Day 15 went well, back in the office so I woke up on time and headed out.

Got some 'bad news' during the day about a friend and it kind of soured my night and it showed.  Was short with my wife and was just not into being friendly.

Went and played some basketball.  Came back and read Acts 3 - Acts 9.  I just love reading the book of Acts as it is THE book about what the first century church did.

Said my prayers and went to bed.

About to start on my Day 16 reading.

Now idea how my partners are doing.

Today was one of those moments where I'm just humbled by God.

As I've mentioned on my blog, my neighbor used to be my neighbor.

10 years ago my young family was living next to Mary and Greg and their children.  Greg was in a BAD car wreck and the place we lived in had a strict set of guidelines of lawn care.  So for several months I was taking care of both of our lawns.  I knew Mary had a full load on her hands. 

Some things happened to where we moved, but I left my lawn mower with them because they didn't have one. Figured that was the last I'd ever hear from them...

Fast forward 10 years later, and I find out that the house we bought has a familiar neighbor in Mary.  Life had taken some curvy roads for her and now Mary and her husband Mike were my new neighbors! 

Then a few weeks later we were down in the Village of Batavia handing out invitations to the community for our Vacation Bible school, and who did my son and I run into?  Mike and Mary!  We gave them the invite and they brought their daughter to the VBS.  She loved it, they came to church, they loved it... and it was all capped off this morning when both of them were baptized!

How much did I play in this scenario?  Really I don't know.  Would they have shown up at LifeStream Christian Church anyway's? Maybe.  But what role do I know I played?  I wasn't a jerk!  Imagine if the situation was different and I was one of 'those' neighbors?  Imagine their reaction to my church when we gave them an invite, if I was one of 'those' neighbors.

Its truly humbling to see how a seed of being nice, blossomed into what I witnessed this morning. You never know how what you are doing today will play out 10 years from now...

OK, I'm back on track.

I've read 19 chapters of the Bible today.  Have read the entire Gospel, loved some of the 'new' things that stuck out to me this time through.

I will be doing another 40 Days at some point in the future, and I've decided that one of my goals will be going over my list of scriptures from this time around and expand on one a day. 

I will be praying before I go to bed, will take a bit of an extra time on some of my big prayer request.  Need to make up for the last few days.

Have I mentioned how much I love and value my wife?

OK, here is an odd post... I'm going to bring some church politics out to the open.

On August 3rd, my church will be voting on our 'new' name.

This was a bit unexpected as the Elders fully expected the last vote to pass, and thus the new name was able to be changed by the Elders without a vote.  Well we all know the result of that vote, and now they are wanting to move forward a bit and step one is to put the old bylaws up for a vote with the new name in it.

Let me be clear here, and frankly Bob Stewart (an Elder and reader of this blog) may have some heart mummers as a result of what I am about to publicly say.

1. I voted no on the last vote.  Some things in it I just didn't feel great about voting yes on, and when the affects of a YES vote are so far reaching... its honestly better to vote no until you are at a place where you can vote yes.
2. I really am not a fan of our new name. 

HOWEVER a name is just a name.  I'm going to take the Elders word for the fact that 75% of the feedback they got was positive and accept it as the will of the congregation and vote yes.  And really, God forbid, the 75% is misleading... the church needs to move forward and another issue on something like this is work of the devil, something I won't be a part of.

And for my fellow church members... I highly urge you to do the same.  There are fights worth fighting... this isn't it.  BUT if you are at an impasse with this situation, be an adult and talk to the Elders.  How can they adjust or be aware of the issue without knowing how YOU feel? 

But I put that last part there just because it probably needs to be there... but my expectation is that this next vote will pass with a HIGH majority. 

Argh...

Day 10 was OK read and prayed.   But honestly waited until it was to late to pray so it wasn't very good.

Day 11 was not very good either, read late... and wasn't focused on it.  Started to wear down with Val being out of town.

Day 12 was HORRIBLE.  Prayed for the main things on my list, but was just not focused at all.

Day 13 was just like day 12.  Busy day, took my focus.

So here is for the last 27 days... I will catch up on Sunday and be good to go here on out.

I SO APPRECIATE AND VALUE the job my wife does day in and day out.  I was just a few nights away from being on the nightly news for going nuts!

Day 9 is over.  Some huge victories today.

Started off waking up around 6:20.  Took the time to clean the carpet in the living room as the dog didn't wake me up to go out :-(.

