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Back in April I started doing a Josh McDowell devotional with my two teen daughters. The one for April 19th has been my favorite so far.

The title of this devotional was called: More Gladness Than Anyone Else

The verse Josh used was the following.

Psalm 45:7
You love righteousness and hate wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions.

If we love what God loves and hate what God hates we can put ourselves into a place where God can bring us gladness. God wants to be a part of our gladness, but He is unable to bless bad choices. I cannot step outside of His plans, and expect good things to happen.

We had a great discussion on this subject. I asked my daughters if they give God the opportunity to give them gladness by following His precepts. We discussed life choices they can make and if those choices are a part of what God loves or a part of what God hates.

Our prayers for each other that night were good ones.

“God, help us to learn to love what You love, so we can experience the kind of gladness that only You can give.”

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“Dad, I don’t want to pray for myself. I want to pray for the kids in Haiti. Shouldn’t we be praying for them over ourselves?”

Last Thursday my two older girls really frustrated me. I was discussing with them the time we leave the house each morning. If we do not leave by 7:20 I am usually about five minutes late to work. They both looked at me and suggested I just tell my employer that I will be late to work every day because they did not want to be fifteen minutes early to school. When I chided them for suggesting such an idea, they looked at me like I was crazy. They really did not get it.

That day at work I came up with an idea to prove my point. I discussed the idea with my boss and she approved my plan. She agreed to let me be fifteen minutes late to work every day for a week. My plan was simple. I was going to leave the house with the girls at the exact same time (7:40) that the final bell rings. This would put them at school exactly five minutes late every day this week. There would be serious consequences for my girls. Detentions and missed after-school activities would result. I discussed my idea with Julie and she agreed to give it a shot, knowing full well this idea would make for an unbelievably hard week.

During the entire weekend I had this sinking feeling in my stomach that this was not a good idea. It was not until church Sunday morning that I realized the Holy Spirit was trying to tell me to change the plan. We had a special speaker Sunday and he was talking about giants in our lives. He wanted us to identify the giants we were facing and be willing to believe that those giants could be defeated through prayer. By simply getting God involved giants can be defeated.
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The last five years have changed me.

Before 2007 I cannot say I spent much time worrying about the basics. Food, mortgage, car payments and utilities came [relatively] easy. I will spare the gory details. Let us just say that what took me three years to build took the following three years to lose.

In the fall of 2010 I blew the dust off my nursing license, and took a part time job in community mental health. When we moved into the holidays of 2010 I realized that I would have to close my business and full time nursing was my new reality; I would no longer be self employed, and our income was going to get hammered even lower. My nursing license is for Practical Nursing; I am not an RN. Since I had been away from nursing for quite a few years I came back in at the glorious rate of $16.00 an hour. Not enough to cover our budget even though we had no car payments or credit card payments.

We were faced with doing something we had not done in twenty years of marriage. We were going to have to get government assistance with food if we were going to eat. Both of us dreaded the idea of our friends and family catching us at Wal-Mart, pulling out the EBT card to pay for our food. Feeding our family was more important than our pride so we moved forward with the process.
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I was going to name this post: “What is manhood” or “What is manly”

I looked up the definition of these two words and had to change the title. Both of those words, as defined, basically mean: “pertaining to or suitable for males”

This post is not about what men should do that women should not, or cannot, or should not be responsible to do.

I have had this conversation a couple of times with a real good friend of mine from high school. We never came to a mutual agreement on what is manly/manhood because I think we define it differently. I do not separate out the the issue into a male/female issue. I simply ask myself: “What does a responsible man do?” Not: “What does a man do that a woman should not or cannot do?”

So, here is my list (not exhaustive at all) of what a man should do.
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It has only been a week since Tommy Jordan released his youtube video: “Facebook Parenting: For the troubled teen.”

In case you have been under a rock week here is the video.

YouTube Video Link -

I have no interest in analyzing this man’s parenting skills. I think all parents can admit to a time when we have made rash decisions and had second thoughts later. I do not care to debate first or second amendment rights and whether or not this man’s daughter had her rights violated.

The lesson to be learned here is simple. The consequences that can result from our actions are often surprising.

I can sit down to a piece of paper, and write down all the pros and cons surrounding a decision I am about to make. Ultimately I really have no idea what reality my actions may develop into.

Mr Jordan’s daughter never saw this one coming. Apparently she was pretty sure her opinion as expressed on Facebook was hidden from her father’s eyes. Mr Jordan never saw the public reaction coming either. Something he admits himself in a series of facebook statuses you can see HERE.

In a moment of pure frustration that so many of us parents can completely understand Mr Jordan has taught a lesson that everyone would be wise to understand.

Our actions do have consequences, and many times those consequences are far different than we can ever be prepared for.

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My two favorite bible characters are Kind David and Joseph.

One thing about David that I can relate to is his massive mood swings. I do not show my mood swings on the outside. I tend to hold them in. I am very thankful that David did not do the same thing. He laid it all out in the Psalms for us.

I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. (Psalm 27:13 NASB)

David knew all about the highs and lows of life. You can probably say that out of all the bible characters he experienced the highest highs, and the lowest lows.

In his early years, before becoming king, David spent some time running for his life. This was after killing Goliath and basically saving the entire Israelite army from the Philistines. After becoming king David killed Uriah and stole his wife then lost his first born son in infancy.

In reading this verse I am reminded that David believed God for good things both in heaven and on earth. Sometimes I think Christians can get so caught up in how great heaven is going to be that we forget that God has promised us good things here on earth as well.

Andy Andrews comments on life: “We are either going into a crisis, in a crisis or coming out of a crisis!”

