Are we really that bad?

It's mothers day this year at our church.  I am sitting in the seat next to my wife in the middle of this wonderful appreciation service for all of those mothers that give so much and get so little in return.  I think to myself this is such a wonderful church and a wonderful service to honor the sacrifice mothers give to raise families and in some cases husbands.  It was a great service altogether and that night they provided babysitting and a free meal at a local steak house for all of the single mothers out there to show their appreciation and understanding of the struggles that a single mom has to go through on a daily basis.  I was very proud to be a part of our church that day.  They did a great job of honoring mothers that day.

Fast forward, its fathers day, I am feeling pretty good.  My wife and girls and even our foster children (Well Heather really but said it was from them) got me hand made cards and gifts in appreciation of me.  I felt appreciated and honored.  We get to church that Sunday and I am excited to see what wonderful things they have planned for us Dad's out there.  The worships starts, the announcements are made, the pastor gets up to preach, and he starts preaching the next part of the series we are in.  I am thinking surely there is a mistake.  Does he not know it's Fathers Day?  So confused I try to pay attention to what he is talking about but find myself wondering what is going on.  The pastor finishes his sermon and at the close of service says that they didn't do a fathers day because he did not want to go into what all we are doing wrong.  In essence you guys suck and I don't have anything good to say about dads so I wont say anything at all.  I was shocked to say the least.  Are we really that bad?

I experience this a lot or maybe I just notice it more for some reason.  This week we had our son in the hospital for a minor surgery.  He had just got out of surgery and they moved him to the recovery floor.  I have him in my arms all cuddled up because I did not get to see him before surgery.  Me and my wife are both sitting there and the nurse says "Mom what surgery did he have?" My wife has many great qualities but hearing is something she physically cant do (light bright in the ear at 5 doesn't help) so I said he had a circumcision.  She writes on the paper and goes on her way.  She comes back again and says "Mom how did the doctor advise you to treat it?" to which I replied what the doctor told us because again my wife did not hear what the doctor said.  What is the deal am I invisible?  Does she really think I have no clue why my son is in the hospital?

We have two teenage daughters and 3 children under 2 so when my wife has to do something outside the house I stay home and take care of it.  When my wife answers the question where are the children they seem appalled that she would leave them home with a dad.  They always ask "Can he handle that?"  I don't get it are there that many bad fathers out there giving the rest of us a bad name?

Do I suck and just don't know it?  Kinda like your fly is down and no one wants to tell you?

Disclaimer:
I am in no way suggesting I am a perfect father or husband.

Reminder of how stupid I am

I read this blog post the other day about opening the mouth and inserting the foot and it reminded me of more than one of those occasions but here is just one of the many:

A couple years ago I was working as the Network Administrator of this "Christian" based distributing company. I took care of the entire infrastructure from the ground up. I went to church with the CEO and my Pastor would often come to the office and speak to us about various topics. On this project I was charged with coming up with a solution for filtering Internet sites. So I go about doing all the research, selecting and buying the solution, and finally implementing the solution. I was quite proud of the product and all the fancy capabilities so now it is time to show off all of my hard work, its time for the big payoff! They are going to be so impressed with me when I am done with this baby!

We gather all of the Executives in the CEO's office and huddled around his computer for the masterful dog and pony show. So we go through the product and look at all the reporting and blocking capabilities it is going great, they are loving it, and then the CEO says to me "So this blocks porn sites right?" to which I very proudly said "Yes sir it does and outstanding job of it!" "here let me show you". I plop my, then, rather rotund behind into his chair and type in playboy dot com and proudly press the enter key... Ummm it didn't block it! SO there in front of all of my Christian Executives is the frontpage of playboy dot com in all its glory! The CEO's face got very flush with embarrassment, (he was going bald so I could see the entire top of his head getting red) and I about broke my finger clicking on the red X on the browser bar! Turns out there was one setting in the software that wasn't set quite right.

I retested this software after correcting the glitch and then very nervously had another demo in front of a much smaller audience this time. The software ended up being a success despite my stupidity and lack of thoroughness. Just when you start to think you are smart you go and prove yourself wrong.

I wonder why they laid me off?

Batman Begins while the Kung Fu Panda Gets Smart!

I was watching this movie where this kid's parents get shot coming out of a theatre so he ends up being raised by his butler Alfred.  Then one night he has a dream that he is part of the Ferocious Five and is kicking all kinds of bad guy booty and blinding people with his Awesomeness and Attractiveness.  Then when he grows up he actually ends up being a FBI analyst that wants to be an agent but is too clumsy and too good at his job to become an actual agent.

That is what I got out of it anyway. Over the past 2 weeks I have watched roughly half of three movies before crashing into sleep.  All together I have watched a movie and half but can never seem to finish any of them.  (Don't tell me how they end someday I will go back and watch the endings)

Since we became foster parents about a year and a half ago it has been a lot of sleepless nights!  We have had baby after baby so the normal 6mths and they are sleeping through the night was actually almost a year and a half of not sleeping through the night!  As soon as we get one baby sleeping through the night the next new born would come along and we would start the process all over again. 

Most nights all 5 children sleep through the night now but I spend from 6:30 (when I get home from work) until 9pm getting babies played with, fed, changed, fed, changed, bathed, played with and then finally put to bed.  (Of course my wife helps out a little) so when the older kids come and beg me to watch a movie with them I REALLY want too but my body just can't hang.  We get started and about 30mins in I am out like a light.  I feel really guilty because the babies require a lot of attention and the older girls get my left overs.  I need to figure out a way to give them more one on one daddy time.  Soon they will be off on their own and I will not have the opportunity to do that any more.

