So I’ve been on a message planning trip for the past 24 hours with a few pastor buddies. Few things inspire me like an incredible view… so here’s what I’ve been looking at from the patio…

Not bad huh? If I can’t write a good message series here then it’s just not going to happen.

So here’s the “Thursday Is For Thinking” question:

What inspires you?

Music?
Beach?
Art?
Running Water?
Exercise?

We want to know. Go!

Hey Church planters! You’re going to want to get this book.

Darrin Patrick serves as lead pastor of The Journey in Saint Louis, Missouri, which he founded in 2002. Love this church and what God is doing through them.

You can order the book HERE

We’ve talked about this before here at Without Wax but I’m bringing it back because I’m still struggling with this one.  Gage came home yesterday after school claiming that after 7 days of kindergarten he can now read.

Is it just me or does it seem parents these days put more pressure on kids than ever before?

We push them to walk by age 1.

We encourage them to read by 5.

We desire they excel at a sport by age 9.

We calculate grade point averages and start talking about scholarships by 6th grade.

We want them to not only master the English language but learn a few others before they graduate.

Years ago I heard a message by Andy Stanley where he talked about how these days we’re tempted to raise kids who are experience rich but relationally poor. In other words they’ve attended every camp, played every sport, mastered most of the arts, played three instruments, but they were so busy they never had the opportunity to just sit around the kitchen table.

I’m worried that sometimes in our effort to give our kids what we didn’t have we rob them of one of the most important things we can give them…ourselves.

I read an interesting article some time ago entitled “The Growing Backlash Against Overparenting.” They said…

Since the onset of the Great Recession, according to a CBS News poll, a third of parents have cut their kids’ extracurricular activities. They downsized, downshifted and simplified because they had to — and often found, much to their surprise, that they liked it. When a TIME poll last spring asked how the recession had affected people’s relationships with their kids, nearly four times as many people said relationships had gotten better as said they’d gotten worse.

How ironic that we might actually become better parents creating a richer family with less money and fewer opportunities.

So what are your thoughts on “overparenting”?

I’m so proud of my wife. She’s part of a group of pastors’ wives who have started an amazing ministry called Leading and Loving It. If you’re a woman in ministry or even more specifically married to someone in ministry you need to check out this incredible resource.

This fall they’ll introduce their first virtual conference for pastors’ wives and women in ministry. I could not be more excited for them.

It will be a great opportunity to be encouraged and challenged from the comfort of your own couch with your computer. No traveling. No childcare. No cost.

Starting September 7th at 12pm EST/9am PST OR 9pm EST/ 6pmPST:

6 Weeks … 18 Speakers …

Share JustONE thing about life and leadership

They will talk:

Relationships … Marriage … Family … Time & Balance … Growth … and Passion

With some of the most incredible ladies I know:

Lisa Jernigan and Patty Wyatt…………Donna Politz

Lisa Young………………………………Jenni Clayville

Cindy Beall………………………………Holly Furtick

Tiffany Cooper…………………………..Heather Whittaker

Kay Warren………………………………Lisa Hughes

Kerri Weems……………………………..Sherry Surratt

Natalie Witcher………………………….Amy Groeschel

Jessica Cornelius……………………….Brandi Wilson

DeLynn Rizzo……………………………Lori Wilhite

It’s truly a group of amazing speakers, who donated not only their wisdom but also their time & effort, so that the conference can be free to any lady out there who wants to attend.

And definitely stay tuned for more details from Leading and Loving It about a retreat they’ll be hosting in Nashville next May.

Anne Jackson’s second book, Permission to Speak Freely – Essays and Art on Fear, Confession and Grace releases today. Anne decided to share seven essays of which one of them is below. To read the rest of the essays, check out the links at the end.

Anne is also giving away a copy of her book to two commenters, chosenat random, on Friday. So check out the question at the end and leave a comment to be entered to win.

You can pick up a copy of the book here.

Essay #4 – Finding Love (In All the Wrong Places) by Anne Jackson

Most teenagers believe they’re more mature than they really are. Iknow I did. So when this youth pastor in his mid-twenties asked me over to see a movie, I didn’t think twice about it. In fact, I was flattered that an older guy was interested in me, an all-grown-up sixteen-year-old girl.

And he was a youth pastor. Maybe he could help me rediscover my faith.There was a part of me that missed it.

Now, something I never had growing up was a curfew. My parents trustedme enough not to worry about where I was or who I was with. The twounspoken rules I had to live by were “Don’t get put in Juvie” and“Don’t get pregnant.” As long as they never got a call from the police or the hospital, I was pretty much free to do whatever I wanted.

A basic “to a friend’s house to watch a movie” appeased my parents as I walked out the door. Taking my mom’s car to his apartment, I was more worried about driving in the Dallas traffic than I was about watching a movie with him.

I knocked on the door to his apartment, and he let me in. From the beginning, even as naïve as I was, it was obvious what was on his mind. The lights were dimmed, and blankets and pillows were laid out on the floor to make the movie watching more . . . comfortable.

The details of that night aren’t relevant, but it’s safe to say I don’t remember what movie we watched. The one thing I do remember is that as scary as this new experience was, a huge void in my heart had been filled, and for the first time in several months I felt loved and accepted and worthy.

