David’s Bucket

I’m back in the office today after being out for a week of vacation and spending all last week working on my paperwork for the Board of Ordained Ministry. I will have my final interview with this committee in April before hopefully being ordained this June. This is the final step in the process of becoming a Full Elder in the United Methodist Church and the paperwork I worked on last week is my part of preparing for that interview.

As I get back up and rolling in the office this week, I’ll be sharing some of my favorite pictures from the Holiday season this week. I bought my wife a new digital camera she can keep in her purse. She captured some great images!

I’ll begin with my favorite… This was the real joy of the last two weeks!

As the year draws to a close, I thought I would post some of my favorite pics from this past year. I’m also working on a super secret Christmas project which involves photos, so I couldn’t resist sharing some of these.

This is Anna helping out with Thanksgiving Dinner. She was so proud of being able to contribute to this year’s meal.

This is a picture of Jack taken about 11:30 p.m. one night when he decided that sleep was not in his plans. We stayed up together and watched football for about 30 minutes before he fell back asleep. Cropped out of this photo is mom sound asleep on the bed next to us.

There are few things as beautiful as the sounds of your children’s laughter.

Jack showing off his “guns”

This is a picture of Anna taken at my Uncle’s pool. Summer time is pool time and both our kids couldn’t get enough of it this year!

This picture is of Jack wearing one of the outfits I wore at his age. My mom keeps everything which means a crammed pack garage but also allows pretty neat pictures like this one.

A picture of Anna from our family photo session with my parents this fall. Anna was pretty excited about this “photo shoot.”

Another picture of Jack wearing a shirt his daddy wore many years ago.

Halloween! Tigger and Woody!

My little girl is growing up too fast…

I think this is my favorite picture of Jack… the awe and wonder of a 15 month old boy seeing Christmas lights…

Our Christmas Card photo this year… No words to express the joy this picture brings me…

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I posted two things on Facebook today that got some funny comments.

Here’s the first one…

The intervention has begun… no more pacifier for Jack.

Funniest comment: We told Molly and Maggie they were going to leave their pacifiers for Santa to take to kids who need them. It didn’t help much.

The second one…

Cowboys have only beat one opponent with a record above .500. Forget the Cowboys, come to church instead.

Best response: I bet most people will TiVo it and still be at church. The Cowboys need our prayers anyway.

At this moment, the Cowboys have actually decided to show up to play this game… We’ll see how it turns out.

The pacifier intervention is going as expected.

Today, I wanted to share with you the newsletter article my Dad wrote for his church a few weeks ago. [For those who don't know, Mike is my Dad. Kathy is my mom]

I hope you experienced a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends last week. We had one of those “moments” at our family Thanksgiving table. Of course, there are all kinds of “moments,” some good and others not so good. Thankfully, we had one of those good moments.

We have a large number of  folks at our Thanksgiving table. We gather at Kathy’s parent’s house. That includes all of her siblings and their children and grandchildren. For the last several years I have brought my dad to share in the day. For most years, Mike, the preacher, prays the prayer. Or, sometimes it is one of our kids. We really love it when our beautiful granddaughter, Anna, leads us in one of her prayers she learns at church. We were trying to coax her to pray when the moment happened, just all of a suddern, right out of the blue, as they say.

“Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed by thy Name…”

My father began the Lord’s Prayer and in a few moments, the family joined in. That was our “grace” at Thanksgiving. He prayed most of it from memory, although there is so mch he does not remember. You know my father; I have spoken of his faithful Christian witness often. He is 95, has lived with Alzeimer’s for at least 15 years, and he does not always remember all his family. But he knows old songs, he knows Scripture, and he knows the prayer Jesus taught his disciples.

That was a “moment” but not the only one. We were deeply touched when a good friend shared a poem she wrote about my father. I guess facebook is a pretty neat thing after all.

Jack

Sitting in the place you now call home

What do you see?

What do you hear?

Who do you know?

Family comes, you smile.

Music plays, you dance.

Sitting in a place called church

What do you see?

What do you hear?

Who do you know?

Scripture is read, you remember.

Hymns are played, you sing.

Sitting at the Thanksgiving table

What do you see?

What do you hear?

Who do you know?

People talk, you listen.

Heads bow, you pray.

Looking at Jack

What do we see?

What do we hear?

Who do we know?

We see our Dad, our Papaw, and a Precious Child of God.

We hear voices of the past. Words of wisdom, words of prayer, words of love.

We know a man filled with the grace of God. A man who lead by example. A man called Dad, Papaw, and Precious Child of God. And God knows Jack and holds him in the palm of his hand.

During our Thanksgiving Dinner, my daughter commented to me several times, “I helped make that Daddy.” It was really neat to hear the pride in her voice because she was able to help prepare the meal this Thanksgiving.

Jack wanted to help, but he was too busy playing in the yard!

Today, my wife turns 31! Happy Birthday Honey!

Here’s a pic from our family birthday dinner last Friday night at Hoffbrau Steakhouse!

This past April, my wife and I and our daughter Anna took a road trip to Kansas City to attend worship at The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection. We had a great time together and had the opportunity to attend 3 of the weekend worship services at Church of the Resurrection, which is the largest United Methodist Church in the country. It was a “scouting” trip for me which means that the reason for my visit was simply to observe and learn from a sister Church, but I was given an unexpected gift during that visit.

The weekend that we were in worship, Adam Hamilton opened up a new sermon series on parenting, and during that first message he shared a practice that he had implemented into his life as a Dad. Each year on his children’s birthday, Adam writes a letter to his children in which he reminisces on that particular year of their life and takes the time to identify ways in which he has seen them growing in their life and faith.

I personally was brought to tears as Adam talked about how important this practice has been to him in his role as a Dad. In talking about the role he plays in his children’s lives, he said, “I was so scared because I couldn’t imagine failing at this… because this is the most important thing in my life.” It was a moving experience for me to hear Adam, a pastor I deeply respect and admire, talk about that which is most precious to him.

So last week, when my son turned one, I began a new practice in my life… a birthday letter for my son. I’m sure one day I will have to explain to my daughter why she didn’t get her first birthday letter until she turned six [in January of 2010] and her brother got one on his first birthday. I am a little late with her, but I do look forward to sharing this gift with my children. As Adam shared in his message, “I don’t expect them to appreciate this gift every year of my life, but one day, when I’m gone, I know they will treasure these words from their Dad.”

Here’s what I shared with Jack on his first birthday.

If you’re child’s birthday is coming up and you cannot figure out what gift to give… how about a letter from you?