JOB PERKS:
one of the things i love about what i do is getting to introduce kids to some of the things that have been a huge part of my own life for the past several years; one of the things i love more than that is that the nature of my job is such that my family is a welcome part of it. so this is the 'stay tuned' from the last post. i took some of my youth on a climbing trip up to ship rock (located on the BRP) back in june...by the way, taking kids up there brings back all sorts of memories from the summers spent at camp timberlake; what a wonderful place and wonderful memories. anyway, gresham never wants to miss out on a climbing adventure and a chance to hang out with his 'youth group friends' as he calls them...
it is a proud thing for me to watch gresham as he learns to love the outdoors (the way his dad does).
A SPECIAL DAY FOR BAILEY:
we are thankful everyday for out children. we love them and love that the Lord has blessed us with them. while there certainly are times that we fall short, we do our best to try and raise them up in an understanding of who Jesus is, how he loves us, and what it looks like to live with him on a daily basis...one of the things that piper and i agreed upon when gresham was born was that rather than having our children baptized, we wanted to 'dedicate' them in front of our friends and family, leaving the decision of baptism up to them as they grow to understand the fullness of what it means. one of the continued blessings about still being able to call boone home is that we are still able to spend time and be blessed by people like carl clawson (pastor of banner elk christian fellowship and friend and mentor to so many of us who have called boone home at one time or another). carl has done the dedication for both of our boys, and in fact baptized me in the watauga river (in one of our favorite fishing holes, actually) on the same day that we did gresham's dedication. we tried to choose a special place for each of our children; one that we hope will be virtually untouched and one we will be able to take them to one day and explain to them how we dedicated them to the Lord, trusting that He will continue the process of drawing them to Himself. for bailey's dedication, we were blessed with a beautiful day at valle crucis park...
this has been a wonderful summer, and of course it has not been without the craziness that comes with being a part of the circus of three...days at tweetsie, superheros, lazing around in the sun, cowboy boots, lots of cousins and all of the other amazing things that make each day an adventure!
