A Morning At The Pole

The morning started early for me today. I got up at 5:50am to start this awesome day. Why so awesome? It's because today was national "See you at the Pole" day. It is the day of the year where students around the United States join together before classes and pray (often around the flag pole) for their school, their friends, and each other. It is truly an awesome sight to see so many students circled up and praying even through the hustle and bustle of the arrival of others and even some rude comments. I started this morning at home praying for all of our students at LCC that would be participating in this student led event. Then, I hit the road. My first stop was Loveland High School and then it was off to Kings. I have tried to be around a couple of schools each year to simply support them in my own prayer while they are in prayer. I must say that it is very emotional time. To see all of these students (without any adult guidance) just....praying. It fills me with a sense of encouragement to whitness this event. It doesn't seem to matter the type of church that they come from or even it they attend a church at all, everyone is welcome to join the group and unite in prayer. But today, I also was filled with a sense of...guilt. You see, being an adult, I am supposed to have it all together, to lead the way spiritually to those who will come after me. Today, I had to ask myself, Would I have the guts to participate in such a public display of my faith at... Meijers, or Home Depot, or even a Reds game? Adults are often very comfortable displaying our faith...on Sundays (if in the right building) but are we living our faith out for all the world to see? This morning, instead of being a person that tries to help lead students to a relationship with Jesus Christ...I was the one being led.

Pictures Mentioned In Previous Blog

Left: Sign that made Brad Mad
Below: Candy Factory
Lower Left: Brad's Great Timing
Lower Left: The Windy City
Bottom Left: Brad's New Home

Chicago

Well I guess I should saya a few words about "Brad and Dan's Excellent Chicago Adventure". I think that you all can imagine what being in a little car with Brad for about seven hours (yes we took the scenic route)was like. Mostly it was one studid comment after another followed by laughter folled by flatulets (I'm not quite sure the spelling is right on that word but I can't say fart's here because I think that my mother reads this) followed by video followed by side trips followed by eating followed by laughter followed by...I think that you get the picture. Brad also likes to take pictures of bill boards although most of the pictures that I have are of the mirror of the car, his seatbelt or his shoes (his timing isn't that great). One bill board actually made him kind of angry. He saw one for "Dollar INN" and the price per night was $26.95. He feels like he has a good court case to sue for misrepresentation in advertising (you know, is it one dollar or 26.95?). We also took a side trip to "The Candy Factory". It was pretty cool. They had a 30 foot tall chocolate waterfall and all kinds of wierd candy like a plastic nose that you wear on your face and candy comes out of the nostrils (I bought one of course)and even a 4 inch jaw breaker (I bought on of them as well). All in all the trip lived up to our high standards. Chicago was...huge! I didn't realize how dinky Cincinnati is. I think that Brad is adjusting well. I will try to keep you all posted on his activities. I have included some pictues from our trip as well as well as one picture of Brad's new "home away from home". Please be sure to keep him in you prayers as well as the people that have to live with him for a year.

I thought that he was gone.

It has been a roller coaster weekend for me emotionally. You see, I have a great family and I love everyone that resides in our home dearly...except one. The story of my relationship with this particular family member is very...complicated. It started out great. I can still remember my wife and I bringing him home in the car. He was so tiny, so innocent, so...cute. It was probably against the law but my wife even held him in her arms all of the way home. As he grew, I would take him everywhere with me. People always stopped and talked to us while we were out and ALWAYS commented on how cute he was. We went on like that for several years but soon after things started to to go terribly wrong. I don't know if it was him or me but things started to change. His behavior became inexcusable. He stopped listening to me, he would be out playing and wouldn't come in for dinner, and his personal hygene problems became an issue. So I decided that drastic measures needed to be taken. I needed to find someone to adopt him before I lost it, before I became violent. We had several different people express interest in him from time to time but no takers. This past weekend, however, I had the perfect candidate who was very interested. I thought I had a deal. I would offer this person $100.00 to take this "problem child" off of my hands. It may seem wrong to you but I felt so excited to get rid of this "thorn" in the side of my family. Things were going well with the negotiations and the candidate left me with a feeling that this deal would be done. I was running around like a crazy man. I bought some toys for his car ride to his new home, gave him a bath, and even brushed his teeth. I gathered his belongings in a bag and had him ready to go and then I waited....and waited....and waited. That is when the roller coaster headed down hill. I soon began to realize that my candidate was not coming back. That I would be forever stuck with this...problem. So after the up's and down's of this weekend, I am left with thoughts of what could have been and I'm still left with this... problem "child". Of course I am talking about my pain in the butt dog, Toby. Although he now smells much better, I thought that he was gone.