Traditioooooon. Tradition.

I love Christmas. I have always loved Christmas and so far this year I love Christmas just as much as I have loved Christmas in the years past (you can tell by the amount of times I have used the word Christmas. Christmas!).

Like most families mine has a lot of traditions that are associated with this time of year, Christmas eve in particular. We go to church, we go to a Chinese restaurant (kind of like A Christmas Story except without the mispronunciation of la la la la la), and we all get matching pajamas. It is a good thing. Sarah and I have started talking about what traditions we should have every year and so far this is what we have.

1. Get a tree
2. Decorate the tree
3. Be with family
4. Unwrap gifts

We want Christmas to be a special time full of wonder and excitement but we also want the meaning of Christmas to resonate louder than the commercial side of the holiday. We want spiritual depth much like the makers of "Tickle Me Elmo" did in 1996 or Matchbox and "Stinky the Garbage Truck" do this year.

I have kicked the idea around of writing from the different viewpoints of those who were at the manger but when thinking from the point of view of a donkey, Eeyore's voice wouldn't get out of my head.

What are some fun and deepening traditions you have with your family every year? What things are you excited to try this year?

Babies are like Snowflakes

We have an almost two year old, Cooper. I have learned a lot from him. Things like when he wakes up at 3 in the morning there is usually a reason, and that reason may or may not be that he pooped in his diaper and the aforementioned poop is now on his feet, his hands, and his sheets. I have learned other things like how many times a 19 month old can spin in a circle before he falls down (2.5 revolutions). But Cooper was our first child and Sarah and I were excited and because of this hung on Cooper's every coo and movement (except that one at 3 am).

About 3 months ago things got slightly more complicated, we had our second baby boy child kid, Micah. Now this kid has been a whole different beast, not that he is a beast, unless of course he is on the football field where he will go for the throat. But regardless I have learned a lot of new things from Micah that the Coop decided to leave for his little brother to teach us. Here are some of them:

1. Babies cry when they are bored.
I am a lot of times distracted by what Cooper is doing, not because I love him more, but because Coop is strolling across the top of the couch or scaling the fireplace. So while I am trying to encourage calculated risks for Coop, Micah is yelling at me to do something with him.

2. Babies like to sleep in armpits.
It may be the amazing scent of Old Spice's "Pure Sport" deodorant, it may be the tickle of my underarm hair on his cheek, it may the feeling of security it brings to the boy (but I doubt it) but whatever it is Micah loves to sleep in my armpit. As a matter of fact there is seldom a place he sleeps more soundly, Sarah had trouble sleeping last week and I suggested she try it, apparently that becomes "weird" and "gross" once you hit 9 months.

3. Babies hate 10 minute car rides.
Got an hour and a half drive ahead of us? No problem, Micah is a champ. Need to drive to Michigan for the weekend? Great, Micah will sleep the whole way. But wherever we go the first 10 minutes is almost guaranteed to be meltdown city, there is no solace, no place to hide, you have to sit and listen to your son cry until his stopwatch hits 10 minutes.

I have learned a lot about myself from my kids and they can't even fully converse with me yet. What things has parenthood taught you? If you aren't a parents what things are you most looking forward to?

Merry Christmas to Coop's eye

I love having boys because it is times like these that begin to shape who they are. Cuts aren't fun, but the adventure that led to the cut makes it all worth it.




Fireplaces have sharp edges, Coop knows that now and will jump further away next time.

Reality YM High School Review week 7

Teaching Series: Greater Than (Week 2 of 4)

Sermon in a Sentence: In order to become greater, you must become less, whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Length: 20 min.

Message:It is of utmost importance to give, it is of huge importance to share the things you have and the wealth you possess. The time you volunteer, the money you give, the skills you offer are all valuable things, but doing them for the sake of being recognized isn't the point of doing them. We are called to give out of being the "least of these" so we must give from an "I'm not worthy of the grace God has given me" standpoint.

