Oh to have the faith of a child.  Jesus said:
 
"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." (Mark 10:13-16)
 
An amazing thing happened this last week at Northview Church.  347 people stepped forward to be baptized in water by a spontaneous invitation from our Lead Pastor Steve Poe.  The invitation was spontaneous to the church members, but Northview had it planned out.  Every detail was accounted for to take away any excuse a person might make.  Shorts, tee-shirts, towels, changing rooms, hair dryers, etc.  All were present to remove any obstacle.  That is except fear.  Fear was the one obstacle that would still prevent a person from coming forward.   I have to imagine that as the team at Northview were planning for this service if they wondered how many people would step forward.   How do you plan for a movement of God?  You can't.  You just pray and hope the Spirit moves people.
 
The Spirit did indeed move people.  At the Saturday night service they ran out of dry supplies and people were literally wringing out wet clothes to let others use them.  Those in attendance that had previously been baptized in water cheered for each person that stepped forward.   Our hearts were touched as so many responded in obedience to God by getting baptized.
 
The Spirit is indeed moving at Northview. 

The best part of the weekend?   My son Camden prayed to accept Jesus into his life on Saturday night.  Holli and I are so proud of him.  He's talked about it in the past, but this time I truly feel like he understood and was ready.   What a blessing as a parent to help him make that decision and pray with him.  Camden decided on Sunday morning to step forward and get baptized too.  He was one of the 347.

I got to walk with him up the stage and back to the changing rooms.  

I got to accompany him to the stage and helped him into the water tank.  

I got to watch as he confirmed to Steve that he has committed his life to live for Jesus.  

I got to watch as he was dunked and brought back up.   

I got to help him out of the tank and hug and squeeze him so tight.   

I got to tell him how proud I was of him. 

Later that day, completely unprompted, Camden says to me "Dad, I just feel different now".   "You know why that is?" I asked him.   "That's the Spirit living inside of you now." 

Childlike Faith.   That's all Jesus tells us that we need.  If you are reading this and you don't think you have ever prayed to ask Jesus to be a part of your life, you can do that right now. 

Just pray something like this: 

"God, I've sinned against you.  I've made mistakes.  I ask that you forgive my sins and come into my life.   I believe that Jesus died so that my sins can be freely forgiven by you.   I believe that Jesus paid my price.   Right now I pray that you fill me with your Spirit and lead me in a life focused on you.  Amen." 

If you pray this prayer, the Bible says that the angels in heaven rejoice over your decision. (Luke 15:10) 

      

[image by >wouteR<]

If you have questions about what I wrote, please feel free to contact me privately using the Contact link above.  I'd be happy to talk with you.

So, I blew it last night.  Messed up, screwed the pooch, whatever you want to call it.  I blew it in the patience department in getting my boys to bed.   To make myself feel a little better, can anyone relate to difficult bed times with young kids?  It can be the hardest part of the day for me!   Don't get me wrong, I love putting my boys to bed, reading stories, snuggling with them, etc.  But, when the requests for snacks start and trips to the bathroom and the constant up and down...I start to lose it.  Most nights are fine and they go right to sleep, but there are some nights like last night where I just get pushed to the limit.

Holli was out on a girl's night with some friends.   I think the boys can sense it when it's just me putting them to bed.  I think they start hearing voices telling them "Dad's alone...you can take him...you can break him down..."

Each day I rise and think "today just let me be faithful".  Faithful to God, to my wife, to my kids, to my friends, to my clients, to my partner and employees.  At the end of the day if I can look back and say I didn't blow it, that's a great day.  I definitely failed at keeping my patience last night.

There's one truth that I think God revealed to me last night:

It's in the little things, day by day, where character is built.

We must prove that we can be faithful in the little things before God will ever trust us with bigger things.

Sorry Camden and Caleb.  Bring it on next time Mommy is out!

 

[image by ianders]

Can you relate to my night last night?  Share a story or post a comment about how you handle the little things in life that test you.

Camden, my 6 year old, lost a tooth the other day.  As he prepared his tooth for the coming of the tooth fairy that night, he got a sparkle in his eye.  What could he be thinking?  He proceeded to ask me how much money I thought the tooth fairy would bring.  I don't know I said, maybe a buck?   He follows up with "Can I ask for more?"

