Highlights from my old blog

Hi everyone! I finally got rid of my "Diary" blog because I barely keep up with this one and I was stressing about keeping up with two. Here are some of the pictures highlights that I had posted in the other blog:

2 Boston trips in the cold

December: Christmas, my birthday and New Year's Eve

Pastor Jared and Rachel's visit

Visiting Caitlin for her birthday

Children's Easter Play

Question for you more experienced bloggers:

How do you delete an entire blog? I have two blogs and I would rather just update this one instead of trying to update two. Does anyone know how I can get rid of my other one?

Masks

Most of us have masks. Masks that we wear to hide who we truly are. Maybe you wear a happy mask or a peaceful mask, but really you are sad and fearful on the inside. Or maybe you have many masks - one for this group of people, a different one for that group of people. We're afraid that people won't accept us if they find out who we really are.

I wonder what people would really think if we took off our masks? More importantly - what would God think?

Maybe it's time to take them off ...

Boundaries and Side Hugs

Something that has been coming up in a lot of my conversations lately is boundaries. What are they, where are they and who do they apply to? I know that I have erased and moved the boundary lines that are around me to not offend someone or simply because I don't think of them or that they don't apply to a certain circumstance. Why is that? Why are some things ok for some people and not for others?

As Christians we should be very careful how we act around members of the opposite sex. Full body hugs and constantly hanging on each other are NOT good ideas. Why do we act like we're all just one big dating couple? I know that we all love each other and touch is one of the ways we show it, but we have to be more careful.

We all see each other as siblings, but we're not actually related (shocking - I know). We are young men and women of God and we should be protecting each other from temptation and slander or rumors. Other people see us and how we act. We need to set a good example for the unsaved as well as the saved, especially the children of our church.

So, I apologize for the boundary lines I have crossed and the ones that I have completely erased. I don't have this whole boundary thing figured out yet, but I'm working on it and I hope that we can all be more careful. We don't want the Devil to have any foothold in our lives.

PS: I say we bring back side hugs - it's still showing the love, and it doesn't cross that boundary.

Advice from my mom

"Aim for improvement, not perfection."

My amazing mother said this to me this morning when I was complaining that I had planned on getting up an hour early this morning (in order to read my Bible and exercise) and hit snooze so many times that I was only up 15 minutes earlier than normal.

When our aim is to be perfect we will always miss the mark. We can't be perfect - that's God's job. Because of this improvement is always possible (if you're not perfect then you must be able to improve right?). If you aim for perfection and then miss the mark you feel discouraged and usually you eventually give up. But if you aim for improvement then every small step is a victory. Getting up 15 minutes early is still getting up early and though I plan to wake up the full hour earlier tomorrow, I don't have to kill myself over not doing it today.

Wednesday night in the main sanctuary

Last Wednesday night the youth group was asked at the last minute (there was some miscommunication before hand) to go into the sanctuary for service. Pastor Wes Daughenbaugh had been with the church for the week and Pastor Mark wanted everyone (except for the younger children) to be able to hear his message. Some of the youth left and many of those that stayed grumbled about the switch and having to listen to a guest speaker. They were challenged to look past the man and hear what God had to say to them and when they did that they were mightily blessed. Pastor Wes' sermon was on the infilling of the Holy Spirit and many were filled or renewed in their love for the Spirit and the blessing of speaking in tongues. We stayed at the altar for over an hour. Youth were praying for each other as well as for adults and children. We were all together as one church and it was beautiful. My hope is that this is the start of something new - I know God's got big plans and I'm getting impatient to see them unfold.

This week we're again asked to be in the main sanctuary for another guest speaker. I pray that this night turns out just as great and that those that left last week will stay and be blessed this time around.

Playing with blocks

Last weekend Jessica DeFilippo and I were waiting on someone and decided to entertain ourselves by building with the blocks in the nursery. This is the result (I'm very proud of it):

Every plastic animal and person and almost every block we could find in the nursery was used in building this city. If you have facebook you can see all 49 pictures of the city and it's inhabitants along with descriptions of what everything is. In case you don't have facebook, here's a picture of my favorite citizen:

Seriously, is this not the cutest plastic elephant you've ever seen?

Blogging ...

A few months ago I came up with this great idea - not an original idea mind you, but a great one - I'm going to blog. So I started not one, but two blogs. This one for my thoughts and another one to write about my day. Since then I find myself thinking about what I want to write about during the day and how I want to write it. So far so good right? Here's where my problem comes in - almost everytime I sit down at the computer to actually write about my thoughts and life I have complete writer's block. I can't think of a thing to say or how to say it. It's like I used up all of my creativity during the day and now I have no resources in order to write.

I guess this is a mixture of a complaint and an apology. If you read these blogs (does anyone read these blogs?) there are going to be big periods of time between postings, but I will put more of an effort into trying to get my creative juices flowing. So bear with me and hopefully I'll get this blogging thing eventually.

Facebook Fast

Wednesday, December 5, 2007, I went without facebook for a full 24 hours. I know - crazy.

Even though I named it my "facebook fast" it wasn't really a fast in the sense of "I'm going to give something up in order to devote more time to praying and show my dependency on God." I'm all for that kind of fast, that's just not what this was. This was just to prove to myself that I could do it. And let me tell you, it was harder than I thought it would be.

I learned though that I can live without it ... and get more done in the process. :)

Distraction is the name of the game

After spending almost my entire weekend with a 16-month-old I learned something very important - in order to be a good mother (or babysitter in my case) you have to perfect the art of distraction. Crying, screaming, tantrums, wanting something they can't have - toddlers can be distracted from all of it if you find something that's more important to them. For instance - a container of paper clips and a pad of pink post-it notes are way more fun than playing on the keyboard of a computer (at least for a little while) and that glow up snowman holds attention just long enough to get the car seat buckled. I think I may have finally gotten the hang of it.

This whole distraction-theory got me thinking about distraction in other parts of life. Toddlers aren't the only ones that are distracted easily. Take for example me during a normal worship service. How many things do I think of that have nothing to do with God? It's horrible how much work it is for me to focus only on God.

There's also purposeful distraction. I don't know if anyone else does this, but when there's something I don't want to face I distract myself by starting a new project or going out with friends. Anything that will keep my mind off of whatever it is I don't want to think about. I'm especially good at distracting myself when it's God I have to face. All of a sudden there's a million other things I should be doing.

I guess all I'm trying to say is that distraction is a part of our lives even now and when it's part of our spiritual lives it becomes a problem.

Be aware - distraction is out to get you!

Gregg being sufficiently distracted ... for the moment. :)