Tag: Personal

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Happy Birthday to Me!!!

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Today I have been blessed with 28 healthy, wonderful, sometimes trying years of life. I am sure there are days I would keep and then there are days and decisions I would like to trade in, but my biggest regret is that these 10,220 days have gone by so fast! The older I get the more I realize that life is not about me, its about (as my friend Shane has phrased it) “Loving Jesus, loving others, and pursuing both!” Bottom line, its about Jesus and about people. Today, in recognition of the day I was given life, I am going to donate blood at a local blood drive to give three other people life, I thought that would be fitting for the day…

I know you all were going to Fed-Ex or UPS me a gift once you realized it was my birthday (insert sarcasm here), but instead of sending me gifts, I am asking that you honor me on my birthday by helping my friend Neely bring her daughter home, by buying a bag of coffee or an “Adoption Rock’s T-Shirt.” All profits go to pay for her child’s adoption. While you are there, pick up a couple of extras for late Christmas gifts 🙂 For information on purchasing the coffee CLICK HERE for information on purchasing a t-shirt CLICK HERE. Thank you for honoring me on my birthday by helping someone else!

Once you’ve purchased a bag of coffee or a t-shirt, I would love for you to leave a comment to let everyone know which one you bought so those who didn’t will feel guilty 🙂

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This May Hurt A Little…

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I am starting my blog move to WordPress.org – If you come to my blog by the address of http://www.nickcarnes.com and you can’t access the blog one day, go to http://www.nickcarnes.wordpress.com, as I will still be updating my blog here at .com until I get everything working. I am going to try and make a subdomain to build my site in, however I have never done that, and there is the potential for me to break something…so my hopes are not to break it, but it could happen!

When its all said and done, nickcarnes.com will be the domain forever going forward. Thank you for your patience with my move 🙂

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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?