The Domesticated Male

My wife and I have always felt very thankful for the blessings in our lives. We have both had great families, friends, church families, and jobs and the list could go on and on. We have three beautiful girls that brighten our lives and make everyday a new adventure. We are very thankful and know that God has truly blessed us tremendously. Now we also have had times in our lives when being thankful has been harder to say and feel: when the financial crunch of having a baby hit; when the financial woes of college and early careers were not so enlightening; when the bills were piling up and the money was running out. It's very difficult in those seasons of life to be thankful. This year we have been fortunate to attend benefit events for both Lifehouse Ministries and Ruth's Cottage and Pattycake House. We have also been able to help with a new Women's Recovery Center in Douglas, Still Waters. Our church, Journey Church, in Tifton also had a service project at Brother Charl

Psalm 139:14 New Living Translation (NLT):   Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. They arrived with a few clothes in bags and a few toys in boxes. We were nervous as they were too. We had gone through 'Impact' Training and all the requisite background checks and home visits. We had been a parent to our biological child for 5 years so we believed that we understood the particulars that children need to feel love, support and nurturance. I was less prepared mentally and emotionally than my wife. She had worked in the DFCS arena for close to a decade and understand the nuances and much of the process related to foster care. Other than the training several months previously I had no interaction with the state system in the past. My family had no interaction with or ever had a need to interact with DFCS so I had no reference to how this process proceeded in regards to the children and all that would entail.

I opened Facebook several days ago and of course there were all the requisite quotes, videos, 'you might want to friend...', notifications, advertisements and in between all of this were a few actual friend posts. I remember the days when that was all that was on Facebook were the actual posts and now we have to weed through the 'junk' to get to an actual post or update on friends and family. As I was perusing the myriad of stories I saw a post by Tyler Perry, who I follow. I have really appreciated his body of work as a writer, producer and actor. I think his back story of coming out of poverty to where he is today is the American story and I can appreciate that piece. What I was reading though was a post of his that was somewhat inspirational but very simple. It was something to the point of 'Make the day count' or something to this effect. What made me pause wasn't his comment but the thousands of responses listed. You would have thought that he had

WARNING: If you don't want to be offended by someone expressing their personal religious beliefs and can not maintain an open mind and open heart and are bent on maintaining  a judgemental attitude please stop reading now! This blog is meant as a personal statement of where I see myself religiously and is in no way an attempt to proselytize or change your religious views. THESE ARE MINE ALONE! I think I have quite a range of religious perspectives. I grew up with a pentecostal background and my first church experience was non-denominational. My family then transitioned to Holiness Baptist then Assembly of God. Once I moved away to college I joined the Church of God (Cleveland, TN) movement which most closely aligned with my denominational upbringing. While in College I visited several other denominations: Catholic, Charismatic Non-Denominational, Southern Baptist, Methodist, Orthodox and a whole host of others thrown in. Some of my best friends in grad school were Agnostic

I was re-reading old blogs this week from 2007-2008. There was the blogs from pre-pregnancy to finding out we were having a baby girl all the way to bringing her home and the first few months that followed. It was quite an interesting trip down memory lane. One thing that I did recognize was the fact that during a pregnancy there is preparation. You are given roughly 9 months to prepare for a beautiful baby and with modern technology you know what sex the baby will be, the expected due date and relative size. There are a lot of things you can prepare for when you are pregnant. After 5 years Lexi and I knew we wanted more kids but were never blessed to have anymore naturally. We contemplated adoption agencies but really did not want to go that route due to several factors. We decided on the foster care system or DFCS and knew the limitations and expectations of children within this system. We began our journey officially in March of 2012. Over the next 9 months there was again lots of

Six years ago Lexi and I bought a CD of lullabies. Every night  from then until now we have played that CD. Every trip we have taken it has gone with us by way of iphones, ipads, or other electronic means. We have played the CD in the car when road trips went into the night. Every trip to grandparents included the CD going too, especially on extended stays. Last night the music stopped. I took Claudia to school yesterday morning and she told me that she thought she was ready to do away with the nightlights and nighttime music. She said 'Dad I can go to sleep in the dark. I will be ok.' I asked her if she was sure and she said she was and she wanted to start that night. I didn't think much of it yesterday and when night time came I went to put her to bed and her CD with the nighttime music wasn't in her CD player and her ipod wasn't in her room and I asked her if she was sure she didn't want music. She said no music but she would keep the nightlights that nig

I can't find the telephone booth to change into Superman. I've watched all the hero movies and read all the Bible stories how I should be able to jump small buildings with a single leap with God. I can tackle and defeat anything with Jesus.... but you know what? I still have moments of smallness. I think its unfortunate that when we come into a relationship with Christ there is a belief path that pushes the idea that if we have God we can do anything ourselves. The scripture that states 'I can do all things' often states 'through Christ who strengthens me' but we often take the first portion without leaning on the second. We don't have to be Superman. God is the Superman. We are Clark Kent. We are fallible, insecure, inadequate... human. We don't have to have it all together. Through Christ we are made new and are strengthened. Allow yourself to be vulnerable! Allow yourself to believe that you don't have it all together. The Clark Kents and Pete

I reviewed the set list and I get a little excited every time I see myself leading a song. I was equally excited that the song our worship Pastor chose for me was a new song. As I usually do I began reviewing and rehearsing the song and listening to the other songs scheduled. It wasn't long in that the songs took on a life of their own.They were more than melodies and harmonies and swells and dynamics. The words were alive and ministering to me. It's hard sometimes as a worship team member to not become rote in our service. We get the set list and rehearse and only look for the right key or how well the music sounds or how good the vocals sound. At times its an inner struggle to remember that the songs we sing aren't just songs. These songs are being presented at a time when people are vulnerable. In a worship setting the congregation or audience aren't just there to hear good music. Honestly they can get that on the radio or by CD. In a worship setting they are there

     After scouring several best of 2013 book lists I have created my primary reading list for 2014. Now I am not a super fast reader so I don't want to set myself up for failure but I have a goal of finishing ... most of these books. Each of these books are linked to a review: 1. The Golem and The Jinni by Helene Wecker. 2. The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer. 3. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. 4. The Good Nurse by Charles Graeber. 5. From Scratch: Inside the Food Network by Allen Salkin. 6. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartts. 7. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. 8. David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell. 9. The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach. 10. Love Anthony by Lisa Genova. 11. John Lennon: The Life by Philip Norman. 12. Lost in Shangri-la by Mitchell Zuckoff. 13. Innocent Blood : Book 2 in the Order of the Sanguines Series by James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell. 14. The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice.      What has been great is that with Christmas giftcards I ha