Welcome, Fall!

Once again, I apologize for not updating this blog in a timely fashion, but this time I have a really good excuse........Mother Nature.  Or Father God, to be more accurate.

I've been thinking about what news to share, and I realized I really only have three newsworthy items to relate:

1.)  We have had the weirdest weather here lately.  You know how, a few years ago, everyone was blaming El Nino for all the rain we were getting?  Ever since September began, we here in western Washington have been subject to a whole range of inclement weather that we don't usually get to experience.  (Notice how I put a positive spin on that......"we don't get to"!)  In fact, I've begun to wonder if we're in some version of the Twilight Zone and have been secretly transported from Washington State to some other part of the country.  We've had lots of lightning and thunderstorms, and we even had a tornado!!!  Can you believe that?  A tornado right here in Spanaway---well, Frederickson.  This kind of severe weather knocked out power in some places and caused us to lose our internet for a few days (told you I had a good excuse!).  Plus, the city is doing road work down the street our church sits on; this construction combined with the storming knocked out our internet at church/school.  Qwest says they're working on it, but we've been without access for several days now.  Who's for moving to Hawai'i?  (Wait.....they have hurricanes there.  Never mind.)

2.)  Chad celebrated his 48th birthday on Saturday.  Katie paid him the ultimate compliment when she asked me how old he was.  I told her, "He's 48," and she replied, shocked, "He doesn't look 48!"  He just grinned when I relayed this to him.  He's been working out at our local gym and has lost quite a bit of weight in the past six or seven months.  He's quite the hunk now!  :-D  He gets to reward himself and take a well-earned vacation later this week when he goes hunting.  His cousin is planning to join him for a few days; he and Chad grew up together and will enjoy spending some time doing something they both love.  Happy hunting!

3.)  Our JV/V football teams played at home this past Friday, and we got to watch most of the games.  Our boys were victorious!  There were some awesome plays made on both sides of the ball.  Our guys were catching passes and running for touchdowns, and our defense was chasing down their receivers and pulling flags.  Two other teams came to play us and each other, so the field was busy all day.  I think our JV won one of their games, and our varsity won both.  We had a lot of fun cheering our teams on, and my students took a bit of time to run around before we headed back up the hill toward our classroom to get ready to go home.  The weather was actually really great that day---nice and sunny---and the only drawback to the day was the fact that the bees were out en force enjoying the day as well.  I don't think anyone got stung though, so that's good.

Don't we have a wonderful God?  It is amazing to realize that He loves us and wants to have a personal relationship with us.  He isn't waiting for us to become a better person or clean up our lives and anything---He wants to be close to us right now.  And we use the stupidest excuses to avoid that close relationship with our Maker.  Like "I don't have time right now" or "I don't feel worthy" or "I will when I'm older."  We will never have more than 24 hours in each day, so why wait for more time?  Will there ever be a time when we feel worthy to approach God......as if we could ever accrue enough good works to impress Him.  We should start now, today, and take just a few minutes to read His Word and pray.  As I tell my students, "If you never get started, you'll never get it done."  God is waiting to hear us say, "Hello, Lord.  I'm ready to start."

Hebrews 4: 16  "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."