Dear Josie,

I can’t believe it. You’re 4 years old.

You’ve been such a source of joy in my life.

On May 27, 2008, you came into this world. We named you Josie Layne Widick. We had a hard time settling on a name for you. Ultimately, we named you Josie after my father, Joe, and one our favorite Bible characters, Joseph. The middle name I think is pretty obvious where it came from. My mom’s name is Elaine, my name is Lane, and I wanted to pass it on to you.

When you were first born, you had a hard time gaining weight. We had to feed you through a syringe so we could make sure you were eating. I think at this point in your life, that would still be easier (mealtimes are a chore with you!!). You definitely take after your daddy with pickiness while eating.

I’m so proud of who you’ve already become. You’re full of life. You have the wildest imagination. You’re so very happy.

Thank you for being such a sweet little girl!

Happy birthday to my dear sweet little girl. Don’t grow up too fast!

On September 12, Kristen, Josie and I packed out bags and headed eastbound and down to Nashville, TN. After serving as the Associate and Worship Minister for the West University Church of Christ in Houston, TX for the past 3 years, God called us home to be close to our family once again.

More importantly, God called us to a new church home at the Granny White Church of Christ, where I now serve as the preaching minister. Never in my life could I have imagined how welcoming and inviting this church family has been.

From even 2 days before we arrived, church members gathered at our home to unload all our belongings into the house. Most of these people had never met us, but had just met us via video. When we arrived in Nashville on the 13th of September, we knew immediately how loved we were. We were met with a giant sign on our front porch welcoming Josie specifically from all the kids in the church. I think that first night we had about 20 visitors that just stopped by to say hey.

Since that day, we’ve hit the ground running and haven’t stopped. Preaching full time has been an adjustment, but I think I’m handling it okay. We’ve had many events to go to, many people to get to know, visits to make, and unpacking to do.

I don’t know that I’ve had a free weekend since I arrived. The GW church is so very active and always seems to have some great event going on, from the youngest to the oldest.

It is an honor to serve at this blessed place. We miss our friends from Houston, and really wish we could have packed them up and brought them here with us. Please pray for them as they continue in their search to replace my position I held there.

There are some great things going on at Granny White, and I want to personally invite you to come be a part! Hope to see you!

For as long as I’ve been alive, I’ve had a sister.  Mary Anne was born on May 13, 1974.  She suffered greatly as child, being sandwiched between myself as the youngest child, and our older brother Marty, who is 4 years older than her.  She was the dreaded middle child, and on top of that was the only sister/daughter in the family.

If I think back to people who taught me over the years, Mary Anne probably taught me more than anyone.  She would come home from school and teach me the things she had learned.  I always knew that she loved me.  She tolerated me for years as I would steal her Barbie dolls and torture them, making them play with my He-Man and A-Team action figures.  She endured countless times of me telling on her for doing something she probably didn’t do.  She never killed me for picking up the phone and listening on her conversations.

I remember as young children, we would put a record on the record player or a cassette in the tape player and sing along, giving concerts to anyone who would listen.  I remember always begging her to play with me as we got older, but she insisted on reading a book.  As we both got older, I think we got closer to each other.

I’ll never forget when she went to college.  On the way to Freed Hardeman to drop her off, I kept playing the song “Letting Go” by Suzy Boggess over and over again.  When we drove away, and I looked in the rear window as she walked back to her dorm room, I wept.  My sister and friend was entering into a new stage of her life, and I wasn’t going to be a part of it.

While she was in college, she always supported me in everything I did.  She came home to see my plays and theatrical productions.  She came to listen to the chorus sing.  She would bring her friends home from college, and she never tried to hide me away.  She wanted me to be a part of the group.

At the beginning of April of 2009, my wife Kristen and I moved to Houston, TX.  We had been here about a week when my parents called me and told me that Mary Anne had been diagnosed with breast cancer.  My heart sank.  I was no where near her, and wasn’t going to be able to help her through this time.  It was not me, or anyone else for that matter,

that was an inspiration to her, but rather she was an inspiration to all of us.  She took it in stride, and came out victorious.  Daily she would post encouraging Bible verses applicable to the junk she was going through.  She impacted many through that time in her life.

As it happens often in life, my sister and I have grown apart somewhat.  Its inevitable that when families are hundreds of miles apart that the closeness is hard to maintain.  However, Mary Anne has always had an impact in my life, and will always continue to do so.  Her husband, Kevin, and her two children, Faith and John Derrick, will always be blessed to have such a Godly woman in their lives.

Mary Anne, you will always be my sister, and even though we’re not together on your special day, know that I love you, and that you’ve always been a friend and great sister.  I count it an honor to have you as a sister, and I can’t wait to see you again.  May God bless you on your birthday.  May he bless you with many more!

