RAISING MEN

There has been a lot of talk lately about the raising of men, as opposed to raising boys. Lots of books being written like "Raising a Modern Day Knight" by Robert Lewis and one I really want to read "The Broken American Male" by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.

It is not that I mind my boys staying kids as long as they can, because I don't. But when they do grow up I want them to be mentally and physically strong Christ followers. I also want them to be confident in what they do. But where do you draw the line between trusting in the Lord and trusting in themselves?

I heard Rabbi Boteach speak on the 700 club not to long ago and I agree with many things he says about our male youth. He said that many young males are being psychologically castrated when they are young and grow up not knowing how to be a man.

I think God placed us on this earth to be a warrior, and it is up to all of us fathers and mothers to make sure that we keep that spirit alive. I want my sons to be able to stand in the face of adversity and know that their faith in God and determination will lead them through. (All the while being a gentlemen, because you don't have to be a chauvinistic pig to be a warrior.)

Can I have an AMEN!

Do you feel that this generation of young males are learning to be men?

Is it still important for men to be in that alpha role?

Are your boys on their way to being warriors?

FRIDAY UNSCRIPTED

SO I FOLLOWED THE RULES OF BLOGGING AND TOOK THE MANDATORY 3 DAY BREAK THAT COMES AFTER YOUR 150TH POST.

What... you mean you didn't read that rule. Well you better hope the post police don't come after you.

Had to be back for Friday to post these 2 pictures. One should make you laugh and the other smile. So enjoy

REDNECK FIRE ALARM

Have to post this one of Shelly's it was awesome.
(Click on this one because it looks better big)

RAINY DAY FUN

THE FAIR

For my 150th post I thought I would write about an Oklahoman's favorite time of the year. The State Fair is a season in itself to most Oklahomans. They shortened it a few years ago from a massive 16 days down to a mere 11 and we were not happy about it. So most people make up for that by cramming 16 days worth of fun into about 6 hours. I just like to sit back and watch.

Roll mental camera...

Growing up if you wanted to ride the Midway rides you had to buy tickets and shell out 4 on this ride and 5 on that one. But in this new era of over indulgence the tickets just don't cut it anymore so the wrist band was born.

For a mere $25, one person can ride all the rides you want for the entire day. What a bargain (I'm kidding). But Connor my oldest sure enjoyed it. He jumped on every ride he could and tried his hardest to be the cool rider by raising his hands and cheering the whole time. But on a few of the rides he bit off more than he could chew.

The one ride that went upside down and spun around while dropping 30 feet turned him a bit pale. I could see the look of terror on his face as he blurred past me. But by the end of the terror rides he had usually shaken the fear and was back to full enjoyment. Well at least he always said how much he loved the ride after it was over.

I wear a wristband like that but it cost a whole lot more than $25. Jesus dying on that cross has given me a wristband to wear for eternity. I don't have to worry about times when I bite off more than I can chew. Sure those times can be terrifying, but I know that He will bring me out of it and into full joy. Just glad mine lasts more than a day.

Do you have your wristband on?

What feeling does it give you?

Do you have a ride that gave you the look of terror?

FRIDAY UNSCRIPTED

To finish off this week I thought i would throw at you some mildly crude humor. If you don't think this is funny there is something seriously wrong with you. Enjoy and have a great weekend.

Make sure to come back on Monday as Roll turns 150.

A man kills a deer and takes it home to cook for dinner.

Both he and his wife decide that they won't tell the kids what kind of meat it is, but will give them a clue and let them guess.

The kids were eager to know what the meat was on their plates, so they begged their dad for the clue.

Well, he said, 'It's what mommy calls me sometimes'.

The little girl screams to her brother,

"DON'T EAT IT, IT'S BUTTHOLE."

SELLING DRINKS 4 of 4

Last but not least is the final installment of the series. I am thinking OSU needs put this in their football hall of fame.

Roll mental camera...

The entire day leading up to one particular night game was really hot. So we headed to the stadium in our hot weather selling gear, shorts and a t-shirt. Little did we know a massive cold front was on its way down for a visit.

We thought it odd that people were showing up in short sleeves but carrying coats and blankets. But we just thought they were using them for cushions. We sold a ton of drinks that first half in the heat but like clockwork the cold front pushed in at half time and the temperature drop 40 degrees in 20 minutes.

Needless to say the cold drinks dried up. Man what I would have given to be a hot chocolate vendor that day.

Planning and forethought was not in my bag of tricks back then. The world was now at this moment and nowhere else. I had no time or wanting to look down the road. Sure I paid the price freezing my butt off under the stadium, but that was part of the fun. You just never knew what tomorrow, or the second half, would bring.

Don't worry Shelly this isn't a mid-life crisis post but sometimes you just need to forget about tomorrow and live in the now. Easier said than done.

Any takers?

SELLING DRINKS 3 of 4

Just 1 more day of selling drinks after this one, come on you can handle it

Roll mental camera...

