No Excuses!

As I put the book down I felt a new power growing in me. I had never felt this way after reading a book. The title of the book was "No Excuses" It was written by a teenage guy who was born with no arms and no legs. All he had for limbs were little stubs. Legs that stopped above the knee and arms that had on elbows were not exactly ideal for sports. But he didn't let that stop him! He pursued his dream of becoming a wrestler and joined his schools team. Much to their surprise he became the best in the league. No body could beat him! He went on to take State title twice, and then write this amazing book. He challenges teens to never make up excuses and to always challenge themselves. It sure helped me to try and not make excuses! I always told my self "If a man with no arms and legs can take state title in wrestling, then I can do this!"

Chimes in the air

Today, as I was walking out of my house, I heard the most beautiful sound. It was the sound of my neighbors wind chimes. Dancing on their puppet like strings, rainbows of light were dancing off of their silvery forms. Crisp, clear, and clean came their tinkling, riding the warm air to caress my ears with their pleasant sound.

Taking control

I have always been a very controlling person. I like to take the wheel and drive my life in the direction that seems best to me. So often I drive myself into a ditch or a wall. Letting go of the wheel and entrusting it in Gods hands had been a very hard challenge...even when He tells us in His word that he has plans to prosper us and not to harm us. Everyday for the past few weeks I have tried to give him one more aspect of my life, weather it be big or small. He hasent let me down so far and He still continues to amaze me!

A chance to put others first

Over the past few weeks we have been making multiple trips up to our house in Richmond... We just got new clients and the house needed work before they moved in... And I'm not talking little things...These were things like Re-painting rooms...Fixing those complicated sliding doors, steam cleaning every single carpet, scrubbing the black scuff-marks off the kitchen floor...Anyways you get the idea, it wasn't a whole lot of fun.
Well, last week we were making one of the last two trips up. It was on a Wednesday, the same day that I played drums for the Jr. high at youth. I really enjoy helping out with them, and going there on Wednesday nights in one of the highlights of my week. So, knowing that we had a lot of work to do I got up early and loaded the van so that we could arrive early and finish in time to make it back for band practice. Well the day went by and the work kept coming. Band practice was at 5:00 and it was a 2 hr trip back to our house and 1/2hr from our house to church... Knowing this I was aiming to leave Richmond at about 2:30ish. Well we didn't finish the work until 5... This not only meant that I couldn't go to band,but, it also meant that we would totally miss out on youth that week.
Instead of blowing up at mom I died to self and didn't say anything.

Letting go

Right now I am struggling with a pride issue... My parents have pointed it out in the past and I have noticed it in my heart. Until last week I had been relying on my own strength to fight this problem. But every time I fought back I failed. Now that I have given more of this problem to God I am starting to see some improvement... Its still very hard to let go though... Be praying for me!

A blinding affect on the truth

A few years ago I was very drawn to video games. I gave most of my time to playing on our new ps2 (yeah I know its like as old as dust now... but they were the coolest things ever in 2005)
As I look back now I realize just how much of an idol I made it... I would have rather played a game than study or read in God's word. For a long time it held me in its mind numbing spectrum of artificial pleasure. I look back now and I am glad to have broken the grip it had on me. I still find some pleasure in playing video games... But now I don't let them control me or influence how I spend my time. I would much rather go play outside or hang with friends doing something active than sit in front of a game all day.

From dissapointment to joy

Last month I had a very unexpected change of plans that surprisingly worked out for the better...I was planing out my week around this trip with some friends to go to Busch Gardens. I had everything worked out...The times, who was going, what we would do..ect
The day finally rolled around and guess what? It started to poor the rain twenty minutes before we were going to leave... Seeing as it didn't look like letting up, we canceled the trip. We were all really bummed at first, until somebody had the brilliant idea of making the most out of the rain..
Thats right! We figured that we would get wet anyways playing in the rain, so we had a huge water fight! It turned out that it only rained for about an hour or so before letting up, and we spent the rest of the now sunny day playing outside and having a great time.