2011 Fair Elementary Division First Place Winner

She pulled us aside and said, " I want you to know, you have been given a gift. You will always remember hearing this. Never sing anything that you do not feel in your heart. You can not give anything to the people, if you do not know it yourself."

Dick and I had been telling her, you will be there to give a gift to the people in the crowd. You want to give them the best gift you can. That is why you need to practice so hard and pick a song with perfect message.

She took our advice, listened to our suggestions and gave a passionate gift to the people at the county fair.

New Dog?

Our 4-H dog trainer informed me that she thought we needed a different dog. She was afraid that Lyla was going to hurt someone. She had seen the way Lyla responded to Grace, when Lyla did not want to obey anymore. I gulped and asked her what I should do next.

She said, " I will trade you dogs. I have a litter of puppies that will be ready in a few weeks and I have some adult dogs that might work."

After waiting a long week and a half, we finally made the switch. We now have a 3 year old boxer that we are trying out for a few weeks. She is the perfect dog. She has fallen in love with Grace and Grace feels the same way. We porbably will keep her. We just have to find out the details invloved. The trainer wants/has to breed her one more time, because of an agreement with another breeder. I need to know what money, time, and responsiblity will be required of us.

The dog's name is Rainy and her father is a world famous dog. He has more titles than I can name his puppies are sought after because of their temperment. We are blessed for the opportunity to have her.

The Eight Pals by Levi

The eight parts of speech were waling along when they saw a man taking some money from an old lady.

"Look," said verb.

"Where," asked adverb.

"Over," said preposition.

"...there," finished pronoun.

"Oh, no," exclaimed interjection.

"Vile, " said adjective.

"But," said conjunction.

"...handsome," said adjective.

"Man," said noun.

"Nice," said adjective.

"Huh," asked interjection.

"Man," repeated noun.

"Nice," repeated adjective.

"Oh," said interjection.

Then they all realized the old lady was giving the man the money.

Christmas Joy

These cousins love to be together. This Christmas, they have giggled, shopped, performed, tried each other's clothes on, sang, and here they are dancing together.

The Joy of Giving 2010

I had the chance to pick presents for 30+ kids. A member of our church shops for deals all year and donates items for prizes and presents. So this year at our Christmas dinner, we were able to give each kid a present. Since I am the children's pastor, I was in charge of deciding who got what. It was neat to realize that since I have a relationship with each kid, I knew what they would like. Each conversation we have had, made it easier and a joy to pick out their present. The joy came from knowing each child. The joy came from the relationship.

I am thanking God for the joy of giving, the joy of relationships this Christmas!

So should I just quit now?

There is is scene in the movie Akeela and the Bee, after her first spelling bee. She has just blown the competition away and it is quite obvious that she has natural talent. An adult is talking to her about the one word that she missed and she blurts out,"So should I just quit now?"

That question rings in my mind quite often and I have to chuckle at myself. Like last week at our first 4H club meeting. Ruff and Ready is our club name and you can guess it is a dog training club. We met the dog trainer for the first time. She is a boxer and boston terrier specialist, has 17 of them at home, and shows them all over the country. She immediately started playing with Lyla and when it was her turn to speak, she looked at Grace and me and said, "This one is going to be a handful. " Then she gave me a wide eyed stare. The one that says more than the words spoken.

I gulped, wondering, "So should we just quit now?"

Grace apparently didn't read into the trainers words like I did. On the way home, she said, "Lyla did really well, mom. I am excited.

So, we move forward. Lyla isn't the only one learning.

A New Perspective

I was talking to our worship leader about the songs we sing. He said he was tired of a certain song and I chimed in that I was tired of many of the songs we sing. He said he wasn't really tired of them, he just wanted to have more variety. We proceeded to start the service and I stood in my normal position on the left side of the stage, behind the keyboard.


I played and sang along and noticed the young lady visiting for the first time. I only knew her name and that she had just gotten out of jail. She obviously didn't know the words, but it didn't seem to matter. She was listening intently, singing some, bowing her head some, crying some, raising her hands some, and nodding in agreement.

It was the most beautiful thing I have seen in a long time. When you are in the ministry, this is one of those moments you live for. You give everything you have over and over again for moments like these.

Those songs that I said I was tired of, now had new meaning. I had a new perspective.