This past Sunday, I shared a visual about how to mark time with your kids.  This image of a jar with marbles marking the time (weeks) left before Hannah turns 18 frightens me.  I guess, because I am questioning what I did with the first 11 years.  Maybe your jar has more marbles, or maybe your jar is already empty because your kids are grown and gone.  Whatever the case, just know that God does not want us to live in fear or regret.  (Matthew 6:25-34) A good dose of reality is good if it leads us to now do something about it. 

• What conversation do you need to have with your child?
• What do you need to do with your child before they leave your home?
• What will your child remember from living in your home?
• What do you need to do this Saturday with your marble?

Here on Friday afternoon, I am looking across the room at the jar of marbles representing Hannah. 

What will I do with my marble this week?

All this talk about parenting has made me realize once again that the most important relationship in my home is with my wife.  The best way I can love my daughters is to love their mother first.  I need to love Pam with words and with actions.  In putting her first, and building her up, I am actually loving my children more.  It will help them see that they are important, but not the center of our home.  It will reveal to them what love is, and it will model for them how to be loved in the days to come. 

On August 1st, Pam and I will be celebrating 16 years of marriage.  Every year is better than the one before.  I am so grateful that Pam continues to say “I do” to me.  I want to confess that I have not been the best the past few years in making things special for my wife.  I have deceived myself into thinking that Pam understands how crazy things are right now, and so I keep taking her granted.  Well this year, I wanted to do something more so I strategically planned to surprise her one week before our anniversary.  I decided to sneak her away for a quick trip to New York City for a day and half.  This week Hannah was at children’s camp, and a family allowed our other two to stay at their home for two nights built the perfect scenerio to get away!

Tuesday morning, we left the house at 5:00am to head north.  Everything seemed to be working perfectly.  We even made it smoothly around DC and then through Baltimore.  Until…..

Booooooooooom!!!!!!!!  My back tire blew out.  I navigated the car to the off-ramp exit.  It took me about 30 minutes to get the shreaded tire off so I could replace it with a spare (I guess I won’t get a job with Nascar anytime soon).  My hands were now dirty from the exchange, and my Ford Explorer smelled like burnt rubber, the trip continued.  Still rattled from the whole event, I took a wrong turn and ended up in Philadelphia.  Traffic then came to a stand still.  After two hours of detour, we ended up in our destination, NYC. 

The good news is that the rest of the trip was great!  I loved being with just Pam.  We really enjoyed the time, the food, and the experience together.  We both confessed that we need to spend more time developing our relationship.  It is scary how quickly time can pass, but also how easy it is to take each other for granted.

I am just blessed at this hour that the blow out was on my car instead of my marriage.  Praying for you, so please pray for me.

“Impress them upon your children.  Talk about them when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Deuteronomy 6:7

Teachable moments arrive when we are looking to lead our children.  I wanted to start a list to get each other thinking about these moments.  I know I only have 19 readers out there so we need everyone to add few more teachable moments.  Here are a few places where teachable moments happen for the Gaston’s.  Look forward to hearing yours

• Reading
• Playing Wii
• Board Games
• Sports
• Going to the park
• Movies
• Swimming 
• Dance Recitals
• Washington Nationals Baseball game
• Water skiing
• Watching Little House on the Prairie
• Going to the beach

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Matthew 16:24

“The last will be first, and the first will be last.” Matthew 20:16

“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 14:11

“Love your neighbor as yourself.” Mark 12:31

Taken from Parenting by the Book by John Rosemond

• People with high self esteem tend to have low self control.
• People who are locked up in maximum prison score high on self-esteem assessment than any other group.
• To love God with all one’s heart, mind, and strength means to put aside any idolatries, including self.
• Over the past 40 years of promoting self esteem has taken precendence over promoting academic excellence, the self control of America’s kids has taken a nosedive.
• Self esteem –> entitlement, lack of self control

Late last night, I was sitting on my couch watching the All Star Homerun Derby on ESPN.  I did not have any real vested interest, but I tuned in to see what might happen in the last All-star game played in Yankee stadium.  There were 10 batters from 10 different teams competing for prize.  The contest allows each batter remain at bat until they have 10 non-homeruns.  I wasn’t expecting what I saw at the end of the first round.  The 10th batter was Josh Hamilton from the Texas Rangers (I know what you were thinking), but what he did next was amazing!  His story: he was orginally drafted by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, but then never played due to drugs.  He almost ruined his life, and then he walked away from his dream for three years.  This year he was selected for the All-Star game, and also for the Homerun Derby.  Earlier this week, he shared that he had a dream about this moment.  He even described this event in details.  Check out what happened next: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/allstar08/news/story?id=3487640        

When he finished this record first round, they interviewed him live on ESPN, and then he shared about his dream.  He shared that he restoration is due to his relationship with Jesus Christ.  Not once, but three times.  He believes that the world needs to know that life is only found in Jesus.  I never expected to see Jesus in the line-up.  “Da na na na Da na na na”!!!!