Adjusting to a Life in Mansfield, TX

It has been one month since my family and I moved to Mansfield, TX. I finally have a new full-time job teaching 7th/8th Grade Math at Red Oak Jr. High School. So far I am enjoying it. My wife, Jamie and I are trying to car-pool to work on Mondays and Wednesdays to spend more time with each other. (She works in Waxahachie, TX at the Ellis County Children's Advocacy Center.)

We found us a great rent home in Mansfield and as of today (Oct. 22) our home in Longview, TX is under contract to close on Nov. 2nd. This will eliminate our mortgage payment, allowing us to use my salary to make larger payments toward our remaining debts. Dave Ramsey would be happy.

The kids are still enjoying home school, although they do miss getting out to mingle with other kids. We are looking into getting Caleb a car, so they can get out during the day while Jamie and I are at work. We are also looking for a new church home. We have visited a couple of great local churches and plan on visiting a couple of more before we narrow down our choices and try to settle in somewhere. We are hoping the kids get involved with the youth group and Jamie and I can get plugged into some good classes or small groups to make some new friends.

The only bad thing that has happened since we have moved here is my blood pressure has gone back up and I am back on blood pressure medication. I guess the stress of the move, the stress of teaching/disciplining kids at school and me not eating healthy, have triggered the rise in BP.

We are slowly unpacking and turning this rent house into our new home. We have an option to buy and the neighborhood is great. Maybe once we get most of our remaining debt paid off, we will see about buying this home.

Good luck to the Texas Rangers on going to the World Series for the 2nd year straight!

Marriage Education and the Church

As you know, my wife, Jamie, and I are trained to teach a variety of marriage education curriculums. We have been trying to get a class started at our church for a few weeks now and it has been highly suggested to us that we hold off until August to start our class. The reasons given to us are:

1) It will be too soon after the last marriage class was taught.
2) You will have trouble getting enough people to commit to the class.
3) Church couples don't believe they need the class because they already have a good marriage. and
4) Couples don't want a class that is to personal and will possibly cause them to "air their dirty laundry" in front of other church members.

How sad I felt when I heard this. Especially after one of our elders told me he personally knows of three or four couples whose marriages are in trouble. He also told me the elders support the idea of the class and they know it is needed but they won't take the class themselves. Again that made me very sad.

Divorce rates among active church going people is almost exactly the same as the those who do not attend church or claim any religion at all. People in churches struggle with the same issues as people outside the church and they are just as afraid to seek help for those struggles because of self pride or because they are afraid they will be "embarrassed" and "shunned" by their peers.

What a sad state of affairs when your church family will not act like a church family and support each other when we struggle. We are so afraid that others will look down on us because we are not "perfect" that we let our marriages fail, to attempt to uphold an image of perfection.

Elders, Pastors and other church leaders need to not only support strong marriages with their lips but support it with their actions. They need to take the classes so they can see "first-hand" how these programs can make their flocks stronger and better able to help the communities they serve.

What do you think?

Chocoholicfest - 2008

Every year our church's youth group host what is called a Chocoholicfest for the kids who are 7th Grade - 12th Grade. The Chocoholicfest is the culmination of a month long study and discussion about Biblical dating, relationships, marriage and sex. The end of the study "party" features as much chocolate as the members of the church choose to donate. This year there was chocolate cakes, cookies, brownies, chocolate Skittles, M&M's, fudge, pies etc... They even has pizza (pepperoni and cheese, not chocolate), although someone did bring a chocolate brownie pizza, from CiCi's.

They had chocolate themed games to play as well. How fast can you eat a bowl of Coco-Puffs?, How many apples can you "bob" from a bucket full of chocolate milk? There was a chocolate pie eating contest and some kind of weird contest where you had to find as many peanut M&M's as you could that were mixed into some chocolate pudding, using your feet.

After all the feasting on pizza and Chocolate, they had a special guest speaker to come in and talk to the kids about Biblical dating, and relationships. This year's speaker was Jason Illian, a fellow who just happened to be a male "contestant" on the ABC television show the Bachelorette (the third season). Jason actually made it a few rounds into the show until the "Bachelorette" (Jen?) found out about his Christian values and that he was still a version, then she did not offer him a rose.

Jason had many good points to make to the students about how the "world" especially television, movies, and music portray sex and relationships. Then he pointed them to the truth about the matter and told them how God views sex and dating etc... Jason has written a book about God and Dating called...Undressed: The Naked Truth About Dating

Since I was an adult volunteer to help, of course I ate to much chocolate and went to bed with an upset stomach. My son enjoyed the activities and we talked a lot about dating until it was time to go to bed. That part I enjoyed more than any other part of the evening.