#1 - American Sniper

My first book of 2013 was American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History by Chris Kyle. It's the story of a Navy seal who fought in Baghdad, Ramadi and Fallujah. If you like military history, you'll like this book.

Now I am very thankful for our military. They protect our country and our freedom from evil men and women.

• Romans 13:3 For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; 4 for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.

And I fully support this man's service for our country and his work as a sniper. But the interesting thing about this book is that he claimed to be a Christian. He even called on Jesus as his Savior and knew the gospel in its essence. But the book, as most military autobiographies are, was filled with obvious, unrepentant sin - swearing, drinking, lying, fornication, etc. How can this man continually sin and sin and sin with no remorse even but instead almost a hubris and pride of his sin and still call himself a Christian?

Could he be a Christian who has simply not learned any of the Word of God and thus doesn't realize he is no longer a slave of sin and that the Holy Spirit of God lives in him? Or is he one who calls himself a Christian as those did in Matthew 7:22 but will tragically find out on the judgment day that he is not saved?

It's hard to tell because I just read a book and don't know the man personally. I have not talked to him at church or visited him in his home. I have not gone out to lunch with him to talk about his testimony. I have not had him and his family over to my house and talked about spiritual things. I have not taught him the Word, encouraged him in Christ, exhorted him to be holy or rebuked him for his sin.

This is one reason why the local church is so important. God gave us shepherds in the local church to care for our souls. I cannot care for this man's soul, but I am actively caring for the souls of the people at my church. I hope Chris Kyle is part of a church where shepherds do the same for him.

Quality time

A pastor's schedule is often a tricky thing. I have great flexibility during the day, Monday through Friday. It's very convenient that I can manage my own schedule and take care of things. This is great except for the fact that the boys and girl are in school during the day. The evenings are also tricky because they have schoolwork or extra curricular activities now, and I often have meetings.

Another challenge is my weekends are often very inflexible. Sunday used to be a relaxing and refreshing day often doing things with extended family when I was a part of the secular workforce. But now, Sundays are very busy and often very exhausting work days. Saturdays used to be family day trips or work days, now they are a mixed bag. I usually do my last preparation on Saturday evenings for my sermon the next day and the kids need a rest day after a busy week at school. We're still figuring out how to make it all work.

But I have made a concerted effort to maximize quality time with the boys and girl. Quality time requires quantity time. So this past weekend, we were silly together.

Matt and Emz love getting shaved. They usually don't need the full shave, but they were grizzly that morning. :)

We also pulled out a 1,000 piece puzzle. I like to relax and work on these every once in a while. They wanted to "help" me. It didn't turn out as relaxing with all that "help"! But it was fun to work on it together. If you're wondering where Andrew was, he was reading most of the day. I do get to spend quality time with him every week, taking him to basketball practices and games. He wasn't neglected!

The Spelling Bee

Last week, the boys and girl participated in our school spelling bee. This was Emery's first time, and she had some stiff competition. But she came in first place! Matt improved from last year's second place finish to grab first place also! They both get to go to the district spelling bee in a couple of weeks. Andrew tried hard too, but he came in 4th place. Spelling's just not his thing.

Happy birthday Matt!

Yesterday was Matt's 8th birthday. We had a few friends over after school to celebrate today.

We decided to do cupcakes. I think it was just a ploy to get more food.

We played a mean game of Sorry.

We let Andrew have a friend over. They broke in his new game - Civilization IV. He was surprised at how thin Gandhi was.

And Emery got to have a friend over too. They did some beads. Otherwise it would have been too much boy in the house.

Matt got a Hexbug Spider. It was a hit. I promise I won't put it in our bed when Sandy is sleeping...I promise.

Happy birthday Matt!

The next Kobe

His team is the Lakers. His number is 25. He's the next Kobe. Andrew started another season of basketball and had his first game last night.

They do this fun thing with the player introductions in his league. They mentioned everyone's favorite food. Most of the kids said pizza and nachos. I'm pretty sure he was the only kid whose favorite food is California rolls.

Andrew had a great game. He scored 3 baskets, and I barely managed to get one of his on tape. Here's a nice little lay-up.

He also shot some free throws and made one.

All in all, Andrew had a great first game. He said he was so tired his feet hurt.

Jeopardy!

This past week, our friend Lee Ann was on Jeopardy. We've never known anyone personally who has been on Jeopardy before. So we hosted a party at our house.

There she is on tv.

There she is on our living room couch. She's a national celebrity! And she did a great job on the show. It was very impressive.

It was super fun to watch and we had over 40 people from church in our house. That was pretty cool too.

We even had an overflow room with plenty of space for another 40 people! Not quite, but we had more room. We're all ready for Lee Ann to be on tv again! Here's the link if you want to watch her on the show.

Winter wonderland

It's been a mild winter so far this year. That I like. But it's also been a snowless winter. We've only had one snow. The boys and girl have been sad about that. We had one little tiny snow a little while ago.

Emery tried to make the most of it, but there's not a lot you can do with 1/8 of an inch of snow.

I think Matt was throwing a snow ping pong ball. One of these days we've got to make it to the Sandia mountains where I hear there's lots of snow.