14 Years!

This past week my wife and I celebrated 14 years together! Hard to believe it's been 14 years already. Where did the time go? Seems like yesterday we were saying our vows and then celebrated getting married by each of us taking turns at being sick. Yeah, some kind of bacterial parasite from the rehearsal party that waited at least until the day after our wedding to show up. I got it first for a week (good thing we didn't go away anywhere but celebrated our condo that we got with my parents help), Tanya got it the week afterwards. Happy honeymoon right?

So here we are 14 years later, 2 great boys in Seth and Gabe, and we're still making things work out for work and more. For anyone who is not married, don't be deceived, marriage is work. It's a commitment. It's a covenant not to be entered lightly. Yes we love each other, but for those couples who start out and they say "We never fight!" - just wait, it'll come. The key is when you do fight - fight fair. Don't keep a record of wrongs and bring them up over and over, because that's not love - just look at 1 Corinthians 13 for that.

So to celebrate our 14th we went to Fair Havens Bible Centre in Beaverton and had a great time. It was relaxing. The programming hadn't started yet which was actually fine for us, we just needed some time away. We had the kids and it was fun.

So recap - yes, I love my wife Tanya still after 14 years, and still dedicated to her. Am I perfect? Just ask her... :) Have we got this marraige thing all figured out yet? No, but we are working on it together.

God bless!

Our heavenly Daddy?

I know some people will hear this phrase and think I'm being disrespectful to God. Not true. Quite the opposite really. See, Jesus gave us the example in Scripture in calling God the Father by this intimate term "Abba" in Mark 14. This term literally means in our modern English - "Daddy." It's not offensive to call God the Father our heavenly Daddy. In fact, this is really the level of intimacy He wants with us! We're His kids! 

When I was at Bible college, I first heard a guy in group prayer (thanks Keith Wilhelm) start off his prayer with a simple, "Our heavenly Daddy..." It took me off guard, but the more I thought about it, that's how it should be! We could even go simpler with with, "Hey Dad..." in some senses to truly feel that intimate connection, because that's how we would talk to our dads right? How many of us go around talking to our dads like this: Father, how are you doing? Not many. Instead when I talk to my dad I say, "Hey dad!" As a child I said, "Hi daddy!" I wouldn't expect to hear my kids address me so formally as father.

This is the level God the Father wants with us, He wants to be our heavenly Daddy. The question is, will we let Him get that close?