I can honestly say I am more in love with her today, then I was on that day. She’s my best friend, partner in life, and encouragement to my heart. I am so thankful that the Lord has blessed me with the opportunity to love and serve her.

Happy Anniversary, Chelsey!

A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.

As we met I shared this thought with him, and his response, while honest, really got me thinking.   He shared that he’s never really had brothers in Christ who have valued encouraging him.   As a brother in his life I haven’t stopped hearing that comment.    While personally I’ve never tried to tear him down, I’ve not intentionally sought to build him up either.   So while neither of us were trying to truly hurt the other, our relationship was clearly lacking one important thing: edification.

Men I think are guilty of this more then women.  We love to chide one another, I’m as guilty as anyone here.  And honestly, I think we do it in order to relate to one another and build relationships.   But at some point, we need to be refreshing one another as well – building up each other, speaking into the deeper and more important parts of the other’s heart, being honest with one another.

The old sang goes, “If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say it at all.”   I think edifying another takes a lot more time invested, trust built up, and honesty shown – but the reward is that you too are edified in doing so.

I’m challenged to learn to refresh those I am in community with more regularly.   I challenge you to do the same.

Last week Logan turned 3, and for his party we invited my brother’s band, The Hard Back Edition, to come and play with us.   Logan loves him some music, and looks up to his Uncle as a result.   It was a great way to celebrate him!

What made it all the more fun was that we bought Logan a guitar for his birthday, so when the band started performing Logan jumped in.   We couldn’t believe the confidence he had to get up and “play” with them.  I’m so proud of the little man he’s becoming.  Check out the 3+ minute clip below.  Logan really starts jamming about 1:30 in!

The doctors called today and we’ve officially been given the “ALL CLEAR“!   As parents we know that there are going to be many more things that will cause concern while raising our sons, but for now we are excited for this part of the journey to have ended, and grateful that all tests have come back negative for any further complications.

Thanks to those who prayed alongside us through the journey!

Recently heard about this sweet site with a collection of TypoGraphical Verses.  Some really cool art being shared centered on Scripture.

Visit http://typographicverses.com/

That’s been the case here lately for us.  Chelsey is pregnant with our second son, and while everything looks to be fine, early blood-work showed potential for somewhat serious, but treatable, complications.   We’ve had a handful of office visits to high-risks ob’s, multiple tests run, and a team of prayer warriors behind us.   All tests have come back with great news, but we’re still waiting on one more set of tests to return from the lab.

It reminds me of those days sitting on the porch of the Administration building of camp, waiting for the final call.  Days have turned to weeks, weeks have turned to months.  We know that God is in control of this baby and has a plan for him and us in this, but waiting has been a growth process in and of itself.   Final results should be in next week, hopefully bringing an “All Clear” from the Doc!

-Paul Tripp, Apex Marriage Conference 2012

Garrett Home Improvement didn’t need a website, but in today’s environment, I believe websites build credibility.   For Christmas this year I decided to build a site for him for that reason.

This is the second design I did for this site.  The original design didn’t do much for me, nothing about it really gave my dad the credibility he deserved as a contractor.  One weekend I scrapped the old design and created this current design, which I think portrays his business quite well.

If you have work to be done, I highly recommend considering my dad.