2012 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 5,200 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 9 years to get that many views.
I love this little kid…
I have had the cool opportunity to spend the last few days and the next few days with my grandson Domenic… We are having so much fun… It’s pretty amazing, when I am playing with him, reading to him or playing in the snow with him, NOTHING ELSE matters!!!
I thought when Starla and I began having kids, we couldn’t love anyone more than our kids.. We “ran out” of love for anyone else… Then our kids began having kids… and something AMAZING happened, God built an apartment on my heart… I now had room for more love… I am such a blessed man… An amazing wife, 3 great sons, 1 wonderful daughter, a son-in-law who proudly serves in the military, a beautiful daughter-in-law who is carrying our 3rd grandchild & 1 other handsome grandson…
My Point:Family is important! Love them, forgive them,spend as much time as you can with them!!!
MORE HIM, less me
brent
Amazed as I watch…
Spending time with in-laws, out-laws, or friends and family during this holiday time has been AMAZING… We have spent a lot of time together laughing, playing games, eating, bowling, (which I haven’t done in a while) and so much more!!! I hope you are enjoying time with people you love!!
Yesterday we had the opportunity to go see my son-in-law, daughter & two grandsons… We had lunch together and allowed the grand kids to “break-the-ice” again… We only get to see them about every other month. (They live about 4hrs away) my son-in-law & daughter allowed us to bring our oldest grandson home with us for about a week…
As I sit here writing this blog I am also watching him interact with different things, books, doors, cups, toys & stuff we have around our house… You see, we don’t “baby-proof” our home, we just teach our grandson what he can and can’t do…
Since the last time we saw him, just over a month, he is now actually making sense.. He’s putting words together, doing things that he couldn’t do before!! As i sit here and watch him, I am AMAZED!!!
It got me thinking, when I haven’t seen people in a while, do they notice me growing up? Do they see me doing things I didn’t do before? Do they see me learning more than before?
My Point:
I hope, like my grandson, I am growing and changing daily!!
MORE HIM, less me
brent
Tis the season…
As we continue in this holiday season, we look forward to enjoying time with family and friends, eating lots of goodies, opening a few gifts, buying/making something special for someone special, and celebrating the closing of one year and the beginning of another… PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE take the time to STOP during this crazy, busy time and remember that God sent His son to bring Peace, Hope, Love, & Joy…
My family, friends and I are going to have A LOT of fun, eat LOTS of food, and enjoy each others company, but we WILL stop Christmas Day and enjoy a time of Communion together…Why? Because I NEVER want to forget…
My Point:
During this time, don’t forget, in everything you do and say, lift up the name of Jesus… When we do, He (Jesus) says, HE will drawn all people to Himself!!!
MORE HIM, less me
brent
Choices…
As I sit here deciding whether or not to leave my “Thursday Morning Office (Starbucks)” I looked outside only to see a DOWNPOUR… It’s raining like crazy!!! On December 20th… Who would’ve guessed that… One after another, people are coming into my “office” complaining about the weather, complaining about getting there leather coats wet, not having the right shoes on, hating this weather, talking about the pending storm that’s coming, etc… The longer I sat there the more I began to agree with them. YEAH, it is bad out there, I AM going to get my leather coat wet, I DON’T have the right shoes on, I have to TRAVEL tomorrow in this stuff!!! BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!!!!
Hold on just a minute, what am I acting this way? I have more blessings that I can count and I’m going to allow WEATHER to make me forget about ALL of those blessings?
My Point:
Really? God has blessed us with SOOOO many things, quit hanging around people that complain, YOU HAVE A CHOICE!!!
p.s. I’m gonna go out a play in the rain!!!
MORE HIM, less me
brent
Chris-myth Busters
I had the privilege of watching our kids ministry put on a presentation today called “Chris-myth Busters”it’s a story about a Michael, he’s a pretty big kid…adopted…and a bit of an annoying trivia buff. When Michael starts busting some myths about Christmas to Ethan’s friends, it causes quite a stir. Ethan, Lily and Abby begin to wonder:
they posed several thought provoking comments: Were there more or less than three Wise Men? Was Jesus really born on December 25th? And what about the angels…did they sing or not? What…no innkeeper?
It was neat to see the adults’ reactions to those questions the kids were asking…you could see eye brows raised, “question mark” type looks…
You see, Christmas has been infused with what “WE” think it was like, we have added our own thoughts and ideas about it… three wise men because there were three gifts, etc…
The truth is, we can very easily get caught up in the “festivity” of this season… The truth about why Jesus came is everywhere in Scripture.
