Joyfully Overloaded

To my Laughter, Fourteen, in high school, and marching to the beat of your own drum, just as you always have. I love it.   As it is every year, it's cool to watch you grow. You have this amazing gift to s ee and meet the needs of others. So often though you are working quietly behind the scene, but this year you have taken on my direct leadership roles. You lead a group of Cub Scouts and their families during Spooktacular, which you enjoyed enough to decide to be a CIT at Camp Roosevelt this coming summer. And minutes before the Distinguished Citizens Award Dinner you volunteered to do the invocation when there was an unexpected need. You got up in front of a couple hundred people, something you have said you would never do. I love that you step into challenges and you don't let fear control you. (Except maybe when it comes to spiders. Ha!)  My prayer for you this year is that you would continue learn to wait quietly before the Lord as David says in Psalm 62 because He alone i...

 To My Laughter, This birthday is a big year as you enter your teenage years and prepare to enter high school. You are entering the last phase of childhood more and more we'll step back as parents, giving you space to both succeed and fail on your own. My goal is for you to learn from both. I hope that you use them to help become the man you want to be, the man God made you to be.  This year you will receive your Bible, the one you've begged for all year long. Your entire life we have worked hard to make sure there is always a group of men in your life that you can look to and follow after. As you enter your teen years we want you to know that you can reach, past us, for advice and direction. We want you to learn to find trustworthy people to lean on when life is hard or when things seem blurry. Inside this Bible you will find notes from men who have gone before you. You are loved now and always. For your Bible cover I chose Jerusalem, because you have always dreamed big and ...

Laughter,  My boy who has a gift of seeing straight into the heart of people, even strangers, I'm amazed by you. I know I've told you before but your super power is knowing exactly how to love people.  From the time you were shaky on your feet you would waddle into a room full of people and find the lap of the one who was hurting and needed your snuggles.  It's been fun to watch as you grow into this. This is your last year as a child, you are on the brink of being a teenager. I caution you to remember that this super power of yours is not something most of us can do. While you can quickly see to our hearts we can't see to yours in the same way. Tell us your pain, and sorrows. Tell us your joy. If you don't we might miss out on an opportunity to love you, to celebrate with you or to share your pain. I don't want you to ever feel like you have to carry your emotions alone, we want to do it with you as you do for us. The only problem is that we don't have your...

One of the things that drew Charlie and I together was how the other loved Jesus. One of my favorite things about Jesus is that he respects our freedom of choice. Humans can be well intentioned pushy, forceful people who run others over “in the name of Jesus” because we think that’s what “love” is. But it’s not. And Jesus, he won’t do that to you.  This belief that Jesus isn’t pushy and gives us freedom of choice has shaped our whole lives, including the way we raise our family. So in the Christian faith it’s a big deal to be baptized. It’s not a magic pill or miracle cure, it’s simply a public way of saying, “I trust Jesus and am willing to completely change the course of my life for him.”  We’ve never pushed our boys into anything spiritual. Yes, we talk about Jesus all the time because we’re so deeply committed to him, but we believe with every fiber of our being that Jesus is the living God and he wants a PERSONAL relationship with each of us. So pushing our kids into that...

It’s hard to believe a whole year has gone by.  It’s been such a mixed up year, hasn’t it? We’ve missed our friends and I’ve missed watching you learn Taekwondo.  But we’ve had some pretty sweet memories mixed into the year of Covid. 2020 began with you and I taking a little weekend retreat away.  A treat you gave me, after a year of saving and using your birthday money. You are a giver. Always willing to give.  When I asked you what you wanted for your birthday you told me money so you could buy your cousins the best Christmas gift even though in the moment you had no idea what exactly the best gift was. By now that’s the kind of answer I expected from you.  You see life differently than most, I think.  You find joy in seeing joy from other people. That’s not what most people do. You see a need and you do whatever you can to fill it.  In February I got to sit next to you at your very first concert with Jeremy Camp and Casting Crowns. In between sets y...