that sex outside of marriage is a sin. That includes adulterous sex, pre-marital sex, promiscuous sex, homosexual sex, sex with animals and any other sex you can name. Sex is not love. Sex is God’s way of humans reproducing and for married couples to express intimacy. Keep in mind that I am writing from the premise that God is the one who made and defines marriage and the limits of sexual morality, not man. He is the one who is holy and He is the judge of mankind. What we humans think is right has nothing to do with what God says. Our feelings are not the moral judge, God is.
I condemn those who treat gays with hate and malice. Jesus loves them. He died for the sins of humanity, not for the pretty church people. The sin of one person is no greater in the eyes of God than the sin of another. The blood of Jesus was shed so that sinners like me could be forgiven, learn of the love of God and grow in love and understanding of who He is. Because of this, Christians are to love others in the same way and not put a sin above another.
Putting the sex issue aside, heterosexual or homosexual, if sex of any kind were taken out of the picture as the sin issue, we are all still sinners of some sort. Born that way, but not bound to stay that way. I am now a sinner, saved by grace, who has a Father in heaven that loves me. Not because of what I did, but because of what God did when Jesus died on the cross for my sins and your.

I Can’t Hear You!

When I was a kid one of my favorite TV shows was Gomer Pyle USMC. Gomer was a dufus who got on his sergeant’s nerves because he smiled at everything. One of the things that you heard from Sgt. Carter every episode was, “I can’t hear you!!” Old drill sergeants were always yelling to get you to yell back.
So, this morning I was finishing up reading the OT book of Nehemiah and toward the end, when the city walls had been rebuilt and the people were moving back to the city, it says that the people of God were praising and worshiping God so loudly that folks outside the city could hear them. In the book of Ezra it says that when the foundation for the temple had been laid, that the shouts of praise could be heard far away.
Last Saturday I went to the opening game of USC Gamecock Football season. I love college football and have to be careful how I act. We had an obnoxious fan from the other team sitting in front of us for this game and he was very loud when his team started winning early in the game. But once we got on track, things changed and the crowd went crazy and so did I. I was told that you could hear the cheering all throughout the downtown area.
In our church we have a children’s area that is separated from the worship center by a greeting area. It is not a very large area, but it does provide a buffer so that the babies in the nursery can sleep and the kids can have their lesson taught without the teacher having to yell. Our praise band is incredible. They are talented and inspired to make music that sings out praises to God. They do play loud and that is another benefit to having that separation from the children’s area. We have a great sound system that can blast out the music like you wouldn’t believe.
Every Sunday we try to follow the biblical command to “build the church”. We are told that this happens one soul at a time as people get saved. I can’t tell you how blown away I am as the pastor when week after week, new people come to know Jesus as Savior. I can’t remember the last time that we had a Sunday worship time that someone did not join the family of God. So here is my dilemma.
Why is there not an earth shattering outburst of praise every Sunday? Our band is great and the music is in worship to God, the lover of our souls, and He responds to our praise and the preaching by adding to the family. There should be an overwhelming emotional response, right? Please don’t take this as fussing, I am really wanting to understand this lack of enthusiasm. There is absolutely no biblical evidence that we should be reserved in our response to God. I can list time after time of instances in the Bible where people were praising God so enthusiastically that folks heard them over everything else that was going on.
We don’t have a problem cheering loudly for our team when they win. We don’t have a problem cheering our favorite band at a concert. We don’t have a problem cheering at our kids play at school. But at church we become very refined and unresponsive to what is truly a supernatural move of God. I am as guilty as the rest, some times. But I do try to lead by example. I have been accused of getting a bit rowdy when I preach, and I will clap and lift my hands while the band plays. But at the end, when the invitation is given and people make that life changing decision to trust God for salvation, the silence is disturbing. I know we need to be reverent to the immediate time of response, but afterward, I think the celebration should begin. I think it is time to wake the babies and cause the neighbors to call the police. Wouldn’t it be wild to have the news lead off with the story of churches all across America disturbing the peace each Sunday around 12 noon?
Let me challenge you to put your game face on Sunday. Become a cheer leader for Jesus. Forget about the refined people in church and act like those in the Bible who were truly thrilled to see God do something. If you want to be quiet, go to a church where God is not saving a soul, but if you are in a place where He is saving people, CELEBRATE! Because what if God is saying “I CAN”T HEAR YOU!” and we are saying “SHHHH, you’ll wake the babies?

