Taking a Break

Most of the time, Sunday evenings after church are a time to relax, but tonight we are packing to go to Seaside, Oregon. Tomorrow begins a 3 day pastoral retreat. It is a time of worship, preaching, teaching, and fellowship. The great part about this is, as pastors we are responsible for these things in our churches weekly, but at the retreat, we get to relax. Just listen to the preaching, worship without thinking about it, and answer altar calls without worrying about what someone might think. That is the hardest thing for me, personally. If I go up front when an altar call is being offered at our church, I am always concerned about what people are thinking: oh no, is pastor cheating? are they having trouble with rebellious kids? is the marriage in trouble? are they thinking about resigning from our church? is he having trouble with porn? is she gossiping and slandering?
I know I am suppose to not care what others think, just focus on God, but somehow I am always hesitant to answer an altar call, especially for "getting closer to God". Isn't a pastor's family supposed to already be close to God?

Retreats are a balm to a troubled spirit and a haven for someone who always feels in the limelight. I love being pastors and wouldn't trade it for anything. I just like to be part of the congregation sometimes. Also, it is really nice to catch up with others in ministry and pray for each other in real life, not just on Facebook or such.

The kids are staying home and a family has invited them out for dinner on the night that they will be alone. I am so thankful for such thoughtful and generous members of our church family.
I probably won't write much over the next few days but when I come home, I will have lots to share.

Lazy Day

Today the kids are out of school, so we slept in and have had basically just a lazy day. The kids attend school more than an hour's drive away so if they want to be involved in sports or other activities, it is a huge investment on the entire family. Dd is the stats person for wrestling this year. Yesterday the team had a meet in a town about 5 hours from the school. By the time they got home it was after midnight. A blessing named Oma lives next door to the school and last year contacted us to offer her extra bedrooms as a place for my kids to stay when they have late night activities. It has been so nice. She feeds them dinner on Monday nights and they stay for youth group, then back to Oma's for homework and bedtime. Because of where we live, my kids would not be able to attend youth group or afterschool activities without her offer. We sometimes send stuff for dinners and of course christmas and birthday presents. We had never met her until she offered the kids a place to stay, but said she remembered living in our village and having to send her kids away for school. It is also really nice because my kids don't have any living great-grandmas and she fills that spot perfectly. She also volunteers at the school and most of the youth group kids end up at her house on Mondays just to hang out. What a legacy. An elderly lady who has such a comforting and welcoming home and atmosphere that all the teens want to hang out at her house.
All this to say, dd stayed over there and the rest of us have spent the day just hanging out, dad and son doing a huge puzzle and  I am scrapbooking and playing on the computer. We are all in the same room listening to Klove. We don't get very many of these days so we are taking full advantage of today.
Tomorrow, we are supposed to escort dd to a sports recognition. This means we will drive almost an hour so we can walk her to the podium to receive an award, then drive home. These are the times when I wonder why God said "Let Me worry about the school situation" when we were praying about moving here.
I guess I will just continue to trust Him.

Welcome To My Blog

Hi. This is my first blog attempt and I hope you are patient with me as I learn.
The name of my blog is Love Live Learn. It stands for Love always, Live forever, Learn today. To me, this means love God, others and yourself  (in that order), become a follower of Jesus and have eternal life (John 3:16), and learn something everyday. These things are important for living a fulfilling life. I want to learn and help others to learn. 
I am rapidly approaching my 40th birthday and there are some things I hope to accomplish before May. One of the items is to have a blog and learn to write in a more interesting manner.
It is funny how a movie can influence language or rather how colloquialism begins. I haven't seen The Bucket List, but I have noticed how so many people now refer to stuff they want to do as "something on my bucket list". My ds is only 14 but has recently marked an item off his list. For several years he has mentioned Crème Brule as being his favorite dessert. Only one problem with that: he has never even tasted it. On New Year's Eve, we were invited over to a friend's home to play games, eat desserts and celebrate the coming year. One of the desserts was, you guessed it, Crème Brule. As he took a bite, he said "I am marking something off my bucket list". He hasn't seen the movie either. Oh, yes, it is still his favorite dessert and after tasting it, it might be one of my new favorites also.
Okay, enough for right now.