To make the best money selling drinks you had to know how to cheat the system. You see you were given a huge stack of cups at the beginning of the game which you filled yourself and sold. At the end of the game the soda boss would come and count how many cups you had left. If there were 30 cups missing then you owed him $30, a dollar for every missing cup.

I have always been a quick study and quickly figured out how to minimize my payout. During the 4th quarter of the game I stopped selling drinks and focused on collecting cups that people had discarded. I could usually collect 15 or 20 cups by the time the boss man came around. But first I had to take them to the restroom and wash them out and dry them and return them to the stack of unused cups.

I am truly sorry to any OSU football attendees in 1990 that may have happened to buy a drink served in a used cup. Sure that cup may have been used for a spit cup or an ash tray but it was rinsed thoroughly. What you didn't know didn't hurt you (I hope). But hey I got to pocket alot more money thanks to your unknowing sacrifice.

I tried to apply that same reasoning to many thing in life, cutting corners or cheating the system. But it only succeeded in selling drinks. In any other real life experience where I have cut corners it has come back to bite me. So I learned pretty early on that paying your dues and doing it right the first time is always the best policy. My entire foundation in ethics based on used pastic cups, who would have thought.

Was there an instance in your life where you remember learning what ethics really means?

How about the time you learned to cheat the system?

Did it come back to bite you?

SELLING DRINKS 2 OF 4

back to selling drinks at the Oklahoma State football game many many moons ago, and I mean many.

Roll mental camera...

I order to make good money selling things to people in a stadium you have to scream stupid sayings like a New York carnie. I am not sure why, but it is carnie law so they say. No, I have no idea who "they" are.

So that explains why I never made good money. I couldn't bring myself to be creative in selling drinks. I heard guys yelling all kinds of stuff like, "Get your ice cold thirst quenching Coke here," or "Frosty cold Coke just waiting to please here."

Yes, you had to end every sales pitch with "here" just so they would know it was you talking and not the other guy with the cotton candy.

So my sales were directly relational to the weather. HOT lots of money, COLD not so much.

I am definitely guilty of not screaming "Get your one way ticket to heaven here," or "Got your good news and salvation here." If it is a hot crowd full of Christians I have no issues talking it up. But put me in a cold room of non believers and I get quiet in a hurry. I guess I think they will look at me like a New York carnie if I do pipe up.

Do you talk more openly about your faith to Christians than non?

Does the Jesus freak label scare you?

Does the guy saying "here" ever help you locate him?

SELLING DRINKS 1 OF 4

Shelly and I went to the Oklahoma State football game this weekend and it reminded of a few stories of when I was in school there.

Roll mental camera...

Some of my buddies and I used to work the OSU games selling drinks. You would think it was to get into the game for free. But sadly this was pre Boone Pickens so if you had a student ID back then you got in for free. So we did it for the money.

We didn't make much, but it was enough to buy what was important to us back then, pizza and beer. My liver thanks me every day that I outgrew that phase of my life quickly.

I wonder all the time how different my life would be today if I would have been living on the straight and narrow path back then. It is scary to think that I might not have met my wife. Would I have liked to have lived a much cleaner life back then? Sure I would have, but looking at what I have now I wouldn't change it. I have no regrets (well at least of the things I can actually remember doing)

How different is your life now compared to your early twenties?

Were you a "straight and narrow" or a "wild and crazy"?

If you would have taken the opposite path back then do you think you could be in the same place you are now?

FRIDAY UNSCRIPTED

I really hope this clip didn't originate in Oklahoma but I wouldn't be surprised if it did. There really is no video just audio, so make sure your volume is up. Enjoy

TEENAGERS

Shelly and I helped at Big Switch tonight because they were expecting and I think they had around 600 teenagers show up. All the angst and raging hormones was insane. But at least I didn't have to break up any fights.

I hope Connor stays 9 for the rest of his life. I don't think I am ready for a teenager. I am sure his mom would appreciate it to.

Ah to dream

THE SCARE

Natalie's post yesterday reminded me of this so figured I would keep the scare theme going.

Roll mental camera...

I was sound asleep in my outstandingly comfortable memory foam bed when our security alarm decided to test the system. Which results in every alarm in our house going off all at once.

Do you remember in Ghostbusters when Sigourney Weaver AKA "The Gatekeeper" levitates 4 feet above her covers? Yea that was me but throw in an invisible catapult. I went from a dead sleep to nearly setting a record for long jump and the 100 yard dash all at once. I looked like Shaggy and Scooby Doo up in the air legs just churning.

In what felt like a blink of and eye I had sprinted through our entire house, in nothing but my undies, to make sure we weren't on fire or being invaded. I had such an adrenaline rush I couldn't go back to sleep for hours. Talk about a wake up call.

Three of our life group families have had that wake up call in the last week and have made the decision to start new groups. They want to bring the feeling we have for each other to a whole new group of people who may not have the chance otherwise. While it is hard for us to see them go we understand why they are. They will still be part of our family even if we don't get to see them every week.

