8th Anniversary Weekend

Candi and I are celebrating eight years of marriage on September 4th. We were talking this week about special events during the year and how we spend $$$ on those events. We decided we are going to try only spending $$$ on each other on our anniversary (not birthdays and Christmas) but that we'll make it a huge thing every year. To me, my birthday is not a big deal. I always like celebrating Candi's birthday but she's o.k. not doing something outlandish for it. Christmas always ends up being expensive with the gifts for the family (I have a big family - growing bigger every year!) and our kids. So it will actually make things easier on us to do this. So this year we're going to spend the night at Westward Look Resort. Our friends, James and Diane (seen in pictures from the hiking trip) are taking care of our kids while we relax in the Stargazer suite. It has high walls around an outdoor, personal jacuzzi and a nice room - should be sweet!

Who is God?

I've been reading a book I got from my church on Father's day called "In a pit with a lion on a snowy day." Great title, huh?! Anyway, it's about dealing with opportunity in life and how we view God (at least, the first 1/3 of the book is). It's been convicting but also very challenging in a revealing way. He uses a guy named Benaiah and his experiences in the bible to show that what I think about God will greatly influence where I will go, or how much I will grow, spiritually. So I stopped to think about what I think about God. I realized that even though I don't come up with the big meanie head or God waiting to beat me when I screw up, I don't have a lot of good or positive things in mind either. I see Him helping, but not much. I see Him as wise, but not in a way that I can understand. I see Him as loving, but not intimate (the way I want to be as a father). I see Him as real, but vague, ambiguous, or confusing. So I'm challenged by all this to find out how His word describes Him. I'm hopeful.