Awesome Dad's Top Ten Ways To Be The Foundation of Your Family
by Dovid Grossman and Ken Mossman

Grounded in Reality
While my children may put me on a pedestal, I have my feet firmly on the ground and acknowledge my own strengths and weaknesses.
Demonstrative Love
I take the time to know and understand the best way to communicate my love to each and every child. My children see my love for my wife clearly expressed.
Mutual Respect.
By honoring and never ridiculing the thoughts, emotions and actions of my family, each member clearly experiences and understands my great respect for them.
Consistently Predictable.
My family is comforted and anchored by my predictability. My deepest values are consistently demonstrated in my speech and behavior.
Predictable Spontaneity.
My family knows that I am extremely curious and love to explore and learn. My spontaneity is consistent. We plan with flexibility, and the children look forward to unexpected adventures.
Responsible.
My children see how I prepare and follow through, owning up to my responsibilities. They learn by my example.
Safety/Security
I take safety very seriously and my children know it. They have learned by my examples, for instance: I always wear a helmet when skating, skiing or bicycle riding, and I take first-aid and CPR classes. Our car does not go into motion until all seat belts, including mine, are on. 
Primary Advocate
My children know that I stand behind them and will protect, defend and honor them at all times. I do not discuss my children's failings with others.
Serious Humor
I deliberately use humor liberally to lighten stress and lubricate relationships to ensure a cohesive family.
WYSIWYG What you see is what you get.

 
I practice what I preach and that includes accepting human frailty and mistakes. The greatest foundation for a family is living with integrity.

Copyright 2004 by CoachVille, Dovid Grossman and Ken Mossman Duplication, with attribution, permitted and encouraged.

“Crown of Righteousness”

I hope the year 2008 has started out being good and will end the same way. Our year started out badly. We left New Year's Day to go to the Cowboy Ministers Conference in Las Vegas as we do each year at this time.

But this time it has been quite different.  We were half way to airport and were told the flight had been delayed one hour. We were suppose to leave Houston at 2:30 for Dallas, leave Dallas at 5:30 for Las Vegas. We finally got to Dallas and left at 6:40. Then during the night (Monday) in Vegas I got really sick, both ends at the same time (know what I mean) then Sonny got it. We did get to make the last day of the conference which was Friday. The trip home on Saturday was good.

Then Sunday morning we get that early (before dawn) phone call. The man was telling Sonny that his best friend for about 50 years had been taken home to Glory.

We know that when things of this life are getting in our way and causing us to wear down, God presses in and lifts us up and holds us there.

Our friend Matlock Rose has changed that cowboy hat to a crown of Glory, he is sitting in his throne. He did everything on this earth to the best of his ability and better if he could, so we know he will be doing that in heaven.
Maybe this article will help you as it did me. It comes out of 2 Timothy 4:8:

"There is laid up for us a crown of righteousness."

Do you doubt? Have you said, "I fear I shall never enter heaven." Don’t worry! All the people of God shall enter there. I love the quaint saying of a dying man, who exclaimed, "I have no fear of going home; I have sent all before me; God's finger is on the latch of my door, and I am ready for Him to enter." "But," said one, "are you not afraid that you could miss your inheritance?" "No," said he, "no; there is one crown in heaven which the angel Gabriel could not wear, it will fit no head but mine. There is one throne in heaven which Paul the apostle could not fill; it was made for me, and I shall have it." O Christian, what a joyous thought! Your portion is secure; "there remains a rest." "But can’t I forfeit it?" No, it is entailed. If I am a child of God I shall not lose it. It is mine as securely as if I were there. Come with me, believer, and let us sit upon the top of Nebo, and view the goodly land, even Canaan. You see that little river of death glistening in the sunlight, and across it do you see the pinnacles of the eternal city? Do you mark the pleasant country, and all its joyous inhabitants? Know, then, that if you could fly across you would see written upon one of its many mansions, "This remains for such a one; preserved for him only. He shall be caught up to dwell for ever with God." Don’t be a doubting Thomas, see the fair inheritance; it is yours. If you believe in the Lord Jesus, if you have repented of sin, if you have been renewed in heart, you are one of the Lord's people, and there is a place reserved for you, a crown laid up for you, a harp specially provided for you. No one else shall have your portion, it is reserved in heaven for you, and you shall have it forever, for there will be no vacant thrones in glory when all the chosen are gathered in.

This is an excerpt from Spurgeon's Daily Devotional.  It is really beautiful.  If we can grasp the great love of Christ for us!

"The love of Christ which passeth knowledge."
Ephesians 3:19

America's Independence Day

This flag, which we honor and under which we serve,
 is the emblem of our unity, our power, our thought
and purpose as a nation. It has no other character than which
we give it from generation to generation.
The choices are ours. It floats in majestic silence about the hosts
 that execute those choices, whether in peace or in war.
 And yet, though silent, it speaks to us---speaks to us
of our past, for the men and women who went before us,
 and of the records they wrote upon it.

President Woodrow Wilson
1917

Isaiah 53 (The Message Bible)
Who believes what we've heard and seen? Who would have thought God's saving power would look like this?
The servant grew up before God-a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field.  There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look.  He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.  One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum. But the fact is, it was our pains he carried-our disfigurements, all things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures.  But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him-our sins!  He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed.  We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost. We've all done our own thing, gone our own way.  And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong, on him, on him.  He was beaten, he was tortured, but he didn't say a word.  Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered and like a sheep being sheared, he took it all in silence.  Justice miscarried, and he was led off-and did anyone really know what was happening?  He died without a thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people.  They buried him with the wicked,  threw him in a grave with a rich man, even though he'd never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn't true. 
Still, it's what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain.  The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he'd see life come from it-life, life, and more life.  And God's plan will deeply prosper through him.  Out of that terrible travail of soul, he'll see that it's worth it and be glad he did it.  Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant, will make many "righteous ones,"  as he himself carries the burden of their sins.  Therefore I'll reward him extravagantly-the best of everything, the highest honors-because he looked death in the face and didn't flinch, because he embraced the company of the lowest.  He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many,  he took up the cause of all the black sheep.

That is the whole point of Easter - Jesus paid everything for us!  That is why He said, "It is finished."  He endured and conquered everything we could not, so that we could again have fellowship with the Father.  Let's not waste the lavish gift we have so freely been given!

God bless,

Pastors Sonny and Gloria