Tonight was our first baseball game for Taylor’s team.  I am managing his team this year and it has been a lot of fun.  We played really well but came up a bit short tonight.  However, one big thing that I know I personally learned was that we all need to learn WHO we should listen to–in baseball…and especially in life.

My fellow coach came up after a half inning and said, “Only one of us (coaches) needs to talk to a batter at a time. I noticed that I was trying to talk to a batter and I looked down and you were already talking to him.  They aren’t hearing both of us…(probably neither of us when we are talking at the same time.)”

We also have a couple of players that have a really hard time “nicely ignoring” the crowds and focus on just coaches and fellow players.  When I was umpiring, one of my mentors used to say, “you can’t have ‘rabbit ears.’”  Meaning, when you are behind the plate, especially, you need to focus on your job, not listen to your critics calling balls and strikes from the stands on the 1st or 3rd base lines.

I was reminded tonight of the passage in the Gospel of John where Jesus tells about the sheep and the shepherd.

³The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” ⁶Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them.

⁷Therefore Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. ⁹I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.^[a] He will come in and go out, and find pasture. ¹⁰The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:3-10

So, who are you listening to?  Are you trying to listen to too many things all at the same time? Are you listening to the encouragers in your life?  The critics? Let us focus on the Master’s Voice, which brings us life!

Came across this article the other day about the fact that Edmonds may not even take a contract with the Milwaukee Brewers if it is offered to him because he wants to be around his family.  He didn’t play last summer and was around his family the entire time, which hasn’t happened ever in his lifetime.

“You just get comfortable in a certain life and it’s like just how you get comfortable playing baseball for so long,” Edmonds said. “You think that’s all you have and then you get home and realize there’s more to life. The family, having kids and how much they actually enjoy you being home.

“I got to take the kids to school and be there for my daughter’s 16th birthday. It’s just a different thing.

“Now I wake up some mornings and doubt myself for making this decision.”

Alright, maybe I am beginning to be a huge Edmonds fan.

What do you think?  Why do we often take for granted the great things in our lives?

Edmonds feels pull of his family – STLtoday.com.

Today is Jenny’s birthday! I can’t tell you how grateful I am to have her as my bride! Our song is “She’s Got a Way” by Billy Joel.  I think the words to that song really speak to what she means to me on this special day!

She’s got a way about her
I don’t know what it is
But I know that I can’t live without her

She’s got a way of pleasin’
I don’t know why it is
But there doesn’t have to be a reason
Anyway

She’s got a smile that heals me
I don’t know what it is
But I have to laugh when she reveals me

She’s got a way of talkin’
I don’t know what it is
But it lifts me up when we are walkin’
Anywhere

She comes to me when I’m feelin’ down
Inspires me without a sound
She touches me and I get turned around

She’s got a way of showin’
How I make her feel
And I find the strength to keep on goin’

She’s got a light around her
And everywhere she goes
A million dreams of love surround her
Everywhere

She comes to me when I’m feelin’ down
Inspires me without a sound
She touches me and I get turned around

She’s got a smile that heals me
I don’t know what it is
But I have to laugh when she reveals me

She’s got a way about her
I don’t know what it is
But I know that I can’t live without her
Anyway

We “got a good deal” on our house here in Carthage.  Don’t get me wrong, we are totally blessed and very thankful for everything we have.  However, we moved into the house and it is about 20 years old and everything seems to be breaking.  The house inspector’s report was like a broken record on everything…”make plans for replacement. End of life cycle.” or something like that!

The first thing is/was the wall paper…it is/was everywhere!  There were only two rooms in the whole house that didn’t have any wallpaper in them! Second, the cabinets are getting old and breaking…I am getting pretty good at making repairs to keep them together. The final straw was our air conditioning.  We have a heat pump because we don’t have gas for the furnace.  So…last winter we simply turned on the “furnace” and had outrageous electric bills!  Come to find out, there is a refrigerant leak in the air handler under the house that is causing the unit to run on the electric heat strips 100%–not just to supplement on those below zero nights.  Needless to say, after I learned a little about heat pumps, I knew we were going to need to do something before the winter came again.

Enter our church family at Forest Park Carthage!  Some “little birdies” told some other “little birdies” about our situation and they wanted to bless their pastor and his family.  Boy, did they bless us!  Take a look at this brochure!!  This thing is being put in our house this week!

Absolutely blown away by the gift that our people sacrificed to give to us!  If you look closely on the picture…they gave me the brochure and it says “Paid In Full” across the front! It was a really cool time last night telling the boys about what our church family did for us!  They are really excited and thankful for our church family.  What is really cool is the technology increase in this unit compared to our old unit.  Our old unit is about a 5 or 6 SEER and this one is a 14 SEER.  So even if the old unit was working properly, we still are going to have a substantial energy savings cost.

