So far all of my posts have been pretty positive, or about what we should be as Christians. However I think it’s time for a reality check. Every Christian, now matter how long they have been walking with Christ, struggles with something on a daily basis. This is just the nature of being human in a fallen state. Now granted we do have the Holy Spirit to guide us, but we don’t always listen to what the Holy Spirit tells us.

Proverbs 20:9 – Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin”?

Jeremiah 17:9 – The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

I know that I have trouble with my heart everyday. We have to try to be like David, who was a man after God’s own heart. Even David sinned. I think that’s why he wrote this prayer in the Psalms:

Psalm 51:10 – Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Another thing I struggle with on a daily basis is my anger. I have always had a short temper, for as long as I can remember. Maybe this is because I grew up with so much anger and violence in my family. Maybe it’s just my heart. I don’t know exactly what causes me to anger so easily. It has been easier since I came to Christ, but I still find myself getting angry for little cause at times. This is especially hard and dangerous when you have kids. Children have a tendency to bring out the worst and the best in us. A child can provoke even the most patient man to anger. So much more for us who are easily angered. I have to be extremely careful not to lose my temper around my children, which at times can be extremely difficult. I have to be extremely careful not to end up like my father, who throughout my childhood always seemed angry, and lost his temper at the drop of a hat. I don’t want my children to grow up feeling the way that I felt.

I struggle everyday with reading my bible. Sometimes I let the things of the world distract me from what is really important, God’s Word. This is part of the reason I started this blog. To help keep me focused on what is important. To help me store up treasures in heaven and not on earth.

I struggle with intercessory prayer sometimes. It’s easy to pray for myself. We are all selfish in nature, and it’s easy to pray for ourselves. To pray for others can be difficult unless we are consciously aware of it. One thing I try to do when I pray is to make my prayers for myself the last thing I pray for if at all.

Spending quiet time with God is another thing I have trouble with. We live in such a fast paced world with so much stimulation. It can be hard to just stop everything, all the distractions and to listen for His Word in my heart, to rest in Him.

I struggle with helping my wife around the house sometimes. I have to consciously make myself help her with the housework sometimes. I know my wife appreciates it when I do help her out, especially here lately with her being pregnant and her chronic pain flaring up worse than it has before. This has kind of forced me to help with our son more on my days off as well. This can be hard to do especially after a long night at work.

These are some of the things that I struggle with on a daily basis. I can come up with more, however these are the most common, and hardest things to deal with for me. What do you struggle with in your walk with Christ?

I woke up this afternoon(I work nights), and my wife tells me that she turned around in her chair this afternoon and this is what she saw.

He was apparently walking around on the table picking up papers and just hanging out. Now I need to go out and buy a safety harness so he doesn’t crack his skull open…just kidding. What a little stinker.

Inspired by a post on a fellow Christian’s blog(Joy@the pure interest) about the things that bring us Joy in our everyday life; I decided to snap a few pictures today and throw them up here along with some personal thoughts on what and why they give me Joy in everyday life.

Here goes:

My favorite book in all the world. His Word. It seems that everyday I open it’s pages I find something to encourage me, I learn something new about God, and gain a better understanding of Him and His plan for my life.

It seems every time that I get the camera out to take a picture of anything, my son feels the need to show off. This is him being…well his cute little self.

This is what I was originally trying to get when I took the camera out, however it took a dozen pictures and some coercion to get it. He is truly a blessing from God, and possibly the real reason why I am not another of the lost sheep still wandering in the darkness.

My beloved wife blogging away. She really didn’t want her picture taken here, however I needed a current photo for the day for this post. I know she will understand the use on this page as it is out of love. She brings me joy everyday we are together. I thank the Lord for everyday that I have to spend with her.

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The following pictures weren’t taken today, however they did give me great joy when I took them this last week or two.

Here my son is taking immense joy in the entertaining uses of the diaper box. This is something I find amazing, especially considering he’s entertained himself with it for the last 2 weeks. He enjoys just hanging out in it watching his cartoons, or placing a number of toys in it and proceeding to kick it around the house. Hours and hours of fun in a simple box. I wish I could have so much fun with something as simple…ah the days of childhood.

More entertainment from a box. This one isn’t good enough for just his train and accessories. He almost looks as if I’m going to scold him for sitting in the container. Purely adorable though.

