What do Osama Bin Laden, Casey Anthony, and CSI have in common?

Have you ever watched "Without a Trace", "CSI", "NCIS", "Law and Order" or any of the other crime shows that are on tv? How about any of the "Judge Judy" type shows on tv? Ever ask yourself why? We occasionally watch these shows, most of them are well produced and draw you into their plot. What are your thoughts on the capture/killing of Osama Bin Laden? How do you feel about the Casey Anthony case and the fact that the jury handed out a "not guilty" verdict?

I talk about this because I think we all have an inward pull toward having the truth revealed and justice being upheld. We don't want to see someone get away with a crime. We want them to serve their punishment. So we are pleased when they are convicted and killed. Likewise, we are concerned when they are let go, seemingly scot-free?

I will share my thoughts and ask you to think about yours.

Recently I've caught myself being drawn into the Casey Anthony murder trial. Has anyone else done this? I knew very little about the case for the past few years as we rarely watch the news... it gets depressing after a while. I haven't watched much of the trial either, but for the past week or so, I've caught myself looking at the highlights of the case, the story involved, the evidence, the lines of reasoning by the prosecution and the defense. All of those intrigued me. I ask the question: Why?

I noticed that the more I watched, the more entangled the story seemed to be. There were allegations of child abuse from the father and brother, there was lying on the part of just about everybody, there was 'alleged' adultery on the part of the father, there was the strange behavior of the meter reader, and more. Casey, the mother of Caylee, who was accused of murder, went as far as to make up a story of a fake nanny, a fake boyfriend, and a fake job at Universal Studios. On top of that she went out partying and got a tattoo of "Beautiful Life" after her child was missing. Not exactly a candidate for mother of the year. It was an extremely messed up case. In the end the jury came back with a "Not Guilty" verdict of first degree murder, aggravated manslaughter, and aggravated child abuse. They only found her guilty of 4 counts of lying. I do believe that the jury made the right decision based upon my understanding of the facts of the case. There simply wasn't enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Casey Anthony was the killer and because of that they reached a "not guilty" verdict. So here we have a little girl who was found dead with duct tape over her mouth in a plastic bag near where she lived and no one is going to pay for this? No, I don't believe that at all. God knows exactly what happened. He knows all and sees all. Those responsible for the death of Caylee will have to answer to the judge of the universe for their actions. There will be no excuses on that day. The surrounding family members with their problems will all be set aside and the person(s) responsible will have to answer. It will not be a nice scene.

The capture/killing of Osama Bin Laden a few months ago made news headlines everywhere. The man responsible for the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers and many other terror attacks was found and killed. What was your reaction to this? Was there a sense of relief? A sense of Justice delivered? A sense of pity? If you were like me there was some of all those emotions.

When the news of Osama Bin Laden broke I was in my bathroom brushing my teeth about to go to bed. There was an alert that important news would be coming from the White House shortly. I didn't have a clue what it could be. Stephanie said "Is Mrs. Obama pregnant?". For the next few hours we stayed glued to the tv as the President explained the raid in Pakistan by Seal Team 6 and the capture and kill of Bin Laden. There was celebrations in the streets, congratulations throughout the media, a sense of American pride, and a feeling of relief. I was one who felt the relief of this extremely dangerous man no longer around to cause harm. The man who was the mastermind behind numerous attacks on American soil was now no longer a threat. Not long after I felt relief, I felt pity for him. He faced the judgement of Americans and others who were hunting for him, but ultimately he faced the judgement of God. I don't think that high fives and celebrations are a way to "love your enemy". Please do not think that I am saying that we should simply shake hands and hug someone who kills our other neighbors. I'm not saying that at all. I'm simply saying that maybe instead of celebrating the death of someone, someone who rightfully deserves death, we should mourn over the fact that his death is necessary, as I believe it was. I firmly believe that the President and Seal Team did the right thing and at the same time am hit with the weight of the tragedy of the situation.

