Wow… I can’t imagine a more positive-sounding and frankly terrible definition of love. That would make for a pretty miserable life. I’m not saying that you can’t be happy that someone you love is happy, but you can love someone and not have their emotions entirely determine yours. By this definition, you can’t love someone that can’t be happy, because the goal of love is to make you feel happy. Love is so much bigger than that and so much more powerful.

Tim and Beth have been super sweet to her, helping her walk and being great older siblings. I’m so proud to be a father of such great kids.

That evening, my wife stopped me. “Mark, did you use my loofa this morning?”

Nervously, I looked around.

“Uh…”

Her eyes widened.

“Oh my goodness! You’re a loofa lover!”

Now, I’ll have you know that I’ve made fun of Andrea for using a loofa. It seems like something completely unneeded and not all that helpful. Well, I have to take it all back now. I thoroughly enjoyed using a loofa. I’m sure that makes me less of a man and some sort of metrosexual weirdo with no hope of raising proper children, but I’m not sure I care all that much. It’s about 100 times easier to wash your whole body with a loofa than with your hands or even a wash rag and ends up using very little soap. I think my shower times have been cut in half. On top of that, my wife likes the way I smell because, I believe, the loofa is actually more effective.

Ah… a weight lifted… a secret unhidden

I have no desire to convert the world, but I’m definitely converted. To those of you that can’t look at me the same way now–don’t knock it till you try it.

That’s how we spent our 8th anniversary last night… and it was awesome. I highly recommend it.

Here’s to 80 more.

My parents came in on Sunday and so we decided to make burgers for them on the new grill. Turned out great and we had a good time visiting. The kids love seeing their grandparents.

On Monday, we went to a friend’s house for a Memorial Day Backyard BBQ with 80 of their closest friends and neighbors. It was incredible. They had a bounce house for the kids, a big playset, a couple of grills with sausage and hot dogs as well as some AWESOME grilled corn. The pulled pork sandwiches were great too. We made home-made Cookies and Cream to take and that was certainly a hit. Timothy thought about getting a brownie instead, but ultimately opted for the ice cream. Smart kid.

Our whole small group was there, including Rich, who got off a plane about 3 hours early after being gone since March (!) — it was awesome to see.

All in all… lots of grilling and lots of good food, friends, and family. And now summer begins.

It’s so great to be a dad of such a great little girl. Happy Birthday, sweetheart.

Because of how our church changed things around this year, I was leading a new group that signed up and committed to a single 12 week semester. I found it to be intimidating, but also very motivational to have a clear beginning and end of a time together.

And there was so much growth! Several of the couples took significant spiritual steps and really stepped out in their faith. It was incredible to see. As a result of their example, I felt so encouraged to grow myself–and did! I looked forward to every single Tuesday night and feel like these people are certainly close friends now.

It’s interesting. As we go through these times in our lives, having people along side us just makes a difference. They prop us up when we don’t know the answer. They comfort us when we just need to let out some grief. They encourage us when we’re down. They celebrate with us when we’re excited. It makes me realize why the church is important at all–it’s not because the church is always “right”–but because Christian community is an incredible context in which to grow. When we step out of that context, we often flounder. Sometimes we get to the point that we get stable again, but without real Christian community, we wither. I’ve seen it in friends. I’ve seen it in myself. The awesome thing is that we don’t have to stay withered.

These last twelve weeks have been awesome and I am thoroughly looking forward to leading this group in the summer semester as well. Here’s to more spiritual growth.

We had a great (but short) weekend trip to my parents on Friday and Saturday.   Besides getting to have home-made cinnamon rolls, home-made burgers, and home-made chicken-fried-steak (YUM), the kids had an awesome time running around the back yard and doing Pop and Nana-style things.

The best part was when we were driving up.   Timothy would ask how much further it was and we would always answer “10 more miles!”   A little while later, when we were only a few minutes away from my parents house, we said “2 more miles” and his face lit up.   He was SO excited to see his grandparents and SO sad to have to leave the next day.  I don’t remember having that experience when going to see my grandparents because they didn’t have big yards and they didn’t play with me much… it makes me so happy to know my kids get to experience that with all THREE sets of grandparents they have.

