My Baby

My Baby
Originally uploaded by blountman

Don't faint because I am posting two blog blurbs in one day. It's catch-up time. In spite of the fact that my sinuses are on the warpath and my head feels like it weighs a ton, I need to get this business taken care of.

Emily is now 18 years old. There, I've said it. I don't believe it. Oh no, not for one minute. You see, you can't go from 12 to 18 in one fell swoop. So, I guess I can call her 13 years old now. Alas, her birth certificate proves otherwise. Perhaps this is why I feel so yucky today. My baby turned 18 yesterday. Yeah, that's what I'll go with...it is all HER fault that I am sick today.

No, Emily. I am so proud of you. The only way I could be more proud would have been if you had worn the "get in line" shirt on your birthday. Because that shirt is the straight up truth and you know it.

I love my Chick-A-Boo, and I am proud to be her "Pau Pau."

Christmas Day Blessings

My Favorite Kids
Originally uploaded by blountman

We got the spend the day on Christmas Day at Nanny & Papaw's over in Palmetto. Elliott and Abi came down from Clearwater, so we had a nice, intimate, celebration. It is so wonderful to be surrounded by family. I know that I am a blessed man. I am married to my soul mate, who keeps me drawing closer to Christ all the time. I am the dad of three beautiful children (and while I can never take the place of Papa Pardue, I will count Abi as one of mine, making it FOUR beautiful kids). Peggy's parents have always treated me like a son, not a son-in-law. I am, without a doubt, the luckiest man on the planet.

Having had the chance to make my Bride tear up with joy as she opened presents this year, because I finally got it right and got her the things she really wanted, and having had the chance to watch the joy in the faces of our children as we spent time together, made this Christmas the best one ever for me.

Taking the picture of the four children in front of the lake by Nanny & Papaw's reminds me of how blessed I am. You are looking at my 3rd favorite gift - our children. First is my salvation through Jesus Christ, and 2nd is my Bride Peggy. After that, it is all icing on the cake, my friends.

Christmas Ponderings

In Luke 2:19 we read: "But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart." When examining the 2nd chapter of the Gospel of Luke, we see that Mary and Joseph have traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem (a distance of about 80 miles) when Mary is VERY pregnant. That is a trip that could not have been fun for Mary. When they arrive in Bethlehem, there is no place to stay, so they wind up bedding down in a cave-barn behind an inn. There, Mary gave birth to her first son. Not exactly a sanitary setting for childbirth, in the hay next to the donkeys, but that is where God chose to have the Savior of the World born. The first visitors to worship the Christ child were shepherds! Not exactly the top of the social strata, these guys had been visited by an angel declaring the birth of God's Son, and had witnessed a heavenly choir of angels singing glory to God. So, these shepherds set out for Bethlehem and found the Babe just as th angel had said. The shepherds left from there declaring the Good News: that Jesus had come into the world. The, we read the famous line quoted above.

Oh, to be like Mary. Not that I want to give birth, I just want to be used by God for His Purposes. No matter where that leads, no matter how far out of my comfort zone that takes me, no matter what He asks of me. That was the attitude Mary had when she told the angel that she was a bondslave of the Lord. That is the attitude I need to exhibit. No that is the attitude, I need to live out. By submitting my life to the Lordship of Jesus when I was immersed into Christ on August 27, 1985, I promised to be a bondslave of Christ.

I know that it isn't Christmas yet, but I am already in sermon mode for Sunday, December 30th. Yeah, I am preaching on that date, and as I contemplate God's message for the last Sunday of the year, I am contemplating what it means to truly commit to a New Life Resolution. My New Life Resolution is found in Philippians 2"14-15: "14Do all things without grumbling or disputing;

15so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a)crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world," now THAT is something to ponder.

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