Do you have Valor?

When I read the word Valor I think of Cuba gooding jr in deep sea diving gear. But this word came up today while I was reading my devotional. It was in 2 Peter 1:2-11. In this passage of scripture it telling us to put on these things and it makes a long list of things, and I'm not gonna lie, many times I just read this passage and quickly skip over it like yeah yeah yeah I'll do all of that! yeah right! but today I took some time and looked up a few of the words and well......lets just get into it!

The first thing it suggested that we have is faith. now some might say faith is a weakness, your just believing in things you can't see. Yes believing in the God we can't see is a part of faith but it is not the whole picture. Faith is having confidence and trust in God. Confidence that what God said he would do, he will do it! I am happy to say that I have that confidence.

Next it spoke of virtue. Which is moral excellence, uprightness and valor (Boldness or determination in faceing great danger.) Do you have virtue? or are you like me, you have some virtue but you need to work on it. I know I need to work on my moral excellence. I feel I am upright, but there are some things that I feel aren't as bad as others and therefore my uprightness isn't as upright, ya feel me?

Next it when on to speak of knowledge. which are truth, principles and facts. As a christian we have a set moral compass, and how we find out what is in that compass is to read the bible. God has clearly put together a great list of do's and don'ts. But the bible is so much more than just do's and don't think of it as a list of having a great life vs. having a bad life filled with pain, lonelyness and seperation from the father! HEY! I'm just sayin!

Next is Steadfastness, which means you are fixed in direction. As christian our attention should be focused on heaven. that is our direction, let us fix our eyes on it and acheieve it. I heard a music minister say once, "If you are thinking about the things of this world to much, then you are not thinking about heaven enough." Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith.

Next on this list was godliness. which is having great reverence for God, also going from the carnal to the spirtual. godliness is one of those really hard ones to master. After all we all live in a flesh suit and lets face it the flesh is stubborn and when it doesn't get it's way it throws a fit like a 5 year old in walmart, ya dig? Paul talked about beating his body and making it his slave. That is exactly what we all need to be doing today. Take your body and make it submissive to your spirit. Easier said that done right? but that doesn't mean we can just dismiss it and move on about our day. Let us beat out body and make it our slave.

Next is brotherly affection. Which is devotion, also in the definition it talked about the act of influencing, and at first I gotta admitt I was like, "WHAT!?" but then I began to think about it and it makes sense. When you have affection for your brother or sister or fellow human being wearing a flesh suit, you influence them to be affectionate to someone else! it challenges them to spread the love And last but certainly not least was love. Now love is a profound tender passionate affection for another person.

My prayer is that love would motovate everything I do. That when I hold the door open at the store for a bearded man, that my motovation would be love. Christians should be the face of love to the world, but they aren't.

Are you being the face of love? are you showing God's love to the world around you.

What are you doing today to show someone love.
I challenge you to show someone love today and not exspect a thing in return.
Just love and leave it at that.

I am curious, how are you loving on others today?

-The Adam

What I am thankful for.

Today in my YouVersion devotional (I'm so hip with the lingo!) It was talking about being thankful and it went on to say that being thankful is the password into Gods presence. My devo also suggested that I make a list of things that I am thankful for. I will attempt to do that here today. LETS GO! (By the way these are not in order of importance, I'm just typing them as they pop into my brain! I am thankful for... -Salvation -My wife Madeline -My dog Dobby -A bed to sleep in -Water -Food -A vehicle to drive -Oxygen -Shoes -Clothing -Love -Working at a church -Friends -Dr. Pepper -Pepsi -Mt. Dew -Family -Facebook so I can keep in touch with old friends -A couch to sit on -iPad -An acoustic guitar to play -An electric guitar to play -A djembe to play -Candy -Toys -Netflix -A bible to read -A free country to read my bible in -Music -The sun -Warm weather -Air conditioner -Having warm water to shower in -Toothbrush and toothpaste -Cheez-its I could go on forever! but I think I will stop here. As you see there are many things that you can be thankful for, even those things you take for granted. -The Adam

Music

Music. More specifically making music. It's been on my mind a lot here latley. I love everything about music, weather its just one acoustic guitar and a vocalist or a full band. I like it all really. But man do I love a guitar. I have both an electric guitar (Fender Telecaster) and an acoustic (Taylor 214ce) and I enjoy playing them both. I was at a funeral here recently and I noticed something, there was a lot of music played at this funeral. Then I got to thinking, I have been to several funerals and the number one thing there was music. Why? Music has this way of comforting us, I really can't explain it. It just envokes us and draws us in and puts our mind at ease. Music is very personal. Music really captures emotions and personality and all things humane. It's beautiful. I wish I got to play music more. I'm trying to make more time for it. Between having a full time job and a wife that I want to love on. It's hard to find some time to devote to music. I know I'll find my balance and I'll get music back in my life on a more consistant bases. Just a small foot note to keep in mind about my blogs. I missspell things all the time. And I'm okay with that, and you should br too lol -The Adam

Madeline and I's first date.

Ever wake up on the middle of the might and can't seem to get back to sleep? That happened to me last night. My mind took full advantage of being awake, I was thinking about all kinds of things! One of the things thst came to mind was my first date with my wife, Madeline. I remember how nervous I was driving to her house and how the G.p.s. totally got me lost. But mostly I thought about how awesome our first date was. Heres what happened: I picked Madeline up from her house, then we proceeded to go to burger king to feast. After we had eaten we went to a park. Madeline had no idea what was in store for her. For I had some hidden treasures in my trunk. We got to the park and walked over to a picnic table to just sit down and talk, which we did. I remember us looking through each others cell phones and taking pictures of each other. Then just as things were starting to get boring, I told her it was time for her first surprise. So we went to my trunk and I got out some sidewalk chalk! We drew on the concrete, Madeline drew me and I think I drew a dinosaur riding a skateboard. After we drew with chalk it was time for surprise number 2 (number 2 hehe) we walked back to my trunk and i pulled out some bubbles! We had a lot of fun playing with bubbles! Madeline just liked blowing bubbles in my face! But I didnt care, we were having fun. So about this time it was starting to get dark, which was perfect for surprise number 3. So it was back to the car to get it out of the trunk, I opened my trunk and pulled out.......Glow Bracelets! As I was opening the glow bracelet packages, Madeline said something that I will never forget, she said: "How did you know these were all of my favorite things?" To which I replied "I didn't, I just got things I liked and hoped you would like them too."

A Whole New World

Isn't this new! I started a blog back in high school on the website Xanga. I had been blogging on there until my wife said that Xanga was totally lame. So I decided to swtich to the blog you are now reading. So what should you exspect with this blog? Will it have a certain theme? Not a chance! When I blog it is usually just me rambling about what is on my mind. I have good thoughts all the time, just some of them are not worth sharing, on this blog you will read the ones that I think are worth sharing. I'll talk about life, love, Jesus, and probably music. If you have read this far congrats to you! want a cookie? .......well I don't have one so...... ......awkward! -The Adam out!