My cool daughter Kassi

Our internet connection was down the other day and Kassi saw Kim's computer on so this is what she did.  She opened Word and commenced to typing.  I was laughing pretty hard by the time I got finished.  What do you think?

So our wireless was down so I got bored and started writing. And now you’re reading. Let us ask ourselves, why? Why am I writing and you are reading? Why are you reading this in my voice? Why are you not creeped out yet? 

What is our place in the universe? Why can’t you wear white after Labor day? What is wrong with my font? what is this witch craft? There, much better. 

Oh gosh now it’s red. Why is it red? Red is the color of blood, what sign is this? Is there an ax murderer waiting for me in my shower? 

Doesn’t matter, I always check first. Why do girls that wear no clothes get more likes on facebook than cute puppies and babies? Why can’t I get my braces off yet? WHY ARE YOU STILL READING? 

Why am I even asking questions in the first place? Why do I have no life so I sit here and type things to no one? Is it because I can’t run or play basketball and my mind is starting to go? Of course it is. 

What if I took up knitting? Does this hurt your eyes? Hahaha I bet it does! Burn baby burn! This is the type of thing I would do if Meghan were here. But I don’t have friends over because I’m a hermit. Why am I a hermit? What is a hermit? Who came up with the name “Hermit”? It certaintly wasn’t a hermit, he never would have unzipped his full-body sweater long enough to explain it. 

Why don’t I go do something productive? Why don’t YOU go do something productive instead of sitting here reading this? Huh? 

DOES IT SOUND LIKE I’M YELLING NOW? I BET IT DOES. WAAAAHHHH. 

You know, punctuation is a beautiful thing. It saves lives, it does. It’s the difference between, “Let’s eat, Grandma!” and, “Let’s eat GRANDMA!”  Poor grandma. I would never treat my grandmother like that. Would you? I bet if you’re still reading you would. 

Grammar is a cool thing too. It’s the difference between knowing your crap, and knowing you’re crap. Yeah, I went there. 

You know what gets on my nerves? No you don’t so I’m about to tell you. DON’T EX OUT OF THE PAGE NOW I WANNA TELL MY STORY. YOU’VE BEEN READING THIS LONG. KEEP PRESSING ON YOU WIMP. 

Anyway, what gets on my nerves is the people who tlk lyke diis and Xpect u 2 take dem siriusly.

Like dude, warn me next time before you have a seizure on your keyboard and I’ll go offline. You are not gangster. You are not ghetto. You are not “she knoww she bhadd” or whatever that is, so yeah. 

Why are you still reading this? Are you not bored yet? Oh, wait , I told you to keep reading didn’t I? See I’m just too lazy to use the backspace bar. Yeah, so I’m going to go do something productive now. Hope you enjoyed reading what went through my head for the past 10 minutes. 

These are random thoughts from Kassi.  Not a lot about Jesus here but this is what my kid does when she's bored.  I'm pretty proud of her!!

God loves you and I do too! 

Names of God Wednesday Lesson

I spoke at church last night and here is the outline I used talking about some of the names of God. I love the story about Paul and the nameless or unknown God (Acts 17:22-26) but the fact is we know that God has a name. He told Moses he "I AM". There is a deep study just on that name and maybe I will share my opinions here some day. Would be too long to get into AND to list my outline for this blog. This study talks about some of the names in which people of the bible, through God's inspiration, addressed God.

Names of God: 

"ELOHIM"  is the first name for God found in the Bible, and it's used throughout the Old Testament over 2,300 times. Elohim comes from the Hebrew root meaning "strength" or "power", and has the unusual characteristic of being plural in form. In Genesis 1:1, we read, "In the beginning Elohim created the heaven and the earth." Right from the start, this plural form for the name of God is used to describe the One God, a mystery that is uncovered throughout the rest of the Bible. 

