Updates

Thumper seems to be doing okay appetite wise.  The blood test results indicated that her thyroid is fine, so the vet has placed her on high calorie wet food that we are mixing with dry.  She devours the food, so we know she's eating well.  I think we will weigh her once or twice a week from here on out just to make sure she doesn't lose anymore.  It's been a stressful time for me and my wife since we treat her like our baby.

The book is doing well at church.  I am up to 12 orders and the deadline is next Sunday.  After church next week, I will order the books online.  After shipping, we are close to making $45 for the youth group which is nice.  I hope we can get 3 more sales so I know we will go over the $50 mark in profits for the kids.  

I decided that I will be going up to my school on Tuesday and Wednesday to get my classroom in order and work on lesson material.  School starts here on August 13 and the week of the 6th will be packed with professional development, so I need to get the classroom in order.  Starting a new year is always stressful since you don't know how the kids are after the summer off and just starting in general.  I look forward to getting back into the routine.  I know my wife is ready for me to go back (heh).  I plan to write more tomorrow on a more religious nature because I have so many things to say.

A Little Down Right Now

In my very first post I gave a history and one of the things that brought me back to church was our cat that has a cancerous tumor and meeting with a member who specializes in holistic medicine.  Well, the kitty is not doing well.  She is down to 9.7 pounds.  This was a cat who was 17 pounds a year ago.  There is nothing anyone can do medically.  We have to hand feed her because the tumor on her head has grown to the point where she has a hard time moving her jaw.  I have thought over and over when should we put her down.  Bodily function wise, she does everything.  With her tumor though, she is starting to bump into things because she can't keep her head up for long periods of time due to the weight of the tumor.  I admit, me and Becky are upset and I do cry during a weak moment.  I know God will take of her and she truly has been a blessing.  She's a fighter.  When I weep and talk to her, she still purrs.  She's a trooper.  God brought her to us so that we could know Him and I am forever grateful.  The hard part is coming up and I know it.  I will keep praying for her to keep a quality of life, but I know the time is coming close when we will have to decide enough is enough.  Please pray for her.

Checking In

Sorry for the lack of blogging. I've been working on getting Scorched Earth ready for the next issue. (Submission deadline is July 30th) and we have a graphic design project that I've been working on. Until it comes out, I have to keep it under wraps, but I can say it is going to do a lot of good here locally. It is a paid job, so I've been devoting a lot of time to it. I am going to get back to getting school work ready tomorrow. I don't have too much more I can do here at home and I plan to work next week up at school.

I've started taking orders for the book at church and after the announcement, I have 5 orders already. I'm taking orders until August 5th, so I am hoping for more. I would love to get 26 orders so I can get a discount and give more of the money back to the youth group. I'm also planning to set up my own web site soon to advertise the book and I'm going to go to the local paper and get a story about the book. I'm thinking about asking the public library about doing a poetry reading, but Becky thinks that it would bomb. It won't hurt to ask the librarian if they've had any in the past. I know I won't sell a lot of books. Most poets, unless they are the giants, are lucky if they sell hundreds. My goal is to sell at least 50 books between local and online. If I can do that, I will consider myself a success.

My book arrived!

I was working on a project today and decided to take a break.  When I went outside, I noticed a package on my porch and behold, my book had arrived!  I went in and like a kid on Christmas Day, I tore opened the package and started looking through it to make sure everything looked okay.  I can honestly say that Lulu.com did an excellent job putting it together.  It is exactly the way I had designed it.  My book is now on sale at Lulu.com.  All the proceeds are going my church's youth group to help fund their trips and activities.
You can click here to see it and purchase a copy.  

Beautiful Song

Last Sunday, our minister and a member of the choir did a beautiful rendition of Allison Krauss' Down in the River to Pray.  After they got done, everyone gave them a large round of applause.  The song is so beautiful that I wanted to share the original.

The Apostle's Creed Part 1

Today in church, our pastor talked about The Apostle's Creed, more specifically, the first line of the creed:I believe in God, the Father Almighty.  He talked about who God is and how do we believe in God, as individuals.  What does it take to believe in God?  His question is a valid one for Christians as we try to lead a Christian life.  My answer is this: I believe in God because I have felt his prescence in my life.  I have talked to him.  It is my faith that makes me believe.  I have seen things that I know occurred because I prayed for them.  A non-believer may say it must be coincidence, but to me, I know it's not. Faith plays a major role in believing.  One cannot see the physical prescence of wind.  It doesn't have a form. Yet we know the wind blows because we feel the air on our face, we see tree branches move, etc.  However, if we needed to see wind in a visual form, we wouldn't be able to show it because air itself is invisible.  

