In exactly 29 days, my wife and I will be celebrating a significant milestone in "our" lives -- twenty (20) years of marriage!
Although I am extremely happy we have spent these years together, I have to honestly say I'm really and truly not surprised; why, because we have worked (together) diligently at our marriage - as we both believe anything worth having results in hard work! Instead of growing older and further apart, my wife and I have grown wiser and closer.
In various conversations I have been party-to in the last month or so, leading to our milestone day, we have heard the varied congratulatory expressions; however, another very common expression that followed congratulations unfortunately has been "People aren't staying married very long these days". My question is, why?
What does "these days" have to do with two people vowing to become unified as one? Commitment is commitment, right? Unconditional means unconditional, correct?
My wife laughs at me all the time, do in part that the motto of the high school I attended reads "Dare to be different", and believe you me, I have vowed to be just that.....different!!
I believe it is more important in many cases to, be the rule-not the exception instead of the reverse.
I am looking forward to 20 more years of marriage with the woman I love more today than even yesterday.
Peace.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
Everyday is T.G.I.F.
Although I have been inclined to be dilatory for some time - how appropriate is it after a long hiatus from blogging on this site - that I come to you on a Friday, with a brief word and a very well-known and recognizable acronym T.G.I.F.
I have missed the frequent and kind exchanges from all of my blogging-buddies; however I now transfer my procrastination to action.
I am now officially back in the game!
Most know T.G.I.F. as Thank God it's Friday. Instead, I claim the acronym as Thank God I am Forgiven!
Claim it! The reward is worth it....
I have missed the frequent and kind exchanges from all of my blogging-buddies; however I now transfer my procrastination to action.
I am now officially back in the game!
Most know T.G.I.F. as Thank God it's Friday. Instead, I claim the acronym as Thank God I am Forgiven!
Claim it! The reward is worth it....
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Do You Hear Him?
My family recently went to New York City on vacation. Although I had visited NYC on 3 or 4 previous occasions, Yvonne, Aaron, nor my mother-in-law had ever visited; so needless to say, I was excited for them to experience the Big Apple for the first time.
I was equally excited due in part we had made arrangements to stay in Lower Manhattan – enabling us to visit Wall Street, Battery Park and of course Ground Zero.
On the website for the hotel where we planned to stay, it described the closeness in proximity to Ground Zero and other landmarks of interest….I had no clue….the Hotel was DIRECTLY across the street from Ground Zero!
Upon our arrival to the Millennium Hilton, it was so surreal to have seen the twin towers once upon a time – and now seeing onlookers galore looking through a fenced-in four-story gaping hole covering approximately 2 city blocks….wow.
Once we were settled in our room, we began to map out our week; although I had made an itinerary weeks prior…lol. I of course had to remind Yvonne and my mother-in-law of the frequent purse snatches that occur - instructing them how to hold their purses as we journeyed about. Once we were on our way, I wish you could have seen their eyes as we walked the streets of NYC and every, I mean every female that passed, was clutching their purses as I had described. The light bulb definitely turned on brightly at that point!
Although very hot and humid, we absolutely had a great time! We visited Harlem, Madison Avenue, Central Park, Grand Central Station, Rockefeller Plaza – observatory, Century 21, SoHo, Chinatown, Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, took in a Broadway Show (The Color Purple) and of course visited on numerous occasions, Times Square.
All the while, we realized we were out of our normal element, so during the entire trip there was much prayer for our safety….and I have to say, the Lord kept his hedge of protection around us!
One evening, which would make our third visit, Yvonne and I decided to visit Times Square in the evening to get a true picture of what it was like, so we took the subway uptown (another first). We made the interesting subway ride to our destination at about 9:00 pm. We walked about moving in and out of various shops, eateries, etc. The place was an absolute madhouse for what we thought was supposed to be a slow evening. It reminded me of the familiar scenes of the New Year’s Ball drop – it was that packed!
