Show me the path where I should walk, O Lord
To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. I trust in You, my God! Show me the path where I should walk, O Lord Point out the right road for me to follow. Lead me by your truth and teach me for You are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in You. Remember O Lord your unfailing love and compassion which you have shown from long ages past. Forgive the rebellious sins of my youth…Archive for January, 2009
Chesterfield County and the ZIP code madness…
Just a visual for reference… primarily based on the Chesterfield Daily post: Having an identity crisis?
Click for full viewI combined a ZIP code map and a County map using these two web-based tools:
Some related area articles discussing this topic:
I’ve not much of a comment on this… I live very close to the Richmond line (Rt. 150/Chippenham isn’t it?) but still am part of 23832 but at the far north end of it, which has confused many people on a few lists I’m on (freecycle anyone?). I actually thought that technically we are all in Richmond, VA…
exhilarated!
Yesterday (see note at bottom) was talking with my neighbor about a few things. For awhile I’ve been slowly working on the backyard and have mentioned before that I have plans to build a tree house (plans have changed… currently the plan is the renovate the existing but old clubhouse and expand it a bit… and at a later time, build a little tower-like lookout tree house on the tree beside the clubhouse). But I have moved a lot of leaves back, and cleaned up a bit. This, coupled with a new neighbor substantially working on his backyard, had him exhilarated. Re-energized. Motivated. He’s already cut down a few trees he has wanted to do for a few years (and I got him to come over and cut down a few of mine too… hey I don’t have a chainsaw but he does and he offered).
praise
When you think of songs at church, what do you think of? Do you think of something intended to modern and ‘hip’? Something that everyone will like? Are the songs sung for your edification? For a few years, I used to believe this was the case. Then we went to a mid-week church service our church did every few months where a few songs really struck me down from holding this belief. It’s not at all about me. When they say worship or praise, that is what it is supposed to be – worshipping and praising God – but not just me doing it – but the entire church.
So I get that now. But it doesn’t seem to still happen all that often, at least for me. Don’t know why. Then a week or so ago I read this post called Let’s Party! which made me wonder and really want to praise God like that:
… the party with the singing and dancing was strangely worshipful. I’m not exactly sure why, but there were numerous times during the party when I almost broke down in tears over the emotion being expressed in the singing and dancing. I asked one of them what they were singing (most of it was in Hebrew or Yiddish) and he said, “The Psalms.”
I want to be touched deep, to feel sincere emotion and praise God through song. The closeness to God experienced through heart-felt singing praise is something I remember. I don’t know if I always want the best done ’service’ (it’s entertaining but in this day and age, that itself can be boring …) I just want to praise God during this time. Now I’m not calling out completely how it is currently done, but wondering about occasionally it being different. Like what? Not sure – maybe some guy/gal (or a few…?) who want to sing not an entire song but just the chorus – over and over – or a simple and very easy to follow and repeat song like this:
Maybe even put the words up like is usually done (especially for the song above).
I’ve so far been talking about on Sunday gatherings, but why not anywhere – anytime? It sure seems we usually say a prayer whenever we all get together in some sort of small groups, so why not sing a song of praise to God? Why not give thanks? Regardless if we can sing well – I know I can’t. I have thought in particular in times and places where stopping to sing praises to God would (well in my mind I could be completely off-base and flat-out wrong) definitely be different – in going out and share clothes, blankets, shoes, food, etc. with the homeless. Why not come, setup and make available what we have, and then sing songs? Praise God! Give glory to Him not us!
Give thanks with a grateful heart,
Give thanks to the Holy One,
Give thanks because He’s given
Jesus Christ His Son.And now let the weak say “I am strong.”
Let the poor say “I am rich.”
Because of what the Lord has done for us
Give thanks.
fatherhood
From Dynamic Dads (a book I recently finished reading):
Once we realize it’s impossible to be a perfect father, we can redirect our energies toward fathering effectively. However, in order to get there, we need to take a somewhat painful step. We must examine the specific areas in our fathering skills where we fall especially short.
AUTHORITY
- discipline – clear rules explained, child understands the violation, apply punishment calmly, restore & reinforce with love and acceptance [yeah... calmly isn't my strong point]
- share – democracy [yeah... I'm not that great at sharing either...]
- listen – everyone
- lead – with grace; not demanding; a servant leader of the family [and I'm a bit demanding...]
ENCOURAGE (these kind-of all blend together…)
- adoration – sincere verbal praise in their presence
- praise – recognition and attention
- encouragement – focus and praise strengths; compliment!
- acceptance – unconditional approval; affirmation!
APPLY (but don’t only think about yourself but the whole family!)
- identity – know who you are, where you came from and be it!
- community – authentic, open and encouraging group of other guys for support … like my G Men … I liked this paragraph in the book:
Real fellowship can and does occur when God’s grace guides a group by the power and direction of the Holy Spirit. Walls are broken down and true encouragement is given and received. If you’re hesitant to jump into a men’s small group, let me say that trying to live the Christian life alone simply doesn’t work. The heart cry of much of the New Testament is that we live in community. I urge you to become intentional about forming solid male friendships with like-minded Christ followers. Once you get a taste of true community, you’ll never go back to your old Lone Ranger days of living the Christian life in isolation…
Jesus Christ was the epitome of masculinity. He was caring, courageous, and kind. He fearlessly took on the phony religious leaders of His day and lovingly ministered to outcast women. He surrounded Himself with twelve men for fellowship and community. Jesus was no Lone Ranger. Are you?
- integrity – not perfection but wholeness; at peace. work in progress!
- ministry – gifts->purpose->energy->mission
FATHERING = main gift of service to God
… and most important! I can’t claim that putting it as ‘most important’ has really been my view; most certainly not if you looked at my involvement in a bunch of things. Here’s hoping there’s a change… well, maybe just ‘progress’ in some areas.
a change…
It’s been about a month and what has been made clear to me is that change is necessary in my life. Involvement in too much is a big one… involvement and concern for too many things that are important but do not have to be me that has to do it. My struggle is that I want to help others… sometimes (ha – I probably kid myself when I say that) more so than myself and my family. Sure I can rationalize and explain many different ways all of this, and all of the things I get myself involved into… but in the end, it’s not about me. It’s all about God and His paths. So maybe I’ve went down some of His paths, but maybe I don’t need to be the person who keeps going down it… maybe that’s for someone else to continue with. But that’s hard because I want it too much to be about me.