God is not a biological God.  He's not male or female, but he reveals himself to us in a fatherly form, at least to me.  I fully understand if someone wants to view God in another form, especially if they didn't know their father or didn't have a good fatherly figure in growing up.  Our pastor explained that although a woman has eggs, it takes a male to fertilize the egg, therefore, many people view God in the fatherly role.  I see his point in that.  If someone wants to view God as something other than a father, especially if they've had a bad experience, I am fine with that, as long as they come to know God.  I look forward to his series of sermons as we explore each line in the Apostle Creed.  It definitely made me think today.

Important News

I had planned on posting more this week, but I have been busy.  Between getting materials ready for school and other miscellanous stuff, I had an important project.  That project in question, is the self-publication of my first poetry book entitled: Along Life's Path:Experiences Through Poetry.  The 71-page book is a collection of my poetry taken from parts of my life.  I'm going through Lulu.com to make the book and it will be sold on their site only since I couldn't justify getting the ISBN number since this book will be a small audience. The book isn't up for sale yet because I want to get a copy of the book to make sure the quality is to my liking.  Once I feel comfortable, I will open it up for sale to the public.  I don't plan to make any money on this book, in fact, when I tell fellow church members about the book, I plan on taking orders and just charge an extra amount which I plan to give a good amount back to the church as a donation to either the youth group or seed money for next years VBS.  

This is truly an exciting time and I can't wait to get my copy.

Reading the Bible in a Year:Part 1

Becky and I have decided to try and read the Bible in 365 days with the of the The Grand Sweep series.  Each day, you read a certain number of chapters in the Bible and answer questions about what you read.  I won't blog about this every day, but I will pick out a selection.  Today I will start at the beginning with Genesis 1.  The question that was asked was:
How will my attitude toward the environment be affected if I seriously believe in God as 
Creator?

My answer is: I consider every living thing and the land itself a miracle in itself, created by God.  He is the maker of all things and all things that he creates are miracles in my eyes.  

I do try to be aware of the environment wherever I can.  I'm always in awe of the beauty of nature and all the creatures God has created.  I don't like it when I see trash on the side of a road or people dumping into lakes and streams.  You would think people would be more considerate and consider who created those things we take for granted.  I'm not an environmentalist, but I do have respect what we have been given.  

How to Wash a Cat

As an owner of 5 cats, I don't suggest you do what is shown in the film unless you are a brave soul.  However, if you are foolhardy, watch ahead and enjoy!

Listening and Speaking

Temptation whispers sweet promises
with the cost of a simple lie.

Her seductive voice speaks softly -
“Say it and all will be yours.”
For a brief moment, my mind
wants to follow her siren’s song.

My heart’s voice -
cries out “No!”
inside this mortal shell.

The Holy Spirit shines its light,
exposing the sin into my eyes.
The conscience cries out for mercy;
an inner turmoil shakes my soul.

Her cold whispers cease their murmur;
while God’s love comforts me once more.

Thoughts on Prayer

I've been reading from various sources about prayer and how it's used to communicate with God.  It's amazing based on what I read how most people use it almost like a laundry list of requests to the Lord for him to intervene.  Granted, we do pray to God to help us with our daily lives and everyone should pray, but prayer shouldn't be just requests in my opinion.  In all reality, God knows what we are going to ask for anyway if you think about it.  Anyway, people should also take the opportunity to praise God for all the things he has done for us and for others.  People should glorify him in prayer as well.  

I know when I pray, I always try to glorify God in some fashion that comes from my own feelings.  Glorifying should not be just to "kiss up" to the Lord.  It should come from the heart.  An example would be: "Oh wondeful father who grants us eternal life..." My praises come from things I feel.  For example, I always thank the Lord for giving us such a beautiful world that we live in because I'm always in awe of nature and all its beauty daily.  There are other things I praise God for, but this is just an example.  

Then there is the requests themselves.  Prayer is for anything you are asking for.  I try not to be petty in what I ask, but we are all human and it's easy to fall into that.  The Lord listens to whatever we ask for and determines what we need.  Like I said earlier, he knows what we are going to ask for anyway, so it's okay to pray for anything, for God will answer in his own way and his own time table.  I admit I ask for petty things, but I try not to.  I do ask for things like helping those in need, in harm's way, those are dealing with illness, etc. because I do care for them.  Once I pray, I feel like a burden has been lifted.  I don't feel like prayer as a chore, because to me, it isn't.  It's more like a session talking to God and it's always a great feeling when someone listens to your problems and needs.