New Years Eve - Resolutions

Jeez yea right, I don't make resolutions. When people ask I tell them I'm going to quit smoking or quit drinking. See that's the funny part, I don't do either. Man I'm a laugh riot. For 2007 I am going to make some goals, but I will just go with the flow of the life God provides. My goals for my life (not just this year):

1. To continue to grow in my relationship with Jesus


2. Lead, protect and provide for my family


3. Bring the weight down a bit


4. Spread the love, humor and word of our Lord


5. Continue to live as pure a life as a human can. Jesus is the only way I will have the strength to live the life HE calls me to live.

Another note: If you haven't seen Hotel Rwanda, go rent it. I will never understand the way humans think and live. Yet history proves to us, the we humans cannot do it the right way without a deep and true relationship with our God. Adolph Hitler, Slobodan Milošević, Nicolae Ceauşescu, Saddam Hussein, the Rwandan Genocide. And these are just the famous ones.

One of my closest friends, who is a police officer back home in Massachusetts, and has seen the effects of perverts attacks on children, has asked me a few times "How does your God allow these things to happen". I think of this question whenever I see a movie like Hotel Rwanda or documentaries on most African countries, or hear Pastor Eugen from Romania talk about the days of communism. How does our Lord allow these crazy acts of violence and inhumanity happen.

My only reply can be, until God opens my eyes to a better answer: That Matthew 22 teaches us of the Great Commandment. Matthew 22:37-40 says "'37Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

If these people had a true, deep and loving relationship with Jesus, then the convictions they would have in their lives would NOT be focused on their thoughts and feelings and desires, but rather Gods. Jesus Christ does NOT teach to love based on race or sex or social status. Jesus teaches us to love HIM First and Foremost, then love everyone else as you love yourself. Not once does he teach genocide, sexual abuse, murder, theft, torture.

Long description for me to say to those who question God's authority: If everyone lived their life for God, these atrocities may not have happened. But remember from every grossness comes beauty. That is God's responds to free will. HE lets us make decisions, but brings out his Glory from the decisions we make without his command.

Long post this morning...sorry :) Please, Please, Please be safe tonight. Designated Drivers aren't just a silly commercial, they are life savers, so use them....Please.

Happy New Year!

Liberia Picture Montage

So....I found Movie Maker...sorry world, but here come movies and montages!!! I put together a picture montage from Liberia. Turns out, my movie making skills are just like my talking skills...long winded. This video ended up being 9 minutes long!! It may be a little slow to load, whoops. Next time I'll make it shorter, or at least try to. But it does have 2 of my favorite songs on it. Hope you enjoy it.

Funny story, my coworker and I got talking about movies and religion. He told me a story which proves again, God has a sense of Humor. This coworker of mine, I'll call him NoNo for privacy purposes, went to the movies to see some movie he thought was going to have some violence and mature content. Turns out the movie was a religious movie, which NoNo decided to leave after 5 minutes and go see something else. He thought a good football movie would be great, so he went into Facing the Giants. For those that don't know, Facing the Giants is a movie made by christians and has a very strong Christian message. Thankfully NoNo stayed and watched all of that movie. Just goes to show you, you cannot outrun the will of God.

God is Good!

Christmas Eve 2006 - Will I Remember...?

It's almost 7PM on Christmas eve and I got to thinking about 10 or 20 years from now. Will I remember Christmas 2006? Will I remember Quatro and Seis's first Christmas as members of our family? The excitement of leaving cookies and milk for Santa? Quatro yelling to Uno and Dos that the cookies are NOT FOR THEM!!! :) Or Quatro running around hugging everyone yelling Merry Christmas, showing more loving emotions to us then she has ever done? Or Seis getting upset that she didn't get the Dora slippers we got Quatro instead of the Zoe's slippers we got her? (Gotta love being 2 and 3) Or how about Dos and Uno singing the 12 days of christmas in only a way Dos and Uno can? These are the memories I never want to forget. But it all goes by so fast...

How about you...will you remember Christmas 2006? Will you remember the important details that make times like Christmas so memorable? Wherever you are this Christmas, I hope that you will take a few moments to enjoy all that is happening around you...the sights, the smells, the conversations, the foods, the gifts, the friendships and the family.

How about after Christmas? Will we all take time to reflect, only in real time? Reflection doesn't have to happen after something happens. We can "reflect" as we live our lives. Making cookies together, playing at the park, bringing your kids to school....incredible memories happen everyday, yet they seem to fade away so quickly.

I'll be honest I don't know where that all came from, but I felt it important enough to write down. I hope this helps you as well as helps me remember to enjoy all the blessings God's given us. It's so important to embrace our blessings as they happen as well as after we have received them.

Merry Christmas!!!