Well I thought this was going to be a brief post...

Well I'll break the silence with a brief posting. I met a friend of mine today at Panera. He was in from Texas for the weekend. It was good to see Nick and catch up a bit. I really feel out of the loop as I saw so many friends having pages on My Space. I am not motivated enough to get my own page, however I think everyone I know is on there. I had thoughts of really bad things going on the site, however I have now seen there are good things on the site too. I'm satisfied with my blog (not completely, I need to learn more about webpage design) and don't need a my space now.

I can't believe Friday is December. Where did 2006 go? It has been a good year though definitely with difficulties too. In today's sermon at church our pastor discussed the good that can come from trials. He was talking about Naomi from the book of Ruth. When she and Ruth arrived in Bethlehem everyone was happy to see her. As they expressed their joy to see Naomi, she in her despair and bitterness said do not call me Naomi but call me Mara. Mara means bitter. The challenge I receive from this passage is we will all go through difficult times, but how will we respond to them. God wants to use the hard times in our lives for His glory, but will we let Him do this? If Naomi would not have been bitter with Moab and returned to Bethlehem, then Ruth would not have met Boaz and that would have stopped the line of births leading to Jesus Himself. It is exciting to see how God uses trials, though it doesn't always help us at the time.

I have been in a funk today and I can't completely explain why. We are in the process of joining a church here in town. I am glad we have a found a church and I really like this church. The church is a good fit for us and will also be a challenge to us too. Part of me feels I should be more excited that we are joining this church though I am not. I can't help but thinking these negative thoughts I have had today are attacks from Satan. I desire to be sensitive to his schemes though I am not successful 100% of the time. I am reminded each day in one way or another that I need God's help to get through each day. God does not want to live life on my own and He does not enable me to either.

Well I think that is enough ranting for now. Thank you for listening. Have a great night!

Birthday Events

This blog entry is long overdue. I have to catch everyone up on the events of the past couple evenings for Becca and I. On Wednesday night we went out to dinner at Red Robin with our burger club coupons we received for our birthday. The coupon says only one coupon can be used per table, but since we have the same birthday we wanted to be able to use both coupons for our dinner. We asked our server if we could use both coupons and she said…YES! So this is a glowing endorsement for Red Robin. Join their burger club on their website and make sure to go there for dinner sometime soon.

Yesterday was Becca’s and my birthday. I am still shocked sometimes that we share a birthday because of how rare that is. I planned a surprise party for Becca and invited some friends of ours to our home to celebrate the special occasion. I have been working on this party for at least a week now and had so much doing it. Becca and I talked the whole rest of the night after the party (it seemed) about all the fun details I worked with in planning the party. We went out to dinner at the Olive Garden. This was the 2nd night in a row we went out to dinner and we did decide that we need to wait awhile before going out again. We had a very nice server and the food did not disappoint either. I really do enjoy celebrating my birthday with Becca. After dinner we went home and the surprise party started. Some friends were already there, others arrived later on. I arranged for some friends to call in during the party as they could not attend in person. Some people brought gifts, other just came. I really enjoyed the party and was glad to celebrate our birthday. Next year is 30 for me so I better be on guard.

Please pray for Pastor Haggard and his family...

It made me sad to read about the accusations made to Pastor Haggard in Colorado. I don’t know how big of a story this is, however it could become a big story in a hurry whether the accusations or not. Some are saying the accusations are politically motivated with a marriage amendment on the ballot in Colorado this coming week. Pastor Haggard has resigned his duties at his church. The interim pastor of the church is saying there has been some admission of guilt by Pastor Haggard. My prayer is for Pastor Haggard and his family that God Himself would give them the grace and strength they need to get through these hard days. I have no idea if these accusations are true, but I know the family needs prayer. The media will be all over them along with an unforgiving public. Please pray for Pastor Haggard and his family.