Even though its a leap year and today is the specific day that makes it a leap year, I am sure glad I didn’t leap past this week. Monday night, my amazing wife decided to come with the Thrashers hockey team on the bus to Game #4 of our playoff series! Unfortunately, we lost the game… but came back to win Game #5 on Wednesday night in Three Hills and thus win the series 3-2.
Tues night was our church’s annual meeting and it went very smoothly overall! And a church potluck meal before the meeting is always fun too… and I even “stretched” myself by not eating the food that my wife or mother cooked! (You never know what things people will put in their food…. People hide celery and mushrooms and all sorts of other useless things in casseroles!)
As already mentioned, Wed night was Game #5 of the Thrashers playoff series, but before that my amazing wife had Mom & Dad Ibbotson and Amanda, Paul & Ruth and their three teenagers, and Grandpa Carter over for my birthday dessert… my favorite, lemon meringue pie!!! Actually, Sarah and Mom Hunt made some last Saturday night and I got to have some on Sunday also!!! I really am spoiled!!!
Yesterday, Thursday Feb 28, was actually my birthday… I’m an ancient 36 years old now! And to think that my wife is not even 30 years old yet. I really did rob the cradle. Yesterday in JH/HS chapel, the Colombia Missions team shared about their ministry in Bogota and it was great to hear! Most encouraging were the answers to prayer that our team provided and that the Lord had “prepared in advance.” Then last night my incredible wife made homemade pizza for us! And then we went over to Jason & Laura’s and had our weekly Survivor Party and chips and dip (courtesy of my wife), cupcakes with chocolate icing (courtesy of Laura), and some chocolate eclairs (courtesy of Shannon). Sooooo good and soooo healthy!
Of course, this birthday was a little extra special because it was my first birthday as a married man… and I am so blessed to have such an incredible wife who is truly a partner in life and ministry. And the fact that baby is due any day now shows how God’s incredible blessing is beyond all we could ask or imagine!!!
Great quotes of the week:
Mom Ibbotson after she found out Sarah was going with me to Didsbury for the Thrashers game: “Your wife’s IQ just seems to be going down the longer she’s married to you!”
“It would be just like Steve to make sure baby is born on a leap year day (Feb 29) so that he only has to buy gifts for the child every four years!” When someone then suggested that if baby was born on Feb 29, baby and I could just celebrate our birthday’s together on the 28th of each year, the response was, “Yeah, right! Steve would share?”
Since both of our moms were likely to be away from Three Hills most of today (Friday, February 29), when asked if baby would come today I would say, “No baby is crazy enough to mess with both Grandma Dorothy (mom Hunt) and Grandma Wendy (mom Ibbotson)!”
To which Dad Ibbotson replied, “Yeah, but I figure if baby has a mind like you, s/he might not listen to anyone else’s advice anyway!” Zing!
Friday, February 29, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Giving Credit to God
Just saw Pastor Mark Batterson's blog posting for today over at evotional.com titled "Altars to God or Momuments to Self" and wanted to share an example from this morning's PCA Elementary chapel that this brought to mind.
At PCA elementary, the grades 4-6 students meet from 9:45-10:20 am and then the grades K-3 students meet from 10:40-11:20 am. Our chapel this morning was on the topic of forgiveness, and they (again) were (stuck?) listening to me speak. Two weeks ago we talked about "What does it really mean to say I'm sorry" and last week we talked about "confession."
So this morning in the G4-6 chapel I tried to sequence everything well, connecting our talk about forgiveness to the previous two chapels, trying to make the talk interesting and challenging, and also teach them good biblical interpretation skills, though rather "subliminally" as we looked at Ephesians 4:32. It just went so smoothly and I was so encouraged!
Then after recess we had the K-3 chapel... and everything seemingly went wrong. All the things that seemed to work well about the G4-6 chapel seemed to flop with the younger kids and a couple other unforeseen situations happened. But then just as we neared the end and I wondered what, if anything, was happening in their hearts, one rather talkative boy speaks up a bit too loudly to answer a friend's question (not my question which had just been answered by a girl two seats away from him!) and says in reference to Jesus answer to Peter about how many times should I forgive someone (Matthew 18:22), "it doesn't just mean 77 times, it means you're supposed to forgive all the time." Nailed it! Couldn't have said it better if I tried!
So I'm ready to close in prayer and yet one girl has her hand up... even though I haven't asked a question. Hmmm? Do I leave it and just pray? Okay, I'll take a chance... so I acknowledge the girl's hand. "Do you have a question?" I ask. "No, just a comment," she says, and the proceeds to tell the following story.
"My birthday was last Sunday and my brother was mean to me. The next day he came and asked me to forgive him but I told him I'd think about it and get back to him later. But the next day I realized that was wrong and that I needed to forgive him, even if I didn't want to, because Jesus forgave me." Again, nailed it! That's what I was trying to get across in my talk, but you said it way better!
