beth, please change…

Kurt leads the Yorkville Campus Saturday Morning Men’s Group. I got the opportunity to hang out with the guys and their families this Sunday at the Beasley’s. Besides the fact that the Beasley’s are incredibly great hosts, this group knows how to have fun!

Dave Beasley is a great host. Always making sure everyone knows their place, from oldest to youngest! You may find him wrestling a kid to the ground or throwing one into the pool!

Stephanie Beasley with her mom Gresna! Steph took most of the pictures, provided food and fun. Way to bring the party, Steph!

Tim Whaley (group picture, far right, leads Friday night family group) came with his family the youngest shown in all her cute limberness with her new friend Liana to the left.

Kids and adults had fun in the pool, joyriding in the golf cart (only lisenced drivers got keys!)

Small Group Socials are all about life… hanging out, building friendships and just spending time.

…and TOM IS NOT JUST A HAPPY GUY, we had FUN!

Thank you Kurt for understanding the value of time spent together, thank you Beasleys for providing a great environment to do it in!

Proverbs (22:20) Have not I written unto you excellent things of counsels and knowledge, (22:21) To make you know the certainty of the words of truth, That you can carry back words of truth to them that send you?

It’s crazy that people are counting on US to know important truths. And that God knew it and provided words of truth for us to carry back…

Who expects you to be wise? Who is hoping for you to have wisdom?
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24 The proud and arrogant man-”Mocker” is his name; he behaves with overweening pride.

Well, now we know who to flog(see last post) .  The prideful. 

Get in line for your whuppin’… it’s a long one!

So what IS pride?   I know I have heard, “you should be proud of yourself” Don’t Dad’s tell their sons to have “some pride in your work“?  How do you have ‘good’ self esteem or confidence and not be ‘prideful’?

Thoughts?  (after your whuppin of course…)

 25 Flog a mocker, and the simple will learn prudence; rebuke a discerning man, and he will gain knowledge.

I find this very interesting.  How true that people who mock are often without a teachable spirit.  Reprimanding them doesn’t do much for THEM, but is important to do for those who are watching the scene play out.  Simple people will at least not repeat the behavior they saw rebuked.  But a wise person is always worth correcting.  He will always learn. 

No where does it say to do nothing.  Sometimes we get grace mixed up with protecting people from the natural consequences to their behavior. (Which is EXACTLY what it is!  Silly me!) But it isn’t good for people to rescue them from EVERY consequence.  It’s almost like stealing a first grader’s reading book - you steal an important tool for their growth and future learning- not to mention the ability to gain respect in life. 

I am so happy for the grace I recieve from Jesus - afforded me by his death and resurection.  I am also happy for the natural consequences to my actions.  I hope I am wise and learn from them!

(15:20) A wise son maketh a glad father; But a foolish man despiseth his mother.

So a wise son (child) DOESN’T despise his mother and THAT makes his dad happy!

I know that is true in our house. But today I am thinkoing of broken families. Families where moms and dads are trying to extract happiness from kids picking sides, NOT honoring and loving the other parent for a plethera of reasons.

But there is no happiness there. No winners.

Today I pray for estranged parents-for the sake of their children, for the sake of the parent and for the honor of God’s word.
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23:Hard work is worthwhile, but empty talk will make you poor.

Our kids are really blessed.  They are not stupid (see proverbs 14) and they have had a good example of what hard work is!  Here is my dad (right).  He is always learning, enrolls in LIR (Learning-in-Retirement) at Northwestern, reads voraciously and is naturally inquisitive.

My brother-in-law, Pat (right) also loves to learn and grow.  He is a hard worker, whether it is sports, work or helping his family …

Today I took pictures of Guy SEWING bean bags and filling them with corn!  He does whatever he can to be working and not poor!  Wow.

You can’t really BE in my family without seeing some great example of doing.  Not a lot of talk about it either.  Just hard work. 

If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all…. That’s what mom’s say. And that’s good. Dad’s say things like “save your money, don’t spend it in one place.”

My Dad, however, is a pretty good communicator. He loves telling stories and people like to listen to him. We talked about things like delivery, timing, never saying “um.” Say what you mean, mean what you say…(hey! is that a song?)

Here is my Dad, my sons, their stepdad, nephews, their dad. Some dads, all sons….

These words from Proverbs seem to fall in line with those things my father taught me.

1 A wise son heeds his father’s instruction,
but a mocker does not listen to rebuke.

2 From the fruit of his lips a man enjoys good things,
but the unfaithful have a craving for violence.

3 He who guards his lips guards his life,
but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin. (just hush)

Here you see my husband Guy. He is a man’s man. (well, and my man)

This is Guy on his old bike (a Harley Sportster that he put together from parts he bought in a cardboard box)

Today I got a call at work from Jen Ripsch (jen and fam) who got a call from Stephanie Beasley (Yorkville attender) asking me if I had heard from Guy. This is rarely a good conversation.

As it turns out Steph had seen someone who looked like Guy walking by the side of the road, but his bike didn’t look good.

Meanwhile, Tom is talking to Rick
on the phone about the price of gas and Tom says, “Hey Guy just crashed his bike!” in front of his work at Carstar in Yorkville. To which Rick says, “Click” and speeds over to the scene of the crash (breaking at least one law on the way - or so RUMOR has it)

Sam and Andy are driving by and see Guy sitting in an ambulance. Sam insists that Guy call his WIFE (me, incase you are lost) and he says “we don’t want her to worry” and she doesn’t. She is now grounded. Andy, of course, disagreed with the Kolars. YAY, Andy!

Well, I did finally get ahold of Guy and here is his story:
“The truck in front of me SLAMMED on his brakes. I tried to control my bike while braking hard on the back brake. I didn’t want to follow the truck into oncoming traffic, so I layed it down. (that’s biker for sliding on the side of your bike’) It all went pretty fast but when the bike went down, I let go and tucked my head in and rolled a couple times and landed on my feet in oncoming traffic. I didn’t lose my sunglasses or my phone!”

Here is his bike post crash

Here is Guy post crash in the same clothes (no scratches, no ripped clothes…an itty bitty burn on his hip)

hard core, biker dude. (and super cute!)

Well, if Dave Ferguson (http://daveferguson.typepad.com) is doing it, I guess I will too! A proverb a day-stay tuned for some proverbial journalling!!
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ohhh, come on. You know what I am talking about! People that you kind of want to shy away from because you just don’t know WHAT to think about that wierd person. Here is what I wonder…

John, the Baptist. Ultimate wierd guy. I read this passage this morning:

John 5:29-34
The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said:
Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! … I was there and saw the Spirit come down on him like a dove from heaven. And the Spirit stayed on him. Before this I didn’t know who he was. But the one who sent me to baptize with water had told me, “You will see the Spirit come down and stay on someone. Then you will know that he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.” I saw this happen, and I tell you that he is the Son of God.

And I thought - this guy must have looked strange walking around watching the tops of people’s heads!

He is on this ultimate mission from God, looking for something to come down on someone and STAY THERE.

What did this guy normally see? Did he sometimes see the Spirit come down on people and leave? Is that why God had to define “and stay on someone”?

Here is my thinking… There are people who have a different way of looking at the world around them and we wonder about, talk about and (often) try to avoid them. But what if these people are just gifted with the ability / purpose of looking at the world in an expectant, yet unexpected way - seeing things others don’t.

What do you think?