Well this morning I walked Abbie into her first day of first grade. A college friend of mine Twittered me the other day to question me about whether we were actually old enough to have kids going to first grade. Well, here’s the proof.

Right now I am chewing on this…

We can be defensive about the idea that we are hypocritical.  We can ignore it.  Yet, what if culture’s accusations of hypocrisy are God’s way of waking us up to the overwhelming needs of others?  What if he is using our culture to make us aware of our hollow religiosity and empty answers?

from UnChristian (pg. 60)

Wow…my heart hurts.

Ok, so Vince, I started reading your book a while back and am just getting around to finish it.  Not because I haven’t been interested in it, but because things have been busy.  The book has really been hitting me hard here.  So in honor of you, Vince, here’s today’s post…

Are you like me? Do you love the good quotes? Well, love this one:

And so we yearn.  We crave compassion.  That someone would understand and still care.  We ache for healing.  We long for contact.  Not just the feel of skin on our skin but the caress of compassion, a hand that can bring healing.  We all echo those words: Touch me, I’m sick.

Vince Antonucci, “I Became a Christian and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt”

Bluefish TV has started something that I am super excited about.  It is called The Small Group Exchange.  It is designed for the average small group leader who is looking for resources.  Not only does this website have product reviews and how-to articles to help in your leadership, but it is also a one-stop-shop for purchasing these resources.  Over the course of the next few months they will be rolling out more leadership articles by contributors from small group ministries all over the U.S. and I was fortunate to be one of them!  If you lead small group leaders or lead a small group, you should check out the Small Group Exchange!

I was reminded today of a question I heard Mark Batterson ask back in May.  He said, “When was the last time you confessed the smallness of your dreams?”  He later said, “We find ourselves in danger when we start doing ministry out of memory instead of imagination.”

Dreams are important.  God has always given his people dreams.  He wants to bring those dreams to life through us.

Heather Zempel works with Mark at National Community Church as the Discipleship Pastor.  Last week on her blog she said,

A few years ago, I prayed a prayer that I was reminded of recently. Our staff was praying about the future of NCC, and I prayed that God would “make us a dream factory.” I desired that we would dream the dreams of God’s heart for our city and the people he was bringing to us.

I want to dream the dreams of God’s heart!  I want my heart to beat in tandum with God’s.  I want to chase after what God is chasing after.  I want to “dream the dreams of God’s heart” for MY city.  How many of us are doing that?  I am.

Spiritual growth is important.  One of the things that just irks me is when folks who have been in the church forever are complaining that they aren’t being fed.  Well, the question is, whose responsibility is that, really?

I am not going to regurgitate here, I will just lead you to Pete’s post. He does a fabulous job of communicating this issue.  Check it out.

I am posting this from my brand new iPhone 3G! This is one of the coolest gadgets I have ever had my hands on. I will post later my impressions overall in a week or so.

One of the other ways I protect my wife is by NOT telling her everything that is going on at the church.  Now, some of you might think I am keeping things from her, and you’re right, I am.  Why?  Because I value our relationship too much to get her all worried about things she doesn’t need to worry about.

I tell her everything that she needs to know about.  I share with her things I need to confide in her.  I see her as my greatest support in this endeavor of bringing Christ to the world.  BUT, people can be hurtful.  Church people can be some of the most damaging and destructive in the world.  To me, when you share these people’s hurtful comments you are giving them an audience and my family doesn’t need to be that audience.

As her husband, one of my greatest responsibilities is to protect my wife.  I see myself as the armed guard assistant to Christ outside of Katie’s heart.  She has given me her heart and I have to protect it from outside forces that I bring into the equation due to what I do for a living.  I also have to protect her heart by keeping myself pure in our relationship.  That is why I have set up the safeguards in my life mentioned in yesterday’s post.  My wife hasn’t asked me to do any of this.  God has.  I open my life up to her because we are one.  I can’t think of my life as a separate entity anymore because God says, we have become one.

Join the conversation, what are some safeguards in your marriage?

The longer I am in ministry, the more I need safeguards to protect the most important relationships in my life.  Lately I have read a lot on how, when, and why guys out there set up guidelines on themselves to protect their marriages.  I have been thinking about the things I do to protect my wife from many things.  So I am going to do a couple posts highlighting some of the things I do to protect Katie.

First, let me say that it was a process for me to grow up in my relationship with my wife.  It took some time for me to understand that my choices didn’t just affect me anymore.  Over time I have settled into a groove in how I protect myself and my wife in the choices I make in dealing with others of the opposite sex and other situations where I am aware that she worries.

1.) I NEVER ride alone in a vehicle with a member of the opposite sex who isn’t my wife, mother, or mother-in-law.

Why?  Because it is just stupid.  People see me out and about all the time.  If I don’t do it, I don’t have to answer questions.  Plus, I don’t leave myself vunerable to my darkside.  I will get to that later in the week.

2. I never counsel women with my office door closed, offsite, or when there aren’t others in the building.

Doesn’t that make it inconvient for those needing counseling?  Yes.  Do I care, no.  My ministry and marriage depend on it.  If I have to schedule a counseling appointment after office hours, I ask my wife to come to the building with me.

3. I never eat a meal out by myself with a member of the opposite sex.

This just screams impropriety.

4. My wife has uncensored access to my laptop and email accounts.

The biggest reason for this is, my wife is my best judge of other women’s motives.  She can best warn me of a “needy” female who might be latching on to me because I am a leader. Also, see dark side comment in #1.

5. I always have my cell phone on, with me, and try whenever possible, to answer Katie’s call.

I check in with my wife more than any other person.  I try to let her know where I am, where I am heading and what I am doing so she always knows what is going on.  This is the easiest thing I can do to protect myself and our relationship against lots of things.  Many of you are probably thinking the worst here, don’t.  My wife is a worrier.  If she can’t get me on the phone, she frets over whether I am dead in a ditch somewhere.  If she knows that I am getting my haircut and it has been two hours since she has heard from me, she worries that something is wrong.  I can put her mind at ease if she knows my cell is charged, on, and that I will answer it whenever possible.

What are you doing to protect your most valuable relationships?

Overall I would say we had a pretty good weekend:

• Friday night we hung out at our office manager’s home.  We picked blackberries (nothing better in the summer than fresh and free blackberries), ate pizza together, and talked about life.
• Saturday we did some various yardwork and resting.
• Watch some of the Hanna Montana/Miley Cyrus concert on Disney Channel with the kids Saturday night.  That is, until Abbie got mad when she realized that 3D didn’t mean Miley Cyrus would be REALLY performing in our living room.
• Our almost 4 year old, Peyton is going through a phone phase right now.  I think he called both sets of grandparents and his Uncle Jonathan and Aunt Patty this weekend without permission, multiple times.
• One of the folks at church blessed us Sunday with a cash gift for lunch.
• We ate at Don Pablo’s…I love that place and kids eat free on Sundays this summer.
• I spent some time with a family from our church who experienced a tragedy in their lives this week.  Pray for them - would you?
• Went to the pool with the entire family Sunday afternoon…it was a blast!
• Ate at the Igloo, a frozen custard place here in town.  Good food in that outdoor patio, carhop kind of style.
• Watched the movie “Definitely Maybe” with Katie last night.  Pretty good movie, for a chick flick.  Still want to see Batman…maybe the willingness to watch the chick flick movie with Katie will get me points for Batman.

Like I said, good weekend.  Mondays are my days off right now and that means the weekend continues.  Today we have dentist appointments, haircuts, and pottery painting planned.  Looking forward to it!  I love spending time with my family.