It’s a new year; lets try this again…

OMG!!! Look at that beard!!!

Haley, Rachel: I’m sorry I’ve not been supportive of the blog for so long.  I’m not trying to make excuses; it just had to be moved down on the priority list for a while.  Thanks for keeping it up, and posting a couple times.  I’ve decided to get back into it again, because, as you’ll read, Marissa and I are trying to be better stewards; again.

To the World at large, well, read through the pages and you should be able to understand where we’re at.  This post is all about short quick statuses to get everybody up to speed on what I’ve been up to.

Family:

1. We had family over for the holidays, tons of people.  We came and went to Florida for a few days.  The holiday’s were cool, but I’m glad they’ve come and gone.  I’m looking forward to normal life again.
2. The kids continue to get bigger and bigger.  God has blessed me with attractive kids… teenage and puberty are going to be great!!!
3. Marissa still loves me, praise the Lord!

Ben:

1. I’ve got a beard!!!!   It took a lot of getting used to, but I’ve got the hang of it now.
2. I’m 7.67% done with my latest attempt to read through the Bible cover to cover.  After trying and failing so many times to complete a 1 year plan, I’ve opted for a 90 day plan.  It’s about 12 to 15 chapters a day and it’s going well so far… 8 days in and I haven’t fallen behind yet.  Something about reading and seeing so much history in each sitting makes it seem more like a book and less compartmentalized then it does when I read just a little each day.
3. I’m trying to loose weight and get healthy.  My Wii avatar got fat after I did the Wii Fit Plus physical evaluation… that was humbling.  Evidently, I’m obese… I knew I was overweight, but obese just seems wrong.

Life Group:

1. We’re continuing to meet on Wednesday nights in our home.  We had 9 adults and 9 kids this week.  We’ve had as many as 15 adults, the holidays really threw a wrench to many of our meetings.
2. We’ve studied all the way through chapter 3 of James to date.  We get to get into chapter 4 next week.
3. We’ll be signing up to lead another group after we finish James.  I’m praying about what book to study next.

Family:

1. We’re doing better at “homeschooling” our kids now than we’ve ever done in the past.  It’s exciting.  I think the best thing is that I work normal hours, those combined with our semi-normal routines, makes the parenting thing so much cooler lately.  Our lives used to be so involved with either ourselves or church we had absolutely no free time. (This is because I wasn’t serving from pure motives, read James 4:1-4, that’s where I was at. The kids have a Dad again!!!)

Environment:

1. It was in the mid-fourty’s today, I was in a short sleave shirt again!!!!  We’ve still got snow that needs to melt.
2. It’s neat to have seasons, but almost claustrophobic to be stuck indoors so much.  I mean, you can go outside, it’s just not any fun…  I’m the palest I’ve ever been…   pasty
3. I’m excited about spring time coming, I miss the life.

Work:

1. It’s going well…  We’ve been here for just over 1 year now.  I’m finally feeling like I might start having a handle on what my job entails, or maybe better said, getting my job done each day.  My employees are great, and I really am blessed in all of the aspects.  God’s still got his hand on my career.

Holy Home:

1. I think I’m starting to get old…   or thinking like a grown up finally…  Anyway, we’re starting to see some of the things we’ve been “teaching” our kids through our choices and are finally trying to address them.
2. We’re not watching American Idol this season… Not that it’s evil…  I just couldn’t think of a single good reason to watch it.  Not a good one.  And with no good reason, we’re gonna sit this season out.  We’re trying to take the same approach with many of the things that take our time away from each other.

Youth Groupie stuff:

1. I’m at some type of crossroads in the ministry/mission/purpose God’s given me.  I’m not sure where it will turn next.  I’m just trying to be patient and attentive.
2. I’ve been saddened as of late by all of the failure I’m seeing in the teens out there.  My heart yearns for kids to keep themselves from all of the mistakes I made.  There are a couple young people who by all appearances look to be making it through life unscathed, but many have chosen the dark side, or are flirting with it.
3. I’ve started to see the hope that shines through brokenness in all of it, and am excited on where my mission with the teens might go next.  I’m honestly thinking about trying to secure some kind of counseling, or psychologist training…   who knows?

I can’t really think of anything else at the moment.

Haley and Ray, thanks again and sorry its been so long.  I’m looking forward to 2010, it’s like a new era, kinda weird almost.

P.S. If anybody’s got anything they’d like to talk about or would like commented on, please let me know and thanks for reading!!!!

I’m out,

Ben

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