New Day, New Attitude

Today has got to be better than yesterday.  So far, so good.  All I am thinking about is going camping this weekend.  As the days pass, I get more excited about spending some time outside, under the stars, in a tent with my son and 30 other scouts and their families.  This might sound strange, but camping is one of the most relaxing times a person could have.

I can hear some of my friends right now "you know black people don't sleep on the ground on purpose" They would be joking of course, but this is one of life's simple pleasures that I enjoy.  The smell of burning wood, scorched marshmallows, coffee made in a real percolator on open fire, kids running in the woods in the dark with flashlights and lanterns, sitting and sharing time with other dads and moms.  I feel like Mater from the movie Cars - " I am happier than a tornado in a trailer park"

So for dinner tonight, we are having creamy mustard pork chops.  Got the recipe from the Campbell's Kitchen web site.  It looked good, so I am giving it a try.  Have to watch the cholesterol and sodium intake.  This looks like a tasty option and it looks like something my kids will enjoy.  They served it with egg noodles and glazed carrots. My kids won't eat either one.  So, I will have to do string beans and a whole wheat pasta so the sauce gets on the pasta.

I am wrapping my mind around getting on the bus with my son's class tomorrow to go to the corn maze.  Can't wait to go on this trip.  Think about it - 25 screaming and yelling kids on the bus, lunch bags and helping the kids open containers that their parents sent with them, that are childproof, juice spilling all over the place.  These are the kinds of days that my doctor tells me that I need to have a glass of wine.  He calls them highly stressful - I call it fun.  That is when I am most in my element.  Put me with kids and youth - and it's as close to heaven as I can get.  Their honesty and their so open that they don't care what they say.

Trust me, I am enjoying the cub master role.  It takes some getting used to, but there is a great team of volunteers along side me that make this one of the easiest jobs.  My wife loves when I put that uniform on - she calls me Skippy when I have it on.  I love that woman.  She is the best thing that has happened to me and I look back over the years and think about how much we have grown together, and the times she needed me and I fell short.  I have a greater understanding of her needs as a wife, friend, mother and yes as a lover, that I didn't have before.

Back to the new attitude.  I think Pastor Livingston put it best "you have to go through the fire to get the blessing"  It's a new season, it's a new day. I am more than a conqueror and God has my back.  Look at King Jehosephat - he was surrounded by three armies and was about to be annihilated and God told him to have the singers and the praisers go before the army.  Before the King knew what was going on, the three armies killed each other.  God  will use your enemy, your test, the trial, the lack - to show Himself strong and mighty.  Therefore, neither depth, nor height, nor anything else in all creation, shall be able to separate me from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  It might discourage me for a minute - but it will NEVER separate me from His love. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.