Category Archive

Our Family just got back from Yellowstone and over at my wife’s blog she’s started a series on Big Family Vacation Wisdom.

Go check it out!

Oh, I’m sorry, did you want to see Foster? Well, here you go!

It’s called Simple Diligence, which happens to be what my wife’s about, as well.

It’s for tired moms.

I’d considered it a special favor from you to me if you go read it. Also comment while you’re there.

Update: Turns out, it’s not for tired moms as much as it is for “just moms who want encouragement and/or ideas.”

Our Fighter Verse Song ministry is going to be on national radio Monday and Tuesday – On Family Life Today.

Click here to see what time it’s on a station near you:

In the Twin Cities, it’s on KTIS AM 900 at 9:05 AM and KKMS AM 980 at 7:30 AM

At one point, you can hear my whole family singing. Go forth and listen!

Go read the article I just posted over at the Fighter Verse Song Blog.

And check out the newest song. It’s a capella!

I have a question for all of you. Please skip down to ‘—‘ if you don’t want to read the introductory background.

So I recall the 600 yard dash in my later elementary school days.

And I recall the nearly two thirds mile jog around the basement of my high school.

And the 1.5 mile jog around the track in my one credit PE class at Bethel.

I hated all of these experiences. I ended up nearly doubled over, lungs burning and I could never do these things without stopping and walking much of the way.

When we were taught (in that same college class) that jogging was an aerobic exercise (i.e. a human body should be able to do it for long stretches without rest) I thought, “Well, that’s plainly ridiculous.”

And then, post graduation, there was the hike up Mount Josephine on the north shore, with my extended family and my older uncle and elementary school cousin, and I couldn’t keep up with them.

So I decided to beat this thing and I started jogging – to see how far I could go. And I suffered for days, but each day I was able to go a little bit further without stopping.  And I made it aerobic for me. But it was tough work.

So imagine my surprise Saturday, when all of my six older kids (age 7-13)* jogged a mile with me without stopping**, with no training and with apparently no pain.

I would not have thought this possible, given that they are my offspring (well, most of them).

—- So here’s my question: Are most kids like this? Is it just me that couldn’t run mid –size distances? Can most kids run a mile? Also, what sports expect kids to be able to jog this kind of distances, and at what age?  If any of you are coaches or gym teachers, I also really like to know what a typical elementary school kid can jog.

Thanks for your answers.

* I’m a little disappointed with two-year-old Foster. He can’t jog more than a couple hundred feet without getting distracted by something.

** Yeah, I know. Some of you are thinking right now, “Only a mile? My kid did that in soccer camp. When he was 4.”

From my eight-year-old Adelyn.
What do you think? Is she talented?
(Click to make bigger)

She described this woman as 'Normal'

She described this lady as 'A little too fancy'

From all of us to all of you: Sorry!

see more Funny Graphs

I’ve mentioned before that I have been reading LOTR out loud to our kids these last few months. We started July 16, 2009 and last night – 19 months later – we finished.

<I’d put the last line here, but I don’t want to ruin it for those who haven’t read it yet.>

Knowing that we had only six pages left of the book I wanted to do something special. So we drove over to Panera and the kids listened as they enjoyed Smoothies and Cinnamon rolls. An enjoyable ending.

Other comments:

– Some might be thinking – Aren’t your kids a little young for this book? And sir, my answer: Yes, it’s quite possible that my seven year old didn’t catch all of the nuances in the narative.  Honestly I was torn on this issue and still am. But my oldest was eleven! I couldn’t wait any longer.

– I hadn’t remembered this, but Carl mentioned last night that we began the book on vacation at Cascade Lodge. Very fitting.

– It’s such a perfect ending for a book, except for one thing that I’ll note: It is too short.

– If you interested in a pretty good chapter by chapter review of the book, you can find it here.

– I’ll be going through the very important After-The-End-Of-The-Book-Events timeline with them sometime soon. We did note in the appendix that one of the major characters ended up having 14 kids. Yikes.

– I predict we’ll read it again, outloud, say in ten years.

– Big question: Who should we let watch the movie?

– Heard from the back of the van as we drove home: Thanks for bringing us, Daddy!

– Also heard: “What are we going to read next?”

My children’s last living great-grandparent was their mom’s mom’s mom. She died on December 14^th, 2010. She was an extraordinary woman. Let me tell you about her.

But first a little background. The extended family that I grew up with was a family that (1) showed love to each other, (2) showed love for God and (3) had a love for music. Even before Debbie and I were married, I could see this was true for her extended family as well. It was something that helped draw me to Debbie. It was, and still is, a thing of beauty. And this trinity of love stems greatly from the soft, cheerful, uncomplaining spirit shown daily in Debbie’s grandmother.

I have never heard anyone say a negative word about her.

