This will be the first of several blogs about a new book I am reading.  So stay tuned and continue to check back to see the truths that God is teaching.  And while you are at it, read Deuteronomy 6.  

I am reading a great book right now that speaks about family time.  The thing about this book, it is kicking my butt.  One of the questions in the book ask parents why they think family is important.  Some say love, fellowship, teaching, etc. But the premise of the book is that God set-up the family to be the “small group” that teaches children all about God.  But if we really get honest with ourselves and each other, are our families really “training centers?”  When I asked my family what they thought we put our energy into, they each said sports or something other than Godly training.  It breaks me because my heart and soul and that of Christy’s is that we raise our kids and be the “training center” God has called us to be.  Not that we have totally failed, but we do have our weaknesses.  And part of the solution is that we have recognized that we need to do a better job of being the initial investors in the lives of kids when it comes to their spiritual lives.  We definitely don’t need to leave it up to the church or anyone else because we are the greatest influencers in their lives.  I will stop here and write more thoughts later.

Now that I am home, I can reflect on my trip out west.  Other than the blow-out that I had on my trailer, the trip went off without a hitch.  I had a total of 4 events, Tucson, AZ, Brentwood, CA, Monterey, CA, and Houston, TX.  There were over 200 decisions in those 4 events.  Praise God.  It was definitely worth all of the driving and time away from home.  But, speaking of home, I am so glad to be back with my family.  I have four weeks without an event that will be spent being hubby and daddy.  I love my wife and kids and am so thankful that God has blessed me with them.  I am looking forward to the next few weeks.

Going back to my time in CA though, I had a blast in Monterey.  I had the great opportunity to play some beautiful golf courses and I actually played well.  And, while out west, I had the privelege of eating at In-N-Out Burgers as often as I would like.  Here is where I picked up some spiritual truths.  I had never eaten at In-N-Out until I visited San Diego.  But after I tasted that double-double, I was hooked.  I left CA for a few days but as soon as I returned I made a beeline to In-N-Out.  Reminded me about sin.  Not that In-N-Out is a sin, by the way, it is a christian owned company, but once you dabble or try sin, it pulls you in.  And the opposite is true.  When you experience the full Life of Christ, you want to lavish in it.

And playing Pebble Beach was like playing any other golf course.  You have to hit off the tee, get to the green and then put the ball in the hole.  It was a beautiful course, much more scenic than most courses, but the goal was the same.  Because of its hype, it cost more, much more, and it made me change my frame of mind.  Instead of just playing the game, I began to play mind games.  “What a course, I can’t believe I am here.  The pros play here.  It is so beautiful. And on and on and on.”  I was caught up with everything except thinking about golf.  At times I was literally hitting the ball not thinking about golf.  As I thought about that I began to think about how satan does this to us.  As we live our lives and try to walk the Christian life, he tries to get our thoughts on other things.  And if he succeeds, we don’t have our minds on Christ.  That is why God’s Word tells us in 2 Corithians 10 that we should take every thought captive. 

My question to you, “What are your thoughts?  Are they captivated by Christ are by peripheral things?”

Ok, I couldn’t sleep last night and I don’t know if it was because the room was so hot or because I was so excited about having the chance to play Pebble Beach.  I think the latter had a lot to do with it.  I definitely was anxious.  And, if you read my blog from last night, I was a little skeptical about even being able to play because of the rain.  When I woke up this morning, it was to the sound of rain.  UGHH  May chances of playing seemed to be diminishing.  But I looked on weather.com and it said that after 10:30 the rain was supposed to stop; my tee-time was 11:00.  So I decided to give it a try.  I got ready and left my hotel room, in the rain.  I stopped at Denny’s to grab a bite to eat, love that french toast, and then headed to the golf course, in the rain.  When I arrived at Pebble Beach, you guessed it, it was raining.  I went to the pro-shop to check-in and it was raining.  He gave me everything I needed and I walked outside to get in my cart and it was raining.  I arrived at the first tee and the starter asked me if I would play the round with three older gentlemen who’s wives would be riding along with them and I said I would.  So as I prepared to tee off of hole #1 at Pebble Beach Golf Links, the rain stopped.  And you know what, it didn’t rain another drop the whole time I was there.  The day was mostly cloudy but it was gorgeous.  The views were spectacular and I couldn’t help but praise God for His creation.  And not only that, He was allowing me to experience it.  Thank you.  The only thing that could have made it better is if my wife would have been there with me.  I get to see a lot of things being on the road, and I am very thankful for that, but I just don’t get as much joy out of them because she is not with me.  I want to share all of these things with her.

