#114of365 #FaithBites #FaithJourney #GetOffMyLawn Today’s lesson is about aging or getting older. A couple of weeks ago, I turned 41. This is the first birthday that I didn’t worry about it or feel older at all. I felt like me having a good time. Then I started to look around. Things I knew as a child are changing. Next year will be 20 years since my undergraduate graduate, 10 since my dad passed, I will be 42, 10 years since…
#110of365 #FaithBites #FaithJourney Today’s lesson is about excited anticipation with positive skepticism. Ok, I know this is probably the longest title of a faithbites yet, but I couldn’t come up with something shorter that still has all the feeling. As many of you know, I’m an excitable kind of guy. I love to see new things. I get wrapped up in excitement and the art of the possibility. Sometimes, I am guilty of looking before I leap. Today, I had…
#104of365 #FaithBites #FaithJourney Today’s lesson is about accepting help. Offering help is easy. I offer help to everyone and love when they take me up on it. Accepting help is much more difficult. Here are two examples of my stubbornness or hubris or fear the prevented me from accepting help, and interestingly enough, both relate to money. Last year, our house appraised for less than we thought during a refinance. We wanted to refinance to greatly change our mortgage and really…
#103of365 #FaithBites #FaithJourney Today’s lesson is about perspective. More than that it is how you can look at one thing and see it from many different points of view. When my youngest was just 28 days old, she needed a lumbar puncture to check for meningitis and sepsis. I wanted to be in the procedure room with her. I took my seat and sat on the side of the doctors, rather than the nurses. I didn’t know that when I took…
#91of365 #FaithBites #FaithJourney #Parenting #AprilFools #Easter Today’s lesson in about children in church or more specifically children making a ruckus in worship. Today our family gathered together to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ. While we weren’t in our home church, we were together as a family. While we were celebrating the resurrection, I think the devil was trying to get into one of my children. Crying, talking, getting up, rocking like a baby, I have to go…
#87of365 #FaithBites #FaithJourney Today’s lesson is one the father and remembrance. My dad passed nine years go today. It was snowy and cold.i remember that clearly as I told the hospice nurse we had to put him in a sweater to stay warm. (And yes, I realize the silliness of that now and it wasn’t lost on my siblings). I remember the look in his eyes when he came to after being unresponsive for nearly a day. He looked at…
#85of365 #faithbites #faithjourney #parenting Today’s lesson is on parenting. Let’s face it. We all have opinions when it comes to parenting. We have all given or been given advice on how to parent. Some we listen to, some we let go, some we chuckle at, and some it ticks us off. Today as we were walking around the St Louis Children’s Museum, I saw good parenting and bad. (Again, my opinion). I was cut off when walking so many times…
#79of365 #FaithBites #FaithJourney Today’s lesson is on the power of one. That one person can really make a difference. Yesterday was the primary election in Illinois. For the first time in McLean County, the Libertarian Party had ballot access and a primary contest. I ran for precinct committeeman to help the party out. I went to my polling place with my daughter first thing in the morning, pulled a Libertarian Party ballot, and voted. One of the people I voted…
Today’s lesson is on the circle of life. No, I’m not talking about the awesome song from Disney’s “Lion King”, but rather the ages and stages we all go through and the pain and joy associated with them. Today at worship, we experienced so many of these. The beginning of faith in two young children through baptism, the giving of initial scripture and beginning the practice of worship in our preschool milestone, the public statements of faith for two eight…
Today’s lesson is about memorization. I know you are wondering what memorization has to do with the bible or faith. I can tell you it is very connected. I was asked to be in a play for Lenten Service next week. I thought, sure I love a play, who doesn’t. Then when I got the script it was a three-page monologue. I started to freak out. I was scared. I was anxious. Sure, I can talk for hours on end…