The Me I Want To Be

A few weeks ago, the pastor of our church announced we were going to do a book-based Sunday series. I'll admit, when he first said it, I cringed. I have been a party to these kinds of sermon series before, and I have rarely been impressed. Among the prior studies of which I was a part was The Purpose Driven Life craze. That was 7 years ago at a church we no longer attend. Maybe it was the writer in me, but I was not impressed with the book. I liked the idea behind it, but the book itself did little to inspire me. I found it mostly full of trite and tired cliches. I think it must have taken the author less than a day to write the entire thing. Now, in all fairness, there were people -- including my own husband -- who thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get into it.



A few years later, I was part of another book-series at another church. Once again, I wasn't impressed. I actually quit reading the book halfway through that's how uninspired I was by it.



So when our pastor said we were going to do a book study, I had pretty much decided I wouldn't be participating. Been there, done that, not impressed. That was until I actually started reading the book. My husband asked me to give it a fair chance, and for once, I'm glad I listened to him. This book is amazing. It is called The Me I Want To Be by John Ortberg. I am only 42 pages into it, but am already impressed by its content. It is clear Mr. Ortberg has put a lot of thought and hard work into this book. And it is clear to me it was breathed into him by a power higher than himself. An example of something that stood out in the book right away was this sentence: "Spiritual greatness has nothing to do with being greater than others. It has everything to do with being as great as each of us can be." Wow. How many times have you watched another Christian person, and felt jealous of them, thinking they were surely more devoted to God than you? This book tells us it's not about trying to be what everyone else is in Christ. It's about being who Christ made us to be. We're unique. Here's another one: "Your 'spritual life' is not limited to certain devotional activities that you engage in. It is receiving power from the Spirit of God to become the person God had in mind when He created you -- his handiwork." Attend church every Sunday, read your Bible all day long -- but if you're not open to being the person God created you to be, you are wasting your time.



I am looking forward to this study and to finishing the book, and most of all, to finding out who God created me to be. If you're interested, you can listen to the Sunday sermons on our church website: www.nccinwexford.org They are always posted the next day.

This makes me sick......

Take a good look at this picture. What do you think it is? If you guessed a road in Pennsylvania in need of repairs.....well....I can see how you'd make that assumption. But it actually isn't a road at all. It's a river. In fact, it's the Mississippi River. And those, my friends, are dead fish. Thousands and thousands of them. And they are joined by other marine life as well.

Don't believe me? Google the words "dead fish in Mississippi." You will be sick, I promise you. I know I was when I saw this and realized that it wasn't a road in need of paving.

So how did this happen? Well, two letters for you: BP. This is the result of the massive oil spill in the Gulf. Just last week, our own government issued a statement saying the fish and other seafood from the Gulf are safe to eat. Really? Really? Not sure who taste-tested to come to that conclusion, but I think I'll just stay away from fish for a long time.

Looking at this photo and others that have come out of that disaster make me ill beyond words. This is what we have done to our planet. This is what we will have to live with for a very long time.

Oh the things they learn at school......

Sorry it's been awhile since I've blogged, but life has been busy with the new job, Connor starting school and other assorted life stuff. But I was reminded the other day that it's been awhile (hi mom!), so I thought I'd better update this site before I got in trouble again. LOL!

Connor started school three weeks ago, and what an adventure it has been so far! It has been a bit overwhelming --- not to mention very overstimulating --- for him. But he's finally starting to adjust and is doing rather well. I do suspect he's a little bored with learning his alphabet and how consonants and vowels sound since he has been reading at a fourth grade level for over a year now. But his teacher is aware of his ability and is working to customize his lessons to his level to help prevent boredom.

While I have been basically happy with his school experience, there is one thing that I am not so happy about --- his newfound vocabulary. Thanks to some of his more colorful classmates, I have heard phrases such as "dang it to heck" and some others I won't mention here. Most disturbing is the fact that apparently one of his classmates regularly misuses the name of Jesus Christ. Connor told us today that makes him very sad when his classmate does that. :( Sadly, I have realized I can't put Connor in a bubble, and he will hear these sorts of things while out and about in the world. All I can do is let him know that we do not use those sorts of words and phrases here, and hope he understands.

Labor Day Fun.....

So, it was a lazy day at our house so far. The boys went outside to play with the remote-controlled car Connor got for his birthday. They drew a race track with chalk first. They also went roller-blading and scootering, so they were pretty tired by the time we had lunch.

Connor spent some time after lunch building new bridges and tunnels for his train set. He was using blocks to do it. I was pretty impressed with the construction of some of his tunnels. If this kid doesn't grow up to be an engineer (like so many of the Bergs), I'll be shocked.

Zorro was napping in the living room window when I snuck up on him and took this. He wasn't amused. :)

And here is Gabe, drinking from the bathtub. No matter how many times I've seen him do this, it still makes me chuckle. He positions himself with his paw on the drain plug, then constantly licks it because it's getting dripped on from the tub. He hasn't figured out the flaw in this plan yet, and he's been doing it for 5 years! LOL!