Soakin' Up Life . . . at a 100 MPH!

Ok. . .yeah. . .it's another one of those late night/early morning questions that hit me, so I thought I would get your input. If you  were to give someone two books that helped shape your relationship with God, what would they be? Don't include the Bible.  I think that the Bible is the primary resource for shaping our relationship with God and should be our normative guide for daily living.  Every Christ follower ought to have that as their first go-to resource.  I'm thinking more in the line of something that helped you  understand God on a whole new level. They may have helped you see His nature or character from a new perspective and that drew you closer to Him.  It could something that deepened your relationship with Him. They could be books that have inspired, challenged, motivated, or broke you.  They could be books that are from well-known authors or maybe a little-known book that's not on everyone's top-ten list. I know it may be hard to narrow it do

Well, Joshua is just over two weeks old now.  And already Cindy and I have  made some observations about him. He looks like Cindy, but has my long and lean body, monkey toes (his big toe looks like a thumb), and big hands. He's a freakishly slow eater.  He's so slow he falls asleep while he's eating - Must have got that one from Cindy, definitely not me. He's impatient - I'll take that one. He loves to sleep and is hard to wake up - Yep, he's his mother's son. He has an incredible temper - Doesn't help that Cindy has German on her side and I have Cherokee Indian and Irish on mine.  This is going to be fun.  God definitely has a sense of humor. He doesn't like change.  Just changing clothes, or even a diaper, sends him into orbit - I know, Cindy, right? He's a snuggler - Takes after both of us. He doesn't like to be bound up.  Likes to be swaddled, but wants his hands and arms free - O Baby, can I can relate. I'm sure there

Several years ago I wrote about the importance facial hair plays in becoming a student pastor. You can read it here . In short, I stated that I could never be a student pastor because of my inability to grow facial hair, therefore, forfeiting the needed goatee, soul patch, etc. I was rethinking the facial hair thing the other morning. As some of you know, it's the kind of thing that goes through you mind during a 4 am feeding. . .then again, maybe not, and I'm just weird. ANYWAY. . .I was wondering if, now that I have an offspring, would it be more appropriate for me to grow a 'stache, soul patch, or whatever I can? Like, something would be better than nothing kind of thing. Think about it, look at all the pics of "good" fathers we see. They all possess that really cool morning shadow. Right? Me, not so much. Truthfully, not at all. Then I thought, what will I do when the time comes to teach Joshua to shave? I'm not a great example. What am I