As we were walking, Yvonne said “If it gets too late, I don’t know if I feel comfortable riding the subway back to the hotel”. I replied, “I think we will be okay”. We were hesitant in taking a cab because the cab rides before were less than desirable, nasty, stinky, and the drivers drove crazily. Although I had made the statement, “we will be okay” I immediately began to pray. I asked the Lord to protect us, and if it is not safe to ride the subway back to the hotel, I asked the Lord to show me a sign.
It was a little bit past the hour of 11:00 pm, hot and tired, we both decided to call it a night. As we were walking towards the 42nd street subway stop I noticed a lady sitting on a store-front ledge approximately 30 feet passed the stairway we needed to take underground to catch the subway. The lady ever-so-slightly nodded her head and from across the street a man with a cup in is hand appeared, coming towards us, the lady nodded again, and another man from the same side of the street we were on appeared walking towards us…..this was the sign….all of this seemed to have developed in slow motion, in order for me to see it happen….the setup was happening….if we would have taken those stairs underground, who knows what would have happened….Yvonne and I were literally at the top of the stairs leading to the underground subway….I snapped my fingers – as a gesture of forgetting something – and I said aloud, “dog gone it, I forgot it”, immediately taking Yvonne’s arm we turned and moved the opposite direction towards traffic – as we did this, the two men vanished as quickly as they appeared. I motioned for a cab at the corner, and instantaneously, our chariot arrived (smile) a brand new Toyota Van with paper plates on it - cut across two lanes of traffic and took me and my queen back to our hotel. Did I mention the driver was the nicest person we had met in NYC the entire week, and that he actually drove the speed limit……..God is so good!!
I was equally excited due in part we had made arrangements to stay in Lower Manhattan – enabling us to visit Wall Street, Battery Park and of course Ground Zero.
On the website for the hotel where we planned to stay, it described the closeness in proximity to Ground Zero and other landmarks of interest….I had no clue….the Hotel was DIRECTLY across the street from Ground Zero!
Upon our arrival to the Millennium Hilton, it was so surreal to have seen the twin towers once upon a time – and now seeing onlookers galore looking through a fenced-in four-story gaping hole covering approximately 2 city blocks….wow.
Once we were settled in our room, we began to map out our week; although I had made an itinerary weeks prior…lol. I of course had to remind Yvonne and my mother-in-law of the frequent purse snatches that occur - instructing them how to hold their purses as we journeyed about. Once we were on our way, I wish you could have seen their eyes as we walked the streets of NYC and every, I mean every female that passed, was clutching their purses as I had described. The light bulb definitely turned on brightly at that point!
Although very hot and humid, we absolutely had a great time! We visited Harlem, Madison Avenue, Central Park, Grand Central Station, Rockefeller Plaza – observatory, Century 21, SoHo, Chinatown, Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, took in a Broadway Show (The Color Purple) and of course visited on numerous occasions, Times Square.
All the while, we realized we were out of our normal element, so during the entire trip there was much prayer for our safety….and I have to say, the Lord kept his hedge of protection around us!
One evening, which would make our third visit, Yvonne and I decided to visit Times Square in the evening to get a true picture of what it was like, so we took the subway uptown (another first). We made the interesting subway ride to our destination at about 9:00 pm. We walked about moving in and out of various shops, eateries, etc. The place was an absolute madhouse for what we thought was supposed to be a slow evening. It reminded me of the familiar scenes of the New Year’s Ball drop – it was that packed!
As we were walking, Yvonne said “If it gets too late, I don’t know if I feel comfortable riding the subway back to the hotel”. I replied, “I think we will be okay”. We were hesitant in taking a cab because the cab rides before were less than desirable, nasty, stinky, and the drivers drove crazily. Although I had made the statement, “we will be okay” I immediately began to pray. I asked the Lord to protect us, and if it is not safe to ride the subway back to the hotel, I asked the Lord to show me a sign.
