New Year and Forgetfulness

2009
As the weeks of 2009 wound down, both Rebecca and I were sick with mono, the swine flu, and various other ailments. It was generally unpleasant. The last few months of the year, I felt spiritually like I was living life without a rudder and just floating aimlessly through the river (or toilet bowl) of life. I also worried that I was not doing my part to be the spiritual leader of our household. To this end, I prayed a lot about living a more purposeful life. Yes, I know that may sound like I just got done reading a Rick Warren book (even though I have never read any of his books but I am sure they are good).

2010
To that end, 2010 was a rollercoaster for us. It seemed like life was just clicking and everything, no matter how stressful, made sense and we could say YESSSS this is clearly of God and of His plan. Then June came. The bottom came spinning out very quickly (not unlike the toilet bowl or whirlpool analogy). All of a sudden, there was chaos. Everywhere. I don’t want to get into everything that happened, just that it generally stunk and everything seemed to go wrong at the exact same time. This lead to a general soul searching of “has our life become too busy?” Yes, we were doing church/Christian activities all the time, but did we lose sight of “the why” in the process. Also, during this time we were visiting doctors frequently to figure out how to get my wife to ovulate. Needless to say through all of this there was lots of crying involved and we could not wait until September because then we knew that summer would be over and we could enter into a new season of life.

September came and boy did it bring a new season of life. Again the focus changed. My priority became just to take care of my wife and try to make her as comfortable as possible. See we were able to find out at 5 weeks and 5 days (if you can believe it) that we were having multiples. Leading up to the day we found out, Rebecca had not been feeling well and was in a lot of pain. I recommended that she see a doctor. (We knew she was pregnant just not with how many). We went to the doctor and our lives changed.

2011
Now 2011 is here. 2010 served its purpose and is now over. This year in the weeks leading up to the 2011, I prayed that we wouldn’t forget God. For some reason the story of the Israelites spoke to me a lot in 2010. The story of them leaving the servitude of Egypt and heading to the Promised Land. You see, they ended up wandering in the desert for 40 years. Now, I realize that they did not have cars or airplanes or even boats as we do now, but even walking with cattle and what not, it still would not take 40 years to get to Israel. You see God punished the Israelites for a multitude of reasons sometimes because they were wicked but mostly because they forgot God was on their side. I don’t want my family to be like the Israelites. I want them to remember who God is and how God provides. Is it going to be pleasant along the way? Possibly, but God doesn’t promise a rose garden here on earth. In the last week, I was reading through Hebrews 11. Some people like to refer to this chapter as “the heroes” chapter. I like to think of it as the faith chapter. Many moons ago, I had this chapter memorized when I was in 4th or 5th grade. No longer do I, but I wish I did. You see this chapter goes into all of the people who did what God told them to because they had faith. They did not receive their promise during their lifetime. This is good for us to remember. Just because we do what God says doesn’t mean we will get the reward in this life. We will, if we believe in Jesus, receive our reward in heaven, but sometimes the promises will be passed down to future generations.

This is the legacy that I would like to give to my wife and children. I want them to have a strong faith to take them through the years to come.

--Posted by Sean

2009
As the weeks of 2009 wound down, both Rebecca and I were sick with mono, the swine flu, and various other ailments. It was generally unpleasant. The last few months of the year, I felt spiritually like I was living life without a rudder and just floating aimlessly through the river (or toilet bowl) of life. I also worried that I was not doing my part to be the spiritual leader of our household. To this end, I prayed a lot about living a more purposeful life. Yes, I know that may sound like I just got done reading a Rick Warren book (even though I have never read any of his books but I am sure they are good).

2010
To that end, 2010 was a rollercoaster for us. It seemed like life was just clicking and everything, no matter how stressful, made sense and we could say YESSSS this is clearly of God and of His plan. Then June came. The bottom came spinning out very quickly (not unlike the toilet bowl or whirlpool analogy). All of a sudden, there was chaos. Everywhere. I don’t want to get into everything that happened, just that it generally stunk and everything seemed to go wrong at the exact same time. This lead to a general soul searching of “has our life become too busy?” Yes, we were doing church/Christian activities all the time, but did we lose sight of “the why” in the process. Also, during this time we were visiting doctors frequently to figure out how to get my wife to ovulate. Needless to say through all of this there was lots of crying involved and we could not wait until September because then we knew that summer would be over and we could enter into a new season of life.

September came and boy did it bring a new season of life. Again the focus changed. My priority became just to take care of my wife and try to make her as comfortable as possible. See we were able to find out at 5 weeks and 5 days (if you can believe it) that we were having multiples. Leading up to the day we found out, Rebecca had not been feeling well and was in a lot of pain. I recommended that she see a doctor. (We knew she was pregnant just not with how many). We went to the doctor and our lives changed.

2011
Now 2011 is here. 2010 served its purpose and is now over. This year in the weeks leading up to the 2011, I prayed that we wouldn’t forget God. For some reason the story of the Israelites spoke to me a lot in 2010. The story of them leaving the servitude of Egypt and heading to the Promised Land. You see, they ended up wandering in the desert for 40 years. Now, I realize that they did not have cars or airplanes or even boats as we do now, but even walking with cattle and what not, it still would not take 40 years to get to Israel. You see God punished the Israelites for a multitude of reasons sometimes because they were wicked but mostly because they forgot God was on their side. I don’t want my family to be like the Israelites. I want them to remember who God is and how God provides. Is it going to be pleasant along the way? Possibly, but God doesn’t promise a rose garden here on earth. In the last week, I was reading through Hebrews 11. Some people like to refer to this chapter as “the heroes” chapter. I like to think of it as the faith chapter. Many moons ago, I had this chapter memorized when I was in 4th or 5th grade. No longer do I, but I wish I did. You see this chapter goes into all of the people who did what God told them to because they had faith. They did not receive their promise during their lifetime. This is good for us to remember. Just because we do what God says doesn’t mean we will get the reward in this life. We will, if we believe in Jesus, receive our reward in heaven, but sometimes the promises will be passed down to future generations.

This is the legacy that I would like to give to my wife and children. I want them to have a strong faith to take them through the years to come.

--Posted by Sean