Success or Failure? It All Depends on Who is Judging You.

Do you consider yourself a failure or a success? How do your friends, family, or others judge you? I guess it all depends on the criteria you and they are using to judge you. The question of success or failure is one of the main reasons why I love and choose to serve my LORD Jesus and one of the main reasons why I love the game of baseball.

If you were expert marksman in the military or in sports and you only hit 2 or 3 out of every 10 targets you were assigned to hit, you would probably be considered a failure. If you were in basketball and you only made 2 or 3 out of every 10 free throws, you would not be considered one of the greatest players. If you only made 2 or 3 out of every 10 putts in golf, you would not be playing as a professional. In football a quarterback who completes 3 out of every 10 passes or a receiver who catches 3 out of every 10 passes, you would not be on the field or even on the team. In baseball however, you can be a hitter who hits the ball almost 3 out of every 10 at bats and you would be considered a great hitter, and you could probably demand a huge salary because you would be successful. You could miss the ball or get out 7 out of 10 times and still be considered a great hitter. If you hit almost 4 out of every 10 times you would be a Hall of Fame candidate and one the best hitters to ever play the game. Wow, miss 6 out of 10 and still a Hall of Fame player!

In your life, do your friends stick by you if you fail to live up to their expectations? Would you be a success or a failure if you didn't make a six-figure income? Would you be a success or a failure if you were trying your best to quit drugs or alcohol? Would you be a success or a failure if you didn't go to church services every single Sunday? This is why I love my God and LORD Jesus. I don't have to be perfect in order for Him to consider me a success story. My life could be full of mistakes and sins that the world would consider unforgivable, but my God loves me anyway. God looks at my heart and not my sinful nature. As long as I desire to do what is right and serve God and love others, God will listen to my repentant cries for mercy. I could miss the ball every time I come to plate, miss every pass, miss every putt, miss every shot, miss church services, lose my job or "fall off the wagon" and God will still consider me a success in His eyes because I am choosing to honor Him first in my life.

It is not always easy to be a servant of God. The Bible tells us we must spend time in God's word daily, to pray daily, to "daily" put on the armor of God and prepare to do battle with the evil one. Just like in professional sports practice daily in order to be successful, Christians must practice daily in order to become more like God. Lucky for us, our worth is not based upon a proven track record of success. It is based upon our simple desire to accept Jesus and to serve our God.

So who determines if you a success or a failure? Is it the world, you, or a loving God who wants to make you His child and make you a member of His "Heavenly Hall of Fame"?

Another Mini-Vacation

Tomorrow, my family and I are going on another mini-vacation. My wife has a training for her company on Thursday and Friday. My children and I will be joining her. Her current employers encourage families to go to out-of-town trainings for their employees when possible. We plan to take in a Texas Rangers baseball game and go to Six Flags all before Sunday. When my wife and I return home on Sunday, we will be missing our children. Our kids will spend a week with their cousins. We will pick them up a week from Saturday. That gives my wife and me a week alone to spend some quality time together. We plan to go to a community musical, spend some time watching some movies and have lots of cuddle time.

I am looking forward to the family time together the next few days and then spending time with my wife. I will miss my kids, but they will be swimming in their cousin's pool (provided it's not raining). I also get to spend some alone time, when my wife is working. I can do some yard work and spend some time reading. Best of all, our roof should be fixed during the time we are gone (again providing it's not raining). Once again I say, "GOD has blessed me!" See you in few days.

God is Renovating Our House

When my wife and I first purchased our home almost 4 years ago, we started to come up with a plan to slowly renovate several parts of the house. We were going to start with the master bathroom. Change the unattractive pink color and the sliding shower doors that are hard to slide and always get stuck. Then we were going to work on changing some ceiling fans and paint the kids closets. After that we were going to close-in the garage and turn it into a spare bedroom. Then we would replace our ancient air conditioning/heating unit and hot water heater. After that we would tear the wall paper down in the kitchen and repaint it. And finally we would replace the floors of our home with hardwood or newer carpet and paint the rest of the house. We could see ourselves turning our already nice home into our great home. I prayed to God to grant us extra money in our budget to make this happen. Apparently God had different plans!

First the ceiling fan in our daughter's room broke and would not run. So we replaced it. Then our dryer quit working and had to be replaced. Then a tree in our yard died and had to be cut down due to insurance liabilities. Then our air conditioning/heating unit finally broke down after almost 40 years of service. We had to borrow some money to get that replaced, but we managed to come up with the cash and even had our hot water heater replaced at the same time. Most recently our roof sprung a leak and water has been seeping into our attic, right above our kitchen. First a huge brown spot appeared over our breakfast table. We called roofer and got put on a list to have the roof fixed. He recommended replacing the entire roof so all repairs would match the rest of the roof. We decided just have the leaky area fixed due to finances. But due to all the recent rain, the roofer has not been able to get to our roof because they are behind in their schedule. So we "patched the leak" with a large tarp. While waiting on the roofer to finally get to us, the roof had leaked just enough to finally turn that big brown spot over our table into a hole. Just two days ago parts of our kitchen ceiling started to fall down into our kitchen.

"What's God got to do with this?", you might ask. He has everything to do with this. If you have been reading my blogs, you will note that I have decided to turn my life over to God. My job, my health, my family, and my home. I decided not to worry about everything that could go wrong in my life. I would serve God and do my best to find a job that honors Him and trust that he would take care of me and my family. I am so glad I did that, because before that, all these "disasters" that seem to plaguing our home would have driven my OCD self into depression, and such high stress, I might have died of a heart attack. "Where are we going to get the money?" "Our house is a crappy house!" "Insurance won't cover this!" But because my trust is in the mighty power of my LORD God, I am not worried at all, in fact I am at peace with all that is happening to us and our home. Instead of having an attitude of panic and worry, I have decided that God is renovating our house, one room at a time, according to His schedule, not mine. And if God is going to renovate our home, then He will provide the funds to have it done.

Rather than hate God and let my faith in Him falter due to these events. I am trusting in Him more every day because I know He will lead us through it all. He is faithful. Proverbs 3:25-26 says, "Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtake the wicked, for the LORD will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being snared." So, Bring down the ceiling, I will not stop trusting God. He is in control and He will provide for His children.

Marriage Conference

My wife and I attended a marriage conference this weekend as part of our commitment to each other to keep our marriage strong and growing. The speakers were Bill & Pam Farrel, the authors of Men Are Like Waffles - Women Are Like Spaghetti. It was a great conference. I learned many new points about how men and women communicate, forgiveness, raising children, and intimacy. I am very glad we went. I still feel that if men would love their wives as Jesus loves the church, and women would show their husbands respect as the Bible teaches, then every marriage would grow with God's blessings overflowing. As a result of this conference I have a few more books to recommend to people wishing to improve their relationships with their spouse and their parenting. All the books are written by Bill and Pam Farrel. On parenting their is The 10 Best Decisions Every Parent Can Make. On marriage; Every Marriage Is a Fixer-Upper and Red Hot Monogamy.

I love my wife dearly and she is a blessing from God. I am so in love with her, as a mother, a friend, a wife and a lover. I am committed to growing with her Spiritually in God. I pray daily that God blesses her and our marriage. I pray that God blesses our children, also blessings from God. I want each of our children to find the treasures God has placed in them that makes them special and unique to the world. I am a blessed man and no one can tell me otherwise.