It was a little bit past the hour of 11:00 pm, hot and tired, we both decided to call it a night. As we were walking towards the 42nd street subway stop I noticed a lady sitting on a store-front ledge approximately 30 feet passed the stairway we needed to take underground to catch the subway. The lady ever-so-slightly nodded her head and from across the street a man with a cup in is hand appeared, coming towards us, the lady nodded again, and another man from the same side of the street we were on appeared walking towards us…..this was the sign….all of this seemed to have developed in slow motion, in order for me to see it happen….the setup was happening….if we would have taken those stairs underground, who knows what would have happened….Yvonne and I were literally at the top of the stairs leading to the underground subway….I snapped my fingers – as a gesture of forgetting something – and I said aloud, “dog gone it, I forgot it”, immediately taking Yvonne’s arm we turned and moved the opposite direction towards traffic – as we did this, the two men vanished as quickly as they appeared. I motioned for a cab at the corner, and instantaneously, our chariot arrived (smile) a brand new Toyota Van with paper plates on it - cut across two lanes of traffic and took me and my queen back to our hotel. Did I mention the driver was the nicest person we had met in NYC the entire week, and that he actually drove the speed limit……..God is so good!!
Monday, July 30, 2007
Don’t Just Keep the Faith, Live it
There are lots and lots of things going on in the world, and even much closer to each of us – the question is; how are you / we handling it?
Despite the seemingly ever-changing vicissitudes of life, it is important not to be overcome or consumed by what is happening around you; keep the faith, and more importantly live the faith.
It is your / our choice to either be overcome, or to be an over-comer!
Understand man’s knowledge is finite, while God is infinite
Romans 12:2 KJV
Despite the seemingly ever-changing vicissitudes of life, it is important not to be overcome or consumed by what is happening around you; keep the faith, and more importantly live the faith.
It is your / our choice to either be overcome, or to be an over-comer!
Understand man’s knowledge is finite, while God is infinite
Romans 12:2 KJV
Monday, May 14, 2007
Go Fish
Several weeks ago, the Men’s Ministry from my church decided to go on a fishing trip. It wasn’t until very late the night before that I finally decided to commit to join the group. (I am still working on that slow-commit thing).
We were to meet at the church at 8:00 am, so this meant I would have to rise pretty early in time to shower, dress, get my fishing supplies, and drive to the church which is about a forty minute drive from my home.
Shower….done. Dress…..done. Get fishing supplies….not so smooth.
Some of my fishing equipment, namely my fishing net was in my attic. As I prepared to go into the attic quickly deciding I was not going to use my very nice fifteen-foot extension ladder; instead, do to time constraints, I chose to use the fold out six-foot ladder. I climbed the ladder moving up to the second-to-last step into the attic with about half of my body extended through the opening. I grabbed the fishing net, turned and gently tossed the net out of the attic onto the garage floor - then it happened. I shifted my weight a second time in preparation of descending….and boy did I start descending.
To give you a bit more perspective of the descent, I was standing about 5 ½ feet up the ladder as I stand 6’7” tall.
As I turned again to balance myself, the ladder tipped-over. As I began to fall out of the attic I attempted to grab the wood framing, I grabbed it partially but could not hold on; I heard the ladder crashing over then saw myself coming down towards the ground. Luckily I fell partially on my feet….I immediately said aloud “Thank you Lord.” I then felt a burning sensation in my left hand, looked at my hand and saw blood dripping onto the concrete floor from my 3rd finger, pinky, and down the outside of my hand – a diagonal cut about 7 inches in length. I then said aloud “I think I need stitches.”
After my head cleared I finally thought better of getting stitches because I had committed to go on the fishing trip and did not want to break that commitment. So I went back into the house applied lots of pressure to the gash hoping to stop the bleeding, then in as casual of a voice that I could muster – I asked my wife if we had a bandage (thank goodness she was still groggy and in bed). I poured peroxide on my hand then applied six bandages, told my wife I loved her, grabbed some Tylenol and left quietly.
