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Proverbs 22:6 (NIV) Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.

This is going to be a different kind of post for me. I'll be honest, it's been a tough week. This weekend we drove eight hours to Boiling Springs, NC to take our oldest daughter for her first year at Gardner-Webb University. It's an exciting time for her, and for the weeks leading up to the time to make the journey I've been the one constantly staying positive and reminding the rest of the family that this is a good thing... she's ready. I look at where she is in her life and compare it to this verse in Proverbs. We've done some things right, a lot of things wrong, but in the end she is a wonderful young woman of God who is going to do great things for the kingdom of God. Hopefully she's seen enough of my mistakes to learn from them and not repeat them... at least not the worst ones. Everything in my head is saying this should be a great time of celebration. But, now that it's done, my heart's just not buying it. I found myself coming down the stairs this morning looking out the front door to the driveway for her car, just to make sure she had made it home OK last night, but it wasn't there. Truth is it's never going to be there again, not in the same way it used to be. That's when it hit me. And to be honest, I can't say that I'm handling it too well!

Maybe part of it is realizing just how much of my life is behind me and how precious every moment is that I have left. God has me here for a reason, to connect to people and point them to Christ. Everything else is secondary. How many things do I do everyday that will never matter in the great picture? How much time do I spend wrapped up in my own emotional quadmire, my own pit of worry and anxiety, focused on myself and not on the endless opportunities God presents to me everyday to connect to other people? It's easy to fall into that trap, isn't it? It happens to me... maybe it happens to you too.

In 1 Corinthians 10 Paul is talking to the church there about the freedom we have in Christ, not being bound by the law but having amazing freedom to live life to the fullest. Then he cautions them not to abuse that freedom, that even though something might be technically OK, if it causes another person to stumble. In that context he instructs them that "whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." That applies to all of us, to every situation. It's not about us. It's not about what we get to do, or don't get to do. It's not about our own emotions and whether we are happy or not. All that matters is whether or not I am doing what God wants me to do. Right here. Right now. And if I'm not... how tragic...

This week God is giving me another opportunity to minister to the brothers and sisters in Christ who live in Orissa India. I pray that I may empty myself of "me" and give it all for these kind and caring people. May God use me and my friend Arnold as we communicate all that God is sending us to say. May we renew relationships and just love on these guys like crazy. And may God heal this hurting heart of mine and know that my little girl is going to be OK... and that her dad will be too...

Shalom my friends...

Steve