Chillin

Friday night..... the boys are in bed...... Haley is at a friends...... and Vange, Ashli and I are armed with snacks and a movie!

Do you KNOW your mate?

We tend to focus on our own needs and desires. Becoming a great spouse comes easily when our goal is to be more like Christ. Keep in mind that you and your spouse (or partner) may SEE the world differently. So, take time to LEARN what his/her needs and desires are. Try this little test.

So how well do you know your partner? How many of the following do you know?

• I can name my partner's best friends.
• I know what stresses my partner currently faces.
• I know some of my partner's life dreams.
• I am very familiar with my partner's religious beliefs.
• I can list the relatives my partner likes least.
• I know my partner's favorite music.
• I know what my partner would do if he/she won the lottery.
• I know a stressful thing that happened to my partner in childhood.
• I ask my partner how things are going.
• I feel my partner knows me well.

If you answered yes to several, you're on the right track. If not, take time to learn more about what makes your spouse/partner "tick."

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

Quality Time

GOOD GOOGLY-MOOGLY! Christmas day has passed for another year. Actually, I celebrate God's gift of Jesus (life) to me EVERY DAY! Did you do it? You know.... Sing Happy B-Day, resolve frictions, spend quality time, be kind to someone, be thankful for God's gifts, and give gifts with a God-like attitude???????? I actively succeeded at every one of these goals.

We had great family time during the Christmas holidays. I have 3 families and they are all very special to me.... The Brown gang, the James gang, and the LifePoint gang. I truly enjoyed spending time with all!

Side note... my wife is God's most incredible gift to me! ( I also have awesome kids.... but don't tell them how crazy about them I am, they will just get big heads.... :-)

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas. Remember a few things....

• Sing Happy Birthday to Jesus (After all, He is the reason for our celebration.)
• Resolve those little frictions with others... it makes the season much more enjoyable.
• Spend quality time with those you love.
• Look around and take opportunity to be kind to someone you don't know, or don't like.
• Be thankful for God's gifts to us, and give gifts with a God-like attitude.

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

Sleepover

AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! Saints, pray! My daughter turned 13 today. (Happy birthday, Ashli!) My home will be invaded tonight with several young girls eating snacks till they pop, watching TV until the wee hours of the morning, and falling asleep somewhere on a floor! I keep telling myself "It's going to be ok..." Actually, it's a lot of fun. My role? I'll be the dad making chocolate shakes for EVERYONE!

Side note: Kyle and I went to Kreiger's last night to see a bit of the Steelers kicking the Rams' butts! While there, we solved many world problems... maybe we'll share those resolutions some day.... :-)

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

Rams VS Steelers

Anyone betting on the Rams?? Dwayne and I walked to Hardees for lunch in downtown St Louis today. We walked in and saw 4 young adults with Steelers jerseys on. I had to ask.... "Are you guys St Louis residents?" They were not... they came from Pittsburgh to see the Steelers kill the Rams.... uhhhhh... I mean they came to see the game. Well, I guess we'll see what happens........

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God, Family, and Friends with every word and every action.

SIMP

Simplified Integrated Modular Phrase (SIMP)

In my business environment, there are people who are always trying to "one-up" everyone else. They want to sound and appear smarter than everyone else. As a result they communicate ideas using words / phrases that are meant to sound intelligent, but they are really just bogus! Several years ago, while working at McDonnell Douglas, a coworker developed a BUZZPHRASE GENERATOR. You could group words together from different columns in a table and create an itelligent sounding (but bogus) phrase. I found something similar in the link below. Give it a try and see how smart you sound......

Buzzphrase Generator

For example, the incorporation of additional mission constraints recognises the importance of other systems and the necessity for the greater fight-worthiness concept.

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action!

Birth Order Profile

I recently saw an interesting article in Time magazine (which indicates that I actually do read once in a while... even if I hate it!). There are 3 basic profiles for the order of your birth. See if this holds true in your family.

OLDEST SIBLINGS
May be better educated than younger siblings.
More likely to hold a professional position.
More concerned with meeting parents' expectations.
More likely to serve as guardian of aging parents.
Higher IQ than younger siblings.

MIDDLE SIBLINGS
May take longer to choose a career.
Less connected to family, more connected to friends.
May de-identify from firstborn, making opposite life choices.
Lacks parental recognition that first and last born siblings enjoy.
May struggle with self-esteem.

YOUNGER SIBLINGS
More tolerant of risk.
More likely to be an artist, adventurer, or entrepreneur.
Often physically smaller than first borns.
Less likely to be vaccinated than first borns.
Frequently funnier than other siblings.

