What I never had…

In talking with a friend today, he brought up the fact that he has tried to raise his children in such a way that he would give them what he never had.  I commented back to him, “That’s great.  But don’t forget that the way you were raised and the things that you did or didn’t have caused you to be the man you are today.  Don’t think for a moment that just because you are able to give your child what you never had that he will turn out better.”  In the context we were talking about material things… and parents… and love.  My comment certainly has a place but I don’t believe it could be applied across the board.  In my opinion, raising kids is like raising squirrels… They are small, fast, make weird noises, squirmy, and nuts… (or acorns?)

Another great Haydenism

This morning Kristen and Gram gave Hayden a quarter.  I’m not sure why, but for whatever reason… he got a quarter.  He lost the quarter, had a meltdown, got a new quarter, lost it, had a new meltdown, and got a third quarter which he kept until church.  (Kristen didn’t give him a new quarter until he stopped freaking out.  It wasn’t a reward, or hush money and I’m not really sure what it was… why a quarter???)

When he got to me at church, he was really excited about his quarter.  His death grip on it proved that he really seemed to want the quarter.  However, when I took him into church to go potty, he said, “Daddy, I want to throw the quarter in the potty.”

This brings new meaning to flushing your money down the toilet.  Pastors, feel free to use this… just put a check in the mail for $0.25 -  Thanks.

Ethics quote

“When people feel entitled or compelled to compromise their own ethics to advance the interests of the business or its shareholders, it is an invitation to mischief.” - Constance Bagley, Harvard Business School

It’s dirty

Yesterday was one of those days that makes you want to pull your hair out… or wish you had hair to pull out (I’m not losing hair… it’s just growing on my back now!).  Hayden was really whiny and threw temper tantrums all morning.  The whole family was outside as Kristen and I worked to trim the hedges.  Hayden’s fits were due to his hands being dirty.  When his hands didn’t get clean, he threw himself in the grass and mulch.  Smart kid!  I decided to put him in “time-out” (he hates not being a part of the action even if he is whining).  After a few minutes of him still crying on the porch, I went over to have a chat.  He wanted me to clean his hands off.  I took my nasty, wet, sweaty t-shirt and wiped his hands off.  He immediately picked up 3 rocks that he had with him… which were dirty.  5 seconds later… melt down!  DIRTY!!!  DIRTY!!!!!  Daddy, clean it!!!!  Oh my… is this kid cut from his mother’s cloth?!  I clean his hands again… He picks up the dirty rocks… Meltdown.  This process goes on for about 4 or 5 times.  I say to myself, “Why can’t this kid get it?  He seems so smart sometimes, and then he goes and acts like this.”  Then, God spoke to me.  I bet you can’t figure out what he said…

Midnight thoughts

Why is it that when you wake up in the middle of the night your brain starts to slip into overdrive and the strangest thoughts go through your head?  Oh, that’s just me…  Sorry to assume that you are as wierd as I am.

My son woke up screaming at about 1:30am.  He said his back hurt, but he’s 2 and most 2 year olds don’t have bad backs.  So, I’m not sure what woke him up but after 10 minutes of fussing, he decided to hurl all over his bed.  Yummy.  My wife went into cleaning mode (this is her default mode) and I went into comforting mode.  Somehow we both ended up not going to sleep until about 3am.  While tossing and turning, here is what went through my head.

The world is a system of doing things.  We could make this an analogy.  The world is a software operating system.  Our culture is a program that runs in the OS for a given purpose.  There are many cultures and therefore many programs.  Each has its purpose and place in the OS.  The operating system has evolved over the years.  The first operating system was basic, good, and known only by few.

One day the operating system was stolen and the operating system became more advanced, less good, and known by more people.  Each evolution of the OS created more users who further complicated things and, in their greed, make the OS evil.

Many years passed and, seemingly out of nowhere, a new icon appeared on the desktop that said, “Remote Desktop”.  This remote desktop program ran on a “good” operating system but somehow it was still a program in the “evil” operating system.  It was “in” but not “of” the “evil” operating system.  A crazy thing happened.  This remote desktop program went into the hard drive and started to recruit other programs to run off of the “good” OS.  One by one, the files transferred and something profound happened to the programs.  They were still the same old programs, but they were different.  They accomplished the same thing, but they were more powerful, more user friendly, and, in this new OS, they were safe from viruses.