Haggling with the tooth fairy....hmmm, I like it.

Sure, I tell him, you can always ask for more.  You may not get it, but why not try.

So, Camden is in Kindergarten.  He's learning to read and write.  One thing he's learning is phonetical spelling.  Basically, he's learning to write words based on how they sound phonetically.  Camden decided to write the tooth fairy a note.  Here it is in his own writing and spelling:

"der tooth fare. i wud lik 200. if you dont have 200 just giv me 100."

Wow, $200 bucks.  But, he'll go as low as $100.  That's a far cry from the $1 I told him to expect.   Good for you Camden, reach high!  So, what's a parent to do?  In one regard, I want to promote his thinking and desire to not settle for less.  But, in another regard, I'm cheap and $100-$200 is a ridiculous amount for a tooth!

Camden ended up getting $5 and a note back from the tooth fairy explaining that the tooth fairy couldn't pay $200, but continue to not settle in life!  You can turn any time into a good teaching time.

How about you?  Have your kids ever asked for something crazy from the tooth fairy?

 

It's cold and snowy in Westfield, IN this morning. Luckily we have tall ceilings in our basement. Here's how the Wolfe boys spend a Saturday morning in the winter.



Watch on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UprmxsXM9Ls

 

My 6 year old son asked me this morning if some people we knew celebrated Hanukkah.  I asked why he wondered that.  He replied that they don't believe in Jesus, so they don't celebrate Christmas.   I told him that many people still celebrate Christmas even though they don't believe in Jesus.   He didn't quite understand why they would celebrate it, because we've taught him that Christmas is Jesus' birthday.  We've taught him that Jesus is the reason we celebrate Christmas.   Christmas does not exist so that we can get gifts or go to Christmas parties, but to celebrate His birth.  Christmas wasn't always so commercialized and centered around Santa Claus.   Yes, we do Santa at our house, but Santa is so not the point.   

Santa gives our boys one present and we give them 3 presents.   Baby Jesus was given 3 presents, so that is why we give them 3.   We are so blessed in this country compared to others and our boys lack for nothing, so we see no point in giving them piles of gifts.

We're starting to teach our boys (6 & 3) that it is better to give than to receive.   How do you celebrate Christmas?   Why do you celebrate Christmas?

Here's a great video of Ronald Reagan giving a Christmas address to our nation.    What if our country returned to this type of thinking and message from the White House?  Oh, how far we have drifted.

Merry Christmas! 

   

We have a tradition that on the day after Thanksgiving we pile into the car and drive over to Reynolds Farm Equipment in Fishers and check out the Christmas lights.  We stopped for some Starbucks (Kids Cocoa for Cam and apple juice box for Caleb) and then slowly made our way through the lights.   Of course we all had to wear our PJ's, which Caleb and Camden thought was hilarious!

There was a new addition this year that was our favorite:

Do you have any Thanksgiving traditions your family likes to do?  Holli and I are really trying to be intentional about setting some traditions that are kids will look back on some day.

 

Sunday was a banner day in Chicago for a Cubs game.   Grandpa Vance got 4 SWEEEEEEEEET tickets and took Camden and I and Cam's cousin Andrew.  We had an absolute blast.   This was Camden's first Cubs game and it could not have been better.

1.  The Cub's won with a rally in the bottom of the 8th

2.  The seats we had were incredible.  Front row, first base line.

3.  The weather was perfect.

4.  We were in Wrigley.  How perfect is that?

5.  Camden got to spend a bunch of time with Andrew and Grandpa Vance.

6.  We ate peanuts, hot dogs, cokes, lemon freezes, pizza and maybe another hot dog.

7.  We got lots of cool Cubs stuff.

8.  Camden got a ball!

We were close to the visitor's pitcher warm up area and the catcher spotted Camden and tossed a ball to us.  (Thanks Chavez)!

Andrew made Camden a sign to hold up during the game which said "My first Cubs game - but not my last!  Hi Mom!"   Too cool.  Can't wait to go back.

Last night Camden and I went out for a date and he wanted to go to Ben & Ari's to play some mini-golf and arcade games.  I'm trying to do some kind of outing with him at least once a week.   We always have lots of fun.