We all want justice to be manifested. This is even more so when it's something personal against us. It's easy to follow something from a distance, brush it off and move onto something else, but when it's personal it's not that easy. For example what if Osama Bin Laden had killed your parent, sibling, or child in one of his attacks? What if one of your kids was murdered or raped by someone? A sense of justice appears within us even when something small occurs. When someone cuts you off in traffic it's easy to blame the other person and point out their fault. It's so easy for us to look at tv shows, and real events like Casey Anthony and Osama Bin Laden, as well as personal offenses against us and seek justice. It's harder for us to look at our own lives and demand the same type of treatment. You see, we have offended those around us. We have committed numerous crimes against others, some of which were found out, many of which were not. How are we going to answer for those crimes? Is saying I'm sorry good enough? What would it look like if Casey Anthony and Osama Bin Laden said "Yes, I did everything you said, I'm sorry, I'll try my best to do better, I promise". It wouldn't matter much. A good judge would not let that slide, they would not let the offender go free no matter how sincere they were because the punishment would need to be paid.

Personally, I view every offense we make not only a horizontal offense against another person, but a vertical offense against God as well. Nothing will escape the eye of God and every person will have to give an account before Him.

Are they deserving of justice, yes, but so are we. How are we going to answer for that?

Do we think that God owes us only good and won't hold us accountable for our thoughts and actions? If so, are the unanswered murders always going to be unanswered, with no one brought to justice?

Are we going to try to do more good things to outweigh the bad, hoping to be 'good' enough? And how 'good' is good enough, is that something we decide on relative terms?You might be 'good' compared to Osama Bin Laden and Casey Anthony, but compared to God are you really 'good'?

I'm not sure how you would answer those questions, but here's how I do:

God's standard is perfection. I was created to be perfect and live for God's glory in relationship with him. I turned from him, taking him off the throne and putting myself on the throne. I decided I was a better judge than him and deserved to rule. While God could have left me in the pig sty covered in sin, he didn't. Jesus came to earth lived a perfect life and died a perfect death to bring me back to God. Through his sacrifice on the cross it's no longer about being good enough, it's actually realizing that I fall way short of being good enough. Being brought low because of my sin was the most uplifting thing that happened. Rather than being told how good I was, I was shown how great God is. The justice I deserve was laid on Christ. I'm trusting in Christ for the forgiveness of my sin and my aim is to live a life of gratitude that reflects that.

Would you want to have a teenager? :)

Would you want a teenager living in your home? Some of you have already been through that stage of your life. Later, I plan on posting some pictures and reflections on Justin finishing up middle school. In this post though I only want to say a few things about some of the advantages of having a teenager. I'll try to stay away from the disadvantages. :)

As you can see from the picture, we now have our own lawn service. Granted we get what we pay for, but still it's nice. We have help getting things moved around the house, from groceries to lawn supplies, an extra set of hands helps.

Recently we added some pine straw to our house and had big time miscalculated what it would take resulting in 9 extra bales of pine straw. After talking with some new neighbors a few houses down from us, they agreed to take the remaining bales. Justin and his cousin Eric walked the bales down to their house. That was pretty cool.

Yes, there's extra dishes (lots), extra clothes (lots), and more activities to be involved in (cross country, basketball, church youth group) but that's ok, it's worth it. Plus we get that unique sense of humor that only a teenager can provide.

We're proud to have a teenager in our home and pray that he will continue to grow into the man that God wants him to be. We also pray that we'll be the parents that God has called us to be.

This and That

Sorry it's been a while since I've made a post. I have a few that I'm working on, but we're having computer problems and we can't seem to find a lot of our pictures. Anyways here's some stuff to make you smile:

What was he thinking?


This is so cute:


Strange, but somehow intriguing


Maybe the next time Katelyn wants to play my guitar I should let her :)


Love this by Anita Renfroe:


Good catch

Our family garden

A few weeks ago I gave into Stephanie's desire to have a garden. She said "all I'm asking for is two 16 square foot boxes". I'm not sure if you're familiar with the concept, but basically you have a garden in an above ground box. You're able to maintain it (or so I'm told) better that way. You section off squares in the boxes and plant your vegetables in certain areas. The only problem is that our back yard has a hill. We sat down and started making our diagrams of what it would look like and what the dimensions would need to be. Then I started a list of the materials needed. We sat time aside on a Saturday for a "family project". With a 5 year old and 14 year old you know that sounds like fun. :)

We made the trip to Home Depot in our Toyota Camry. All I can say is that thing has a nice spacey trunk. It fit:

one 2x12x8
two 2x6x16
one 2x4x14
ten 40 pound bags of top soil

And some other stuff as well in the car. Home Depot made the cuts we needed for free.

Then we got home the fun began. We started to set up the boxes based on the prior diagram and all of us forgot that we didn't do so well at geometry. I think Katelyn's ideas ranked up there with the rest of ours. After struggling with the first box, the second was a breeze. And they were put together without bloodshed or yelling and screaming.