I guess my put up or shut up post actually worked :-)

When was your last wake up call?

THE SHACK

Our life group is going to read and discuss the book "The Shack". Shelly has already read it so now it is my turn. I have talked to many people who have read it and almost all of them have said the same thing, "you will laugh and then cry and then laugh and then cry."

I am not sure I am ready for a read like that. So I thought I would get your opinion on it if you have read it.

What did you think and is the quote above accurate?

Will it make a man cry too?

Now remember I haven't it so don't be a spoiler.

Reflection

This is a picture that Shelly took of Connor. You can see her reflection as well as the trees and grass behind her in his eye. That in itself is pretty cool but seeing the big picture that it came from amazed me. Can you make it out in the big picture?



Connor looks so happy doesn't he?

I know strange post, sorry. Just thought it was neat

PUT UP OR SHUT UP

I am guest blogging over at Bigisthenewsmall today so please head over there and lay the comments on thick.

Funny stuff will return next week

CALL FOR HELP

Shelly has been spearheading the development of a mission trip. She decided to make good on a quote that she read many years ago from Gandhi, "Be the change you wish to see in the world."

You see our family decided to sponsor a family through The Box Project, which is a charity started by Martin Luther King Jr's wife to help support families that live well below the poverty line in the United States. Our family was a grandmother and her children and grandchildren numbering 9 living in a single wide trailer in disrepair.

But with the very little she has, Grace (the grandmother) has used what we send her to help others that have less than she does. She feeds kids wandering the streets and freely gives away anything she has for anyone in need.

Over the past few years we have learned some shocking things about the reservation they live on in South Dakota. It is called the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and here are a few things we found out about a place that is near 11,000 square miles and is home to over 40,000 people.

97% live below poverty line
84% unemployment rate
Per capita income of less than $4000 a year
Life expectancy for women is 52 and only 48 for men
Infant mortality is 300% higher than national average
Teenage suicide rate is 150% higher than national average
33% lack basic water, sewage and electricity
Many families live in homes that have been considered condemned
Many homes are missing windows and doors where temps reach -50 degrees

So we are going to travel there on September 30th to see what we can do to help. But we don't want to go empty handed.

We are collecting some things that we can take with us in a trailer and will be giving them to around 90 people that Grace lives near and are in dire need of help.
Here is what we are looking for.

Coats of all sizes in kids and adults
Blankets, the warmer the better
Clear plastic sheeting to cover exposed windows and doors
Tarps or other material that can be used to patch or cover large holes in roofs
Plywood sheets that can be used for flooring
Anything else that can help keep people warm and dry this winter

Please send a message out to all your friends and family and let me know if you want to help in any way.

I will be posting again on this in a few weeks. Thanks for any and all of your help and showing God's love to people you don't know and please pray for us we are going to need it.

Below are a few websites and a video that will explain the plight of these people.

friendsofpineridgereservation.org

re-member.org

Drives me crazy

Yesterday's post about the "wild hair" ended up causing me distress. Why you might ask? Well maybe you wouldn't but you are going to get the response anyway.

Hope made a comment asking what "wild hair" meant and when I went to respond I was going to link the Ask.com or Wikipedia answer. But all that did was prove that I am an idiot.

You see, it isn't "wild hair" it is "wild hare". I am in my late 30s and never knew it was "hare". Feel free to look it up if you want but I can't bring myself to link my own ignorance.

That is what distressed me. Ignorance like that makes me feel like a bumbkin. (Hope you will have to Google that one for yourself)

I can't even stand it if I think I am misspelling a word or using it incorrectly unless I am doing it on purpose. I would rather go through the trouble of looking it up in the dictionary or changing the word all together before I use it incorrectly. I can't even bring myself to text using any of the text lingo. I have to spell everything out.

I know... but it is my curse and I live with it.

So next time I get a "wild hare" to use a cliche' I will make sure and do the background check first.

When is the last time your own ignorance jumped up and bit you?

THE CLEANER

The wild hair grew crazy and unruly this weekend. I could not control it any longer.

Roll mental camera...

I usually try to avoid tackling large projects on holiday weekends, or any other week end for that matter. But our garage had become the catch all and was in desperate need of a clean out. The wild hair had been growing for some time but there was no controlling it this weekend.

Pulling nearly everything out of the garage, I actually used the leaf blower to clean out all the funk and then used the hose and broom to finish the job.

I pulled Shelly (under protest) into my project to help me reorganize because I have a tendancy to just throw everything away and I knew that would land me in hot water. Three hours and a bucket of sweat later the garage looked stellar. I can honestly say it looked better than the day we moved in. Of course the day we moved in the garage was stuffed full of all kinds of crud.

Don't you love when a wild hair takes over and you just have to clean/fix/build something? It is always inspiring to me when I see the final result. I just wish I could harness that wild hair because lazy comes back way to easy.

When was the last time the wild hair bug bit you?

What did you destroy or create?