Don't let satan ruin a good time

I have recently (as of January 1st.) taken over the task of doing the dishes every evening after dinner. I got this from a dear friend from a church I was a member at 5 years ago. He often told the story of how his wife had a dish washer, his two hands. I admired this man's marriage and felt if it was good for him I would like to honor my wife the same way he did his.

I have enjoyed my duties. I enlist two children to dry while I wash. We have enjoyed the time we spend while doing this. This evening we were listening to an FFH cd(it is mandatory that we listen to only Christian music while performing this task). I was singing along and thinking just how awesome our God is, and what a great time I was spending with my kids. All of the sudden my two helpers were arguing about something. I blew up and ordered them not to talk to one another for the remainder of the event. I was upset because I was really enjoying the time. I soon realized this was another attack by satan to sabotage my good time.

This reminded me that we must keep our guards up at all times. The moment we let them down or when we think everything is going just great he will attack. Be strong; ask God for His assistance in this never ending battle.

Steelers Season Over.

Well it is a sad as my Steelers fell to Jacksonville last night. My terrible towel will be put in storage until August. They had an ok season in my opinion. It started well and they kind of stumbled through the later part of the season. Many injuries to several key players made it hard to stay consistant. They gave a solid effort but came up a bit short. Once my boys are out of it I kind of just watch with little interest. Oh well as they say there is always next year. If your team is still playing enjoy the rest of the playoffs.

Sports Talk

In an attempt to gain more readers to my blog, I have decided to put some sports related material on my posts from time to time.

So to start things off I will lead with the NFL. Who is the favorite to win the Super Bowl. The obvious pick is New England. 16-0 is very impressive, first team since the 72 Dolphins to end the regular season undefeated. In my opinion the Patriots will win or even make it to the Super Bowl. I know that sounds insane but I just feel that they will overlook someone and stumble. I think several teams can beat them. San Diego, Jacksonville, Indy, and even my beloved Steelers(although that could be the homer in me) all match up pretty well against them. If they do get to the Super Bowl, Green Bay on what could be Favres farewell could beat New England in what would be a very high scoring game.

My heart tells me to go with my Steelers. So my Super Bowl prediction is Steelers over Dallas 28-14. Hey its my blog I can make a crazy prediction if I want to.

Please let me know your predictions.

Happy New Year

Well here we are. It is New Years Eve. I will be spending the evening with my wonderful family. My parents are in for a couple of days so they can join in with us in bringing in the new year. May all of you feel the presence of the Lord in 2008. As I look back on 2007 I am thankful of how the Lord has been a part of my life. What a beautiful Lord and Savior we have.
Happy New Year.

the reason for the season

Well here we are! It is Christmas Eve and it is also the first day of my vacation. I am very much looking forward to a week of no work and lots of play. I pray that all of you have a wonderful Christmas and encourage you to focus on the reason for the season. Our Awesome God gave us His only Son to be our Savior. To be born on this earth and to be a sacrifice for our sins. What a gift! What a wonderful gift! Merry Christmas.

Another Year coming to an end already?

Well here we are nearing the end of another year. It does not seem possible that we have lived another year on this earth. When I graduated from high school I had an uncle that told me that now each year of my life would go by faster than the last. It sure seems like that is true. It was just last year that Mac was in kindergarten. Now he is a junior, and will turn 17 in April. Autumn just turned 15 last month. Why just a few weeks ago she was learning how to walk and talk. Collin, now 13, (yes we have 3 teenagers living under one roof, please pray for Tracy and I.) was just tall enough to reach a pie on the counter when Mom wasn't looking. Abigail was just born last year, and low and behold she is 9. To top it all off, Tracy and I just got back from our honeymoon 18 1/2 years ago. Yes Uncle John was right time goes by faster as you get older. I have to say though it sure has been a wonderful time. As I have indicated on my blog before, I am very proud of what the Lord has granted me: A beautiful, loving wife who has given me 4 wonderful children and one child which was taken directly to heaven. I am truely blessed by ourAwesome God.

No longer a coach but now a referee?

Well here we are on the brink of another NFL season. High School and college have already began and the local youth league starts this weekend. I have coached for the past 4 years and for the first time will be very limited in my involvement with Collins team. I did not sign up to coach at all when we registered him this year. The coach asked me to help out with the defensive backs so I have done a little with them and helped out with the kickoff return team. But I will no longer be roaming the sidelines screaming at kids for not doing what they should be on every play. I instead have traded in my coaches whistle for a referees whistle. Yes it is true I am now a zebra. I am now on the side of those striped guys that I have been frustrated with all these years and have wondered if they even knew what was going on out on the field. Why did I cross over to the dark side you ask? Well I figured they needed all the help they could get. Truth is two years ago I was really frustrated with the officiating at the high school and youth levels of football. It seemed that there was no consistency to the officiating. I decided to look into becoming a certified official. I did just that got the books studied and took and passed the test. I was even able to do one youth game at the end of the season. I literally hung up my coaches whistle on a Tuesday evening after we lost our playoff game and refereed a game on Thursday. When I steeped onto the field with my stripes on it just felt different. I must say I was nervous what if I make a mistake? How will the crowd react to my call's? Rick the gentleman that asked me to help him must have sense my nervousness told me not to worry about a thing. He told me simply that when you throw that yellow flag one side of the Field will be happy with your call and the other side will not plain and simple. That is true with out a doubt. The game went fine to my knowledge I did not make any bad calls.

The following year I decided not to be a head coach and just focus on refereeing. When I signed Collin up I put on the form that I would be willing to be an assistant if needed... Mistake. as it turned out I was needed and after some bad circumstances they kicked the head coach out of the league and guess who got to step in as the head coach? Me! I did ref most of the games that our team was not in. On many saturdays last season I would ref a game at 9:00Am, coach our game at 10:30AM and ref another game at noon. It was stressful mainly due to the fact that I was a head coach for one team and would then ref a game consisting of teams I had coached against the week before. After a few games though the other coaches realized that I woul call a fair game.

This season I will be refing only. I will not be on the sidelines of Collins games as a coach. I may however need to ref a game that he is playing in. The league will try not to put me in that situaion but we have a limited number of officials and I may be asked to do it.

After being on both sides of the equation I believe I like refing better than coaching. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed coaching but reffing is just different. I love the game of football and to be a major part of a game is great mabey not as great as playing but I enjoy it none the less. As I said earlier I have seen so much incosistancy in officiating over the years I decided to do something about it. Am I perfect? No way I have made a few mistakes but all in all I think I have done ok. I hope to move up and eventually do high school games.