In the lap of luxury. A rare occasion in our house to have a plate full of food and sit in the living room watching tv. We were all sick this week and we decided to let a few things slide. He was very well behaved that morning despite the way he was feeling.

Over the last couple of weeks it seems that the illnesses have just piled on in the family. I have been suffering from a nasty cold(which normally isn’t a big deal). However last week I had to get wet at work in 40 degree weather, which I don’t think has helped my illness at all. My wife and I just went to the doctor yesterday and I found out not only do I have a cold but I have the flu, which caused me to get an ear infection and strep throat. Now I’m out of work for at least a week(which is very hard to deal with). I have felt so helpless the last week, my faith is about the only thing that has kept me going.My wife hasn’t felt very good the last few weeks either. For the last 8 years or so she has dealt with chronic pain. All the doctors, family, even friends have just told her to “suck it up” or “just deal with it”. Over the last few weeks her chronic pain has escalated to the point where she hasn’t been able to function at all. She’s spent at least 3 days in bed miserable. Most of the time she is in a fog. Finally she couldn’t take it anymore and we decided that we’d go get a full lab done to find out what is wrong. What makes it harder though is she is 15 weeks pregnant and is severely limited by what medications she can take to manage her pain.

This has been doubly stressful for me, being sick and weak and trying to take care of our toddler. I feel so helpless a lot of the time about my wife’s chronic pain. The only thing I know that I can do is to be there by her side through whatever happens, and to fervently pray for her. I have been praying several times a day for guidance or peace in our time of adversity. I know God will guide us through this but waiting is so hard.

Over the last year, as my priorities and lifestyle have changed, I’ve begun to compile a list of qualities that I have striven for, and continue to strive for in myself as a Christian father and husband. This list is by no means complete, nor does it encompass all of the traits or qualities we should have as Christians. These are qualities that God has required or expects of us through His Word. The Bible has been and continues to be my primary inspiration, and reference in my walk with Christ and my journey as a father.