As most of you know, I am in Southern California doing KidzBlitz.  I am having a blast as I watch God do incredible things.  I had a couple of events cancel but I picked up an event with Roy Pina in Monterey.  While speaking with Roy, he found out that I enjoy playing golf and he has hooked me up to play Pebble Beach.  This is a huge deal for me.  But it is supposed to be raining so I really hope that the rain will go away.  I am looking forward to playing at Pebble Beach, it will be one of the things I can check off of my “bucket list”.  I am tempted to pray for God to stop the rain but that feels selfish.  I can’t ask God to stop the rain just for a golf game can I?  HMMMMMM….

Tune in tomorrow to see what happens.

I woke up this morning realizing it had been a long time since I had last posted.  When I got home a week and a half ago, I basically didn’t do anything but spend time chillin’ with the family.  As a matter of fact, I don’t think I opened my computer but just a few times. 

I really enjoyed my time at home.  I was able to watch both Ty play in his first baseball game, which didn’t turn out to well, but he looked pretty good, and Taylor compete in gymnastics.  She did a pretty good job.  She got first place on the bars and finished 4th overall.  She didn’t have a good vault and that hurt he overall.  But she did get all 9’s for the first time in her career and she scored over 37 for the second straight meet and for the second time in her career.  She is beginning to score like I know she can. Getting back to Ty, he played right field to start with and he was the clean-up hitter.  For those of you who don’t know much about baseball, hitting clean-up means hitting 4th and it means you are one of the best hitters on the team.  He didn’t get a hit, but he did hit the ball fairly well, he just flew out both times.  He also pitched.  And for not pitching for a while, he really looked pretty good.  He just needs to work on his control.  I am proud of both of them.

As for my other child, Trip, we had a rough time.  Trip is a great kid and I love him to death, and he is very talented musically, creatively and he loves technology.  He does a lot of tech stuff at church and he does a fantastic job.  I know that God has huge plans for Trip and I look forward to seeing what those plans are.  But the rough time I am talking about, came the day before I left.  A kid at Trip’s school attacked him.  The kid was taking to Trip and then sucker-punched him a couple of times and one of the punches cut Trip under his right eye.  Trip did not retaliate.  Trip was the example of Christ when he turned the other cheek.  We were called to the school and needless to say, I was pissed.  And I still am.  The other kid was arrested and we had to take Trip to the hospital to get checked out.  He didn’t have to get stitches but they did do a cat scan to make sure nothing was broken.  Everything checked out fine, thank the Lord.  Trip asked me what I thought he should have done and I told him he should have beat the crap out of the kid, but then I told him that he did the right thing.  I hate it when my flesh gets in the way.  I am glad Trip is okay and I truly hope the other kid gets the help he needs and doesn’t get away with this. 

As far as Christy and I go, this was a weird trip home.  It felt as if we were busy the whole time, either running kids here or there, or just busy in general.  I left on Thursday morning Feb. 19th at 4:30 and I won’t return home until late March 2nd or 3rd.  I pray that this trip I will see a lot of kids come to know Christ but I also pray that it will go by quickly.  I am ready for my schedule to calm down to the point that I will be home much more.  I miss my wife and look forward to spending quality time with her.  I love Christy Slade and am very proud to call her my wife.  She does a great job taking care of our family and she is a great wife.  I am also very proud of my kids who all love Jesus and allow Him to be Lord of their lives.

Jesus,

Please be with my family as I am on the road.  Bless them with patience and strength to honor you in all that they do.  Be with Trip as he faces the tough situations in his life, bless his abilities as he uses them for your glory.  Be with Ty at baseball as he uses the gifts you have given him to honor you and be with Taylor as she competes at the gym.  Help all of them understand that they are witnesses of your grace and mercy in all that they do.  Help them to honor you in all of their relationships.  Be with my wife as she continues to live life without me during this period of our lives.  Help us both be wise in all that we do.  Help me to honor her and love her as you loved the church.  Thank you for my family.

Amen

I am so glad to be home.  I am so excited about reconnecting with all of my friends.  I do have a lot to catch up on, but that is part of coming back home and getting back into the routine of things.  And of those things that have to get done are the bills. UGH!! I absolutely hate to pay bills.  If you ask my family, they try to stay away during bill paying time; I have a tendency to get a little grouchy.  Ok, I get extremely grouchy.  You know when the Bible talks about being full of joy, I don’t think it was talking about when you pay bills.  I am just kidding, but I do struggle with having a good attitude with our bills.  Especially when we have those lean months, I begin to think that my tithe can wait for a while.  But God has taught me that I can pay my bills much easier on the 90% (after I give Him the 10%) than I can when I try to use the whole 100%.  God knows our needs and He will provide.  We cannot out give Him.  Just a lesson I have learned on this journey called life.