Although grossly behind schedule I managed to make it to the church only nine minutes late, at 8:09 am; as cars were filing out of the parking lot I joined the caravan as the final car!
There were 30 men in all, and I have to say we had a great time:
Good fellowship
Good food
Good laughs
In all of the fun, believe it or not, out of 30 fishing lines in the water, not a single one of us caught a single fish!! I can’t remember ever going fishing and not catching even the smallest of fish.
As I was driving home, reflecting upon the days events it struck me that the reason none of us caught any fish was because we were being prepared to be fishers of men.
Matthew 4:19
We were to meet at the church at 8:00 am, so this meant I would have to rise pretty early in time to shower, dress, get my fishing supplies, and drive to the church which is about a forty minute drive from my home.
Shower….done. Dress…..done. Get fishing supplies….not so smooth.
Some of my fishing equipment, namely my fishing net was in my attic. As I prepared to go into the attic quickly deciding I was not going to use my very nice fifteen-foot extension ladder; instead, do to time constraints, I chose to use the fold out six-foot ladder. I climbed the ladder moving up to the second-to-last step into the attic with about half of my body extended through the opening. I grabbed the fishing net, turned and gently tossed the net out of the attic onto the garage floor - then it happened. I shifted my weight a second time in preparation of descending….and boy did I start descending.
To give you a bit more perspective of the descent, I was standing about 5 ½ feet up the ladder as I stand 6’7” tall.
As I turned again to balance myself, the ladder tipped-over. As I began to fall out of the attic I attempted to grab the wood framing, I grabbed it partially but could not hold on; I heard the ladder crashing over then saw myself coming down towards the ground. Luckily I fell partially on my feet….I immediately said aloud “Thank you Lord.” I then felt a burning sensation in my left hand, looked at my hand and saw blood dripping onto the concrete floor from my 3rd finger, pinky, and down the outside of my hand – a diagonal cut about 7 inches in length. I then said aloud “I think I need stitches.”
After my head cleared I finally thought better of getting stitches because I had committed to go on the fishing trip and did not want to break that commitment. So I went back into the house applied lots of pressure to the gash hoping to stop the bleeding, then in as casual of a voice that I could muster – I asked my wife if we had a bandage (thank goodness she was still groggy and in bed). I poured peroxide on my hand then applied six bandages, told my wife I loved her, grabbed some Tylenol and left quietly.
Although grossly behind schedule I managed to make it to the church only nine minutes late, at 8:09 am; as cars were filing out of the parking lot I joined the caravan as the final car!
There were 30 men in all, and I have to say we had a great time:
Good fellowship
Good food
Good laughs
In all of the fun, believe it or not, out of 30 fishing lines in the water, not a single one of us caught a single fish!! I can’t remember ever going fishing and not catching even the smallest of fish.
As I was driving home, reflecting upon the days events it struck me that the reason none of us caught any fish was because we were being prepared to be fishers of men.
Matthew 4:19
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Quality Time
I had a conversation with my wife about a month ago about quality time, and I have been thinking about our conversation ever since that conversation took place. Both of us ironically had different views of its varied definition. My wife’s perspective is: Time is time; therefore you can’t quantify it by determining its degree or measurement. My perspective is time is time; however, it can be delineated into sub categories to include degrees and measurements as in some of the examples that follow:
Occasion – A period in which an action or process exists or continues.
Leisure – Found time to do something.
A Set Moment – Arrived on time.
Age or Era
Condition – Hard times, good times
Rate of Speed
Determined by a Clock or Calendar
A system of reckoning time – Solar time
A series of recurring instances
and especially as a 10th example where time can be defined by a person’s experience(s) – experience being the key word. Further, I am of the opinion that by definition of quality – being both a degree of excellence and a distinguishing attribute, further (modifies) or (contributes) to how the “time” spent is utilized.
For the sake of debate, I would like to site an example of the difference of time and quality time.