• The love of God above all things. (Deuteronomy 6:5 – Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Mark 12:30 – Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’) The love and worship of God is the most important trait of any Christian. We cannot be in communion with God until we give him the priority that He deserves in our lives. His will and the communication of His will to us is also hinged upon this important quality.
• The love of others. (Mark 12:31 – The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”) The bible tells us that only second to loving God is the love of our neighbor, or loving all others. This is the perfect example that Christ set before us. He showed love in everything He did, and in all of the things He said. He also went a step further and told us to love our enemies. (Matthew 5:43-45 – “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Luke 6:27-36 – “But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ’sinners’ love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ’sinners’ do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ’sinners’ lend to ’sinners,’ expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.)
• Bearing the Fruit of the Spirit. This is more of a sub-category of traits falling under the list of qualities given by Paul in (Galatians 5:22-23 – But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.)
• Responsibility. A mature Christian husband and father takes responsibility for his own actions and the actions of his immediate family. We see the opposite of this in Genesis 3, in verses 11-13 we see Adam blaming Eve for giving him the forbidden fruit, and then Eve blames the serpent for deceiving her. Neither of them takes responsibility for their actions. This is the opposite of how God wants us to be. (Genesis 3:11-13 – And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”) Our first step towards responsibility as Christians is our acknowledgment of our sinful nature and our need for a savior.
• The desire to train his children in the “admonition of the Lord”. (Deuteronomy 6:6-7 – These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Proverbs 22:6 – Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. Ephesians 6:4(NKJV) – And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.) Our children are not our own, they are simply on loan to us from God. He wants us to train them, and instruct them in His word. He wants us to show them His love through our own actions. We are to guide them as a light guides a traveler on a dark night.
• Self-control, and self-restraint. (1 Timothy 3:2 – Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,) This particular passage is targeted mainly towards church leaders, deacons and pastors, however these are traits that every Christian man should aspire to whether he is in church leadership or not. This passage tells us that we as Christian men are to be temperate or self-restrained, and self-controlled. We are expected to keep our cool, and to keep a level head. The book of Proverbs tells us that a wise man turns away anger, and keeps himself under control.(Proverbs 29:8 – Mockers stir up a city, but wise men turn away anger. Proverbs 29:11 – A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.) It also tells us not to be friends with or even associate with one who is easily angered. (Proverbs 22:24 – Do not make friends with a hot-tempered man, do not associate with one easily angered,) This is one of my struggling points, as I’m sure it is with many Christian men. Having been raised outside of any Christian influence, I learned the ways of the world. Which are fast becoming fraught with anger, hatred and violence. Now that I am walking in the light, I have to relearn all that I’ve known in dealing with my anger and frustration. I struggle with this on a daily basis. There is a great passage that I have learned to help me deal with my anger, it has also helped me to remove the swear/curse words from my vocabulary, which I used all too often before I was saved. (Psalm 19:14 – May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.)
• Not an alcoholic. (1 timothy 3:3 – not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 1 timothy 3:8 – Deacons, likewise, are to be men worthy of respect, sincere, not indulging in much wine, and not pursuing dishonest gain.) Once again we see two more verses aimed at deacons and pastors from 1 timothy and again I say that these are admirable qualities that all Christian men should aspire to. I have learned from first hand experience and from family/genetics that alcohol is a detriment to society as a whole and is a major cause of many of society’s problems today. If there is ever any doubt as to why we should not drink alcohol(at least to indulgence) we should look at the following verse (Proverbs 23:29-35 – Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? Those who linger over wine, who go to sample bowls of mixed wine. Do not gaze at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly! In the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper. Your eyes will see strange sights and your mind imagine confusing things. You will be like one sleeping on the high seas, lying on top of the rigging. “They hit me,” you will say, “but I’m not hurt! They beat me, but I don’t feel it! When will I wake up so I can find another drink?”) I personally have decided that I don’t want or need alcohol or its influence in my household. We as a family do not drink any alcoholic beverages and hope this will set the standard for our children to follow in their adult lives as well.
• A spiritual leader. Starting with Adam in the garden of Eden, God gave Adam specific commands in leadership as well as a job and responsibility before He formed Eve from Adam’s rib. (Genesis 2:15 – The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.) This is an indication that God has destined the Christian man to be the spiritual leader of his family. Now this does not mean the woman has any less value or worth. In fact women are equally valuable in God’s sight, there is a clear distinction between the roles. The woman being the helper and man being the leader. (Genesis 2:20b – … But for Adam no suitable helper was found.) One way of looking at this is the chain of command in a military unit. The leader is not worth more than his subordinate. However he has the added responsibility and accountability given to him by a higher power. This is the way that God has willed it in His word and I think this is the way we should model it in our families if we are to honor His word, and His will. (Genesis 2:16-17 – And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”) This command to Adam comes before he created Eve. In it is an expectation that Adam will take God’s message to his wife and his future children. It is our God given responsibility as men to guide our families in the way in which God wants us to go. This means ensuring that everyone spends time in God’s Word, spends time with God alone. We are also responsible for their spiritual education or lack of it as well. A growing problem I see among the church is the expectation that the public schools will give our children the well rounded education that they need. This is a horrible fallacy in which we cannot afford to sacrifice our children to. I think it is painfully clear by the statistics of public education that these institutions are grossly inadequate in what they do. At the same time they are indoctrinating our children into Secular Humanism at an astounding pace. (The Humanist Curriculum, Patriots to Socialism) However despite my bias against public schools, every parent should do solid research about who is educating their children, and what are they teaching them.
• Not Prideful. Pride is one of the biggest enemies of mankind and of God. Pride is what caused the fall of Satan. (Isaiah 14:12-14 – How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”, Ezekiel 28:12-18 – “Son of man, take up a lament concerning the king of Tyre and say to him: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: ” ‘You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz and emerald, chrysolite, onyx and jasper, sapphire, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared. You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings. By your many sins and dishonest trade you have desecrated your sanctuaries. So I made a fire come out from you, and it consumed you, and I reduced you to ashes on the ground in the sight of all who were watching.) When we take selfish pride in anything, we are opening ourselves to this trap. This is the same trap that Adam and Eve fell for. Self-less pride on the other hand can be a good thing. I am and always will be very proud of my wife and children, not because of anything that I have done, but because of the great blessing they are to me from God. Now this self-less pride could easily become a selfish pride due to the nature of the human heart, so we must always be on our guard against this trap.

I’m sure there are more that I could add to this list, however I cannot think of anymore currently. However if you think of a quality that you think should be on this list by all means leave a comment with your thoughts. If you do however please leave at least one biblical passage to support your thoughts.