Thank you doesn’t even cover what we would like to say to our church family!  You all are the best!

It reminds me so much of my grandfather.  He was a carpenter for a living.  Specifically, he made church furniture and delivered it all over the country.  He was one of my heroes…of course, most kids have grandfathers or someone else in their life that are bigger than life and a hero.  I used to think that he could make anything out of wood!

I remember spending weeks in the summers at my grandparents house in Cabool, MO, where my grandpa had his shop.  (If you have ever been to a Cabool High School football game, then you have seen his shop.  It is the little shop that backs up to the end zone of the stadium.  They bought the old “general store” and converted it into a house and built his little shop “out back.”)

I used to love to go out in his shop and play in what seemed like an endless pile of sawdust and shavings!  He would show me what each of the machines did…it was facinating!

One of his favorite machines/tools was one of these…a drill that would make square holes…to make joints, etc.

I know that two of my cousins, Ben and Tim, have really followed in my grandpa’s footsteps and work a lot with wood.  Tim actually works with wood for a living and Ben has a degree in Wood Technology and is a Campus Director for the BSU at Purdue.

Thanks to Twitter, I was able to walk down memory lane…and think and pray for my cousins as well today!

Here are some pics of Tim helping Taylor make an airplane in his shop at our family reunion.  I think Ben is in the pics as well.  Good stuff!

Spinning drills bits can create square holes? – Holy Kaw!.

Man, what a great afternoon of helping with the Maple Leaf 5K and Duathlon!  We had a blast helping out racers from all over the area.  I am so proud of our church family who stepped up and volunteered their time and energy!  You guys ROCK!  I had a ton of the racers who were so thankful for the kind words and encouragement from our people.  Belinda Shores (#330 in the pic) is a triathlete and serves in our Kids City children’s ministry every Sunday  She did an amazing job in the Duathlon (5K run/15 mile bik/1 mile run). She is standing in-between Trisha Fisher and Jessica Ensz, two other Forest Park(ers)!  They decided to run the 5K together and did an awesome job too!

Check out an email that Jenny got this morning from Belinda…FP Carthage, you guys are awesome and it really shows!!!

Hey Stone Family and church family!

Just wanted to tell you how much your help was appreciated at the Maple Leaf Run and Duathlon.  What a great response from our church and what a unique way to reach out to our community!  You all did a wonderful job of protecting the racers from oncoming traffic and giving directions.  Thank you!  Those of you who were serving the water were a refreshment to the thirsty.  Thank you!

Matthew 10:42 “And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.”

Joyfully,
The Shores Family

By the way, Taylor your a great runner!  I could tell you trained hard, because you ROCKED the run!  Also, Patricia and Jessica what a great run!  Your run times were spectacular!  Way to go girls!

Thanks again to all of our FP Carthage folks who really made a difference yesterday in our community!  AWESOME!

Here are some pics from my iPhone…random, I know…forgot the “real” camera in the truck!

For those of you who read blogs on a reader, like I do, you could care less about “how” my blog looks. You simply pull up your Google Reader, for example, and read my post (which happens on average once every two weeks!) I am going to try to work on the extreme length between posts.

I am a perfectionist (I know that seems like a load of rubish if you have seen my office, or garage). But I can’t seem to work unless everything is working properly and in its place. I don’t like to clean up my office, for example, because I can’t ever “do it right.” This blog is kind of like that…I simply don’t have time to keep tweeking and making it “just right.” The problem is that I get into a funk and don’t want to write anything because I want to say it “just right” and it needs to look “just right.” I can’t tell you how many drafts I have sitting ready to be published but haven’t been because I don’t have it just right.

Ok, so I am turning over a new leaf. (I say this about every three months…but I really mean it…at least until midnight or so!!) No, I really am turning over a new leaf…I am revamping the ol’ blog and making a commitment to do a better job of communicating what is going on in our lives and on my heart as a pastor. I am making a commitment to post more often and post entries that aren’t “totally cooked.” This might be a dangerous thing…especially to you English majors and teachers.

It may be a few weeks before everything is up and going smoothly, but I am working on it. I won’t be able to work on it much this weekend as we have SEVEN kids staying with us on Friday and Saturday nights! Taylor’s friend, Dakota is staying the night on Friday and our friends, the Clements have a funeral and their four are staying with us on Friday and Saturday night! That is a HUGE prayer request there my friends–seven kids and three dogs! Bright side=good blog-worthy stuff to write about, I bet!

P.S.–My mom has already voted against “all the changes.” She was very frustrated to have the Twitter feed on the “wrong side,” for starters. Then the colors, it is hard to see, etc., etc. etc. My dad laughed and said, “we love change…I mean, we’re Baptists…we love change–within reason!”

Hopefully a CHANGE for the BETTER!

David