Someone asked me the other day why I don’t like to travel. They said, “With your adventurous spirit I thought you would love hopping around from city to city.”
There was probably a day I enjoyed traveling more than I do now.
Because now, no matter how beautiful the city, how exciting the conference, how warm the weather, I hate not being at home to hear stories like this.
Gage had his first school dance the other day. It was actually a 50′s theme day at Kindergarten which featured a “sock hop.” I’m not exactly sure but I think that’s the same thing as a dance. Kind of reminds me of a time in high school when a local church hosted a “foot fellowship.” Those were the good ole days.
Here’s a pic of Gage as we sent him off to school and a pic one of the moms sent us from the dance. Oh, how I would loved to have been a fly on the wall.
I actually think if I could pick any decade to have been a teenager it would have been the 50′s. I don’t know what it is but I’ve always been fascinated by the 50′s. I read the other day that in 1950 fewer than 1 in 10 homes in America had a T.V. That’s hard to believe!
How about you. If you could be a teenager in any decade what decade would it be?
I’ve done a lot of weddings. In fact, I’ve done 211 weddings if my memory serves me correctly. With a host of phenomenal campus pastors here at Cross Point I don’t do near as many as I used to.
However, this weekend I had the honor of performing the wedding of my former assistant, Wes Howard, and his beautiful bride, Amy.
The highlight for me though was getting the opportunity to do it with my middle son, Gage, who was the ring bearer. He wore his tux all three days we had the rental (including to church yesterday).
However, he wasn’t quite as impressed with the opportunity as I was. Here he is about 5 minutes into the ceremony. I guess it wasn’t exciting enough to stay standing.
10 minutes into it we got really comfortable. They did give him a pillow to carry down the aisle.
And at 15 minutes we hit a whole new level of boredom. He’s stopped pretending to even listen.
Do you have a favorite wedding memory?
There are few things cuter than listening to my kids try to say certain words. I couldn’t help but capture Gage trying to say squash after he had just woofed down his mother’s squash casserole.
And yes, sometimes I snort when I laugh. 
I always learn such incredible spiritual lessons from my kids. My 6 year-old, Gage, spent the afternoon yesterday with his Nonni planting tomato plants. I heard he prayed for each plant after putting it in the ground.
So I asked him, “Gage, why did you pray for the tomato plants?” He said, “Well, Dad, that’s how they grow.”
My son sees what I sometimes forget. Nothing happens apart from the power of God.
At the end of day 2 of flood relief I’m tired. Our team is tired. The constant adrenaline of being on the front lines of ministry can simply drain you. The more tired I get the more I start to question….
Have we taken on too much?
Do we have a clue what we’re doing?
How are we going to keep up this pace?
Can we really make a difference with all this devastation?
We’re now being told this is a one thousand year flood. This is quite possibly the biggest tragedy Cross Point, or Nashville for that matter, will face in our lifetime. God has positioned us and called us to be a bright light in the midst of the darkness.
As I drifted to sleep last night I was simply praying, “God empower us. God equips us. God fill us with your unfathomable grace, love and hope.”
Why?
Because this is how we grow. Nothing happens apart from the power of God.
How can we pray for you today?
Most people have a hard time with their youngest child growing up, but not me. I have the hardest time with Gage, our middle (but not average) son, getting older. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s that he’s still more dependent on his parents than his other two brothers. Maybe it has to do with his sweet spirited nature. I don’t know, I just know it’s hard for me to believe he’s turning six today.
Even though we celebrated his birthday Friday night at Chuck E. Cheese (somehow I survived) it was still important to him that I be at home with him when he woke up on his actual birthday. I had some previous commitments with Plan B that I really needed to keep but the good folks at Thomas Nelson, The A Group and Exponential Conference bent over backwards to work it out where I could be at home this morning. Thank you Emily, Shannon and Jan for making that happen.
Here’s a few pics from Friday night. And as a bonus here’s the video of Gage being born. I’ve posted it before but it never gets old. I could watch this video a thousand times! That kid grabbed my finger and my heart all within the first minute he was born and he’s never let go.
Love you Gage! Happy 6th birthday.
The other night we were doing our FX family devotion tool after dinner. FX is the family worship service we do at Cross Point which is designed to provide environments for parents and kids to discover the Word of God together as a family.
This month’s virtue is honesty and after our family Bible study Gage, our 5 year old, announced that he had a song he’d written he would like to perform about the importance of honesty.
I present to you the world premier of “Don’t Lie!”
Don’t Lie from Pete Wilson on Vimeo.