Games/fun: Assassin. The goal of the game is to be the last surviving person. The game is still going as Connor King, Cody Nash, and Wesley Viau are still trying to assassinate each other. A winner is expected by Christmas.
Worship Band: Scott Bergstrom, Peter Anderson, Matt Hull and Stephanie Nash

On Deck: Greater than Week 3; Everyone deserves to be served.

God and the Giants

It is no secret, I love the San Francisco Giants as much as Bono loves sunglasses and religious ambiguity. My whole life I have loved baseball, the situational aspect of the game, the what-ifs and the could haves, the hand eye coordination, the 3-1 counts and sacrifice bunts. I am getting excited just thinking about it. I am even more excited because as some of you may be aware, the Giants are playing for their first World Series Championship in 56 years and tonight could be the night.

Now you may think to yourself, "Peter, why would you like a baseball team for so long that hasn't ever won a world series in the town that it currently resides?" or "Didn't the Giants lose 100 games the year you were born? Surely that can't be a good sign." The reason I love the Giants is because I love them. Do they have any bearing on anything else that happens in the world other than releasing endorphins to hundreds of thousands of Giants fans tonight? No. If they don't win the World Series will I go into a serious depression where my main source of nutrients are derived from the special sauce of a KFC double down? Probably.

But that's just it, the Giants don't matter, the dodgers definitely don't matter (also I didn't capitalize dodgers on purpose, they aren't worthy of such an honor) baseball doesn't matter, Brian Wilson's beard, where emotion goes to die, doesn't matter either, but don't tell it that, it may eat your soul.

John 5:44 says this, "How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?"

We are called to glorify God first, can we do that as the Giants win and in the process ruin every dodger fan's comeback since 1963 of, "You've never even won a world series in San Francisco."?

Sure we can.

But God must be glorified through it all.

Go Giants!

Bless God!

BOOM!

My Boys and Me

So I have two boys, they are amazing, both of 'em. One of them, the boy, his name is Cooper, he is just over a year and a half old, his hobbies include tackling our dog Parker, playing in boxes, and saying, "No Thank You." He runs, he talks, he cries, he even gives knuckle bumps on command, he is one of my greatest accomplishments in life.

My other boy is Micah, he will be 2 months old next week. His hobbies include vomiting, pooping, and especially crying. He is exhausting, he doesn't sleep super well, he needs to be held during every waking moment, and he hates the heat, which is really bad for my energy bill and as a resident of Central California. He is one of my greatest accomplishments in life.

Right now, these two boys take a lot of time and energy, they don't know the joys of sleeping in yet, they like cheese and milk at all hours of the day and night, they clap when everyone else is excited and cry when others get sad. They light up when Handy Manny comes on or smirk when their cheeks get tickled. They at times are hard to deal with emotionally and physically and sometimes I want to just sit in the corner and weep but because I have an integral part to play in their developing into men, I need to be the father that I hope they become.

I am reading a book right now called Fathered by God by John Eldredge, the same guy who wrote Wild at Heart. (He's like a sweet hybrid of Bear Grills and John Piper rolled into a spicy breakfast burrito that would be too much for even a young Chuck Norris to handle.) In Eldredge's book he is writing of the necessity of a father and the ginormous roll they play in the lives of daughters, and more specific to this book, sons. In the book it says this:

The safety that a father's strength provides allows a boy to be a boy, creates a universe for a boy's heart to become fully alive... When a boy has this confidence, this security and safety created by masculine strength over him, the whole world opens before him. He is able to live as a boy, and explorer, an adventurer. (Eldredge p. 42-43)

I hope to provide that strength and security in the lives of my boys, so they can build forts and climb trees, when I can teach them to shoot guns and hoops, how to throw a ball and catch a bride as great as their mom. Do I love throwing Coop onto the couch and tickling him until he wets his pants and says, "Daddy!" of course I do, I love holding Micah and letting him spew all over me because at least he won't get an upset stomach that way.

