Rachel & I decided to take some time to get away from the busy-ness of life. So, Sunday afternoon we drove up to Schaumburg (nw ‘burb of Chicago) for a little R&R.
We grabbed dinner at the Cheesecake Factory Sunday night and spent all day Monday morning at IKEA. I had never been to a Cheesecake Factory, and was really excited to go. It was awesome. I’d give the main course I ordered (chicken madeira) a 7 out of 10. But the cheesecake that I got for dessert (dulce de leche caramel cheesecake) was unreal. I ate the entire piece — and it nearly made me sick.
We got some really cool stuff at IKEA, too. Granted, we won’t have any money to send our kid to college now, but it was so worth it. He’ll understand when he’s old enough to know the value of proper lighting in a room.
I’m still thinking through a lot of what they said, but I really enjoyed it (as much as anyone can enjoy a discussion on porn). Donny Pauling, a former porn producer, was on hand to give his personal story of growing up as a preacher’s kid, getting into porn production, making millions working in the industry and how many lives he destroyed in the process, including his own.
More than the other talks and testimonies though, I was really affected by the story of Billy. He’s a guy that lost his marriage, family, career and home and is one year into a five-year prison sentence for child pornography. He wasn’t some creepy kind of guy you’d expect to see in a dark alley, either. This was a normal guy with a good job and a family. He made some really bad decisions and it cost him everything.
Wow.
Really good stuff. And really intense.
Craig Gross finished up by giving us Six Ways to Ruin Your Life…
1. Fight temptation with willpower.
2. Rationalize it.
3. Spend more time online and watching TV than in the Word.
4. Wing it — when it comes to integrity, make it up as you go along.
5. Go solo.
6. Give up.
I was expecting more facts and more of a hands on way to minister to people struggling with porn addictions, but it ended up being more or less the beginning of a dialogue between pastors, friends and family members about holding each other to a higher standard in regards to purity.
Last night was the “official” announcement by the doctor which confirmed what we already suspected… it is definitely a boy. Which means I’m in for a wild ride for the next 18 years. I would post the pictures online here to give you some evidence that it is indeed a boy but, come on… this is a family blog.
Here’s a picture of him…
…And in related news…
Last night I felt him kick! I placed my hand on my wife’s abdomen (which, I must remind you, I have exclusive rights to do), and almost immediately I felt something. I asked Rachel, “Stop moving, I’m trying to see if I can feel him,” and she said, “That was him!”
I’ve been doing a lot of reading these days, so you’ll probably see a few quotes from books on here from time to time. Last week I noticed this book sitting on my shelf and realized I had never finished reading it.
I’ve always fancied myself a perfectionist and borderline OCD, and have been quite content to believe that my anal retentiveness placed me leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of civilization. Then I read this and the light over my head flickered and slowly lit up…
Forget Perfection
“Asset-Based Thinking liberates you from the pointless need to strive for “perfection.” You realize that the pursuit of perfection is not an asset, it’s a liability. For a change in the way you feel about yourself, see yourself as a work in progress . . . just like everyone else. Each day, say to yourself that for today you are perfect the way you are. Always competent, yet always learning, always growing. Commit to making the most of yourself and you will find that flaws will fade away.
WARNING: A preoccupation with eliminating flaws invites self-absorption, whereas a recognition and reconciliation with shortcomings promotes a healthy and powerful humility that liberates you to move forward.
I’ve been reading through Run With The Horses by Eugene Peterson about the life of the prophet Jeremiah from the Old Testament.
I was reading late the other night while laying in bed and I was fading fast. Then I read this quote and was wide awake…
“Jeremiah, before he was born, was enlisted on God’s side in this war. He wasn’t given a few years in which to look around and make up his mind which side he would be on, or even whether he would join a side at all. He was already chosen as a combatant on God’s side. And so are we all. No one enters existence as a spectator. We either take up the life to which we have been consecrated or we traitorously defect from it. We cannot say, “Hold it! I am not quite ready. Wait until I have sorted things out.”
Rachel & I decided to take some time to get away from the busy-ness of life. So, Sunday afternoon we drove up to Schaumburg (nw ‘burb of Chicago) for a little R&R.
I’ve been doing a lot of reading these days, so you’ll probably see a few quotes from books on here from time to time. Last week I noticed 
