Your life — slow down and soak it up
I have been out of circulation due to a wonderful, fun family vacation down to Texas. I have some blog posts and pix I want to share — we’ll see if that happens.
In the meantime, I hope you laugh at a t-shirt that I spotted while I was at a Ft. Worth gun store. It not only made me physically laugh, it cracked me up the rest of the day.
Vegetarian – an old Indian word for “bad hunter”
It still makes me laugh.
…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net
I am forever grateful for those who sacrificed their lives for this great country! Past, present and future.
…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net
At church we are going through a series on families. Two weeks ago for Mother’s Day we heard about encouraging moms. Last week was on disciplining parents. This week it was on raising respectful kids.
As always, the sermons were very scriptural and spot on. (I encourage you to go check any of them out online — they can be streamed or podcasted at http://www.southeastchristian.org/?page=3477). Today’s sermon had a few quotes that resonated with me and I am sharing the gist of them here. Unfortunately, I did not write them down so I am going off my memory.
“If you have a daughter, you had better show her Christ’s pure love and appropriate touch, for if she doesn’t get it from you, she will begin to seek it elsewhere.” — James Dobson
“If you don’t want your family to turn out like every other family, then you will need to raise your children differently than everyone else.” — Craig Goeschel
…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net
Post NOTE: I went back and listened to the online sermon and corrected the quotes above so they are accurate and attributable to who spoke them. What you are seeing is the corrected edits.
14 years ago I was blessed even more than I was at the time with a small bundle of joy that completely changed my life. My little punkin — thanks for being you: a talented, beautiful, godly young lady. I am proud to be your Dad.
And to celebrate, we made the pilgrimage to the only Jamba Juice in Kentucky…..in Lexington. There we had a liquid lunch and walked a bit through the UK campus. On the way home we spiced it up a bit and made a spontaneous stop at the wiener dog races. The official name was the “Dachshund Derby” but wiener dog races is funnier. Plus, how often do you get to see wiener dogs race? The whole thing cracked me up and we laughed as the little hot dog-like canines with Vienna sausage legs flailing about ran around in not-so-straight lines.
The remainder of the evening was spent with good food, good conversation, great family friends, and fireflies.
Happy birthday, punkin!!!!! Thanks for being one of the best things that has ever happened to me. I love you!
…..Dad
While I am staunchly proud of my American citizenship, birth and home and take every opportunity to soak up all the liberties and privileges of living in this wonderful country, both sets of grandparents emigrated from Norway which gives me a unique 100% Norwegian heritage. I enjoy this lineage and family history and have been to my ancestors’ homeland a couple of times. At one point I was on a path of emigrating and moving there but that is another story for another time.
Today is a holiday in Norway — it is Norwegian Constitution Day or, as I like to say, Norway’s 4th of July. I was there during one Syttende Mai celebration many years ago and it was a wonderful event with children’s parades, lots of Norwegian flags flying, traditional outfits and costumes, and merry celebration. I wish my distant family members (some of whom I still connect with via Facebook) a very happy Syttende Mai. My heart celebrates with you.
And for those of you who are not full Norwegian, or even part Norwegian, feel free to join in anyway. It is an inclusive holiday and welcoming to others of different cultures.
…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net
My day started off beautifully with the painted morning sky outside my breakfast window. It is going to be a great day and I hope all goes well for a neighbor friend who is seeing her cancer surgeon today. She and her family have been in my prayers and she can definitely use yours today as she finds out how she can continue to battle this.
…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net
This morning my devotions took me to Psalm 145 where David extols the glory and magnificence of God. I took in the scripture and pondered God’s marvelous blessings in my life and the awe of my Creator. I thanked Him for all my normal blessings — family, faith, shelter, food, work, relationships, service — but then my focus was switched to life and the actual breaths I was taking. I then specifically paused and completely took in my next full breath focusing on the breath and all that was going on around me — the blessings in my life.
The misty fog hung low against the glistening, dew-laden meadow out my sunroom as the sun rose behind the trees silhouetting them against a soft peach morning sky. The quiet home with my family still safe in bed slumbering away. The warm oatmeal in my mouth satisfied my hunger with sustenance and nutrition coupled with cinnamon and brown sugar. The perfect room temperature air entered my lungs filling them and giving the life that God allowed me to have in that exact moment knowing that He is responsible for that very breath in me….. and all the subsequent ones that followed. At that moment I was alive, in no pain, with hunger and thirst satisfied, and no other concerns other than the focus on that one breath and the scripture in front of me.
Thank you, Lord for that breath and allowing me to experience the full satisfaction of all the blessings that made that breath possible. Forgive me for being distracted during so many other breaths where I do not take in your glory and the satisfaction you bring.
…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net
While the world tells us to love money and use people,
wouldn’t it be great if, instead, we followed Jesus’ command and
loved people and used money?
Go have a blessed day!
…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net
The list of scriptural blessings below was summarized in a sermon I heard quite a while ago. I had taken notes and recently shared them with an anchor point friend of mine. They are good enough to post here for others to enjoy.
That’s it for my notes. However, I can think of a few more. For example, generational blessings (Ex 20:5-6).
I think I might need to do a scriptural word study of blessings — it would be a good enlightening exercise.
…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net
Late last week there were many people on the radio, weathermen on TV and Facebook folks who were anticipating Saturday’s “supermoon” — a time where the moon was expected to be 60% bigger in the evening sky due to it being at its closest point to our planet.
So Saturday evening I stepped outside with the kids. And while the moon was full and looked pretty, it really didn’t have anything “super” about it. In fact, there have been times when it was “normal” but lower in the eastern sky as it rose where its orange reflected light really took my breath away. However, Saturday evening was not up to what was being hyped.
Maybe it wasn’t the moon’s fault, but more all of those folks who thought the extra few thousand miles closer (in a 250,000 mile distance) would make that big a difference.
My sister did post a really nice shot that was taken in Friday Harbor. I added my artistic flair to it so as to avoid any copyright concerns. Note that the shot was taken by someone else, but the perspective is artistically mine.
…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net