Throughout scripture, Elohim is combined with other words to describe certain characteristics of God. Some examples: 
Elohim Kedem - God of the Beginning: (Deuteronomy 33:27). 
Elohim Mishpat - God Of Justice: (Isaiah 30:18). 
Elohay Selichot - God Of Forgiveness: (Nehemiah 9:17). 
Elohay Marom - God Of Heights: (Micah 6:6).
Elohay Mikarov - God Who Is Near: (Jeremiah 23:23). 
Elohay Mauzi - God Of My Strength: (Psalm 43:2). 
Elohay Tehilati - God Of My Praise: (Psalm 109:1). 
Elohay Yishi - God Of My Salvation: (Psalm 18:46). 
Elohim Kedoshim - Holy God: (Leviticus 19:2, Joshua 24:19). 
Elohim Chaiyim - Living God: (Jeremiah 10:10). 
Elohay Elohim - God Of Gods: (Deuteronomy 10:17). 

"EL" is another name used for God in the Bible, showing up about 200 times in the Old Testament. El is the simple form arising from Elohim, and is often combined with other words for descriptive emphasis. 

Some examples: 
El Shaddai - The all-sufficient God (Gen 17:1)
El HaNe'eman - The Faithful God: (Deuteronomy 7:9). 
El HaGadol - The Great God: (Deuteronomy 10:17). 
El HaKadosh - The Holy God: (Isaiah 5:16). 
El Yisrael - The God Of Israel: (Psalm 68:35). 
El HaShamayim - The God Of The Heavens: (Psalm 136:26). 
El De'ot - The God Of Knowledge: (1 Samuel 2:3). 
El Emet - The God Of Truth: (Psalm 31:6). 
El Yeshuati - The God Of My Salvation: (Isaiah 12:2). 
El Elyon - The Most High God: (Genesis 14:18). 
Immanu El - God Is With Us: (Isaiah 7:14). 
El Olam - The God Of Eternity (Genesis 21:33). 
El Echad - The One God: (Malachi 2:10). 

"ELAH" is another name for God, used about 70 times in the Old Testament. Again, when combined with other words, we see different attributes of God. Some examples: 
Elah Yerush'lem - God of Jerusalem: (Ezra 7:19).
Elah Yisrael - God of Israel: (Ezra 5:1). 
Elah Sh'maya - God of Heaven: (Ezra 7:23). 
Elah Sh'maya V'Arah - God of Heaven and Earth: (Ezra 5:11). 

"YHWH" is the Hebrew word that translates as "LORD". Found more often in the Bible than any other name for God (almost  7,000 times in the old testament and almost 1000 times in the new testament), the title is also referred to as the "Tetragrammaton," meaning the "The Four Letters". YHWH comes from the Hebrew verb "to be" and is the special name that God revealed to Moses at the burning bush. "And God said to Moses, 'I AM WHO I AM; and He said, thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, I AM has sent me to you... this is My eternal name, and this is how I am to be recalled for all generations'" (Exodus 3:14-15). Therefore, YHWH declares God's absolute being - the source of everything, without beginning and without end. Although some pronounce YHWH as "Jehovah" or "Yaweh," scholars really don't know the proper pronunciation. The Jews stopped pronouncing this name by about 200 A.D., out of fear of breaking the commandment "You shall not take the name of YHWH your God in vain" (Exodus 20:7). (Today's rabbis typically use "Adonai" in place of YHWH.) 

Here are some examples of YHVH used in scripture: 
YHWH Elohim - LORD God: (Genesis 2:4). 
YHWH M'kadesh - The LORD Who Makes Holy: (Ezekiel 37:28).
YHWH Yireh - The LORD Who Sees/provides: (Genesis 22:14). 
YHWH Nissi - The LORD My Banner: (Exodus 17:15). 
YHWHShalom - The LORD Of Peace: (Judges 6:24). 
YHWH Tzidkaynu - The LORD Our Righteousness: (Jeremiah 33:16). YHWH O'saynu- The LORD our Maker: (Psalm 95:6).

God loves you and I do too!

She's coming home!

Kim and Kassi have been gone since Friday. Kassi had an AAU tournament in Suwanne, Ga this weekend. I couldn't go because we had a huge upgrade going on at work so I had to stay home just in case there were problems. I hope we don't have to do this again!