Now, if only the grandparents were a bit CLOSER

We had a blast shooting pellet guns, climbing rock walls, going off zip lines, paddling canoes, balancing 5 men and 4 boys on a small platform, hiking and throwing rocks in the lake.  It was certainly a busy day.  But the best part was hanging out with my dad and his cooking.  He cooked a cherry pie (I don’t even like cherry pie!) on Friday night and it was GREAT.  Something about cooking on campouts that’s just better.  And on Saturday, we made homemade Butterfinger and Oreo ice cream in a hand-crank freezer.   It was awesome.  We walked around the camp dishing out as much as we could to volunteer staff and other campers.  Easily the highlight of the weekend for me.

The highlight for Timothy, though, was catching 2 fish.  He walked around the lake with Pop and asked another camper who was fishing if he could try.  In 5 minutes, he caught 2 of them, reeled them in and “touched their eyeball!” (he was excited about that part).   I missed it, but saw the pictures.   I’m sure he’ll be talking about fishing for the next year like he talked about zip lines for the last 12 months.

It’s great to spend time as guys together.   Even as an adult, I love spending time with my dad–I hope my son can say the same thing in 25 years.

I’m heading camping with my son and my dad tonight, so we had a little “birthday celebration” last night. Andrea and I have recently thought that it’s silly that we GET things on our birthday… seems like we should be GIVING, so last night I invited a bunch of friends from our small group up to Baskin Robbin’s and bought one of every flavor (Technically they have 32, but who really considers No-sugar-added Pineapple Coconut a flavor? Yick!).

We didn’t even finish ‘em all, but it was a very, very fun evening. Everyone hung out and ate ice cream. Can you ask for something better than that? Nope, don’t think so.

This last year has probably been the best year of my life. My marriage is the best it has ever been. My kids are great. My work is going wonderfully, but hasn’t taken over my life. My relationship with God is growing deeper and stronger. Despite several major issues that happened in this last year, I can’t help but feel like life really came together for us.

To more years like this one.

When I got home, the kids were ecstatic to see me before lunch.   We chilled out for a bit and then got in the car and headed to Freebirds.  I guess Andrea didn’t want to offend the cows at Chick-fil-A, so she insisted that we wait to head over there for the kids until after she’d finished her burrito.  Let me tell you, she is a SLOW eater, but we got there.   The kids had a good time and we ended up just playing and having a good day for the rest of the afternoon.

We went to the Good Friday service and saw the price Jesus paid for us all on the screen as images from various depictions of the crucifixion showed on the screen.   Timothy and I couldn’t help but be okay with it, though.   Timothy turned to me and said “They thought they could kill Him, but they were wrong.”  Such a neat kid.

This morning we got up and went to an Easter Egg Hunt and the kids got loaded up with candy.  They had such a fun time running around!   The City of Round Rock does a great job putting it on and it was very organized and fair.  When we were done, though, the kids were already tired–but that was just the beginning to a crazy day!

We got home, dyed some eggs and got the bug to head to some home-improvement stores.   We went to Lowe’s and bought paint for the kids rooms and then to Home Depot to buy some stuff for the yard.  I ended up getting my birthday present which was a Webber 22″ Grill.   Our old grill was given to us by my parents and it served us well, but it had been used quite a bit and over exposed to the elements and it was time for a new one.  I thought this looked like a good choice, so I got it.

When we got home, I spent an hour or so fixing up the yard with stuff I’d purchased at Home Depot and then went to put the grill together.  When it was done I was so excited that I just had to grill on it!  I got some burgers together and put them on.  Let me tell you, 25 minutes later we had some of the best burgers I’ve ever made.   The size of the grill was so perfect that it cooked the meat VERY evenly.   It was also a BREEZE to clean up after.   I told Andrea that if she wanted to put “Grilling Out” into the weekly rotation of dinners, I was 100% up for it

After that we hung out, visited some neighbors and got ready for tomorrow.   Bethany got all dolled up and looks SO CUTE.  We’re hoping it looks at least 60% this cute in the morning:

Tomorrow we’ll spend from 7:15 to 12:15 at the church, trying to reach people who may only come to a church service once or twice a year out of tradition.  I know we’re seeing the death of Christianity in America, which is expected, historically, but man–I am hoping that the little part of the world around me might see some of that trend reversed.   Can’t do much about the rest of it, but I can take responsibility for the people I know.   I want everyone I know to have the chance to know what the Gospel has to say and have an honest chance to say “yes” or “no” to it.

So, tomorrow we’ll be singing “Hosannas” and “Hallelujahs” to worship the King who died and rose again.   I’ll be hoping for my kids and the people I love to be affected by the power of the message.