Tag: Life

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Perspectives

cereal_selection
I always find myself taking things in life for granted, or overlooking how blessed I am because of minor issues that I allow to be bigger than what they really are. I think when we start looking at things in their proper perspectives, we are able to see the truth of how blessed and how good many of us have it.

For instance, this morning I am standing in the kitchen drinking a glass of tea (the kind with no sugar in it) and taking my array of daily pills. We live in a small home (especially with 5 people) so the only place we can fit our cereal boxes are on top of the refrigerator. I just happened to look at them and think, “Wow, we have a lot of cereal!” But to really put things into perspective, we probably have more food just in cereal than many children do in a year in third world countries. Yet, my children will complain if they don’t get the cereal they like, or if we are out of their favorite kind. I wonder how excited the kids who barely have anything to eat would be to get just 1 box of cereal? I then got a little downtime (finally) today to go visit some other blogs, and I was given another perspective on my life…

The reason I have not had time to visit other blogs is because our stupid website hosting company (no names, 1&1) sent my wife’s domain name to be deleted instead of for transfer to another company, I guess that’s their way of saying, “We’ll show you to leave our company!” I spent a week and a half with their tech support, whom you cannot understand ( I think they are a mix of arabic and chinese) trying to get the domain name restored and transferred to the new company. Once that was complete, I have been trying to rebuild the site for her to get her business back up and running. My bed times this week have been, 1:30 am, 2:30 am, 3:40 am, and 3:50 am before getting up between 6:30 and 7:00ish to go to work. I thought my last couple of weeks were pretty bad, but then I was reminded of what my friends Dan and Stephanie Gould deal with constantly with one of their children, Jackson. They’ve been in the hospital 5 times since September due to a cesure condition their son has. Personally, I would take a crashed website and early mornings trying to fix it, than having to see my son helplessly deal with the issues Jackson does, and to have him subjexcted to the tests and the probes from the Hospitals. Dan and Stephanie are much stronger than me, and their story helps me realize that my life is not as bad as it may seem…it could always be worst! (I’m not saying they have a bad life, just that they are having to endure more than my situation with the website).

Join the Conversation: What helps you keep your life in proper perspective? How could the world be different if we all had the right focus?

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Hunting for Treasure

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I’ve been hunting for treasure lately. It’s amazing how much I’ve already found, its only been small amounts here or there, but the amazing thing is…the more smaller ‘pots of gold’ that I find the  the hungrier I get to find the big treasure chest!

This is where I have been lately…

My child, listen to what I say,  and treasure my commands.  2 Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding.  3 Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding.  4 Search for them as you would for silver; seek them like hidden treasures. 5 Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord, and you will gain knowledge of God.  6 For the Lord grants wisdom! From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.  7 He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest. He is a shield to those who walk with integrity.  8 He guards the paths of the just and protects those who are faithful to him.  9 Then you will understand what is right, just, and fair,  and you will find the right way to go.  10 For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will fill you with joy.  11 Wise choices will watch over you. Understanding will keep you safe. 12 Wisdom will save you from evil people, from those those words are twisted… 16 Wisdom will save you from the immoral woman, from the seductive words of the promiscuous woman. Proverbs 2:1-11 (NLT)

I love this scripture, it challenges me everytime I read it…”Search for Wisdom, understanding, and insight like I would for silver or for hidden treasure.” I don’t do that…I have been lately, but I don’t want it to be a lately thing, I need it to be an everyday thing! The older I am getting (and yes it is happening…I found 3 grey hairs Saturday) the more I am realizing I need God’s wisdom, his understanding, and his insight. As a husband, a father, a Christ Follower, an employee, a church member, a citizen…you name it and I need wisdom to accomplish it or to lead in it. So I am on a treasure hunt for what I believe Solomon thought was the most valuable possession, Wisdom!

I love what scripture promises if we search for wisdom, my thought is, what if we searched for it like it was hidden treasure? I mean passionately, whole heartedly, recklessly sought after wisdom? That’s what I need to do!

[Wisdom] “I love all who love me.  Those who search will surely find me…For whoever finds me finds life and receives favor from the Lord.” Proverbs 8:17, 35 (NLT)

Join the Conversation: If you’ve learned one nugget of wisdom in your life that would benefit someone else, what would it be?