Although it is only Tuesday my week is already half over. My week began on Saturday this weekend, and already I have logged 36 hours of work since then. Today will be my only day off and I will have to do two “24 hour turnarounds”, meaning I work a 12 hour shift on nights, and turnaround to work on the day shift less than 24 hours later, then turnaround again back to nights in another 24 hours. This is only the second worst part of my week. The really crummy part of my week comes tomorrow (my day shift) when I have to help clean a distillation column(beer column) at my workplace.

This is a wet nasty job(worthy of Dirty Jobs, w/ Mike Rowe). This means that all day tomorrow I will be soaking wet, and the high temperature for tomorrow is looking to be about 40 degrees if we are lucky.

Afterwards I get to return to work again Thursday, and Friday night for the remainder of my work week.  My grand total hours worked will be around 68+ hours for this week.

What a long week…sigh…I am looking forward to a calm relaxing 3 day weekend this coming Saturday, to spend with my wife and son.

Just when I thought we were heading back to normal health wise for the family, another bug strikes! Our son has been struggling all winter with several illnesses; bronchiolitis being the worst of them. He was just starting to get his appetite back again and getting back to normal, and that’s when this nasty cold bug strikes, and it struck all of us. For me it was just the nagging itchy throat, cough, achy head, stuffed up, lightheaded bug that just won’t go away. I think my wife side-stepped the worst of it, either that or she is hiding it well.

My son however has been feeling horrible. Waking several times a night with high fever, cough, and just general crankiness. Such is life with a toddler.

I anxiously pray and await the return of good health for the family. As we await the answer to our prayers we turn to the usual barrage of medicines.

One of the most profound discoveries I have made in my journey as a Christian man and father is the amazing grace that comes when I submit to God. I think that this is also one of the most difficult things to do, at least from my experience. I was raised to be independent, to get what I want out of life I would have to get it myself. This makes it especially difficult to subdue my own will and allow God to bring about His own will in my life. Another facet that makes this extremely difficult is the uncertainty principle behind this. Most of the time I don’t know what God’s will is for me in my life, and not knowing what that is makes it difficult to submit to His will.

However when I am able to put my own selfish desires, my own will aside and let God remain in control, I have found that amazing things happen.

One of the first hurdles I have had to overcome is the realization that no matter how hard I try or what I do, I am NOT in control of my life. One of the worst things that we learn in the secular world is that we can control our lives(or at least we think we can). About a month ago our pastor did a sermon, and for some reason I cannot remember what the sermon was about, or what all was said; however one thing he said stuck in my mind to this day. Paraphrasing what he said: “We don’t have any control over how we are born, we don’t have control over how we are going to die, and we really don’t have control over anything in between. Without this realization we are just grasping at straws all of our lives.” When you think about it, any other viewpoint on life in general is just denial of the obvious. On any given day I could leave my house and be killed instantly in a car accident, or I may die in my own home. I have absolutely no control over any of those circumstances. There is one person who does…God.

Now I know this is easier said than done, as I am speaking from experience. I struggle with this every single day. I do know that the more often I submit to His will the easier it gets each successive time.

I’ll give an of one of my experiences in submission:

Before I worked for the company I’m at now (AGP), I worked for a pretty decent plastics manufacturing company (PW Eagle, now JM Eagle). I had made a mistake at work and my supervisor essentially told me that I may as well look for a new job. Being the sole provider for my family this placed a great stress on me as I was now out of work and needing to find another job immediately or my family would suffer. Naturally I immediately began a frantic job search, and took a couple temp jobs to suffice until I found a permanent job. After a few days of frantic job searching and no real concrete possibilities, I got down on my knees. At that point I had nothing else to lose as I was already at my wits end, and needed help fast. I asked God for His help, and finally submitted to whatever His will would bring. The next day I had two interviews scheduled and went to each one with a small prayer, “God, if it is Your will for me to get this job, then I will praise you, and if it’s not Your will then I will praise you, because only you know the plans you have for my life.” Remembering Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

The stress that this took off of me is indescribable. I felt like there was hope again. God answered my prayers that day, when I received a call about 10 minutes after coming home from my second interview of the day, with a job offer. The job was the one we were praying for. I thought the blessing was just that, however I found out about a month later that my old job had layed-off 14 people from the plant that I had worked at, and many of my former co-workers were now out of work and looking for new jobs. Out of all of this I only missed 2 or 3 days worth of pay and ended up working for a better company, with better benefits, pay, and job security. God has a plan for each and every one of us, and His plan is 100 times better than any plan we could come up with on our own.