EARLY MEMORIES

I recall the first time I visited their home that first summer that I dated Debbie. Debbie and I had decided that we would not kiss until right before our wedding. And so it turned out that the first kiss I received from anyone in her family was the gentle kiss on the cheek from her grandmother as we were leaving.

PRAYER

As each of our children were born, Debbie’s grandmother knitted them blankets. They are still treasured. One of them was treasured to the point of near disintegration. But infinitely more valuable to us was the fact that she prayed every day (sometimes twice) for all of us, including all of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I look forward to finding out one day all the ways our lives were blessed by these prayers.

BLESSINGS
But here’s a few we know about right now . . .

Of Debbie’s grandmother’s 19 great-grandchildren, six of them were adopted from four different continents. All of her children and grandchildren are actively serving in their evangelical churches. As far as I know, none of them have experience even a short period of backsliding or rebellion. All of the marriages are strong. Is this not remarkable?

I rejoice daily at the blessing I personally receive for having been married into this family. And I can see behind all of these strong traits the whispered prayers of Connie Eagan.

THE TESTIMONY
Debbie’s grandmother was almost 94. At her funeral, they read her testimony; it was full of the Gospel and explained how she came to know Jesus as her Savior. It was wonderful to hear yet another reassurance that she was saved and she is now enjoying new life with her Heavenly Father. I am so glad my kids got to hear it.

The last sentence from her testimony was “and I have never regretted this decision.”

Amen.

Last Month my wife Debbie wrote about why December third was an important day in our relationship history. In it she left the reader with a bit of a cliff hanger and promised more. More than one person has asked when we’d finish the story.

Today, she returns to the story, but this section is actually a prequel to the first part of the story.

===

I had broken up with Scott two years before this, not because I didn’t like him, but because I felt no peace about marrying him. I actually WANTED to marry Scott; I loved him. My only explanation was that God didn’t want me to, and was therefore giving me absolutely no peace! I agonized over this almost every minute of every day, especially as Thanksgiving of that year (1991) was getting closer; Scott was going to be with my whole family for Thanksgiving Day, and I didn’t want him or my family thinking we were getting married if we were not!

So I actually told Scott ahead of time that I was going to break up with him because I didn’t think God wanted me to marry him–but that he could still come for Thanksgiving. He came! It was bittersweet, as I so enjoyed being with Scott, but if things went as I had planned, it would be the last time I would ever see him. (Being “just friends” was clearly out of the question.) We broke up that evening, and my heart was broken too, but I finally had the peace that had so eluded me for more than a year.

It just so happened that the next summer, one of my best friends was marrying a good friend of Scott’s; in fact, we were both in the wedding, which was three hours away. Now we didn’t ride together, but we did end up making an emergency trip to the tuxedo shop together the morning of the wedding to remedy a mistake–we were both more free than family members. It was fun.

That Fall, I started seminary to get a degree in Christian Education. And I had to drive right past Scott’s apartment (or pretty close) every day! So every day I would imagine that just maybe he would be out jogging while I was on my way to Bethel, and I would for sure skip my first class in order to go out for breakfast! Just as friends, of course. It never happened, though.

I would walk down the halls at Bethel Seminary, making up little scenarios about the future in my mind. I thought for sure we would live out the sad story of always loving each other, but never getting married. I even imagined that on my death bed, I would ask someone to tell Scott that I still loved him. (Sigh.)

The summer of 1993 brought ANOTHER wedding; the sister of last summer’s bride and another one of Scott’s good friends. (Oh, brother!) We were both in the wedding again! But this time, since Scott was doing a good job of not asking to marry me, I agreed to ride the three hours with him. We even went out for breakfast on the way! I remember thinking, “Well, this is pretty fun, even if we can’t get married.” I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend, and gazed at Scott in his tux as much as possible.

That Fall, Scott would “just happen” to be in the lounge every Tuesday when I was done at Bethel, so we would go to the cafeteria for supper. I started to look forward to Tuesdays, and always came with things I wanted to talk about. I even told him about the guy I was kind of dating, and Scott seemed okay with it.

One day, a friend of Scott’s walked by while we were eating, and said, “Hey Scott! Did you hear about my play? You two should come!” Scott looked a bit tongue-tied, so I said, “Sure! When?” So we went that Friday. It wasn’t a date, though, since we were just friends.

So, since we were having supper together every Tuesday, it’s not hard to see how we ended up planning to go to the Festival of Christmas together. Again, it was as friends, since I had actually invited my quasi-boyfriend to my Minnesota Chorale concert the next week. But he didn’t enjoy music as much as Scott, and didn’t care about the Festival of Christmas nearly as much as Scott. After all, Scott and I had been IN it four years each.

And I was REALLY looking forward it. I couldn’t imagine anything more perfect than attending my favorite concert with my favorite person . . .

The only thing dampening my excitement was my preaching class; I had been assigned to give my sermon that Friday. Ugh!

==

. . . which pretty much explains where she was emotionally when the first story began – but what happened after that day?