Don't be a disrespectful kid!!

So Meghan's Grandma Bailey graciously accompanied us to the O.R. appointment EARLY this morning in Syracuse for Meghan.She even brought some DEW!! :-) It wasn't for anything major, just 2 scopes and a ph probe. More on that stuff to come, most has to do with the possibility of acid reflux. We will know much more tomorrow morning after the info from the probe is looked at. She has to wear it for 24 hours. She is actually sleeping now and should through the night. Could be a long night. But many people praying for her and for us....thanks to all of you :-).

 

Anyway, partially due to the vast lack of sleep we all got last night (we had to be on the road by 4.45am.......that's right....A M !!!!) I was very snippy, impatient, barking, acting like a know it all, disrespectful, ungrateful, forever 29 year old P U N K !!!!!!   While my mom was driving me nuts by seeming not to think about things realistically and/or really listening to someone when they are speaking and only hearing a small part of what that person says thereby asking questions that had already been answered 3 times in the rest of the conversation..........it was wrong the way I responded and treated her because most of that for her was due to lack of sleep (which ever since her car accident last winter has not been much sleep at all) and the utmost concern and love for her kids and grandkids. All day I was thinking I was just playing the role of the father/husband who is clearly the head of the family and in control and micromanaging everything I can try to control because I can't do a stinkin thing for my daughter who is out like a light and having a very rough day so I am trying to control whatever I possibly can.     

 

So that doesn't work too well and is flat out wrong.......and not getting much sleep for me is ABSOLUTLEY NO EXCUSE!!!!  Would I have ever treated any other mother this way, or my own mother-in-law....NNNOOOOOO WWAAAAAYYYYY!  In fact I know that if some of the Mom's of some of our teens knew or heard the way I was, they would be in my face!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There could have been far more positive interactions than I let there be and cause there to be.

I realized all this throughout the day, but kept thinking I would change my attitude and genuinely tried to do so many times. But without reconciling the bad attitude in the first place, any sad attempt to change on my own was futile. I even got from my wife at home after the kids were to sleep and we were in the kitchen. She said, "you need to call your mama and apologize to her. You treated her like crap. You did me too a little, but I can handle it."  So after I got some of my own treatment of being made to feel like a little kid and I did my own pouting in the living room, leaving her to finish the dishes that I WAS going to stay in there and help with, I started getting on my laptop to watch some youth ministry stuff and........yep you guessed it.......was immediately convicted and started typing this whole thing out.

 

Why did I write this.........to ashamedly allow my sins to be used to teach someone else to treat their parents better......even if they're nuts. Gonna call and apologize now. I love you Mom and I am sorry.

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<' (((   ><

Sexual Purity Rings

So here is the thought. It’s been toooooo loooooong since being on here. But life has been a bit busy…..ok, it’s been veeeeeeeerrrryyyyy busy. So much so that I can’t find the time to be on here much. However, I will keep this going. This is a long term deal that I am working on. So thanks to friends for their patience.

The thought is just to share with you all that teen ministry rocks. I got to speak this week to our teens and I had just finished the book (audio version, unabridged) Purpose Driven Youth Ministry. I will certainly be rereading that many times over. But toward the end, in a disciplining section, Doug talked about something he did when he first started at Saddleback to begin with a tone of respect.

He got up and told the kids that after the songs they were free to go if they didn’t want to be there. No one would be angry with them or take their names down. They wouldn’t be forced to listen to him. But he believed in the Bible with all his heart and in what he has to say about it. So if they chose to stay, he is taking that as a commitment from them to hear him out and participate by listening.

Now he said that very few ever left. And there was an air of respect and level of respect that was raised as a result of that. Now we have had issues with lots of chatter during our lesson times. And lot’s of cues by staff to teens to basically shush or leave. A lot of distraction basically. So I thought I would give this a try.

I am ashamed to admit that I had lower expectations of a few teens in particular, and apparently higher than applicable for a few others. I gave them the same deal. I had talked with the rest of the staff before hand to get their opinion on it and to make sure that they would be able to help supervise those that left. Out of about 25 kids, only 2 or 3 actually left. 1 I was sure would, and 1 I was actually surprised at (but didn’t show it).

On with the lesson. All this year I had been doing a sex and porn series. My own material, nothing new as it says in Ecc. “nothing new under the sun”, just gathered and assembled stuff. But I ended the series with the same lesson and slides that I began it with back in the winter. And this time around, we focused on different aspects of the same lesson. Really cool how God does that. We ended with a 2 commitment decision time. 1-salvation. 2 teens claimed it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The other commitment decision was to sexual purity til marriage. Not just saying it, but showing it by he wearing of a “True Love Waits” ring.
14 teens stayed upstairs to make this commitment. They were told that as of that moment, no matter what their past was, if they accepted Christ then or ever before, they were starting with a clean record. The last slide of the lesson was Clips from The Passion of the Christ, set to “East to West” by Casting Crowns.
We have 2 teen couples with a baby each. Another couple that can’t seem to keep their hands off eachother. So a very appropriate lesson, challenge, and commitment.

Please pray for these teens and any others that may do this. They will be tempted heavily and more so now that they have made this commitment. We are going to challenge them often and check on them randomly. We are hoping to get parents and families involved in this as well and are praying that God will allow this to be used to draw their families and friends to Christ and into the church.

REVIVAL STARTED IN HARPURSVILLE BACK DURING VBS WEEK……AND WE ARE PUSHING HARD FOR IT TO CONTINUE AND SPREAD. PRAY WITH US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PRAISING GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!