This, I think, is how the gospel sounds to a computer geek.  Maybe…?

Today

My vacation started on Saturday.  Woohoo!  However, Murphy dropped by for a visit last week and followed us to the beach.  Murphy… you know… Murphy’s Law… “If anything can go wrong, it will.”

Last week here’s what went wrong:

- Dishwasher is broken (this happened a while ago, but last week we needed to use it and it reminded me that we need to have that fixed.)

- Our minivan needed 4 new tires.  We put 2 on last week because we also needed a new rim.  The new rim and 2 more tires will go on when the new rim is in.

- My blower broke.  A blower is a landscaping tool.  It blows leaves and other various stuff from one place to another.  Mine bit the dust.

- Sunday (1 day into vacation), Hayden started running a fever of 102.  He puked a few times and is really snotty.  Why doesn’t he know how to blow his nose yet?

- Kyndal is now snotty.

BUT!  Today, I saved a life. I kicked Murphy in the grill on this one.  I was out in the water trying to catch some waves when I heard a blood curdling call for “Daddy!!!!!”  I turned and saw 3 heads in the water… 2 were out of the water, the third was face down.  I instinctively headed that way (about 150 ft) and grabbed the girl and put her on my board.  The water was shallow enough that I could stand with no problem and I began to move towards the beach.  I met her dad half way and handed her off.  He said thank you and I went back to catching some waves.  As I paddled out to catch the next set, I thanked God for letting me be there at that moment.  I could only hope that if it were my little girl in the water, that some young hero would rise to the occassion as well.

I’m having a bad day.

So far, it’s been one thing after the next.  First, a co-worker calls and gives me grief about a sale.  I told him that we could do such-a-what to fix it and he said he didn’t want that. (So, why did you call me?  Are you just trying to play a one-up game where you think you are a bigger person than me?  What is this really all about? This was stuff I thought, but did not say…).  Then I hear about delivery personnel being laid off.  Now, I have to do deliveries on a more regular basis.  Then the delivery guys, who haven’t been laid off yet, are are late for a delivery and the customer calls and gives me grief.  I just found out that a sale I made yesterday is going south.  The product that I sold was damaged in the warehouse and a new one has to be ordered.

Is it Monday?  It feels like a Monday.  The wheels are completely falling off this bus.

Hayden Quotes

My son, Hayden, says the funniest things from time to time.  Here is the latest funny, followed by a couple others from the past month.

In response to smelling his sister’s poopy diaper:  “It smells like updog.”

After peeing on the potty in a public restroom with about 6 other men present: “Shake it out, Daddy.”

While trying to get him to stop and go potty in the neighbor’s yard: “Daddy, I want to peepee on the kitty cat.”

In response to “What do you want to eat for breakfast?”: “Bran Muffins”

God, I love that kid!

Chick driving a dude.

I know that I’m going to sound like a chauvinist pig on this one.  Who cares!?  What’s up with all the men being driven around by women?  Everywhere I look I see more and more women driving the car with men in the passenger seat!  My wife and I have a rule.  I ALWAYS DRIVE.  ALWAYS.

Men, listen up.  You must never let a woman drive.  It violates an essential law of manhood and if I see you riding shotgun with a woman as passenger, I will personally revoke your man card.  There.  I’m glad I got that off my chest.

Formerly, you were.

After the post last night about Forgetting, I laid down in bed and tried to go to sleep.  God was still speaking.  “FORMERLY.”  Ephesians came to mind.  Formerly, “you were dead in your sin… but God made you alive in Christ.”

Formerly.  Let that sink in for a moment.  The ramifications, I believe, go deep.  Formerly, you were an unloved child.  Formerly, you were insignificant.  Formerly, you were an addict.  Formerly, you were abused.  Formerly, you were… But now, you are alive in Christ!

Why should you forget what’s behind and press on?  Because formerly, you were_______, but now you are alive in Christ.

You are not the same anymore.  You are different.  A “new creation” to quote 2 Corinthians 5.  Why live in the old?  The new has so much more for you.  So forget what is behind, press on.  Because formerly you were, but now you are.