Then I put in my days work and went about my day.

Was outside putting up a line to attach the dog to, to keep him contained when in the yard.  At least until he matures a bit on his chewing and attacking habits.  When all of a sudden my neighbor came out to say hello.  Obviously had something to say, he's a friendly guy to begin with... but something told me he had something to say... so I started talking to him, to find out that he and his wife will be baptized this Sunday at my church!  Very cool!

Came in and put in some more time on work stuff, and then ready my scriptures for the day.  Collin took a late nap and was up with me so he sat on my lap as I read a few chapters.  Then he got bored with it and went about his way.  Finally I needed to pray, I had him kneel with me and pray. 

So that is my day for the day.  No idea how my partners are doing, working from home has been hard to do that and keep in touch with them.... I think I'll send an email now.

OK, again another slow starting day.  But on Saturday night I locked the dog down in the basement and got a full nights sleep in. The downfall?  Dog messed in the house twice.  So last night I let the dog run.  The downfall?  Woke me up at 3:30 AM to go out.  No fun.  Was up for an hour after that.

OK so woke up at 7:15 got ready for working from home.  At 8 a friend showed up to watch my children and another child that my wife babysat.  I walled up in my office and got some productive work done. Then I had to take over kid duties at 1PM and worked most of that time until 4PM.  Then I took time to read my Bible and pray.

So overall an OK day.

Well Day 7 officially fell on Sunday.  So I again slept in... plus I was wore out from the previous days work.

Woke up and answered some emails from the previous night.  I was looking for a washer from CraigsList.org as ours decided to die Saturday morning.  I had no intention of spending $300 on a new one, so I found a used one for $80. Went to church where Jason Case was preaching for the day.  The man preached a good sermon, but he gives Bob Stewart some stiff competition in relation to length of sermon ;-)

Arranged for my fellow 40 Days of Focus, Tom C to help me retrieve the washer.  So he and his family came over and hung out as we headed to Loveland to get the Washer.  Then headed home with it and they hung out for several hours.  Ironically when we were out at a store we saw the guy who gave me the idea for this plan. Its good to have good friends.

Then I got to my goals, read my Bible and prayed.  I'm really enjoying the focused reading and praying.  I'm good at studying the Bible, but not good at reading it. 

Tom C had a good day as well, I think he went with out chewing tobacco, but its a struggle for him.  He is trying :-)

Well as mentioned in my previous post, I spent most of my day helping friend Matt K move.  I am wore out.  Started at 9:30, went till 11:30... then started again about 12:30 and finished about 7.  Starting to really think I'll need surgery on my shoulder next year (when my Flex Spending account re-ups...) as it is not doing well at all... think I've got some rotator cuff issues.

One thing that really stood out to me today were the children helping out.  Matt K had his four children helping out, and another guy had his daughter helping out (more on her in a second).

Matt and his wife raise their children with the expectation of obeying (odd concept I know)... and they did a great job today.  They worked their tails off and hopefully made their parents proud. 

But I knew those four children, the other guy and his daughter are new to me.  He's had a bit of a rough way to go with it over the past year or so... so I'm not 100% sure of his current status in my church... but I've heard his name mentioned more than once by my circle of friends.  He had his daughter with him... and she was doing a great job... and during a down time I thought I would chat with her a bit and asked her what grade she was in.... was stunned when she said sophomore in high school.  I would have guessed (and felt good about the guess) 12 yr's old.  She was very small and looked very young.  But at 15, almost 16, (her emphasis) she did an unbelievable job.  I reallllly hope my baby girl is that respectful when she is that age.

I couldn't imagine how much longer we would have went without these five great children.

Well.... I honestly had no plan to wake up at 6AM today.  I think Saturday and Sunday will be some optional days for me, depending how my week went... I needed to sleep in a bit today, but honestly not much... woke up at 7 to go to the men's Bible Study/breakfast for my church.

Had a small group today but very good discussion.  Then headed of to start helping Matt K move.  Loaded up a good chunk of the moving truck and then came to the church to see my wife and oldest two children off to York, PA for a short term mission trip.  Will be a 'fun' week in my household.

Then went back to finish helping Matt K move, finished at 7PM... looooong day.

Came home and read my Bible and will pray before bed.

Matt K, Scott W, and Tom C had good days of their own when it comes to 40 Days of Focus... Scott got more than enough work out time to meet his 15 minute goal.