Matthew 5:6 – “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”  It is very doctrinal – it emphasizes a very fundamental doctrine of the gospel – that salvation is entirely of grace, and that is a free gift from God.

It says “Blessed are those”, or in essence, HAPPY are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.  It suggests that the only truly happy people are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.  Who is looking for happiness?  I would suggest we all are!

We go to school, to get into college, so we can get a good job, so we can make money, so we can have a nice home, car, possessions of all types, so we can be…HAPPY.  Behind just about everything we do, every act and ambition, the work and striving, behind all effort is the great motive known as happiness.

The problem is, we go about interpreting this verse all wrong.  We are not to hunger and thirst after blessedness.  We are not to hunger and thirst after happiness.  BUT this is what a lot of us do.  We make happiness and blessedness as the main object of desire.  The scriptures never really tell us to seek out happiness directly.  It is always something that results from seeking something else.  This is true for Christians and non-Christians alike.  The whole world is seeking happiness.  They try to find it, they make it their goal, their objective.  BUT they don’t find it because when you put happiness before Righteousness – you probably won’t be successful.

The great tragedy of the world is that, though it seeks for happiness, it never seems to find it. It searches for happiness in seemingly everything — leisure activities like basketball, golf, fishing; in pre-marital or extra-marital sex; in drugs, alcohol, and tobacco; in work and business; in money and possessions.  The world has made happiness its goal, its objective.

I’m afraid that there are many within the church who have never learned this lesson either. They search for happiness in conventions, or conferences, or classes, or they move from church to church, always looking for happiness.

What does the person who is hungering and thirsting for righteousness look like?  First, it is the man who sees that has separated him from God, and longs to get back into that old relationship.  Second, it means a desire to be free from the power of sin.  Ephesians 2 says:  “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh^[a^] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.”   We realize that Satan has been blinding us to various things, and we long to be free from it.  It is a desire to be free from the very desire for sin.  The sad fact is that sin has such a hold on us, that not only do realize that we’re in the bondage of sin, but that we like it, that we want it.

The person who is hungering and thirsting after righteousness is longing to be holy.  It is the person who wants to exemplify the Beatitudes in their daily life.  It is the person who wants to show the fruit fo the Spirit in every action and in the whole of his life and activity.  It is a person whose supreme desire in life is to know God and to be in fellowship with Him, to walk with God.

God asks, in Isaiah 55:2 “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy?” Only God satisfies. So, we need to come to the place where we are hungry for God. We must desire Him so passionately that our desire causes us to do something about it. Nothing less than that passion will cause us to act properly.

The beatitude simply says, “They will be filled,” but the meaning is: “They will be filled with the fullness of divine and perfect righteousness,” because that is what they have been hungering after.

It may seem that a paradox exists: God will satisfy us, but we will continue to hunger and thirst. I’m satisfied when I eat chips and salsa at a good Mexican Restaurant, but I always want more! The satisfaction one chip provides also increases my desire for more of the same. That is a picture of what righteousness is for the saved – the more we are filled with the fulfilling taste of Christ’s righteousness, the more we desire it.

Many  of you who know me know that my father is my hero.  He has worked hard all of his life to support his family.  He also has a heart of gold, and is the single most humble person I know.

Recently, I was home in Lebanon, TN for the Christmas holidays.  While we were there, my mom wanted me to help her go pick up a new shop vac for my father for his birthday, which is on January 7.  We went and picked it up, and she decided to get one that actually holds dust bags as well, so that the fine particles won’t spread all over the place.  She happened to pick up the wrong size bag.

After my father opened up the vac, he was excited to use it, but he noticed that my mom had picked up the wrong size bag.  Since these bags are like $15 or so, he was going to go back to Home Depot to swap it out.  I went with him, because I jump at the rare opportunity to spend some one on one time with my dad.  We arrived, and stepped up to the return desk.  We waited for about 4 minutes, and no one was coming to help us.  I was starting to get impatient, but my father stood there calm as could be.  I told him that I was going to run back to where the bags were, and pick up the right one, so that when we were waited on we would have the item we needed.

I left and went back to aisle 13, picked up the bag for the larger size shop vacs, and returned back to where my father was.  However, now there were 6 people in front of my father, and he was at the end of the line.  I was puzzled.  I asked him what had happened.  He told me that they had moved people from another line that closed over to his line where he was waiting patiently.  I looked at him, and told him “You know, sometimes I think you’re too nice.”  He just smiled and waited patiently for his turn, seemingly not caring that he had to wait.  Sure, it probably frustrated him, but what good was it going to do?

Then I thought of those words that Jesus spoke in his parable of the workers in Matthew19 and  20 – so those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last.

I think of all the times I’ve been impatient, glaring at someone in line for cutting in front of me, becoming impatient with a server at a restaurant, or someone who doesn’t go when the light turns green.  Looking at the positives of this situation, I got to spend a few more moments with my father, and I realize that even though I live 900 miles from him and see him one or two times a year, he continues to teach me.