It was very cool to be able to do this as a family. Each person contributed a part in the project. I did most of the digging, Justin did most of the topsoil work, Katelyn removed most of the rocks, and Stephanie did most of the planting. Oh yeah, and as you can see by the pictures, our dog Daisy watched the whole time and kept us company.

We're still not sure if we'll have dinner to put on the table, but the project was a good time. :)

Here's what it looked like after the sections and some of the planting. We are hoping to have green beans, tomatoes, bell peppers, squash, zucchini, and sweet potatoes.

Chick Fil-a 5k, Winder

On May 7th, Our family ran in the Chick-fil-a 5k race in Winder. This was the first race that all four of us entered. A family at our church told us about the event. They had 4 of their kids (yes, they have more than 4, but that's another story) running and we decided that because they offered a family rate that it was something for us to do as well. Everything was going good until race day. I had picked up the race packets with our shirts and numbes the day before and everything was a go. Then came race morning. Katelyn decided she didn't want to run. She stayed in a bad mood until we got to the starting line, and even then she wasn't real pleased.

We met up with the other family and chatted before the race. The weather was great and although the crowd was the largest of the Chick-fil-a series (about 6 races or so around the Athens area), it wasn't too crowded.

I'll tell of my race first, and then of everyone else.

I finished first in my age class with a time of 22 min 31 sec, finishing 13th overall. I still have my goal to finish under 22 minutes this year. Those wearing gps watches said that the actual distance was 3.25 miles instead of 3.1 miles, so I guess according to that I would have made my goal time, but until it's recorded by the race officials, it won't count as having made the goal. There was a long slow grade hill coming back that made it difficult to finish strong. I was still very happy to finish first in my group though. Oh and I also won a drawing for a water bottle.

Here I am crossing the finish line and some pics of the award presentation and after. For some reason some of the pics are small, we tried to resize them, but couldn't sorry.








Justin did well in the race with a finish of 25 min 55 seconds, finishing 47th overall. He avoided twisting his ankle this time, like the last race. His mp3 player died halfway through the race though. He plans to run on the Cross Country team in the fall. His time is pretty good for not having run much. He now has a good pair or running shoes which will help too. Here he is crossing the finish line.


Now onto Katelyn and Stephanie. Well, while Katelyn's mood got a little better, her running did not. The picture below shows Katelyn running. Stephanie said that she didn't run much more than that. Actually for some of it she didn't even walk, Stephanie carried her. To finish the race she was promised McDonalds and an ice cream. You can see by the picture on Stephanie's face below that she was ready for the race to end. We decided that unless Katelyn begs us to run the next race then she'll be sitting it out. The funny thing was that when Katelyn crossed the line she said "Daddy, I beat Mommy". I think she beat her not only in the race but also mentally. I won't give there time, but like in the Easter Bunny run, they didn't finish last. :)

MOM

Tomorrow we will celebrate Mothers Day.

I wanted to take a few minutes and personally acknowledge my Mom. She has always been there for me. When it's been good and not so good, regardless of what I've done, she has been there. While this post could go on forever about all of the great things that my Mom has done for me and how great she is, I will only mention a few.

1. Little League baseball

When we lived in West Virginia, I loved baseball. I mean a lot. If I wasn't at practice or in a game I was usually collecting baseball cards or in the yard hitting rocks into the woods with a bat. When by Dad had to work, my Mom was the one driving me all over Webster County for baseball. And when I say all over, I really mean it. We weren't around the corner from the field like we were in Toccoa or in Jefferson. Usually practice or games meant either going down off a mountain and going up another. This not only took a lot of money in gas, it also took a lot of her time. She also would practice with me at our house. She did all that not because she loved baseball, but because she loved me.

2. Military

When I decided to join the military, my Mom let me make my own choices. She was not uninterested in those choices, but she knew they were my choices. She always wrote me letters (as did many others in my family) of encouragement in basic training giving me support. She would send me care packages of snacks and other stuff that she knew I would like. My face always lit up when I got those packages. It was during this time that Justin was born. She was always there for me, helping this new dad when I needed it most.


