Today & 7

Fridays are days off... in theory. I think the nature of ministry is you take time when you can knowing some days off will only happen in theory. It's spring break week which creates a challenge for my wife and I. Our 8 kids don't have school but we still have work.

The 2 teenage girls had been pulling some baby sitting duty and had a chance to get away to Busch Gardens today...

Jody had a dental appointment...

That left me with the 6 littles...

Beach.

I already mentioned that it's spring break didn't I? Oops.

We drove from one end of Siesta Key to the other looking for parking. No dice. So, we headed to Lido Beach. Sarasota streets are already bursting at the seams from the snow birds/q-tips/blue hairs (odd names for the retired people who winter in Florida and then return home for the summer). That turned our trip into a more than hour long excursion - just to get to the beach. I had no real agenda today except to hang with my little people so it was no big deal. 40 minutes in Gretchen said "DAD HOW MUCH LONGER IS IT GOING TO BE??" (She doesn't have an inside voice unless she's being corrected and I'm waiting to hear a yes sir.) Matthew: (also lacking ANY volume control whatsoever) "YOU HAVE TO BE PATIENT!" Gretchen: "I'VE ALREADY BEEN PATIENT, I DON'T WANT TO BE PATIENT ANYMORE".

I totally get that.

I'm there with God right now. We found out not long ago that we have to move. We've been renting a house for the past 15 months that is much larger than the home we purchased back as a family of 4. The owner wants to move back in. In a month. I've been praying and asking God to provide in a way that honors Himself. So far? Nada. So, yeah, Gretchen... I totally get where you're coming from.

We made it to the beach. I love the beach. My wife would probably argue this point. I like to go, enjoy, and come home. She wants to pack overnight bags for everyone and stay for a week spearing fish for food and washing our clothes in the water. No thanks. That's the beauty of living 10 miles from the beach. You don't have to get your money's worth out of it in just one day. (end rant)

People look when they see our entourage. It's like a car accident or an 80 year old man in a speedo, you just can't not look. It's far more entertaining when I'm flying solo. Let's face it dads, a great many of us are totally disengaged from our families. We love them, but we are relational pygmies (no offense pygmies). It's easy to invest 70 hour work weeks to provide for them and difficult to spend quality time with them.

When we lived in Kentucky and my son was a newborn I just couldn't get enough of him. My wife is quite crafty (all meanings apply) and she made this baby sling. I would have called it a papoose but whatever. I loved popping him in there and going grocery shopping. (Moms need breaks sometimes dads, especially the ones who don't ask for any breaks. So, if you're worth your salt you will provide them.) It was laughable to see how people responded. The one thing I didn't expect was all the ladies who wanted to see exactly what I had in there. I have a larger than normal bubble of personal space. It would have been worth catching on film for a good belly laugh. Me being proud of my son (yeah, I made that) vs. the 10 foot pole rule.

I'm reading 7 by Jen Hatmaker and brought it with me. Somewhere in the middle of chapter one the alarms went off and I realized the perimeter had been breached - "'em 4 kids, you adopt 'em?" said the nice gentleman who clearly owned a "the south will rise again" t-shirt. I was so tempted to say, "which ones?". "Yes" I replied. "'at's awesome man, shoot(the oo part was much longer than I can adequately convey here), you just don't see that kinda thing. Really? Damn. Man. Wow."

It was interesting punctuation to the book that I'm reading. God calls us all different places and the same place at the same time. Universally I think He calls us to his side. Individually He calls us to preach, to start a prison ministry, to be an accountant, a lawyer, a stay at home mom, maybe even to adopt. I'm not always obedient. When I am things like that happen. Weird. It's like God was telling the truth when He said the world will know we're Christians by our love.