Boys are awesome but a huge responsibility, I am in charge of teaching my sons to be men of integrity and leaders of their households, and it starts with me handing Cooper the football just so I can tackle him and rocking Micah 'til his cries become snores, it starts with me providing the security that every boy needs to fully be a boy and develop into a man.

Ungrateful and Evil People

I was in Starbucks the other day and it was one of the employees birthdays. Just from sitting there listening I found out she is 23 and allowed to give out free drinks to who ever she wants today because it is her birthday and she doesn't care what anyone says, so there. The other thing I learned is that even though she was giving out free drinks to old men and young babies alike, I was not worthy of such a prize. Stupid birthday girl. (She probably isn't stupid, she just made me pay for coffee while she treated everyone else a bff she hadn't seen in 7 years.)

While I wasn't eavesdropping on the barista with poor business practices, I opened my bible to Luke chapter 6 which covers everything from Jesus setting the Pharisees straight to choosing the 12 disciples to the Beatitudes. But one thing in particular stuck out to me that I have read before but write it off as a, "Duh, everyone knows that," passage. It comes in verses 35-36 where it says,

"But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Be merciful just as your Father is merciful."

When is the last time we were kind to people who were unkind to us?

I am a great driver, probably in the top 2% in all of North America. I do things right when I am behind the wheel but there is seldom a place where I am sitting that stirs aggression in my like my drivers seat does. As soon as I grab the steering wheel everyone else loses all ability to make wise decision and have some sort of common sense. It's like freshmen during there first day of high school, wandering aimlessly through the halls, slowing wen they shouldn't walking through the planters, turning in wrong directions, it's a disaster.

When I am behind the wheel I have zero sympathy for those inferior drivers around me. It says, "SLOWER traffic keep right," not, "If you want to go 55 in the fast lane go ahead, we aren't here to judge." But I have realized more and more as I get old and senile that I am a jerk and unloving to those cars around me. To the people who own those cars who don't turn when the light is red when clearly you can, or those who don't use their blinker and it wastes 10 seconds of my life, or those who get on the freeway going 45.

Those are the ungrateful and evil men in my life and I need to be kind, I need to be loving, I need to leanr to be merciful as my Father is merciful.

Who are the ungrateful and evil people in your life that you need to show mercy to?

Rap and Rebellion

I have been listening to rap lately. There is something about an autotuned voice and way too much bass that is appealing to my eardrums right now. With lyrics like, "I don't need drugs, I got the most high," who needs to listen to anything else? Now don't get me wrong, I love a good country song just as much as the next Central Valley kid, but recently my musical taste has been stretched and challenged by a sweet young man who goes by the name Lecrae as well as his bff Sho Baraka.

In one of Lecrae's songs his rhymes go something like this, "You're just a conformist if you're drunk and naked, and driving around on a motorcycle, smoking cigarettes and breaking commandments and getting pregnant out of wedlock. Everyone's done that! That's so tired. If you really want to be a rebel, read your Bible, because no one's doing that. That's rebellion. That's the only rebellion left!"

I see a lot of young people trying to find their niche, trying to fit it, trying to be accepted and most of the time students find where they fit, where they belong. Whether it be in music, sports, academics, friends, family, church, whatever it may be, they find where they belong. But some people never find home, never find where they belong so they resort to acting out to being a rebel in order to make someone think they are cool because they are pushing on the status quo, they are crossing the line as far as they can to make sure someone takes notice of them.

The issue with acting out and looking for rebellious individuality is that everyone is looking in the same place. Students are trying to outdo one another by buying the newest NKOTB tape or having the most expensive acid washed jeans. Trying to outdrink each other, out smoke each other, out cuss, out tat, out non-conform each other. And when everyone is trying to be a non-conformist at the same time all you get is a lot of conformists.

So in a society where rebellion is the norm, where you aren't cool unless you pee your pants, or go party on Saturday, wouldn't the true rebellion be to seek what is true and real?

I join Lecrae in saying, "This ain't how it outta be homie, it's how it gotta be."

The Boy

In Him,
Peter Anderson