Tell The Truth

The hardest sin in the world to not do is lying. I am sure that someone is already saying that they don’t lie, so that should be proof that we all do it. Personally I struggle with approximately 783 different sins on a regular basis, but I am special. In those, lying is incorporated into half of them. There are times when I want to lie so bad it almost hurts not to. I feel the convictions all the time and often rip my cloths like they did in the Old Testament when they were upset. Can anyone see that there may be a few lies mixed in to this already? I like to call them artistic liberties.
Lying is deeply engrained in us. It starts as babies when we learn that we can cry for no reason and mommy will come get us. No one ever taught us how to lie, it just starts to happen. When mom or dad asks us if we did it and we say no, knowing that we did and that our parents know it before they asked. The Bible tells us that Satan is the father of all lies and so he uses that against us all the time.
I am not saying that everyone is a habitual liar or chronic liar, or lying for evil ways. I am just saying that we all lie and it always ends up coming back to get us. We are taught in children’s stories like The Boy Who Cried Wolf, that lying is wrong and has consequences. Our parents and teachers tell us that we shouldn’t lie and yet we still do it. And, I can think of a few times when lying has seemed like the right thing to do and therefore justified it. I am not proud of that fact, but this is one time I am not lying.
Let me give a few things that most of us have lied about. Our age, even jokingly, we do that. As young boys noticing girls for the first time, especially the older ones who liked only older guys, we often said that we were a few years older than we really were. Women as they get older never get older. Our occupation. This usually has to do with impressing the opposite sex too. I have held several fictitious positions in my life. Our income. Again, often tied to impressing the opposite sex, but sometimes we do it to get credit that we don’t think we qualify for. Our weight. Most of us are heavier than we say we are. Why that matters, I am not sure, but it is a lie for most of us. Our availability. You know what I mean. Sorry, I am busy that day or time, when really you just don’t want to be around that person. Our family. Sounds strange, but I had this uncle growing up that did everything and had everything and took me everywhere, even though no one ever met him. Wrong number. Who hasn’t used this one? I did not know what the speed limit was through here. HA! Yes we do, we just didn’t plan on the cop using radar that day.
Most of these are common and relatively harmless, except for the fact that God hates lies and He did not say only the big ones. He does not like “stretching the truth”, fibbing, or little white lies. He doesn’t even like it when a husband says, “sure honey, that looks fine” so that the wife doesn’t get mad at you.
That being said, how can we deal with this lying thing?
I have found that often a lie can be averted by asking the question, do you really want me to answer that truthfully? That causes people to at least think long enough for you to think about how to tell the truth tactfully. You don’t have to scream to your wife, “Oh my gosh, that thing is hideous!” You could say that you don’t think it compliments her like some other dresses she wears. You can just tell the truth and let people know that if they ask you something they can expect the truth and most people will then be very careful what they ask you after a while.
I have some good news and I have some bad news about lying.
The bad news is that lying is a sin. God hates it and expects better from those who claim to know Jesus as Savior. The good news is that He forgives us if we ask and make an attempt to change our ways.
The bad news is that many people lie about knowing Jesus as Savior. They act the part, but it has never been a real conversion. The good news is that God waits patiently for those who don’t know Him and freely gives salvation to those who trust Him by faith.
The bad news is that many people die thinking they were good enough to get to heaven, but they believed a lie. No one can be good enough. We are all sinners and need to be forgiven and need to ask for it. The good news is that no one has to die and go to hell. Jesus said that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. If you trust the truth, you will be forgiven. God loves us that much.
I was told that if you lie, you will eventually have to tell another lie and then another and so on. But if you tell the truth you never have to remember which lie you told to who. I guess that is what makes God so awesome. He only tells the truth, He never has to change it and He never has to apologize for it. When Jesus told us to let our yes be yes and our no be no, He was simply saying…tell the truth.

Granny Has A Gun

What an eye-opening experience I had yesterday. I am not sure how close together it happened, but my wife had it too. We both realized, not out of ignorance, but rather out of amazement, that as of now, all of our children have children of their own. I am not sure why it was so mind-blowing but it was. We have been very blessed with the fact that we have great children of our own and now each one of them have given us a grandchild. I never dreamed that one day I would be looking at having three children and each of them with children. WOW!.
Proverbs 17:6 Grandchildren are the crown of grandparents, and parents are the glory of their children. How true this is. Even though I have been a grandparent for about 7 years now, this never gets old. But seeing the youngest of your own children having his first is pretty cool.
I often get worried about what kind of world they will grow up in. I worried the same about my kids, but they had an awesome dad. My two sons can only hope to be as awesome a dad as I am, and my daughter was never going to find someone good enough for her or to father my grandkids. But that is what my father in law said about me and he was wrong. Some how I think they will all exceed my expectations though.
But we do live in a world that is much more unstable and much less friendly to children. With the invention of the internet, child predators are coming out in groves and it means that parents must be on their toes more. Our kids are really good parents, but I still worry. I guess it would only be fair that I should let every child predator know that I am a Christian. This means that I am forgiven of every sin that I ever have or ever will commit. Although this does not give me a license to sin, it does give me the peace of knowing that if I snap and kill some pervert who would ever even attempt to hurt my grandkids, that I would still go to heaven. And in case someone might be thinking that I don’t have it in me to do such a thing, I should also tell you that I received my marksmanship medal after achieving a perfect score while I was in the military and I still practice regularly. Not only do I have a hand gun, but I carry it, loaded. What would be even worse is if my wife got a hold of you. She too is an expert shot, but she is much meaner than I am when it comes to our grandchildren.
Sorry for chasing that rabbit, but it felt good.
God has blessed me with so much and I don’t know why, other than He is just an awesome God who loves us more than we can understand. Every time I see a newborn baby I marvel at His ability to create life and then to think that He entrusts me to have a part in raising that life. It is a tall order, but I love stepping into the responsibility. I think I am going to pray that everyone gets to experience having grandkids.
So quickly let me tell you a few things that were incredible yesterday when Bryson was born.
Watching my son agonized over his wife in labor.
Watching my son walk into the room holding his newborn son.
Watching my daughter in law weep tears of joy as she held him.
Watching my wife glow with pride and love as she held Bryson and then as she held our son.
Watching Bryson look at me as I held him. He smiled bigger then than any other time that day.
Seeing Bryson wear his Gamecock ‘boggin’ as he was smiling at me.
Watching all the responses from so many of you as you sent your congratulations.
Thanks for the support and prayers. Thank God for His love and blessing.