Good Start to the Day

Today started early and great. Got up at 5am and went running. It was extremely foggy on the ground, so much that I could barely see further than 20 feet, but the stars were perfectly visible because the fog was only a low-level fog. Pretty ethereal conditions. Unfortunately, it did cut out the biking this morning afterwards because with the fog you can't go fast enough to make it worthwhile, and even if you can, cars can't see you and you become a mobile speed bump. Not good. But the run went great!

Finally going to have time to fix the water filter today so that we can stop buying drinking water. With the reservoirs so low due to the drought, the water tastes awful, but in the last 2 moves this past year, I've misplaced the faucet adapter that lets the filter attach....so it's either Lowes has an adapter, or John buys a new filter But either way will pay for itself in a couple weeks considering how much water we drink.

Got to go running with Sarah and our brother Travis. That was a lot of fun. Felt like being on a xc team all over again. Then the goal was more for competition, now it's just for getting in, and staying in shape, but either way, it's family and fun. Had a great time.

The Bible says a lot about how God's Word is the "sword of the Spirit", and that we are to learn to use it effectively. BUT, that can be difficult to illustrate to a bunch of teenagers who are not used to church and/or reading and memorizing scripture. They just don't see the need. To be honest, neither do most Christians nowadays. It's all a head game to them. They "know" about God in their heads, and that they are supposed to memorize intellectually. But that's a skewed view. God never told us to memorize His Word in our heads, He wanted it in our HEARTS where it will change us from the inside out. Anyway, yesterday I took one of my swords apart and showed the different pieces of the sword to our youth group and the way they all fit together to turn different pieces of metal and wood into a functioning weapon for offense and defense. By relating the different uses of scripture to the different pieces of the sword, I think they really caught on. The looks on their faces said "oh, now I get it!" It was easy to show that when you put the sword back together and leave one piece out, the sword still doesn't work. It was really cool to see the lightbulbs come on...I hope it will spill over into reality for them and their love of God's Word will grow.

Gotta go. Errands to run and work to get to. ALSO have to make coffee from a gourmet sample sent to me to test for a possible fundraiser for our youth trip....I have to test gourmet coffee??!!?? How will I ever survive the experience Gee, I wonder anyway, more later.

Athosxc