Last night was no exception.  The mini-golf was hilarious because Camden kept trying to hit his ball into the water hazards they have setup.   Definitely not your serious mini-golf player!   They have lots of nets around to fish your ball out of the water and he was running around like a mad-man trying to get his ball.   I was cracking up.

 

 

 

We ventured back inside and he wanted to play a game of mini-bowling and some arcade games.  Camden ended up winning about 125 tickets, which is the highlight of the night.

The big prize:

A whoopee cushion.

Now, mind you, Camden didn't know what a whoopee cushion was before our date started.    He was browsing through all of the little trinkets in the display case and pointed to the pinkish balloon looking thing and asked what's that?     Well...uhh...well....oh, that's a balloon, I said.     "I want that balloon", he quickly says.    The worker girl was right there and said "You want that whoopee cushion?".    Camden sort of looks at her and says "yeah, I want that balloon please".     I'm cracking up at this point.  It was time for us to leave, so I told Camden, let's head to the car and I'll show you how your "balloon" works.

Well, to a 5 year old boy, the whoopee cushion is about as cool as anything.  He had a blast playing with that thing.   When we got home he wanted to trick Holli, so we blew it up and asked her to join us at the kitchen table.   Holli played along great and Camden had a good laugh.   

You may be wondering where the duct tape comes in?   Well, during our play, the whoopee cushion popped!  Loud boom, big hole, little pieces of rubber on the floor, one kid crying his eyes out.    You would have thought his world just exploded.    I told him not to fear and we grabbed the duct tape, patched the hole and we're in business again.

When I left for work this morning, Caleb and Camden were playing with the whoopee cushion, all the while trying to keep Fergus from grabbing it and destroying it.    Caleb kept running around yelling and laughing "Toots, Toots, Toots!"   They're all boy.  Love it.

 

 

Camden definitely has a love for music.   He especially likes the drums.   The other day he said he wanted to make his hair blue because he wanted to have "drummer hair".   Holli and I didn't miss a beat (no pun intended) and thought "why not?"

So Holli went out and got some blue hair stuff and made Cam's hair blue.

Notice the tee shirt which says "Rock".  He's definitely our rocker!

I'll have to post some video sometime of him rocking out on his drums. 

When I started my business 8 years ago I would have told you that the number one reason I wanted to start my own business was to make a lot of money. It may sound shallow, but it is true. Over the years my feelings have changed. It's tough being an entreprenuer. Peaks and valleys, ups and downs. Good times and really hard times.

Owning a business is really hard. But I love it so much. I love the freedom of choosing how to spend my day, what I want to work on and being able to spend good quality time with my family. This is what I've come to love, but it hasn't always been easy. Holli would tell you that for the first 6 months or so of Caleb's life, I was always working. We were launching a new product and I was slammed. I don't really remember that because I was so focused on my work. I had a friend from Truth@Work recently remind me of this time of my life too and what it was like. Money comes and goes, but my family is something I can pour my life in to and I really do try to focus on that these days.

Those of you with small kids have maybe wondered in the past what it will be like when your kids are grown up and what the conversations will be like. I know I have thought about that before. Tonight I got a glimpse of that with Camden. Holli had MOPS tonight so I got to put the boys to bed. Caleb was so snuggly.

Anyway, Camden has been asking to come to work with me. I asked him if he would like to work with me when he gets bigger. He said yes that he wants to learn how to "program computers and build websites". I thought, "OK, this is cool". I told him one of the cool things that daddy gets to do is dream up great ideas for websites and then build them. I asked him if he had any cool ideas. He said yes and then went on to describe something like this (I'm paraphrasing):

"When I get bigger I want to work with you and we can build a website to make a lot of money. Then we will open our own bank and give all of the money to a teller. We'll tell lots of people about the bank and tell them if they have a need or don't have enough money, they can go to the bank and the teller will give them our money. The teller will say that a nice man gave them this money to use because God loves them."

WOW -- all that from a 5 year old. Obviously it wasn't that concise, but that was the jist of it. I told him that God gave him such a special heart and that He has big plans for his life.

After we had kids I have wondered from time to time if they would be interested in learning what I do and maybe one day work with me. Tonight was my first real glimpse at that. Very cool.