Don't get me wrong, I've gotten some good Kalli/Kelsi time in. Friday, Kalli stayed the night with a friend so it was just Kelsi and me. She is a lot of fun and all we did was play until she went to bed. Saturday, I took Kalli to Bass Pro Shop and then we went on the hill behind Smokies park and watched an inning of baseball...for free! Kalli thought this was the coolest thing and I enjoyed it too. Kalli was the cutest, she thought we were really getting away with something. But nothing, I repeat NOTHING compares to Kimmy time.

When we are apart, I have the hardest time going to bed. I sleep OK, I just can't seem to make myself go to bed without her. Its funny, we are appart over 10 hours everyday but as soon as I knew she was gone on Friday morning I was missing her and I've missed her ever since. I may be different than others (I hope not) but I don't look at this time as "me" time. I look at as I'm mising out on "we" time. But now, she is on her way home. She should be home by 7:30 and I can't wait. I miss my baby when she is gone but oh how I love the feeling of her embrace as soon as she gets home. There's nothing like that hug knowing she has missed me just as bad as I missed her. I'll love Kim forever no matter what but she sure makes it easy to love her because the way she loves me.

No matter how great your kids are, and mine are pretty darn good, your world has to revolve around them. Kids are just needy by nature. Kim is selfless. She puts me ahead of herself so that just makes me want to put her needs ahead of my own even more. I love my beautiful wife and I can't wait to see her. Two hours and counting!

I love you and God does too!

He ain't tired yet

My God is awesome. I was just thinking about Him a few minutes ago when He brought this verse to my memory. There is no one like our God. We need to remember that every day. It's so easy for some people to walk through their day-to-day and forget that God is God. He is our almighty and our strenth and our joy.

(Isaiah 40:25-31 NASB)
"To whom then will you liken Me
That I would be his equal?" says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high
And see who has created these stars,
The One who leads forth their host by number,

He calls them all by name;
Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power,
Not one of them is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel,
"My way is hidden from the LORD,
And the justice due me escapes the notice of my God"? Do you not know? Have you not heard?

The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth
Does not become weary or tired.
His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary,
And to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired,
And vigorous young men stumble badly,

Yet those who wait for the LORD
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.

Coach K(im)

I came home from work on Monday to the cutest and most beautiful sight. Kim and Kelsi had been working in Kim's flower garden. I can't tell you how cute it is to see your gorgeous wife in work gloves with dirt on her face. Funny thing is that the first thing I noticed was her big smile. I don't know if it was becuase she was happy to see me or because she was having so much fun planting her flowers with Kelsi. You just have to picture an almost two year-old working as hard in the dirt as her mom, it was priceless. With Kassidi, Kalli, and coach K's basketball schedule I don't know how she found time to plant flowers but she did.

I changed clothes and me, Kassi, and Kalli all pitched in either helping with the flowers or watching Kelsi (thanks Kass!) and we had a great family night. As the sun was fading and I was weeding another flower bed, I hadn't noticed that Kim disappeared. I was disturbed from my work by the smell of frying bacon. Kim had made us BLT's. Now I don't know about you, but I really enjoy a good BLT, ESPECIALLY when someone else makes it.

As I was eating, I looked over and there Coach K was folding clothes. Now Kim had been working outside longer than any of us and she had made dinner so if anyone deserved a break it was her. Nope! There was work to be done and a family to take care of.

Flowers, dinner, and laundry. I'm not saying Coach K is perfect, but who is? But heaven knows that she is as close as it gets as far as I'm concerned. God has truly blessed me with an amazing wife. More importantly, He has blessed my children with a remarkable mother. She sacrifices more for her children than any other mother that I know. I pray for Kim daily but I also pray for myself. I pray that God will teach me and help me to love Coach K the way that she deserves.

Husbands, I encourage you to stop and think about what your wife does for you and your family. Please take the opportunity (besides her b-day, anniversary, or mother's day) to remember her and thank her. She may not be perfect but she is your wife. Love her the way that she deserves....the way Christ loves the church.

Thank you God for giving us Coach K!

I love you and God does too!