Did you kiss a vet?

The Bible says there is no greater love than to lay down your life for another.  Each man and woman through this countries great history were willing to do just that.  They signed that dotted line knowing full well that if called upon they would sacrifice their life to keep our freedoms undefiled, and our country sovereign. 

Many Americans paid the ultimate price for our ancestors, for us, and for future generations.  These are our sons and daughters, our brothers and sisters, our mothers and fathers, these are our heroes! 

Honor the memory of those that have fought and died, those that have fought and come home, and those still fighting by saying thank you. If you see someone in uniform in a restaurant say thank you by buying their lunch.  Let them know you appreciate their service and sacrifice.

I took the time to say thank you to all the veterans I know yesterday, from my father, to co-workers, to friends.  It doesn't just have to be on veterans day it can be any day.

Melting Pot

So I ran out of oatmeal for breakfast!  This is terrible I always eat a package of Wal Mart brand Cinnamon Roll oatmeal for breakfast (and usually lunch) but this morning none!  There is no Wal Mart around my office so I had to scrape up enough change from the ashtray in the car (what else are you going to use an ashtray for?) and off to MickeyD's I go.

I pull up the the drive thru order my plain biscuit get the total and pull up to the first window:

Me: "Good morning"
Cashier No. 1 (Indian woman): "Total is..."
Me: "OK"
I give her the money
Cashier No. 1: "Have a day!"
I chuckled to myself thinking "Ok I guess I have that covered. I have a day already I suppose a Thursday to be exact" (I crack me up all the time. Other people not so much)

Cashier No. 2 (Hispanic Woman): "Would you like yelley?"

I drive by probably 3 MickeyD's on the way to work but I always pass them by to stop at the one by the office because I can't wait to hear the little Hispanic woman say "Would you like yelly?"  I have yet to try this yelley but she makes it sound so good I will have to try that soon.

What a wonderfully diverse culture we live in.  I wonder what I say funny? :) 

One Giant Leap for mankind!

At the founding of our country the atmosphere was much different. In all of Europe (where our ancestors are from) at the time it was commonplace to own slaves from either your own country or other countries. You could become a slave because of dept you owed, punishment for a crime, prisoner of war, or any other various reasons. This was not strictly an African phenomenon, all countries were subject to slavery. At one time nearly 25% of the Roman Empire were slaves.

North America was no stranger to slavery. The Native Americans had slaves captured from other tribes as well as debtor slaves before there was ever a United States. The first African slaves arrived some time in the early 1600's.

The slave codes of 1705 defined a slave as any imported person who was a non Christian in their native country. It also classified them as Real Estate and not humans affording the owners exemption from punishment if they kill their slaves.

Not all Americans agreed with this practice, enough so that they were willing to fight for the rights of slaves. The Civil war was waged greatly on this one issue and the practice of slavery did not end until the conclusion of the Civil war and the drafting of the 13th Amendment in 1865. This Amendment abolished the practice of slavery but did not end the attitudes towards slaves.

There have been many milestones in the Civil Rights movement since then, from Rosa Parks not giving up her seat on a bus in Montgomery Alabama in 1955 to Marin Luther King's infamous "I have a Dream" speech in Washington DC in 1963. We have seen progress, we have seen change. The prejudice of old is slowly passing away with each new generation. Each new generation breaking new ground, making new strides in making all people equal.

Last night was ONE GIANT LEAP for mankind as Barack Obama leapt from the oppression of centuries past to the dreams of Martin Luther King. Going from slave, to free, to leader.

I do not agree with Obama's politics and would have much rather seen Alan Keys or Clarence Thomas as the first African American President but I can put all that aside for a moment in time and realize the history of today.

Something in the air

Update: This is a repost. I took this down originally and my wife insisted I put it back up so here it is...

Wow is all I can articulate at the moment. I am a youth worker at our church, I am a small group leader on Wednesday nights and I lead a small group every other Sunday night at "My best good friends" house. We have a rather large group of pre-teens and teens every Wednesday. We combine them and the middle school pastor and the high school pastor tag team on Wednesday night. We have student led worship and generally a ton of fun.

Tonight there was something in the air, I could feel it the moment the middle school pastor shook my hand, something was different. The service started out as normal, the Price is Right game where they guess how much various items cost, the announcements, the small groups where we prepare them for service by asking questions that relate to the topic of the night, then the worship began and the mood changed immediately the air was electrifying the sense of God was palpable. It began slowly as a wave I could see it from the sound booth the hands going up, one, then three or four more, then whole sections, then the whole auditorium, then the middle school pastor, way of script, got up and spoke from his heart about what God was telling him and what he wanted the students to know, it got to the heart of the where the students were, then the high school pastor in a perfect tag team with God came back to the booth and picked up his Bible and canceled every other graphic, music, special event and went on stage and began to deliver what was on his heart out of the book of Revelations. He spoke passionately about how it is better to be cold and away from God or Hot and on fire for God than to be luke warm and complacent in the middle. The alter call was who wants to get closer, who wants to walk hand in hand, who wants more of God. Nearly every hand in the auditorium was raised. It was truly a wonderful experience. I regret my wife was not there to see her daughters raise their hand unashamed during worship, and answer the call to get closer to God. I hope this continues, I hope this is the beginning of a revival in our youth. I hope this is a moment of change in my girls! I hope this is a launching point for the youth pastors to follow Gods heart and lead with an open mind and a open heart! This is what our hurting teens need a true experience with God.