Chattanooga's Great Date Night

Chattanooga's Great Date Night is coming October 5th to the Chattanooga Convention Center from 6:45 pm to 9:00 p.m. Go to firstthings.org to get your FREE tickets! Great door prizes including cruises, weekend getaways, free Chik-fil-A, and more! You must be present to win!!!

A Marriage Getaway

Jay and I recently had the opportunity to experience a marriage adventure with three other couples.  The intent of the week was to rest, relax and rejuvenate our marriage.

 We ate, swam, snorkeled, slept until we wanted to get up, went to bed when we were tired, ate, read, told stories, laughed a lot, played games, talked and there were times when you could catch us actually doing nothing! Did I mention that we ate?  :-) There was lots of time to reconnect with your spouse.  We spent time in prayer and had marriage devotions every evening.

Let me tell you what we didn't do.  We didn't watch television at all for an entire week nor did we get on the computer and for the majority of the time our cell phones were in the off position and stowed away so we weren't tempted to check email or make phone calls.  We really didn't talk about work or seek to solve the problems of the world.

We watched the sun set and sometimes we got to see a beautiful sunrise....  We were in awe of God's creation.

 It really was  great romantic adventure

 I think we sometimes don't believe it is really all that important to get away and focus on our marriage, especially when children come along and life gets crazy.  The reality is if we want to stay connected as a couple, time away is a necessity.  It doesn't have to be an entire week, it could be a weekend and it doesn't have to cost a ton of money. My gut tells me if couples invested more time in making sure they stay connected we would see fewer marriages end up on the rocks.

Here's to more romantic getaways!  

Life is Tough Sometimes

This is our sweet Rozee sleeping on her pillows in the family room.













Ashley with Rozee at Christmas.


Today we had to put Rozee to sleep.  :-(     When Ashley was 4 she picked Rozee out to be her puppy.  Back in the day Rozee could catch a Frisbee in mid air and fetch two tennis balls at one time returning to her master with both tennis balls in her mouth.  That was quite a sight!  One time she went to school with Ashley to show off her talent in front of all the kids.  They LOVED her.

Rozee was infamous for going totally crazy when my husband came back through the door - even if he had only been gone for a few minutes.  She would dance around in circles and jump up and down until he took her outside to play.

She tolerated many dress up sessions with Ashley and allowed her picture to be taken in some pretty funny outfits!

We always joked that if anybody tried to break in the house Rozee would lick them to death!

At age 13 Rozee had definitely slowed down, but she still liked her morning walk and never wanted to be left behind if she thought people were headed outside to play.

So, today was a very sad day for our family.  However, we have a lot of great memories of her that will last a lifetime.  She was a wonderful member of the family! 

Freedom Costs

Sitting here this morning thinking about how blessed I am to live in a free country.  We live in an amazing place.  Yesterday during our worship service was devoted to honoring those who have served and those currently serving to protect our freedom.  It was very emotional.

Last night we watched a fantastic Memorial Day concert on PBS.  So many amazing stories of service and sacrifice.  My heart hurt as I thought about all the families impacted by loss suffered due to war.

I pray I never take for granted the life I get to live thanks to our military.

Thank you to all the men and women who have served and are serving and thank you to the families who do their own tour of duty when a loved one is deployed.

A Day on the Set of Courageous

I spent the day on the set for the new movie from Sherwood Pictures (the creators of Fireproof).  I can sum it up in one word, AMAZING!  Courageous is set for release in 2011 and trust me, you won't want to miss it!  The actors were impressive and the cinematography was incredible.

Our morning devotion was by the Voices of Mobile.  They were fantastic!
Then Stephen Kendrick gave us an update on the movie and talked with us about the scene they would be shooting this morning.

This afternoon we ate lunch at Pearly's, an Albany landmark.  YUM!  We toured through the sports complex that the church has built for the community to use.  Absolutely incredible.  We headed back to the set to spend some time with the cast and crew and then it was off to the church to see some clips from the movie.  All I can say is WOW!!!!!  Action packed, good humor and storylines we can all related to.  I cannot wait for this movie to be released.   You can find out more at www.courageousthemovie.com and you can "like" the movie at facebook.com/courageousthemovie

Social Justice Issue

I think teen pregnancy is perhaps one of the greatest social injustices of our time.

In Hamilton country 690 teen girls became pregnant in 2007. While Tennessee is one of the few states that continues to see a decrease in teen pregnancies, there are still far too many teens getting pregnant.

A recent study published by the Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy indicates that:
a child born to a teen mothers has a 27 percent chance of growing up in poverty. If the teen mother is not married at the time of the birth of the child, which most of them are not, the chances of the child growing up in poverty increase to 42 percent. If the teen mother does not graduate from high school or get her GED (Two-thirds of teen moms do not graduate from high school) the child will likely spend 64 percent of his life in poverty.

In contrast - if none of these things happen, a child's chances of growing up in poverty is only 7 percent.

Playing around with sex is like playing with fire, except the person playing fire isn't the only one who gets burned. We have a lot of babies raising babies. This is a huge problem.

I think the best news is there are things we can do to make a difference.

Teens can break the cycle and choose abstinence.

Parents can talk to their teens about the real facts surrounding teen pregnancy. For example,
8 out of 10 teen fathers do not marry the mother of their child.

Sarah Brown, CEO of the National Campaign encourages parents to engage their teens in conversation about the following:
Babies don't cement a relationship, they often put tremendous stress on them.
Babies need to be raised by adults, not children who are still trying to figure things out.
If it happens, it happens is no way to begin a family!

As parents we really have a responsibility to talk with our kids about these issues - even when it feels awkward and uncomfortable and they complain. They may seem smart, but the truth is when it comes to life issues they still need a tremendous amount of guidance.

Raising children in this day and age in more complicated than ever! As a mom of a 17-year-old I am constantly aware of all the craziness of the culture and the messages that are being sent about sex and dating. My goals have been to make sure she has accurate information so she can make wise decisions and to help her see how her decisions today will impact her tomorrow and for years to come.

There are a number of great websites with helpful information. Talk to friends , The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy and Live on Point

Prom - How Times Have Changed

I remember prom when I was in high school. All the girls anxiously waited to see if someone was going to ask them to prom because if you didn't have a date you didn't go.

This year as prom time rolled around, our daughter started talking about the pros and cons of going with a date to the prom. The conversations went something like, "If someone asks you and you say yes then people assume you "like" this person and you are dating. Also, that means you are stuck with one person for the entire evening - like you have to entertain them. I think I would rather go with some friends and be able to just enjoy the evening."

So, that is exactly what she and a couple of her friends did. They made reservations for dinner at a nice restaurant. My husband was their chauffeur for the evening. He dropped them off for dinner. Picked them up when they called and delivered them to the prom. When prom was over he took them to an after-party and then onto Krispy Kreme for hot donuts!

I love that it was an option for her to just go with some good friends and have a great time. Based on all the chatter afterwards I am pretty certain she will carry fun memories of her prom night into the next chapter of her life.