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New Blog Coming Soon!

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I’ve spent the last week or so working with a couple of different blogs on the WordPress.org platform. I love it! Its complicated, but its fluid…meaning I have total control of my site. I love the challenge of playing with the code to customize the look and feel to the way I like it. I do not know a lot of code, so I’ve broken the other sites I’ve been playing with several times, but fortunately as I learn it (thanks to free info through Google) I am able to fix it back! Oh, I’ve got to give credit to the web designer tools through Firefox too!

To be honest, I hate my blog design here on WordPress.com, but it is the only 3 column layout that works for me, all of that will change when I switch to WordPress.org. Beyond the look of my blog, I am going to be able to add various different elements that .com does not allow.

I can’t wait…hopefully soon you will come to nickcarnes.com and see a whole new site! Its going to be a beautiful thing 🙂

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Am I a Bad Parent?

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Ok, I want you to be honest here today! I want you to answer the question, am I a bad parent? Of course it is impossible for you to tell if I am a bad parent based on this one situation, but you can answer, was this a bad parenting decision…or a good one?

The Situation: Gavin loves the Christmas tree. If the lights are off, he plugs it up, he is the watcher of the ornaments, as Tristan, his 2 year old brother likes to take them off the tree. So, we made Gavin “responsible for the Christmas tree.” His duties involved 2 simple things #1 Unplug the lights when he goes to school (there is no need for them to be on during the day when he is not there) and #2 Turn off the lights when he goes to bed (they can’t stay on all night).

What Happened: Last night Gavin went to bed and did not turn off the lights on the Christmas Tree. I was busy working on some stuff and did not notice until he had been asleep for about 30 minutes. Nicki told me to let him sleep, I wanted to wake him up, after all it is his responsibility. I woke him up…it took me about 5 minutes, but he got up, walked in the living room and unplugged the tree. He didn’t remember even having to do it this morning.

My Reasons: I believe that children learn a lot of valuable lessons at an early age (Like in this Post) and because of what  Proverbs 22:6 say’s. Gavin is becoming more and more aware of people who are in need, because we are teaching him and he prays for them everyday. I had a very traditional upbringing that taught things like, “Do it right the first time.” “Be a man of your word, if you say you are going to do something, do it, no matter the time or the cost.” Etc…So, since turning the lights off is Gavin’s “responsibility” which he accepted, I decided to wake him up to do his job. Sure, I could have simply unplugged the lights, but what would lesson would Gavin learn from that? That dad will always finish the job if he forgets or just doesn’t want to do it?

Join the Conversation: Am I a bad parent for waking Gavin up to unplug the Christmas tree? What would you have done differently if you think I am to teach responsibility to your child?

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Conversations with a 2 Year Old

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…about “Onalds” (Translated: McDonald’s)

Everyday Nicki has to drive by McDonald’s to take Gavin to school…everyday Tristan begs to go to McDonald’s. McDonald is Tristan’s hero, he can be asleep and if we come within 3 miles of a McDonald’s his special radar goes off and he starts calling out for “Onald’s!!!” “Onald’s!!!”

The typical conversation goes like this…

Tristan: “Onald’s!!!”
Mommy: “No Tristan, we don’t have the money for McDonald’s”
(Repeat 10-20 times)

Today, this is how the conversation went at home…

Tristan: “Onald’s!!!”
Me: “What Tristan?”
Tristan: “Onald’s!!!”

As I looked down, Tristan was holding up a penny, asking to go to McDonald’s. Tristan always amazes us with his memory. If we tell him something, at two years old, it is seared into his brain…that’s why we make very little promises to him…he will hold our feet to the fire. Unfortunately, he does not have a perception of money, because a penny doesn’t buy anything, but he doesn’t care, for all he knows, it’s money and mommy never has enough to go to “Onald’s” – Today she is taking the boys for ice cream at Onald’s with Tristan’s penny. It truly was the most adorable thing I’ve seen in a long time! 🙂

Join the Conversation: What is the most adorable thing you have seen, besides my profile picture, lately? 🙂