I'm back

Man, I have thoroughly neglected this blog lately. I got over my little illness a few days ago so I have no excuse. I really believe that Zicam actually kept me from getting sicker than I did. It was still a pretty rough few days.

Anyway, on to other things.

Last Sunday evening (over a week ago) before I started feeling like garbage, we went to a church in Pearland. We had been there once before and I'm sure we'll go back. Jackson really had a good time. I learned a couple of things that night.

First of all, the pastor talked about idol worship. And I know all about putting stuff, jobs, people, whatever above God. I know that this is essentially worshipping those things instead of God. But I hadn't really thought too much about that being a problem in my life. Sure, I put my time, thoughts, money, talents, etc. into many other areas. But I don't lay prostrate in reverence to these things. I don't chant and burn incense hoping to gain favor with the god of family, friends, work, whatever.

The pastor talked about how we have our own little "self perceived hells." Like driving this crappy car is "hell." Or living in this little old house is "hell." Or only having one child and not being able to have anymore.... is "hell." So, anyway, we have these hells in our lives and then we consume ourselves thinking about the thing(s) that could save us from this hell. We make jobs, cars, stuff, people our "savior" instead of Jesus.

Anyway, he asked some questions just to help us think about what we may be putting before God. I don't remember very many of them, but here are a few.

- What do you spend most of your time thinking about?
- What do you talk about to people?
- How do you identifiy yourself?
- What do you complain the most about?
- What do you want more than anything else?

So then, if we attain the thing or solve the problem that will get us out of our "hell" then we just move on and discover another "hell" that we need saving from. I have known for some time that I tend to put my family above God. And not only that, but I have pretty much told God that he can take anything else from me...but they are off limits and He better back off. My anticipated hell is loosing the two people in this world I am convinced I cannot live without. And I worry about that a lot. I also have really been putting this "imaginary" baby who we don't even know yet above God. That baby has already claimed a good bit of my time, worry, and money and she may not even be born yet. How crazy is that? So, anyway, I'm really trying to focus my energies and thoughts away from my fears about what my family may or may not become and just be grateful for what God has given me.

Ok, so secondly, Phillip and I discovered that kids don't care much about the fluff that parents care about. Let me explain. I took Jackson into the children's area of this church and I didn't see any cool toys. Last time we went to this church I didn't leave Jack in the nursery because it didn't look like a lot of fun to me. The church we are currently members of have a fully equipped children's area. So anyway, this last time we went to the church in Pearland I left Jack anyway. I figured even if he didn't have any fun atleast he would be out of my hair for an hour. But much to my surprise, he had a blast. He didn't care one bit that there weren't toys to play with. They played games, pretended, colored, all kinds of stuff. He wants to go back. It's just funny to realize that so much of the stuff that churches provide for the children is really for the parents. It's our superficial desires that are being catered to.

Ok, I'm off to watch some of last season's episodes of The Office.