My goal, for this year, is to be more patient.  I have a lot of situations in my life right now where I need to find more patience.  How will I achieve this?  I plan on reading Matthew 5-7 at least 3 times a week, and preferably more.  The words Jesus spoke in the sermon on the mount have a great ability to calm even the most wound up of people.

 

If you’d like to earn one of these, plus help me earn my next gift, go sign up and register at http://www.YouriPad4free.com/index.php?ref=6495410

So a few months ago, I did something I usually don’t do. I signed up on a website to try to earn a free iPad. Its one of those sites where if you complete a few offers, and get a few friends to complete a few offers, you can earn a free item.

 

I had completely forgotten about it. A few months ago, around October, I signed up for it. I completed my obligatory offer, and then waited.

How it works

1. Companies (like Blockbuster, for example) are looking for new potential customers to try out their products and services.

2. Blockbuster goes to the Bonus Network and says, “Hey, we’ll give you $80 for every customer you send our way to try out our online DVD rental service.” (Some advertisers pay Bonus Network $80, some pay them $40.)

3. So Bonus Network comes to you and says, “If you try out Blockbuster’s service and refer other people to try it through us, or one of our other advertising partner’s services, we’ll split the $80 with you for each person you recruit.”

4. You try out Blockbuster’s service and get 6 other people to try it, too (or another product/service offered through Bonus Network’s site) by giving your friends and family a special link that Bonus provides for you to share. (Of course, your friends can then get people to sign-up under their special link so they can work toward a free prize, too, but know that the people they refer have no benefit for you.)

5. After your 6 friends try a product or service, Bonus Network says, “Thanks! We’ll give you $240 ($40/referral x 6 referrals) or an iPod Touch. Which do you want?”

6. About a week later, your prize shows up in the mail, or your money shows up in your PayPal account.

Here I am, with my iPad in hand!

If you’d like to earn one of these, plus help me earn my next gift, go sign up and register at http://www.YouriPad4free.com/index.php?ref=6495410

I’ll be the first to admit it. When I was growing up, I was a momma’s boy. I loved my mother so very much. I didn’t want to do anything without her. She was a source of comfort and was there for me. There’s a picture of she and I on our front porch swing when we lived on Trinity Circle in Lebanon, TN. Its one of my favorites, and I know one of hers.

My mom has always been very protective of me, and she hated it when I made my first real decision out of college to move to Houston. She supported me, though, and is very encouraging.

My mom is the best cook in the entire world. Being a Home Economics major helped. My favorite dish of hers is her pot roast and her mashed potatoes. Also at the top, as many of my friends from college could attest, would be her homemade chili. I can’t tell you how many she fed with that. My mom is also a great seamstress. She was responsible for sewing the giant bomb costume that John Bates wore in “Canadian Catastrophe, eh?”.

My mom chose a long time ago to stop working when we were in school, and made sure she was there for me. When I came home, she was there, up until High School when she was needing to go back to work. I’ll always value that. She is the wife of an elder and minister, and is a wonderful God fearing woman who has always made sure to put God at the front of our family.

My mom in law, Sue Sims, is also a great mom. She has always been very accepting of me into her family. Even if I drive them crazy sometimes, shes always been kind enough to laugh at my jokes, whether or not they were funny, and she has always been very easy to talk to. Its obvious through the lifestyle that Kristen values that her mother gave her a wonderful upbringing. Josie absolutely adores her “Nanna”, or even as she has been saying recently, “Nanny”. I’m honored to have her as part of my family, and honored that she is the grandmother of my child. Recently, when they came to visit our home, and our Sunday School teacher for Josie’s class woke up sick, she volunteered to teach. She is a Godly woman.

I have to end though, with the best mother in my life, and that is mother of my child, my wife, Kristen.

I will not be with her on Mother’s day. I’m out of town for a bit, and sadly will not get to spend mother’s day with her. However, I am confident in saying there is no better mother than Kristen.

Kristen is so wonderful with children of all ages. She has such a joy in her face when she is around children. However, there is a special joy in her eyes when it comes to Josie.

She’s already responsible for teaching Josie her ABCs, her numbers 1-10, all of her shapes, major colors, and many other things. I sit in awe of Kristen as I see her patiently work with our daughter and many other babies in our church. She is so passionate about making art projects for them all to do.

Josie will learn from her mother how to be a God fearing woman. She will learn that there are many ways she can serve her God. She will learn the power of a praying woman.

Kristen is the epitome of what a mother should be, sacrificing when necessary, praising when deserved, and disciplining when needed. If there were more mothers like Kristen in the world, it would be so much better of a place.

To all mothers everywhere, happy Mothers day. May God continue to bless you all!