She's got a smile that it seems to me
Reminds me of childhood memories
Where everything
Was as fresh as the bright blue sky
Now and then when I see her face
She takes me away to that special place
And if I stared too long I'd probably break down and cry
Sweet child o' mine, Sweet love of mine...
...Where do we go Where do we go now
Where do we go
fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too. Cna yuo raed tihs?
Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!
(ht - Bishop Dave)
I will be attending a conference in Minneapolis one week from Monday (details here). I thought it would be fun to play a little game. Can you guess the conference speakers? I live in Nearly, Canada - that IS fun!
I just finished reading a book about the church. It was a fair book but something stood out in a chapter entitled "Choosing Your Church." Near the end of the chapter the author discusses how you should leave a church. He says,
"My encouragement is to make a priority of leaving humbly and as helpfully as possible. Refuse to participate in gossip about members of the leaders in the church. If you're a member, communicate your concerns to the pastor and your points of disagreement. Look for ways to point out examples of grace and to encourage them. Ask to hear their perspective. Your goal should be to leave in a way that is gracious and honoring to God."
This is good instruction for all of us. I have seen so many people leave churches without any explanation. That creates an awkward situation in aisle 9 at the grocery store when you see them looking at the frozen appetizers. Should I approach them? Should I ask if they are going to another church? Should I ask if I offended them? Should I duck into another aisle? We need to grow up and be open in our communication. If we see problems in the church we should seek to be a help and not just be a bitter gossip - especially if you are a member of that church!
If you have problems with your church have you discussed those problems with the leadership? Maybe a better, and more convicting question, would be - have you discussed these problems with other people in the congregation that really don't have any authority? If so, you are gossiping and you need to repent. What are you doing to help the body grow in relation to God?
I'm just askin.'
Some look to Larry Burkett and Crown Financial Ministries for financial advice from a "christian" perspective. Maybe we should look no further than SNL.
Our eldest son has some of the craziest bedhead when he awakes. The sad thing is that his bedhead styles are much like some of the styles of today. To see the bedhead styles of family and friends click here! Send photos of your bedhead and if they are worthy I will post them to our site.
Mars Hill Church is producing some excellent video work for their new sermon series on the book of Ruth. You can view the video, download the mp3 and read the sermon notes here. They have also given the option to embed the videos to your own web sites. The first few minutes of the video are a dramatic retelling of the first section of Ruth. It is well done. I encourage you to go to their web site (here) to check out all of the talent they have within their church. Their main church web site is www.marshillchurch.org.
At 10:34 PM on January 16, 2006 Asher Tobias entered the world. He loves graham crackers and dancing. He has 5 teeth and enjoys playing with any toy that Ezra has. He especially loves his mommy and claps every day when daddy comes home. He won't make it far in the field of zoology because he thinks every animal he sees is a dog. His birth weight was 7 lbs. 3 oz. He currently weighs 25 lbs. On average he has gained 1 1/2 lbs per month. If this continues he will weigh 187 lbs when he is 10 years young. We will hope for the best and cut back on the graham cracker consumption. Happy Birthday Asher!
The preaching pastor at our church (Trinity Church) is doing a four-part sermon series on the church. Last week he talked about what the church is and is not. This week it was "The Church - How to Find It, Love It and Leave It." If you have ever had to look for a new church you should listen to this sermon. If you are thinking about leaving the church you attend you should listen to this sermon.
PoMonkey sent one of our sons a birthday gift. We didn't know who to give it to but Clive sure did like being a monkey for a day.
Last evening we gathered with some friends to play Settlers of Catan. During our game we began discussing horrible music videos on YouTube. We watched the video to "Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Bonnie Tyler. It is a horrible video but it accomplished something. The rest of the evening we were singing "turn around, bright eyes."
Have you experienced this? You are on your way to work in the morning and you hear a song on the radio. It sticks in your head and you find yourself singing it throughout the day. A few hours later you hear someone else singing the same song. You WIN! They are singing the song because they heard you singing it first. My wife and I play this game around the home. It's almost as good as Settlers of Catan.
I like doing series posts. I just finished one at Christian Cheese and I have done a few other series at this blog. So, for the next few days (or weeks) I will be posting song lyrics for one purpose - to get them stuck in your head. How many people can you get to sing the same song?
I will begin with this one.
Total Eclipse of the Heart - by Bonnie Tyler
...Once upon a time I was falling in love
But now I'm only falling apart
There's nothing I can do
A total eclipse of the heart
Once upon a time there was light in my life
But now there's only love in the dark
Nothing I can say
A total eclipse of the heart
...Turnaround bright eyes
Turnaround bright eyes
In a comment here my "friend" Bryan said "Vince: in the hair department, less is more." On Saturday I was overcome with sadness over this comment and I had to make some changes. Now I hope Bryan will love me for who I am.
Every night we read through a portion of Ezra's bible. We are now at the end of the book. Tonight we talked about Jesus coming back. I said "Ezra, Jesus is coming!" He got a very worried look and said "No! Jesus not coming." I had to assure him that Jesus was not coming over to babysit. I said "Jesus IS coming." By this time Clive was running back and forth between the front and back door looking for Jesus. Jesus hasn't come back yet.
Last evening I received a laptop via the Brown delivery man. I have been waiting for this day for quite some time.
Today I sat in my favorite bagel establishment with my laptop. I had a two meetings with two different people and I never left the table. I was a true loiterer. I was there from 8 AM until 1 PM. I sent email. I read a few online articles articles. I communicated with a friend in Minneapolis and my father in Missouri. I downloaded some updates for different programs. I updated some things for the church web site. I worked on some notes for a class I am teaching on Saturday. I never left the table.
To top it all off...the bagel place now has peanut butter cream cheese. I know that sounds strange but it was really quite tasty.
and...and...The Office is on tonight!
Thursday is a good day.
We had a great anniversary. Thanks for asking. Some were asking to see a before and after photo of me and mine. Here you go. One is from 1998 and the other from 2007. You choose.
My beautiful bride accepted a great challenge 2557 days ago. She agreed to take me as her man. Some may say she was out of her mind for doing something so crazy and they may be right. Nonetheless, she married me. I am happy.
Our anniversary has become a global event. I believe the picture posted below was purchased from an inside source to be plastered all over the world wide web. Many friends and some people we have never met are posting tributes to our anniversary. The event has caused friends to begin posting on their blogs again here and here. That is something that has not occured in quite some time. If our anniversary is what it takes for people to post to their blogs then we will have an anniversary every day!
Our friend PoMonkey started this mess here! Check out her blog to see the links to all of the tributes. Unbelievable. 
On Monday we will celebrate our 7 year anniversary. It has been the best 7 years of my life because of this woman. She has great bedhead. Check it out here!
This is my hot wife (the one on the left). She is a gift from God. She loves Jesus, me, our boys, our dog and she does a heck of a job (pardon my language) bringing order to our home. She prepares wonderful meals, buys great groceries, keeps a tidy home, loves our boys, serves me and takes care of our family in more best and better ways than I could ask. She is patient with me and my oddities. She plays a mean cribbage and has amazing bedhead.
January 8, 2007 will be our 7 year anniversaryof marriage. This has been the best 7 years of my life and by far the best 7 years of my married life. She has put up with me and I love her more than coffee and mountains. Watch out!
I have this problem of partially reading books. This is my pattern of reading:
1. I hear of a new book that sparks my interest.
2. I purchase the book.
3. I read several chapters of the book.
4. I loose interest in the book because steps 1 & 2 have been repeated.
5. Steps 1-4 are repeated as often as step 1 occurs.
(read full post here)
