What i realized from teaching layton

After having Layton, i've begin to experience what it's like to be a parent, but today i realized something else. From the articles i've read about training puppies, one very important aspect is to take away his food and toys when he's playing with it. Why? Because this teaches him that it's ok for things to taken away. On Dog Whisperer we always see dogs that are aggressive and show anger when someone comes close to his toys or food. We know those dogs have serious problems, and are the ones that need rehabilitation. Today Layton was playing with his chew toy, i took it away and gave it back, and then took it away and gave it back. He was a good boy of course, and i wanted him to know that i will give it back, sometimes give him something even better. But i thought, what if i didn't give it back? He should still be obedient and calm, because we (emily and I) are the ones that bought him the stuff in the first place right?

What about us and our stuff? Who gives us our home, money, security, parents, relationships? What if God decides to take something away? Usually he will give us something better in return (like i do to layton, because i love him so much, i just want him to learn not to appreciate the things, but appreciate the person that gives him the things, ME!), but even if he doesn't who are we to become angry, bitter, or aggressive? He is the one who gives all things! "You give and take away, you give and take away, my heart will choose to say, Lord blessed be your name!"

Working Mom

Hey guys,

haha, it's been a while! I was listening to mom complaining about her coworkers last night when I suddenly realized what a blessing it was for her to even have a job to complain about. Not sure if I've told everybody in joshua yet, but my mother's lack of employment has been one of my long term prayer requests for a while and a few months ago God opened a door for her. haha, she would complain about her bosses, her coworkers, her salary, her clients, just about everything imaginable...but overall I can tell she is much happier now - even if she needs the occasional reminder of that fact. The job has been a great blessing in her life in not only the financial sense, but also in teaching her a lot about dealing with people outside family and church setting. It gives her a new social circle and people to evangelize to. So yes, props to God and mad thanks for my mother's complaints and for all the little blessings in life that doesn't always look like blessings until u look at it correctly.

Edward

prayer with faith

last Sunday when Sherri and I were praying, she asked that I pray for her class registration. so we did it very routinely. we said something like please let it be smooth and let her get all the classes she wanted, and that was it. that prayer had no energy nor faith. i didn't even feel peace after that prayer. when the morning came (i called her to wake her up, then i was planning to go back to sleep), I remembered that last time it took her 3 hours to get into the system. so i sort of prayed again that the system would run smoothly. suddenly, i felt it was useless if i didn't pray with faith. so i decided that i would pray until I'm confident that the system will let her in quickly. to my surprise, it only took me 30 sec to get to the state where i felt peace and comforting. it felt like a decision i had to make; i decided that i will trust in the lord and believe that he will make this happen. that afternoon Sherri told me she logged in within 5 minutes! Praise the Lord! it really makes a difference when we pray with faith and know that he is God!

First Born's Blessing

uber profound sermon i heard over lunch.

Tim Keller drew connection between the Jacob/Esau blessings story in Genesis 27 and our relationship w/ Jesus. With jacob and esau there was a role reversal where the younger brother got the blessings the older brother was supposed to get. Jesus is the older brother (colossians 1:15) and WE got the blessing that was due to him. The difference here is that w/ jacob, the younger brother had to dress up as the older brother in order to take his blessing; with Christ, it is the OLDER brother who made himself like the younger (us) in order to take our curse upon himself so that we can be blessed.

this was so deep i sat in stupor for about 5 whole minutes thinking about it.

in case u guys wanna hear it: http://sermons2.redeemer.com/sermons/problem-blessing

Practice Test

Hey guys,

i took a MCAT practice test last saturday. Did horribly on the science portions which was expected since i haven't studied everything yet and in true Murphian manner, all the stuff i haven't studied turned up on the test. I'm really not TOO worried about that, as i finish studying and practicing science problems my scores usually improves. What reeeeeally surprised me was how well I did on the reading comprehension part. Despite being an avid reader, i tend to read slowly, which has resulted in barely average reading comprehension scores ever since highschool SAT days. Even the last time I tested my reading comprehension less than a month ago i scored 10 out of 15 (average score). Last saturday, without any additional training or practice, I somehow scored 14 (or maybe 15). People simply DON'T improve 4 or 5 points on their MCAT scores practically overnight without any additional practice. Very obvious to me that it wasn't anything I did, but only by God's grace. God's awesome, and im now really motivated to study hard and improve my science scores as well. Starting to look like MCATs might actually end up glorifying Him instead of being an embarrassment.. -.-v

All Glory and Good Stuff to Him,

Edward

a little cool thing that happened

I just remember this and wanted to share it. Yesterday as Zack and I were driving Janice's van, he rolled down the window on the passenger side. However, the window would not go back up. It turns out something was wrong with the controls of the window, so there was no way we could get the window to roll up. Me being the smart engineer suggested we try to lower the window all the way, then try pressing the up button. We were now stuck with the passenger window rolled all the way down, without an answer to roll it back up. Then zack started praying for the window controls. We tried it again, and it didn't work. By this time we were already on the freeway, and it was hella loud. I tried to call janice but she didn't pick up. I was worrying about what we were to do when we parked (we were on our way to play bball), and then all of a sudden it just worked, and we closed the window. Haha, God works in little things too! I have no idea how it got fixed, besides the fact that zack prayed. So amen for that.

Impossibilities

I dont think we ever notice the impossible demands that God places on us. We're called to lose our lives, to be born again, to focus our everything upon Him - quite honestly, we have about as much chance of accomplishing all of this as the proverbial camel has of passing through the eye of a needle. That is the whole point though, the reply jesus gave to the disciples' fair question "who can be saved?" was "with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." We're so inherently God hating by nature that any effort made to pray, go to church, or do any good deed - much less to love in the way that God expects of us - MUST be done through His spirit. To me, this also means that any good thing that comes out of me is yet another evidence of His grace.

"Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil." - Jeremiah 13:23