Both of these men know that in life we will experience many highs and unfortunately many lows. It is our faith that we will see God’s goodness while here on earth that can sustain our hope.

The challenge is recognizing God’s goodness when we see it.

Photo Credit: Khaz

This last Monday I restarted my daily practice of prayer and bible reading. My favorite verse from the morning has really been on my mind.

Proverbs 9:8
Do not correct a scoffer, lest he hate you; Rebuke a wise man, and he will love you.

At first glance this verse is telling me to be careful of whom I try to rebuke (or correct). If I chose a scoffer I will become hated by this person. If I choose a wise man I will have a friend and someone who loves me. Apparently, I should choose wisely.

I came to the realization that I needed to take this verse deeper and ask myself: “Which person am I?”

How do I respond to rebuke? Am I defensive? Do I respond in such a way that tells others to write me off as someone whom cannot be corrected? Imagine the trouble I could get myself into if I was not correctable.

On the other hand, what If I respond to correction in love? Can I step back from myself and evaluate my behaviors and actions openly? Am I willing to change based on the correction of other Godly men and women? This verse says that someone whom responds in love to correction is wise.

This verse is not asking me to find a wise person to correct.

This verse is asking me if I am found wise enough, by others, to be correctable.

Photo Credit: s_eventh

Two weeks ago we took our first General Psychology test. This past Tuesday we were given our grades and spent the class time going over the test as a group.

I was a little nervous going into the class. I really had no clue on how well I had done. It has not taken me long to get real pessimistic when it comes to tests. So far this year I am not doing so well. Early in the semester my instructor explained to us that she is not a very big fan of tests: “I do not feel like tests accurately reflect your knowledge level.” I tend to agree with her but not because I hate taking tests. Let me explain.

Here is the problem with most tests I have experienced this year. They are written by humans. As the test writer it is easy to assume you are a good teacher. You naturally want to tell yourself: “Hey, I’m pretty good at conveying this information. I am an expert in this field. I’m sure my students understand this material quite well. After all, I taught it to them!” I do this all the time when it comes to computers and web stuff. When I am helping someone via email or telephone I sometimes get frustrated when the person on the other end is not grasping the material. “I am good at this stuff and I am a good teacher”, I tell myself. Just because I know the material does not mean I am a good teacher, and being a good teacher does not mean I am always delivering material well. Again, I am just human and cannot create the perfect learning environment.

Our instructor walked into the room and explained what we would do.

“We will go through the test one question at a time, and discuss what I was thinking and what you were thinking. Depending on how the conversation goes I will credit points back to you.”

The room got instantly quiet; she had our full attention. She handed out our tests and I found myself with a 78%.

“Many of you will see your grade increase dramatically after the review.”

“Wow, my instructor is actually inviting us to argue with her”, was the thought going through my head.

The next 45 minutes was some of the most engaging class time I have ever experienced. As we went through each question my instructor would pause on the ones that seventy to eighty percent of us missed; we would discuss them at length. She would explain what she was asking with the question, and what the correct answer should have been and why. On the questions where the majority of us got it wrong she would throw it out completely, making notes to herself on how to better write the question next time, or more thoroughly teach the content next time. When we were done fourteen points were awarded back to me and I ended up with a 92% for the exam.

As an educator (everyone is an educator) we all have to remember that we are still learning. But, learning about our specialty is only half of the equation. The other half is the journey to become a better educator. I good great educator will score themselves just as often as they score their students. A good great educator knows a classroom has two people groups being educated; the student and the teacher. A good great educator knows test questions can often be flawed. A good great educator is willing to examine their own strengths and weaknesses, and be willing to admit them to anyone trying to learn in the environment they have created.

The best educators know we are all in the process of learning, regardless of our official roles.

Photo Credit: nadi0

I do not like the idea of the Government bothering business. I do not believe that tax breaks are some kind of favor. The Government letting a business keep more of its money does not equal charity.

These mega companies are backing politicians into a corner. They sit on billions of dollars in profit while their customer base struggles to scrape money together every week. I feel like I am being held at gun point by grocery stores, oil companies and insurance carriers. These are not optional items. Food has gone up $200 a month for us in just the last couple of years and gasoline has gone up $300 a month over that same period. There is nothing I can do about it. We cannot quit eating or driving.

At one of my part time jobs I am making pretty good money. Five years ago this was more than enough to provide for my family. Unfortunately this income does not hold up anymore and I am forced to achieve advanced degrees to get us back on our feet. I am fighting like heck to stay ahead of a tsunami.

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I went a lot of years without being in orientation at a new job. I ran Builders Installation Group for over seven years. Prior to that all I had were jobs for small businesses where there really was not any kind of orientation.

During the last two weeks I have been orientating at the Jackson Counter Department of Corrections. There is a whirlwind of information to process as a nurse in this environment. If you are new to corrections like I am it is a little overwhelming. There is a lot of protocol to follow to maximize safety.

“Never turn your back on an inmate”

“Follow, do not lead”

“Stay in the yellow area when passing out medications”

The med pass alone takes two to four hours depending on the cart and your experience level. The nurses play doctor most of the time. We do all the assessments and decide which ‘program’ to put the inmate on for all kinds of problems. The facility only has one RN per shift and the three LPNs pass all the medications and do the majority of the medical upkeep.

I am an LPN but last Friday I was supposed to be following the RN so I could get an understanding of what they did for their twelve hour shift. I arrived at the nurses office and found we had an extra RN and were short an LPN. One of the RNs looked at me with puppy dog eyes and asked, “I’ve never passed meds before. Will you do it? I’ll go with you.” I answered her in the affirmative even though I had only passed medications once so far. Apparently orientation is over.

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