3. Justin and Katelyn

My mom loves being a grandparent. And her grandkids love her. She would keep Justin and Katelyn everyday if we asked her too. She would cancel any plans that she has in order to see her grandkids. How do I know this? Because she has. I've had to ask my Dad what's going on before I ask my Mom, because I know that she will say "there's nothing going on, bring them on over". Now, I will say that she lets them both get away with way too much stuff. She'll fix them mac & cheese and let that be their dinner along with many other "mamaw" type things. See, she gets to give them back to us after they leave her house. :)

This is only 3 of the many things that I can say about my mom. I'm sure that my brother and sisters can mention many more as well, along with the other grandkids.

I love you Mom and thank God for you!

Easter Bunny run

For some reason in the past year I have picked up running both as a hobby and as a lifestyle. I used to run all the time in the Army and while I did enjoy it some it's not something that I would say that I would do on my free time. I tried to run a few years ago but my knees hurt too much. In the past year though I've not only been able to run without serious injury, I've actually enjoyed it. I've been able to enter some 5k races, placing in my age group and even did well in a 10k. I've had a guy at work talk about a half-marathon for a while now (almost 6 months). I kept saying that there was no way I could do that, that's just too far. That doesn't sound like fun. That's not even a possibility. Well, over the past few months I kept increasing my distance runs on Saturday mornings and felt confident enough to give it a shot. I had considered the Publix Marathon/Half-marathon in Atlanta but decided against it for a few reasons. It was expensive. I'd have to go to Atlanta and even spend the night there, which would not be fun at all. It also fell on the same weekend that our church was having our missions conference that I didn't want to miss. All of those factors led me to a small "Easter Bunny" race in Clemson, SC. It was less than half the price of the Georgia Marathon, a whole lot less runners (under 200 in the half-marathon), and it included a 5k run/walk that Stephanie and Katelyn could participate in followed by an egg hunt. On top of that we could stay at the In-laws house in Toccoa and drive up early the next day. Justin stayed at a friends house that night or he would have participated as well. This seemed like a great fit for our family.

After visiting with Stephanie's parents the evening before, I was very glad we hadn't driven to Atlanta. We were up early the next morning and on our way. Traffic wasn't a big deal at all and we were there with plenty of time to spare to pick up our race packets. Again, I'm glad we didn't go to Atlanta. Can you tell I don't like driving to Atlanta? This was the first race that Katelyn participated in. We weren't sure how she was going to do, but figured the egg hunt afterward would be some good motivation. The half-marathon started first, and then the 5k kicked off soon afterward.

I was surrounded by runners with gps watches and heart monitors. Many also had belt "fanny packs" with water and energy beans/gel. I thought "ok, I thought ok, even with all that, they still have to run though right?". My goal was to maintain a good pace and finish the race. I had never ran over 10 miles and this one was 13.1 miles. I had followed a training program that had you build up to 10 miles till a week or two before the race, then back down your mileage to conserve energy and allow your body to rest. I had also planned to walk for about 20 seconds or so at each water station. The weather was great, a slight chill in the air, perfect running conditions.

After a bumpy start because there were different paces of those in front and behind me, we spread ourselves out. I had figured out early on that my key to doing well was to find some runners to keep a good pace with. I would need those who would challenge me, but not kill me. Fortunately, I was able to do that throughout the race. At times I would pick someone with a little faster pace, sometimes a little slower. We ran through downtown Clemson, along Lake Hartwell, through Clemson University and back to the finish line. At the finish line there was someone in a Dunkin Doughnut costume giving the finishers a high-five. I was happy to finish and gave him the high-five, mainly beacuse I didn't want to be 'that guy' who didnt. :)

My time was 1 hour 42 minutes, well ahead of my goal of 2 hours. I had no idea how the last 3.1 miles would go, but I knew in training that around 10 miles it got kinda rough. My hip started hurting some around 11 miles, but I knew I was close to the finish so it didn't both me that much. I ended up in 4th place in my age group. I didn't get any awards but was very pleased with the finish. Actually, I was pleased just to finish.

Not long after I crossed the line, Katelyn ran up to me and said "Daddy, we won". Stephanie told Katelyn that everyone wins who finished the 5k and in a way, she's right. I'm not going to say where they finished, but I will say that they weren't last. :)

At the bottom are some pics of us before the race. The only thing that I didn't like was having to be around all those Clemson fans, yuck!

We have another 5k race tomorrow in Winder that all of us are participating in. It's a Chick-fila race full of kids activities and I'm sure, their cow mascot. Maybe I'll be able to give him a high-five. I can only hope. :)

God is so good to our family. We're able to do things together and enjoy each others company. These races are only a small part of it.