And I felt beautiful.

The youth pastor and I dated for a couple of months, and then he quietly slipped away. I was upset but decided to move on. The wounds on my heart caused by the pain from uprooting had started to open up again. I felt lonely, and I needed to find someone else to make the pain go away.

I went on a few dates with a couple of guys, but my heart still longed for this youth pastor. I’d given him so much of myself; how could it not be?

After the holidays, the youth pastor called me, and we started dating again. He had moved to another part of Dallas and had a roommate now, so we’d meet in a park close to his new house. A few more months went by, and I had fallen back in love, head over heels.

Just before I graduated high school while we were out one afternoon, he told me he was getting married. He had proposed to someone he knew from his past and said he could never see me again.

The youth pastor and this other woman had been dating via a long-distance relationship the entire time he and I had been seeing each other. She didn’t know about me. And from the way I couldn’t catch my breath and started seeing double, I obviously didn’t know about her either.

My heart broke. I was so naive and lonely I actually had believed he loved me.

And he was a pastor. How could he have lied to me?

Oh, right, the logical side of my brain told me. It’s because he is a pastor.

This experience became another piece of evidence that people who say they’re close to God can’t be trusted. And as far as I was concerned, God couldn’t be trusted either.

There was a sharp pain in my chest where my heart once lived. It hurt so badly my mind would scream at my heart and tell it to stop.

“Will you ever stop hurting? I can’t take it anymore.”

I had to do something to medicate this pain. I had to escape it as if life itself depended on it.

And so I ran.

Again.

Have you ever placed your hope in a pastor or spiritual leader to help you find God or faith? What
happened?

——

For the first essay, visit Don Miller’s blog here and follow the
chain…

For the next essay, visit the XXXChurch.com blog here.

I believe one of the greatest lies the evil one would like for us to buy into is that life is “all about us.” Nothing renders us more useless in this life than that lie. To make us believe that it’s all about our…

self-centered,
ego-driven,
materialistic needs.

When you make life all about yourself it doesn’t take long to get bored. And maybe it’s just me but it looks like a lot of Christians are bored these days.

There are 145 million kids waiting to be adopted and in our boredom we want to debate whether President Obama is Christian or not.

There are 26,000 kids that die everyday due to starvation and preventable diseases but you guys want to send me emails debating whether it was right or not for me to appear in a “secular” Taylor Swift video.

There were 200 women recently gang raped near the Congo and some of you are mad because you couldn’t find a parking spot at church yesterday.

There are 800,000 people this year who will be victim to the 7 billion dollar human trafficking industry and we want to use our time going after a church or pastor that does it differently than we think they should.

There is a battle raging inside of you each and every day. Fight back. Don’t twist the Gospel of Jesus Christ and try to make it about your self-serving life.

Stepping off my soapbox!

Pete

So it’s all out now. Back in July I got a call at home from Taylor asking if we would let the boys come up and shoot her new video with her. I thought about it for about half a second and of course we cleared our schedule so they could have this once in a lifetime opportunity.

While we were up there they made a last second call on the set and asked Brandi and I if we would jump in and play Taylor’s parents in the flashback scene to when she was a little girl. We agreed. Who knew we would be seen fighting in over 160 countries.

Oh, how I enjoy this crazy ride called “life” God’s put us on.

Just in case you missed it….

So, I’ve been trying to keep the purpose of our little summer trip to Maine a secret but it’s all about to bust wide open.

I’ve dropped a few hints along the way but recently a few photos have leaked on the internet which allow me to introduce some big news.

Some of you saw this photo of Brewer last week….

Tonight  all five of the Wilson family members will makes their world premier in Taylor Swift’s video for her new single “Mine”.

I’ve got some awesome pictures and stories to share once the non disclosure expires, but for now all I can say is watch tonight.

Taylor Swift’s new video “Mine” will debut tonight and reach more than 160 countries around the world. CMT, MTV, VH1 and MTV International will team up to present the global premiere.

There’s a special “Behind-the-Scenes” show on the making of the video that will run on CMT at 7:00 pm CT.  In the special Taylor will give some personal insight to how the video came to life.

Cant’ wait to tell you guys all about it. I guess it’s an understatement to say that the “boys” are a bit excited about their 5 seconds (quite literally) of fame! I’m still praying that what Brandi and I are doing in the video doesn’t get me fired. In the video below you’ll see a few still pics of Jett and then our entire family at her house for the premier earlier this week.

This week our middle son, Gage, started Kindergarten. I know it’s such a cliche phrase but it’s just so hard to believe “how fast time flies by.” Seems just like yesterday I was in the hospital room watching this guy enter the world.

So last week I started a new series that we’re running on Thursdays entitled “Thursday Is For Thinking.”  It’s my attempt to lure you lurkers into joining the community and getting you guys to know each other a little bit. Here’s this week’s question:

Which class in high school or college impacted you the most? Why?

I’m going with the typing class I had as a freshman in high school. Still using what I learned in that class everyday!

Your turn…

I just finished reading “After  You Believe” by N.T. Wright.

While the book is a bit heady for the casual, non theologian type, I still suggest you try it. Take it slowly and I think it will stretch some of you. In fact, I know it will.

What’s the last book you read?

Would you suggest it to us? Why or why not?