My Little Thanksgiving Secret

One thing I learned years ago that seems to be a little secret in my relationship with God, is being thankful. Like many others, I spend time in prayer form time to time. But as I have gotten older (not sure wiser but older yes), I have learned to spend more and more of that time thanking Him for all things under the sun. I don't get why He is good to me. I don't understand why He forgives me and let's me do and have the things I do. I don't get that when things are tough He is still there to make a bad thing turn out to have good things come from it down the road. I don't. But I sure thank Him for it. All the time.

God is good all the time and all the time God is good.

See, the way I see it He knows my prayer needs and the needs of others already, right? He doesn't need me telling Him about it all over and over again as if He needs daily reminders. I mean, we pray more for our peace of mind and tranquilty than we do to keep God informed of all things earthly. I think He is good in that department. I am sure He's got FoxNews on all day. So, I thank him for knowing those prayers ahead of time, leave them at His feet and try to spend more of my time asking Him to help me live a life of thankfulness, in the way I live, and yes, behave.

Think about it. Don't you just LOVE when your kids or others close to you shower you with praises and thanks? Doesn't it make you all proud and edified in that moment?

God wants our thanks and praises more than anything else. So I do my best to give it to Him.

In the Old Testaments days they celebrated "Sukkot" or the Feast of Tabernacles. It was a time in which the people "celebrated the abundance of God’s blessings in connection with the ingathering of the fall harvest". It was much like our Thanksgiving now. (Well, in some ways...just without Cowboys football - which lately is more of a curse anyway.)

This Thanksgiving I take the time to list out all of those things I am thankful to Him for: big and small. Of course the obvious ones are salvation, Christ and God's grace. But even the little things He needs to know we appreciate.

You should do the same and share it like I have. I helps us all keep things in perspective. Here's mine:

my mom, dad and sister
my amazing, hot wife
my incredible kids
for having twins - identicals to boot
for allowing us to adopt a child
my grandmother
my cousins and all of my extended family, and our holiday gatherings!
my fun sister in law and both of my brothers in law
my great in-laws
my amazing friends (way too many to name! I am blessed beyond words in this dept)
my business partner who is like the only brother I have ever had
my days and experiences in Houston, DeSoto, Fort Worth, Arlington, Brownwood and now Mansfield
my wonderful church and the friends we have there
my loving, funny, down to earth pastor Randy
HPU and Baylor Universities
Delta Pi and all the fellas (you know who you are)
Club J and Outbreak Ministries
closing in on 20 years of working for myself
my new business that is booming after having to shut down a 10 year old business in 2011
my dog Sam that I miss very much
our 14 year old Terrier, Max for still being alive and kickin!
our newbie boxer Charlie who truly makes us laugh daily
sports! Cowboys, Rangers, Astros, Mavs, and Stars
sports talk and political talk radio!
pizza
quinns precious prayers at night
chaning the colors on the girls clock which drives them crazy, nearly every night
my iphone and all things Apple
movie nights with the kids
watching favorite shows with Julie
Hyatt Hill Country Resort in San Antonio
BBQ
Mi Tierra in San Antonio
steak and baked potatoe
Disney
for having Join.me and gotomeetings for online client sessions
Vacations and all of the amazing places I have gotten to see
my health despite my bad habits
technology that makes life fun and simplier
music - especially rock & roll, techno and jazz
my talents and skills
my wife's cake pops
Chocolate Cream Pies
ice cream
mexican food
for living in America
for living in Texas
Christmas (yes, even Santa)
South Korea
good movies
Minivans
TVO
satellite radio in my car!
our dependable and nice vehicles
my office being close to home
our wonderful house
our amazing planet to see and explore
corvettes
sex
the city of Mansfield
Chick FiLay and new one 1 mile away!
all of the business and professional connections He has given me
for "taking care of" those that purposefully hurt my business partner and I in 2009 and giving us the ability to forgive them when it was never asked for
for family nights at the Rangers Ballpark
downtown Fort Worth
canned cinnamon rolls
Galveston
my sisters fun kids!
LIFE cereal
milk
Dr Pepper and sweat tea
wine
Ted Dekker
cameras
my business clients now all over Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma
my senior business advisors in NC and AZ

I'll add more to the list as this weekend rolls along. It helps me realize just how good I have it.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Alfred Time at School

Since the girls were born Alfred has been a part of our lives. Alfred lives in our coat closet. On the top shelf. He does sleep allot but when he comes out he is usually quite comical in his old age.

Over the last few weeks the girls asked me to bring Alfred to school for a little story time. He obliged and I agreed to drive so it was a deal. Both Sidney and Chloe were ecstatic. I couldn't believe Alfred went for it either. What was he going to talk about or say?

Well, in both classes the kids were all giddy with excitement. The girls had told most of them about their little Alfred and how all of these years he had been a part of their life. The kids freaked out about his funny eyes, the story about him riding his motorcycle and bike and they all lost it when his glasses flew off.

Alfred's probably down for a long winters nap at this point after those two visits. Next up will be a visit to Quinn's class which will be interesting. He'll have to prepare himself for that one.

One day I know Alfred won't come out of his closet much and the kids will probably just laugh at the idea and say "oh dad....that's silly."

But I love Alfred. And always will.

An Election Education

It's election time and last night was our first taste of teaching about the election to the girls. They came home asking about who to vote for. They were having their own little election at school and truly believed they were about to decide this thing. The stress and pressure on their faces was funny. They truly didn't know what to do.

Obama or Romney..

After a quick lesson on taking a stand for God's values, they seemed to both lean towards Romney. Sidney was distraught and Chloe just likes Obama she said. It was cute.

We had to couch the election in terms of spiritual issues since trying to explain political issues even confuses us adults at times. Can you imagine....girls let's talk about capital gains taxes and the Bush tax cuts. How about Obamacare...

So we explained that both are nice men, but that as Christians we have to vote for the person that will protect babies and loves God and goes to church all the time like we do. Well, as you can imagine that lead to "does Obama hurt babies?"

Not an easy discussion, but we had to be honest. We told them some people are allowed to hurt babies and we can't vote for them because God wants us to protect babies but that they could vote for whoever they felt like they should vote for. 

They came home from school today and told us they both voted for Romney.

Whew.

I Love Being a Part of the Process!

Sports get me excited. But few things get me wind up like the US Election cycle every 4 years. It is truly amazing to watch our country go through this incredible 250+ year old system. Yea, it has its flaws but still. Tell me where it is better.

After all the pundits, polls, talk shows, and ads, it comes down to the vote.

Last night God allowed me to be a part of the process in a very unique way. He called me to lead a prayer rally for America called 600seconds on election eve. We did so 100s of people all over America joined in the live conference call. I hosted the event and walked everyone through about 700 seconds of prayer for the country covering a few topics I knew were close to God’s heart. My kids even listened in which was neat too.

I just love America. I live in Texas where it is always conservative in voting so I wanted to do more and this is what He called me to do. It was easy since He laid it all out for me and all I had to do was follow.

Now we can sit and watch what He does.

I believe by the end of the day we will see Mitt Romney as our new President.