As Christian educators/leaders, we always want to be prepared. And yet when anything good and of eternal value happens in the lives of young people (or adults!)... its not me who does the work, it is the LORD! Give credit to whom credit is due! Thanks for that reminder today, God!
At PCA elementary, the grades 4-6 students meet from 9:45-10:20 am and then the grades K-3 students meet from 10:40-11:20 am. Our chapel this morning was on the topic of forgiveness, and they (again) were (stuck?) listening to me speak. Two weeks ago we talked about "What does it really mean to say I'm sorry" and last week we talked about "confession."
So this morning in the G4-6 chapel I tried to sequence everything well, connecting our talk about forgiveness to the previous two chapels, trying to make the talk interesting and challenging, and also teach them good biblical interpretation skills, though rather "subliminally" as we looked at Ephesians 4:32. It just went so smoothly and I was so encouraged!
Then after recess we had the K-3 chapel... and everything seemingly went wrong. All the things that seemed to work well about the G4-6 chapel seemed to flop with the younger kids and a couple other unforeseen situations happened. But then just as we neared the end and I wondered what, if anything, was happening in their hearts, one rather talkative boy speaks up a bit too loudly to answer a friend's question (not my question which had just been answered by a girl two seats away from him!) and says in reference to Jesus answer to Peter about how many times should I forgive someone (Matthew 18:22), "it doesn't just mean 77 times, it means you're supposed to forgive all the time." Nailed it! Couldn't have said it better if I tried!
So I'm ready to close in prayer and yet one girl has her hand up... even though I haven't asked a question. Hmmm? Do I leave it and just pray? Okay, I'll take a chance... so I acknowledge the girl's hand. "Do you have a question?" I ask. "No, just a comment," she says, and the proceeds to tell the following story.
"My birthday was last Sunday and my brother was mean to me. The next day he came and asked me to forgive him but I told him I'd think about it and get back to him later. But the next day I realized that was wrong and that I needed to forgive him, even if I didn't want to, because Jesus forgave me." Again, nailed it! That's what I was trying to get across in my talk, but you said it way better!
As Christian educators/leaders, we always want to be prepared. And yet when anything good and of eternal value happens in the lives of young people (or adults!)... its not me who does the work, it is the LORD! Give credit to whom credit is due! Thanks for that reminder today, God!
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Reflections from the weekend
A great hockey weekend... Friday night the Thrashers beat Ponoka 15-4 at the Three Hills Centennial arena and then today we beat Med Hat 3-2 in OT. Of course yesterday was Hockey Day in Canada and so I watched most of the three televised games: Leafs beat Detroit 3-2 yeah!... Flames beat Oilers 4-1 Yee-ha!!! and Colorado beat Vanc 6-2... (don't really care except that it could affect the Flames playoff standings). Watched a bit of NCAA hoops in between the hockey games, including the Dukies beat Boston Coll yesterday. Some really cool stories CBC covered on Hockey Day in Canada including Joe Juneau, the Cambridge Ice Hounds - a team for players with developmental disabilities... and a feature on a kid named ____ Stafford who plays Jr B hockey for the Sarnia Blast who was born without one hand. And they even included some good history lessons on Winkler, MB and of course Mennonites!
The only down side of the weekend is that my wife was not here... she was at the Three Hills Inter-church Ladies Retreat at Pioneer Lodge. I'm hoping she had a wonderful time of fellowship and spiritual challenge. Actually, it probably worked out well that she wasn't here with all this sports on this weekend... but I was really surpised at how much I miss her. Coming home Friday night both after work and after the Thrashers games, I remembered how alone I felt coming back to my trailer over the past few years. It was really quite strange as I thought I might enjoy the solitude, at least for a few hours... but NO WAY!!! And while it is good to know how to live on your own for many reasons, now that the Lord has blessed me with the most incredible wife in the world, I would never want to go back to being single. Sarah has made our trailer such a welcoming and charming home and she loves, respects and cares for me in such amazing ways... Oh Lord, I am too blessed!!! Thank You again for showing me your wonderful blessings poured out upon me.
The only down side of the weekend is that my wife was not here... she was at the Three Hills Inter-church Ladies Retreat at Pioneer Lodge. I'm hoping she had a wonderful time of fellowship and spiritual challenge. Actually, it probably worked out well that she wasn't here with all this sports on this weekend... but I was really surpised at how much I miss her. Coming home Friday night both after work and after the Thrashers games, I remembered how alone I felt coming back to my trailer over the past few years. It was really quite strange as I thought I might enjoy the solitude, at least for a few hours... but NO WAY!!! And while it is good to know how to live on your own for many reasons, now that the Lord has blessed me with the most incredible wife in the world, I would never want to go back to being single. Sarah has made our trailer such a welcoming and charming home and she loves, respects and cares for me in such amazing ways... Oh Lord, I am too blessed!!! Thank You again for showing me your wonderful blessings poured out upon me.
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