So Jett started first grade this year. In less than a month, they’ve got him reading. It just cracks me up to listen to my son read me a book.
I took a little video of him reading a book to his brothers the other night. Somehow the reading turned into an all out brawl but I guess that’s life with three boys.
[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/1724097]
So….go ahead….brag on your kids in the comment section…or dogs…if you have cats you really don’t have anything to brag about!
Yesterday I told you about my choice to cheat my family. Today I want to talk about why.
First, I think it’s important to realize we have this choice. Everyday YOU get to choose what you’re cheating. I can’t blame this on anyone else. I can’t blame this on my job or my boss. This is MY choice.
I’m choosing to cheat my family for a variety of reasons…
I cheat because I get lazy. In this particular case I allowed a bunch of meetings to pile up and did not take the time to realize how this was going to impact my family life. These meetings could have easily been spread out, but instead I approved each and every one of them rather than finding an alternative to cheating my family.
I cheat because it’s easy. While I have plenty of people saying they need my time or they need my presence here or there, my family is quietly sitting at home waiting for me to choose to engage with them. A lot of time we cheat our family simply because we mistakenly think we can.
I cheat because I forget. I forget that home is the one place where I’m irreplaceable. I realized a long time ago that I’m totally replaceable as the pastor of Cross Point Church. If something happened to me tomorrow they could and would go out and find a new senior pastor.
The reality is I’m the only husband my wife has. I’m the only father my kids have. When I’m not there nobody else is doing what God has called me to do in the context of my family. So when I cheat my family they pay a much greater price than if I were to cheat whatever church or organization I might be serving.
I cheat because I rather be loved than love. This is a BIG one and I need to spend some more personal time processing this. Most of us get quite few accolades for the hard work we put in at the office. When I work 15 hour day I often feel a great sense of accomplishment. I love the high risk decisions, the writing under pressure, and the raw excitement of ministry. In fact, being loved for doing ministry can be exhilarating and addictive. It feeds my ego. This is why so many people end up with an inflated ego and a deflated family. Doesn’t sound like a very good trade off to me.
So do you know why you’re cheating whomever or whatever your cheating?
Today I’m making a huge confession. I’m embarrassed by this because I, of all people, know better. I’m cheating on my wife. I’m also cheating my boys. And the worst thing is… it’s not the first time.
I was looking at my calendar yesterday to discover that I’m away from home the next 7 out of 9 nights! Combine that with early morning meetings and at best I’ll just see them in passing over the next week. And guess what? I have nobody to blame. I chose it… I chose to cheat my family.
I read a great book a couple of years ago by Andy Stanley entitled “Choosing To Cheat”. It was life-changing for me. The premise of the book is that everyone chooses to cheat something. We simply don’t have enough time to accomplish all the things our culture tells us we need to accomplish. You’ve got a career, health, friends, family, church, a relationship with God, a house to maintain, a checkbook to balance and the list goes on and on.
You can’t do it all. So you have to choose to cheat. Everyday I’m cheating someone or something.
This week…I’m cheating my family. Why would I do that? Well I’m certainly not proud of the answer, but I’ll tell you tomorrow.
Today I want to know this. Who or what? I don’t have to ask you if you’re cheating. I already know you’re cheating. Let’s talk about who or what you’re cheating these days?
without wax,
Pete
Yesterday we launched a new series at Cross Point Nashville entitled “Baggage”. This is a series many of you on this blog contributed to when you left a comment ON THIS POST.
In this series we’re exploring the emotional baggage many of us carry around which keeps us from developing and maintaining healthy relationships.
This is so important because John 17:20-23 tells us, the way we relate to each other is to be reflective of God himself. This means healthy relationships are not only important for our own quality of life, but it’s important because our relationships are reflective of God himself.
So why do so many of us have….
In a word baggage. We have baggage we’ve picked up over the years and we carry it from relationship to relationship. The baggage you picked up in childhood, you carried into your marriage. The baggage you picked up in your marriage, you carried with you into parenting.
Your baggage might be trust issues, anger issues, forgiveness issues, jealousy issues, self-worth issues. What I do know is we all have baggage. This baggage impacts our relationships and these broken and stalled relationships reflect on the God of the universe.
So would you be willing to take a few minutes today to honestly reflect on your baggage? Can you see how it’s impacting the relationships around you?
So, Saturday was a sad day in the Wilson household. Tucker, our 12 year old dog passed-away. To be honest, I was really surprised at how emotional it was for me. I really wasn’t going to write about it here for fear that many people would think, “get over it dude, it’s just a dog,” but then I decided it’s my blog and if want talk about my dog, I’ll talk about my dog.
There are 2 reasons I think Saturday was so tough:
1) My kids. Jett has grown up with Tucker. Jett named his first stuffed animal, which is a dog, “Tucky”. For all three of our boys the word “dog” was one of their first five words spoken. On Saturday when I was sure he wasn’t going to make it I took Jett out into the backyard to say goodbye. Jett just kept crying over and over, “I don’t want Tucker to die. Please don’t leave Tucker.” As a father that is gut wrenching.
Jett and Gage (who always illegally fed Tucker under the table) also went with me later in the afternoon to bury Tucker behind the house in the field (Truth be told, Jett wanted to bury him in the front yard. He said it would be easier that way to dig him up when we move).
2) Memories. I bought Tucker 6 months before Brandi and I got married. At the time I was living in a trailer out in the woods and was extremely lonely. He was great company during those two years we lived out in the middle of nowhere in the trailer.
The picture below of Tucker in the pool was taken the first day I baptized someone. I was nervous about baptizing Penny and Jerry, so I practiced on Brandi and Tucker all afternoon.
Tucker was with us through 1 trailer, 3 houses, 1 apartment, 2 cities, 3 churches, 2 church plants, and 3 kids. That’s a lot of transition. Before Jett, Gage, and Brewer… there was just Tucker. Those were the good ole’ days for him. I remember when I moved to Nashville and Brandi was still living in Kentucky (during the last few months of her first pregnancy) it was Tucker that slept with Brandi every night to keep her company.
I know, I know, he was just a dog, but he was also part of our family.
So will you tell me about your favorite pet? Have you ever had to deal with the loss of a family pet?
Well having a “boys’ night” certainly means something different these days than it used to. However, they’re still a lot of fun!!
You won’t want to miss what Gage does at 1:58 into the video. Totally wrong!
[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/1555404]
Do you think I’m a bad parent?
So, if you were following me on twitter yesterday you heard the exciting news about Jett losing his first tooth. I caught a little video of it for your viewing pleasure.
[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/1529814]
I don’t have many good memories of losing my teeth as a kid. I had cavities, braces, and lots of other issues. I think I totaled around 8 cavities. I’m not sure, but I would say eight is above average.
How many cavities have you had? This is an all-skate so everyone MUST answer. Come on, you know you want to join this completely useless post.
