A Week in Fun

While this past week I actually did manage to get work done, I also was able to have quite a bit of fun. First, this past Tuesday I drove up to Pigeon (actually drove up Monday night) to go golfing with my dad and a couple of his buddies. Even though I got pretty sunburned and didn’t win it was still totally worth the trip.

The match was best ball between my dad's team (my dad and Cooper) versus my team (me and Galen). The back story is that every year my dad’s team golfs against Galen and someone else (whom ever my dad gets) and every year my dad loses. So this year I played with Galen, and I’m really not a good golfer by any means. Dad’s team jumps out to a 3 stroke lead after the first 3 holes. With the exception of a stroke gained here lost there the lead remained through hole 13. On hole 14 my team cut the deficit to only 2 strokes and we were feeling pretty good about our situation. Then on hole 15 we quickly gave back the stroke plus one…we were now down 4 strokes with only 3 holes to go. We figured that that ended any hopes of an awesome last minute comeback to win. But then on holes 16 and 17 we gained a stroke on each one leaving only a 2 stroke lead for my dad’s team. Leaving one hole left with a slight chance to comeback (though, if my memory serves me correctly, they hadn’t given us two strokes on a single hole all day).

Now hole 18 I would love to give a blow by blow recap of it, but frankly I just don’t remember how each shot took place. However what I do know is that my team both hit great shots right up near the green while my dad’s team ended up in trouble along the woods with a ditch between them and the hole. When my dad’s partner hit it into the ditch my dad was forced to make the smart decision and play it safe…Galen and I knew we had a chance because it is so difficult to hang onto a lead while having to play it safe. In the end my dad’s team had to make a putt to tie my team…I would have to say that I’ve never been so excited to tie a game in my life.

Then on Thursday I was able to go to the Tigers game against the Rangers. Thank you to Trudi for inviting me to go and to her mom for being able to get such awesome seats for us. Basically Trudi got tickets to the game and invited Sherry, Demoree, and myself to the game. It was a whole lot of fun and I’m actually going to hold off saying too much because I plan on posting more details of the trip once I have acquired pictures from Trudi…so everyone is guaranteed another update shortly.

Blog Update

To start off today I got to go to a baseball game with Demoree, Trudi, and Sherry and I'll be filling in details of that in the near future, but since I don't have some cool picture to put with that post I'll write about something else for today.

Tonight I got thinking about my blog, which I do from time to time. I was reflecting on my lack of updates and the need to put some time towards it. This got me thinking about why I started it in the first place. I started this blog with 2 primary objectives: (1) share some good stories and memories with whom ever is interested in reading them and (2) to have a source to purge out my thoughts on whatever topic is consuming my waking moments.

Overall I would have to say that it has really done a great job with both of my goals. I still have plenty of stories to share but think to date I have included a nice collection of past and present stories. The second objective has worked out incredibly well. Prior to my blog I would be constantly thinking over and over the various issues of some given topic (religion, sports, the existence of God, evolution, scientific theories, etc) and working out my thoughts and views on them. The problem was that once I had really settled my mind on an issue I would be so frustrated since I knew that if I didn't write it down I would just forget how I reached the given conclusion and have to do it all over again in the future. Well with this blog I've been able to take my thoughts, post them, and forget about it for the time being. I would have to say this is the primary motivation for me to update (unless I have pictures for people...stories are just so much better with pictures).

Thus I think the main reason I haven't been updating much recently is that currently my thoughts have been on a bunch of topics/issues with no time focused on one thing. This results on a long list of ideas for updates, but with no clear direction of how I want to write. The good news to those that enjoy reading my blog is that I'm getting back to reading some Clive Staples, which should get my mind more focused and able to sort out details. This should then result in me having topics that I just can't wait to write about.

Happy Birthday Rey

Happy Birthday Day Renee' and Congrats on 30 days of wedded bliss!

Thanks Mom and Dad

It is Father’s Day and so first off happy Father's Day dad. However, since I didn’t write much on Mother’s Day I figured I would take this opportunity to give both my parents some well deserved appreciation.


I’m sure I can speak for Rey and TC when I say that we’ve been so blessed to have such wonderful parents. The three of us have turned out pretty well (if I don’t say so myself…well even if I do I still believe that), and we owe much of it to our parents. I can tell you right now what they would say after reading that (or are saying while reading it), “Oh you guys were just good kids.” Well parents today need to take more responsibility for their children so that means my parents as well.

The more I’ve thought about it the more I realized that they raised us in the same fashion as how God has “raised” humanity, which is probably the reason for their success with us. They made sure that we knew the difference between right and wrong and encouraged us to make wise decisions, but they never forced us to do anything. There was no legalistic approach to raising us…we were to do the right thing not because there was some major consequence if we didn’t but simply because it was the right thing to do.

God has pressed on all of humanity this sense of right and wrong. Currently I’m reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis and the first section of the book focuses on how true this is…I also recommend Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis for those interested in understand the Law of Human Nature. Even though God has told us what is right He doesn’t force us to do it. He actually gives us the freedom to choose to follow or disobey.

This also illustrates the true purpose of the law. It was not for God but for us all along. The list of rules and regulations wasn’t so that God would be happy with us, but that life would be good for us here on earth. The more we follow God’s commands the better our lives are. In the same fashion since my sisters and I have choose to listen to our parent's instructions and learn from them our lives are all the better for it. Paul says it best in Ephesians 6: 1-4.

Ephesians 6:1-4
1Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2“Honor your father and mother” – which is the first commandment with a promise – 3“that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”

This leaves one very important question…if the parents or God know better why don’t they/He just force the children to follow. Well here I guess I have to break up the analogy because while they both have the same result they do have different reasons.

Why doesn’t God force His will on humanity…simply put because he didn’t want toy soldiers. God actually does have the power and ability to force us to do whatever He desires, but His true desire is a loving relationship with us. If He were to give us as much free will as a rock then all he would have are a bunch of robots programmed by Himself to play with. We could never choose to love Him unless we also had the object to reject Him and His will.

On the other hand parents don’t have the power or the means to force their children to do what they say all the time. Some may attempt to impose their will on the children but they are domed to fail and the child will resent them for it. Now I’m not implying that parents shouldn’t discipline their children, but that they should choose the appropriate disciplinary action carefully depending on the child and situation.

I thank my parents for giving us the freedom to make mistakes and learn from them and as a result of it I believe all three of us have a wonder relationship with both parents that is full of love and respect for both sides.

Thanks mom and dad!

Simpsons Wisdom

*During an episode of the Simpsons Bart was about to fail the 4th grade. He had one test that he had to pass to not be left behind. The night before he prays to God to give him one more day so that he could study more. His prayer is answered and he studies hard and ends up getting a D-, which was the bare minimum to pass. Then at the end Homer puts Bart's exam on the frig and says.

Homer: We're proud of you boy.

Bart: Thanks dad but part of this D- belongs to God.