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

Memories

What are your fondest Christmas-time memories? Growing up my family never took trips to relatives homes or anything like that. We celebrated Christmas with gift exchange either Christmas Eve evening or Christmas morning. There was my mom and dad, my 2 sisters, my brother, and me. My mom was great at playing Santa. There were about 3 or 4 years that I remember getting a guitar for Christmas. One year, my mom, I mean Santa, took 4 huge clothes dryer boxes and cut the top off. She wrapped the outside of the box and filled it with incredible gifts.

Fast forward....... Now I have 4 children of my own. The satisfaction of the Christmas celebration is no longer the RECEIVING of gifts (although let's not get crazy... everyone loves to get presents) but the real joy is GIVING and seeing my kids' (and wife's) face light up with excitement.

I think I get the idea of how God must have felt when He gave us Jesus as a gift..... (Granted, God knew what Jesus would later endure to purchase our souls....) Vange and I are doing our best to balance the true celebration of Jesus and the just-for-fun, Santa Claus side of this season. We are spending TIME (quality time) with our kids and building memories for them to blog about later.

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

Time Away

Vange and I are skipping town for a couple days.... It's time for us to just hang out together. We have some good friends with a very cool house that they are letting us crash.... I'm going to practice some of the things that Gary Smalley talks about in his book "I Promise You Forever." Later Gators...

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

Clark Griswald Meets His Match

Part of the fun of Christmas is decorating the house with lights and yard displays. Most of my neighborhood participates in the fun. Christmas Vacation is one of my favorite movies... and Clark is my exterior illumination hero! Well, Clark has nothing on this guy.... Check this out.



Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

Headlines

Jay Leno used to crack me up with the HEADLINES segment... I was cruising the web and found a site with some funny headlines... WARNING: Some of them are quite rude.....

Funny Headlines

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action!

Christmas music

Time to be honest.... I love Christmas... I love the cool weather and sweatshirts, the hiking boots, the smell of a real Christmas tree (ok... we are cheating on this one - since we don't have a real tree this year we have scented candles that really do smell like a Christmas tree...), I even like shopping (limited shopping...) Are there things about this time of year that really lift you up? Maybe this time of year is tough for you for some reason.

Some of the things I love about this time of year are Christmas specials on TV, Christmas movies (Christmas Vacation is the BEST!), and listening to Christmas music. OK, now that all of those warm, fuzzy feelings have been shared.... here is the "time to be honest" part.....

I have spent hours and hours searching for and charting some Christmas songs to use at LifePoint the next 2 weeks..... At this point... I actually hate Christmas music! If I sound bitter the next 2 Sundays... Sorry! I feel better...... OK, OK... It's not that bad... but I am listening to Daughtry right now and will probably steer clear of any holiday favorites for a bit..... I'm done whining now......

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action!

How Smart Are You?

This is a fun little test.... try it. If you are brave, post your score on the comments. (I am apparently very smart...)

Smart Test


Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

Why Idiots Shouldn't Drink

This story cracked me up.....

A thief walked into a corner store with a shotgun and demanded all the cash from out of the cash register. After the cashier put the cash in a bag, the robber saw a bottle of scotch that he wanted behind the counter on the shelf. He told the cashier to put it in the bag as well, but the cashier refused stating, "Because I don't believe you are over 21."The thief stated that he was, but the cashier still refused to give it to him because he didn't believe him. To prove that he really was old enough, the thief took out his driver's license and gave it to the cashier. The cashier checked the license out, agreeing that the man was indeed over 21 and put the scotch in the bag. The thief then ran from the store with his cash and his booze.The cashier promptly called the police and gave them the name and address that was listed on the license. Within two hours, the man was caught and charged.

The point? Don't be an idiot.

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

Win-Win Solution

It's amazing, but I was reading some more of the Gary Smalley Book "I Promise You Forever" and found this topic very interesting. Here is the exerpt:

I promise to work with you for a win-win solution to our differences.
I want to do a lot of things, but I can't do them all because I married someone who has beliefs, needs, and feelings of her own. We love each other and don't want to trample on each other.

So, we operate by this rule: When we disagree, we don't move forward until both of us feel good about the solution.

1. We communicate honestly and without judgement. We don't try to change or pressure each other. We listen for the heart beneath the words.

2. We place on the table ideas and alternatives, discussing their pros and cons and testing each for acceptability to the other person.

3. We find solutions that both of us like.

James 1:19 says if we are quick to listen, we will be slow to anger. Being quick to listen means listening until we understand. Understanding tends to displace anger.

I'm betting our relationships will strengthen when we follow Biblical principles like this....

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.