Example: Mother’s Day is upon us. It is appropriate for me to take “time” to acknowledge my in-laws day. I can call via telephone with well-wishes. I could purchase a card or gift and mail it. I could do any of the above and physically visit and drop-off the card, gift or the like and move on. Or lastly, I could do any of the above in her presence, spending “time” with her. I trust you would agree that each choice is acceptable however due to the effort necessary to carry-out the last choice (with sincerity) and the willingness to carve time out of my schedule in order to share my time - yielding (our time) I believe equates to “quality time.”
In a world where seemingly everything moves at the speed of light, in this me society, where immediate gratification takes too long it is extremely critical to spend some quality moments with your loved ones and not mistake quality time with courtesy time.
I would love to hear your perspective!
Occasion – A period in which an action or process exists or continues.
Leisure – Found time to do something.
A Set Moment – Arrived on time.
Age or Era
Condition – Hard times, good times
Rate of Speed
Determined by a Clock or Calendar
A system of reckoning time – Solar time
A series of recurring instances
and especially as a 10th example where time can be defined by a person’s experience(s) – experience being the key word. Further, I am of the opinion that by definition of quality – being both a degree of excellence and a distinguishing attribute, further (modifies) or (contributes) to how the “time” spent is utilized.
For the sake of debate, I would like to site an example of the difference of time and quality time.
Example: Mother’s Day is upon us. It is appropriate for me to take “time” to acknowledge my in-laws day. I can call via telephone with well-wishes. I could purchase a card or gift and mail it. I could do any of the above and physically visit and drop-off the card, gift or the like and move on. Or lastly, I could do any of the above in her presence, spending “time” with her. I trust you would agree that each choice is acceptable however due to the effort necessary to carry-out the last choice (with sincerity) and the willingness to carve time out of my schedule in order to share my time - yielding (our time) I believe equates to “quality time.”
In a world where seemingly everything moves at the speed of light, in this me society, where immediate gratification takes too long it is extremely critical to spend some quality moments with your loved ones and not mistake quality time with courtesy time.
I would love to hear your perspective!
Monday, May 7, 2007
5 Tips to Becoming More Positive
Have you ever wondered why it seems negativity most always accentuates the positive? This has really been on my mind as of late due in part to my more recent communication with several negative-minded individuals in the last couple of weeks. The odd thing about it is when I asked one of the individuals to look at this particular situation in a more positive light (with examples), they not only refused to shift their thinking, this person then got upset with me….huh!
I am absolutely certain if one thinks they can’t….they can’t; if one thinks they won’t…..they won’t.
The following is a short non-exhaustive list of ways to begin thinking more positively.
#1. Love yourself! Simply put, one cannot love anyone else if one does not have self-acceptance or love for oneself.
#2. Fully understand and act upon what makes “you” happy or what you love to do, or what you want to achieve; then go for it! No goals, no glory.
#3. Take ownership and responsibility for your actions. (Negative-thinkers very seldom - if at all - hold themselves to the same standard as they hold others).
#4. Tell someone you love them! Kindness is always reciprocated.
#5. Don’t wait for people, things, situations, etc. to fall from the sky. It doesn’t work that way. Take action, action, action for it is written:
But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? James 2:20 KJV
I am absolutely certain if one thinks they can’t….they can’t; if one thinks they won’t…..they won’t.
The following is a short non-exhaustive list of ways to begin thinking more positively.
#1. Love yourself! Simply put, one cannot love anyone else if one does not have self-acceptance or love for oneself.
#2. Fully understand and act upon what makes “you” happy or what you love to do, or what you want to achieve; then go for it! No goals, no glory.
#3. Take ownership and responsibility for your actions. (Negative-thinkers very seldom - if at all - hold themselves to the same standard as they hold others).
#4. Tell someone you love them! Kindness is always reciprocated.
#5. Don’t wait for people, things, situations, etc. to fall from the sky. It doesn’t work that way. Take action, action, action for it is written:
But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? James 2:20 KJV
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