I have several things I have set out to do in my life. I have several things that I believe I need to do for my life to have been well lived. Among the greatest of these is to pass along faith to my kids. I guess it is working. Of his own choice my nine year old son asked to be baptized. In his own words... "So I can be washed of my sins...So I can be part of the Body of Christ...So I can be a man of God like my dad..." I hope he is much more of a man of God than I have ever been. He is off to a great start.

Unhappiness is epidemic. In the first quarter of 2007, for the first time ever, more people cited unhappiness as a reason for seeking psychological treatment than loneliness. Psychology Today – April 2007 People are divorcing later in marriage than ever before, giving unhappiness as a primary cause. Sales of anti-depressants have sky rocketed in recent years with more and more pharmaceuticals milking this staggeringly profitable cash cow. Unhappiness is epidemic, there is no denying it. Why are we unhappy?

Because there are millions of people and billions of dollars dedicated to one thing, making us unhappy and dissatisfied.

They sit in plush boardrooms in high, leatherback chairs. With millions and billions of dollars at their disposal, with a committed work force whose sole purpose it is to make you unhappy. Unhappy with what you have.

• Unhappy with who you are.
• Unhappy with what you look like.
• Unhappy with what you wear, drive, live in, eat, and every other facet of your life.

Contentment is the enemy of consumption.

So they must make you unhappy enough to get up from where you are and work longer hours to save more money to buy more things, only to find that they are old again soon as they come out of the box. The minute Windows Vista comes out Windows XP is no good any more. As soon as you get Vista you realize that your old computer does not have the memory to run Vista. So you have to get a new computer and it would not make sense to load all those old outdated games on this new state of the art computer. So you must go and get the latest version of everything, which of course you do… What was so wrong with Windows XP?

The continual lie that is told us is that once we get the right stuff we will be happy. But the truth is radically different. Psalm 37:4 Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

God tells us that if we get happy, in Him, THEN WE WILL GET THE STUFF! In other words, getting what you want won’t make you happy, but getting happy in God will get you everything you want.

Why are you unhappy? CONSPIRACY !

If you want proof read your newspaper, or watch the news. Entire news articles and stories are printed and produced to make you unhappy with President George Bush. There is a giant organization whose only goal is to make me unhappy with George Bush. Should a democrat be elected to replace him an equally large and powerful organization will devote it’s every resource to making me unhappy with him (or her).

Please understand, the worlds of commerce and politics cannot survive if people are happy. There is a conspiracy against your happiness. There is a conspiracy against your kids happiness. If you don’t believe me take a look at the relentless marketing to children.

The greatest safeguard to keep you out of debt, focused on what really matters, doing the right things, and ulcer free, is for you to be happy. So get happy, in God. HOW? Make Him your God. Too simplistic? Psalm 144: 15 Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the LORD. If this is true, and you are not happy, then maybe He is not your God.

 So we look with envy, at people who have other stuff. And mistake their earthly accomplishments for happiness. We are not the first to make such a mistake. Malachi 3:15 We mistakenly believe prideful and arrogant people are happy.

Lets get the formula right people. Get happy in God, then the stuff God wants you to have will come. Don’t fall prey to the conspiracy of our age.

There are some things you are just not prepared for as a parent. Even more so when you are raising a mentally handicapped child. I never thought my baby would develop a serious crush on a guy. The worship leader of our church is a great young man in his early 20's. Every time he comes near Ashton collapses in giggles. She seeks him out at church and stands near to him. I snapped this picture after he had just walked by and paused to say hi to her.

I was not ready for this. She can never have a normal relationship. She will never date. Certainly never marry. So how do I proceed here? I am sure this crush is harmless but, she is behaving like a 13 yr old girl, which means a broken heart is possible. And how do I deal with that when it comes?

I find a lot of joy in my daughter, but these moments can make me sad. I will never be able to intimidate & interrogate potential boyfriends, I really looked forward to that. I will never see her go out for her first date, ok, so that one is not so bad. I will never walk her down the aisle.

On the other hand, I will always have my baby girl. Life is about trade offs, and, I guess that is a pretty good one.

This is my daugher, Ashton, you can read about her and her handicaps in some of my earlier posts. She is almost completely non-verbal due to mental retardation and autism. So imagine my surprise when I got a call from the school last week saying Ashton wanted to talk to me. "How did you know she wanted to call?" I asked. "She got up and walked to the school office and kept touching the phone" they said. "We asked if she wanted to call mommy, and she shook her head no, then we asked if she wanted to call daddy, and she smiled and whispered yes." I should tell you the very minimal communication we get from Ashon is a very low, very guttural, almost imperceptible whisper. So they called me, and handed her the phone. I asked if I needed to come to her. She whispered.... "No". I asked if she was ok. She whispered.... "Yes". I asked if she needed anything at all. She whispered... "No". Then, three words were whispered over the line "I....love....you..." followed by a very slight giggle. The next noise was the secretary on the phone telling me she had left running back to class. Not bad for a kid that, over 13 years ago, the Dr's were telling us would never leave the hospital, and that she would be a vegetable and helpless all the days of her life.

My 8 yr old son Nicolas got a new basketball goal for Christmas. I thought that perhaps some of the kids from the neighborhood would have fun hanging out and playing ball. So I was not surprised when they showed up. What did surprise me is that they were all girls.




He told me these girls are not like "girls". They are cool cause they like to "do stuff" like climb trees, ride bikes, play ball, and "hang out". Not like...other girls...who can know what those mysterious creatures do.



The game extended into the night...



Then the old man came....took on the whole group of kids...and I am proud to say I crushed them...