Where Chester Lives

I haven't been this tired in a very long time. I haven't had a full night's sleep in over a week. I'm the type of person who cannot sleep when they are stressed. I toss and turn and cycle through all of the stuff that is in my head, endlessly churning through past conversations and future possible outcomes. Never restful, never really sleeping.

I'm really good at telling people that Christ says to cast your cares on him, that tomorrow has enough worries of its own. I'm not so good at self-application at times like this.

One major shining light is that my relationship with Teresa is the real unquestionable in my life right now. I do not fear for us as a family, and I have every confidence that she loves and supports me.

I think any married man can say this, but I have not always done right by my wife. She deserves far better than I have been, or am now. We have been married for 16+ years, and I can say this: there has never been an attitude of surrender in our relationship. Neither of us has ever desired to give up, even though times may have been really tough (remember the Navy? blech). She has been eternally patient with me, even when I have been irresponsible in decisions. Today, I am not what I was 16 years ago. Pff...i'm not even what I was ONE year ago. I have devoted more personal time now in my life than ever before towards spiritual growth, and I think she would tell you that it shows. I am not tooting my horn, but I believe that we all have a responsibility towards gaining real maturity, and I take that very seriously. Or, at least, I take that seriously now. My wife is my love, my cohort, my companion, and my dearest friend. She isn't perfect, but neither am I. And here is the absolutely most beautiful thing: she doesn't love me for me; she loves me for the Spirit that lives inside of me and transforms me to be more like Christ. If she loved me for me, she would have left me inside of a week. I continue to strive to be better today than I was yesterday, for two reasons: I love Christ and want to be more like Him, I love my family and want to be more for them. It doesn't always work out like that, but that is my goal.

My life, in almost every other area, is in a state of turmoil. My life inside of my family is a sea of tranquility and a bedrock of unconditional love. Because of that, I will get through.

'nuf said.

and goodbye.

We spent this weekend in Fresno visiting our close friends, Jim and Mandy Gardner.  We had a wonderful time, even though it was very busy, and we had to drive to fresno...like a friend told us Sunday morning, if we could cut out the section of California between Elk Grove and Madera, it would be alot easier to visit.  Jim and Mandy are great people, and their daughters, Trae (9) and Tori (4), are hilarious.  Especially Tori.  At first she wouldn't really speak to me...her first real sentence to me was, "You're really big."  After that, we were best buds.  I showed her how to do a rock star punch and by the end of the weekend she was calling me a mean daddy who spanks his kids all the time.  Wait, what?

We drove to Fresno on Friday.  As part of the trip, Emma went to a sleepover at her pen pal's house.  They met last year when we were at the lectureship series hosted at Woodward Park Church of Christ.  Emma has absolutely no problem in collecting best friends.  She has them wherever she goes.  I wish I could start relationships so easily...  I couldn't even do that when I was a kid.  Guess she's Mommy's daughter.  Anyway, we dropped Emma off at her friend's house and we went to Sonic with Jim and Mandy.  Post-Sonic, Jim and I watched some of the A's-Giants game and then went to his softball game.  If you've ever read his blog, you will know that their church softball team is dominant.  It isn't even fair how good they are.  They won Friday night by a score of 23-4.  They scored 17 runs in the first inning alone, capped by two three-run homers, one of them by Jim over the left field fence.  It's a co-ed team, which means that there has to be 4 girls on the field and they alternate guy-girl in the batting order.  This is where they kill them:  at least two of their girls play fast-pitch, one in high school (she just graduated, and their team lost a heart-breaker of a game in the championships) and one at Fresno St.  they play the infield.  Also, their 1st base player is a girl who is also very good...i don't know if she played in h.s. or college, but she's good.  So, typically what would be a weakness on a co-ed team is their strength.  And the whole team hits like nobody's business.  It was fun to watch.  I was heckling some, but I don't think Jim heard me.

Saturday, Jim and Mandy had about a billion things to do.  They had dance rehearsals in the morning, recital late afternoon, and a grad open house in the evening.  Emma went with them to the rehearsal/recital, but Anne wasn't feeling that great, so she stayed home.  We were going to go out to eat with some other friends down there, the Boggs, but decided that it would work out better if they just came over to Jim and Mandy's house and I cooked dinner for everyone.  So, we had salmon and Coy's potatoes and salad and bread and asparagus and Heidi brought pies.  It was better than what we would have eaten anyway, and we all got to visit over dinner and just chat.  We went to worship with them on Sunday morning and heard a great lesson on God's grace and mercy as he extended it at the foot of Mt. Sinai.  Jim talked about how the Ten Commandments were borne out of God's grace, and not some desire of His to suck the fun out of life.  That's way more brief than Jim was and doesn't really do his presentation justice.  It was a very good lesson.  We left almost immediately after worship to return to Placerville on time for me to teach a class on the Beatitudes and do the picture slideshow for the graduates.

Thus ended a busy weekend.  we are still recovering.

I've got alot more to blog about in the next few days, but I'll save it for later.  that's enough for now.  time for dinner.

One last thing:  Happy Anniversary Jim and Mandy!  Hope you have many more.