My Point: let’s just read the story as it’s written, not adding anything, or taking anything away… We don’t have to understand everything, lets just take it to mean what it means… God loves us enough to send his Son to this earth to give us HOPE!!
MORE HIM, less me
brent
Everybody believes in Santa, Right?
I just got back from an event we do every year, it’s called “Breakfast with Santa”. We had about 160 people show up from our community… 80-90% were non-attenders of our church. Mrs. Claus greeted them as they entered the building as Santa was sitting in a chair taking pictures with the kids… As I stood there watching kids go sit on Santa’s lap and tell them what they want for Christmas, the look in the eyes of the kids was amazing!!! The REALLY believed that that was Santa, and that he was going to bring them what they had asked him for!!!! Think about that, they believed IN someone, AND believed that he was going to DO what he said he would do!!!
Are YOU someone that is worthy of believing in? I hope so…
Do you believe what God says?
Do you believe that He will do what He says he will do?
My Point: If we could believe like those kids, have faith like those kids, wouldn’t life look a little different?
MORE HIM, less me
brent
Friends & Family… or is it just family?
We live in a RIDICULOUSLY busy world… People don’t seem to TAKE the time to enjoy each others company… Don’t tell me you don’t have time cause you’re busy… EVERYONE is busy.. We MAKE time for what’s important in life…
If your employer called and said you have to work Christmas eve. in order to get a certain “project” completed, or you have to work on your kids birthday, or you name it… would you do that? What if your child was diagnosed with an illness, would you do everything in your power to be there for him/her? Of course you would, that’s important!!! why do we wait for life altering events to take place for us to spend time with friends and family?
When is the last time you got together with friends or family? Maybe you don’t have family in the area you live, do you have friends?
My Point:We have had people in our lives over the years that are not related by blood, but we consider them family… People that are important to us, people that, if they called us in the middle of the night and needed us, we would be there!! People that can come to our home and make themselves at home…
If you don’t have people in your life like that, I’m Sorry… We would love to be your friend…
One Baby, Five Words…
It’s funny how the smallest things can make the largest impact… We are in the time of year that we give thanks for things and celebrate time with family & friends… We’re going to give gifts that are bought, handmade or maybe you received before and didn’t like/couldn’t use… Some of those gifts, whether big or small, expensive or inexpensive, mean the world to us… Everyone has different gifts that they have treasured since they were kids, or since they’ve been married, graduated college, or some other major life event…
There is one gift that we all have been given that has redefined five words: hope, peace, love, joy & messiah… Those five words have been forever redefined since the birth of Jesus… You know, that seemingly insignificant born in a barn birth… That “born to a virgin” birth, that born in the middle of nowhere birth…
My Point:
This Christmas, I have the privilege of spending time with some great people… I will both give and receive gifts, but I will NEVER receive a gift that compares with the one that happened a VERY long time ago… Jesus!!! He’s a free gift available to all, but not all will accept this gift… will you?
MORE HIM, less me
brent
Opera, Seriously?…
Wile in Uruguay, we went into a store on our “day off”, you know, a store that sells a lot of trinkets to tourists… The labeled “handmade” nativity set that has the “made in China” sticker on the bottom… Anyways, the Missionary we were with knew the owner of the store. You see, the missionary and his wife have developed a relationship with the store owner, who is NOT a follower of Christ, and takes all the American teams to this store… While we were looking around, he asked the store owner if he could take us downstairs… The store owner obliged.. As we made our way down the stairs to what we thought was the basement, we saw more stuff we could buy, not that much different that the stuff on the main floor… As we were beginning to look around, the missionary told us to follow him, he said, “we’re not downstairs yet”… As he moved a clothing rack full of touristy t-shirts, he opened a rather small door and told us to be carful as we entered… As I ducked and walked through the narrow door, the steps were slippery… Very carefully I took one step after another noticing the steps were made of marble…WHAT? YES, Marble!!! as we got to the bottom of the stairs, the room opened up and we were able to see what we found out to be an 18th Century Opera House… We were standing in the balcony area over looking the main stage and the lower seating area… I had to bellow out ” Oh Solo Meowe”… It echoed throughout the hall.. VERY GOOD acoustics… What a gem we had found!!!
My Point: If we never look beyond the first floor, we may be missing the real gems that may be just under the surface… It’s hard in our busy society to take time to look, but I need to quit judging a book or store, by its cover!!!
MORE HIM, less me
brent
A blog about my random thoughts... 