If your married or not.

He says he's never been married. But I am. This needs to be heard by those married or not. So men, put down the remote or controller for four minutes and watch this video.

And So Begins 2012...

I'm not a big fan of resolutions. Honestly, every time I've made them they're pretty vague and usually get forgotten by the Super Bowl.

But when I was in college I went through a mentoring process and my pastor made me write out some goals for the semester. They had to be difficult yet achievable, measurable, and involve several aspects of life.

I've tried to keep up this practice at the beginning of every semester. I write them out and tape them to my desk so I see them every time I sit down to study or write.

So here are my goals for this semester:

Spiritual Goals
1. Stay on track with my Bible reading plan
2. Study the Book of James
3. Spend 30 minutes in prayer/study every morning

Physical Goals
1. Complete P90X
2. Stay away from chips and french fries at work
3. No soda all semester

Academic Goals
1. Have every paper completely done three days before it is due
2. Have every paper edited
3. Create a study guide two weeks in advance of every exam
4. Get at least one A
5. Get nothing below a B
6. Read one book not related to school

Relational Goals
1. Talk about Jesus with someone outside the seminary sphere twice a week
2. Write two letters a week
3. Have no games/pointless apps on my phone

So I'm curious... Does anyone else do this? Or are you a resolutions person...

At least do something. Start small and make sure at the end you can measure whatever it is you're aiming at.

Conversations with Matthew

 My name is Matthew. M-A-T-T-H-E-W. Do you know how to spell M-A-T-T-H-E-W? I do. M-A-T-T-H-E-W.

~ Teaching Matthew how to pray ~

Matt: Do I say, "Dear God,"?

Me: Sure

Matt: Then do I say, "Thank you for our food."?

Me: Yes

Matt: And.. "Bless it."?

Me: Right

Matt: Then "Amen."?

Me: You got it!

Matt: Okay.... Dear, God. Thank you for our food. And bless it. Then amen.

~ On this particular day, I'm wearing rust colored tights ~

Matt: What happened to your legs, Miss Reagan! What happened to your legs!

Me: (Confused at first) Ummm... OH! Nothing, these are tights! They're just colored that way. It's not my skin.

Matt: Tights... tights... tights... You mean like Teen Titans!?!?

~ BFF's ~

Who is your best friend?

Matt: Emma

Who is your best friend at school?

Matt: Sydney

Who is your best guy friend at school?

Matt: Jared

He doesn't go to your school!

Matt: No, but he takes me sometimes.

Door to Door

I've never liked door to door evangelism. To me it always seemed that it was more like selling a vacuum cleaner than sharing the love of Jesus. And I don't think I'm completely wrong, but now I think I'm mostly wrong.

I took an incredible class this semester about reaching the Unchurched in America and the thing we focused on the most was being missional. This just means that everything we do revolves around bringing glory to God by sharing Jesus with those around me. For instance, my workplace isn't a place to make money while I learn to do ministry, it is my ministry.

So the last day of this class I found out that we were going to be helping out a new church plant in North Raleigh. I thought that maybe we would work at the school where they're meeting. Nope. We went door to door to tell people about the church and to share the gospel with them if we got a chance.

I've been thinking about this hour spent going door to door for the last two weeks. My thinking came to a tipping point yesterday while I was watching a show featuring Gordon Ramsey. He's a famous chef that yells and cusses at bad restaurant owners but he fixes problems. I love it.

This place he was fixing was a bar in England that had no real direction and a terrible reputation. Chef Ramsey showed up and fixed everything. Still, no one came. So he sent out the staff to go door to door to bring people in.

Boom. Sometimes we've got to go door to door. Jesus' message gets hijacked from time to time and people hear the wrong message. They hear that Jesus wants them to do more so He'll love them. They hear that if they love Him just right and prayer the right prayers they'll prosper. They hear that if they walk an isle and say a prayer they'll go to heaven and sing with fat angels playing harp. How will they know if they have not heard that Jesus actually sets us free from all of that work and hoping in nothing?

I still think being missional is the best way to evangelize but I realize more and more that I don't know everything. I've got a lot to learn.

But I'm still right about church league softball. It's got to go.

Dallas White Rock Marathon

My bubba just finished the Dallas White Rock Marathon! I'm so proud of him. We wish we could have been there. Here he is with my beautiful sister Lindsay. I miss them so much.

Or... Batman!

I was reading "The Jesus Storybook Bible" to Matthew, and we were on the story of the prodigal son. At the end it says, "So they could know, however far they ran, however well they hid, however lost they were - it wouldn't matter. Because God's children could never run too far, or be too lost, for God to find them."

Matthew responds, "Or Batman! Batman could find them!"

Keepin' Busy

Jared has been keeping me busy to keep my mind off things. We (or should I say he) got a lot of projects accomplished.

We also painted a screen door and put chicken wire on the back. I'm going to put all our Christmas cards on it! I'll post a picture of that soon. It's pretty! As long as I could sit and do a project or if I took breaks, I could help (or guide) him.

I wanted a vintage look with my Christmas tree, and thanks to Target and Marshall's, I found a few ornaments that went with my vision; however, I also took a shot at making some ornaments. I did this last year with scraps of material that I had, but this year I tried it with scrapbook paper. 

And then we can't forget about Batman! Jared's parents' tree is nothing but Hallmark ornaments, so we're going to carry on the tradition of adding a new Hallmark ornament to the tree every year. Last year, Jared bought me the "Our First Christmas, 2010" ornament. His parent's bought him Batman last year, but this is his debut on our tree!

Speaking of traditions, I love them. We all have things we hold on to from our childhood. Some are good; some are not so good. But, as a kid, I think I did everything to hold on to traditions to overpower anything crummy going on in my life. Kids need consistency. That's a fact. And the reason we hold on to traditions is because of that consistency day after day, year after year. I've been having a blast carrying out traditions with Jared and even beginning a few new ones of our own. And I especially can't wait to start new ones with our kids.