This blog is just to try and catch you up a little.  You know how the song goes, “It never rains in Southern California.”  I think Barry Manilow sings that song.  Mr. Manilow is a liar.  My last two days in San Diego were ridiculous.  It rained and rained and rained.  That is the bad news.  The good news is that the sun was shining when it wasn’t raining. (Which wasn’t very long at all.)  As I got on the plane at 11:15pm last night, California time, it was raining.  (We were supposed to take-off at 10:45 but they had to change a light bulb.)  As we sat on the tarmac, while they repaired some other part of the plane, it was raining.  When we finally took off at 11:35 it was still raining.  In the air just outside of San Diego, it stopped raining.  When we landed in Charlotte, NC at 6:25am today, it is a beautiful day.  I am so glad to be back on this side of the country.  My flight takes off from Charlotte at 9:25 and should arrive in Atlanta at 10:45.  Looking forward to being home today.  UPDATE…UPDATE…UPDATE

They have overbooked my flight and are asking for people to give up their seat.  I have given up my seat and they tell me that if they need my seat I will get a free round-trip ticket to anywhere in the USA.  Instead of getting home at 10:45, it will be 1:10.  Small price to pay for a free ticket.

Like a said, just a note to catch you up.  My next few blogs will be a little more spiritual.  I hope!

What a beautiful day it was today in San Diego.  The weather was perfect.  And as I was talking to friends back home in the east, I found out that it was cold and nasty.  Such drastic conditions, yet in the same country.  And I started thinking about the church.  We have in our churches some people that are nice and beautiful and then we have those, that lets just say, are cold and nasty.  As for our weather, it is okay for there to be such differences, but in the church it should not be that way.  If we have Christ living in us, we should be new creatures, living our lives for Him. How can anyone have Christ and not have the fruits of the Spirit which are LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS, and SELF-CONTROL. 

I have had friends and have known of others who had fallen in their walk with Christ, and when it became public, the “church” kicked them under the bus.  The people became very judgemental and the “fallen” ones had an even harder time trying to reconcile their situations.  We in the church ought to be the last ones to judge and be the first to love, not the sin but the sinner.  We should be the ones who help restore what the locust have stolen.

Are you sunny and warm or cold and nasty?  I pray as the church, we would show Christ love to all.

I am here in San Diego and have all of this stuff to do, but I just sit in my room and do nothing.  I want to go play golf, but I don’t have the right clothes.  I want to go to the zoo, but I don’t want to go by myself.  That last statement holds true for all the things here in San Diego.  I just don’t enjoy going places without my wife or family.  I wish Christy was here so we could enjoy this together.  I know I would have fun by myself or with someone else; I just wish you here baby.  I love you and miss you.  Just wanted you and everyone else to know that!!!

Being here in Tucson, I have seen some very pretty golf courses.  And if you know me very well at all, you know I am about to go crazy because I don’t have time to stop and play one of them.  I so desperately want to stop, forget everything else that is going on, or anything else in life, and go out and and hit the little white ball.  And as I was thinking about that, God spoke to my heart.  He said, and I paraphrase, “Donnie, why don’t you want to spend time with me with that type of desperation.”  UGH, it hit like a ton of bricks.  As I thought on that, several thought came to mind.

1.  I look at my time with God almost like a chore.  Like it is something I have to do, almost like doing dishes or taking out the trash.  How sad and pathetic.  The creator of this world and of me.  The one who has saved me from myself and the pit of hell.  A chore?  I am ashamed to admit that as a truth in my life.  I asked God to change my heart and my mind.

2.  Just like those golf courses, it looks good but I just don’t have time.  In reality, if I would not have slept in or if I would use my time a little wiser, I could have had time to play at least nine holes.  The same holds true with my time with God.  If I did a better job of time management, I wouldn’t feel the urge of other things trying to pull me away.  For time reasons that is.  Which brings me to another thought.

3.  Other things “seem” to look so much more attractive.  But the reality is, there is absolutely nothing better than spending time with my Heavenly Father.  I have heard it over and over again, in order to get better at golf, you have to play more and you have to practice more. In order to draw closer to Christ, you have to spend more time with Him.  James chapter 4 verse 7 teaches us that if we draw close to God, He WILL draw close to us.  That is a promise.  All we have to do is make a conscience effort to spend time with Him. 

Even more than those golf courses were calling my name, God is calling to me to draw close to Him.  Can you hear Him calling you?