Modern Prophecy

A New Tradition

2006-12-13T17:38:00.000-08:00

Wow, It's been over a month since I've posted. Sorry about that. I've made a couple drafts but none of them actually met my standards.

Recently, my brother, Dad, and I went out to cut down a Christmas tree. We got to the farm and within three minutes had picked out the perfect tree to bring home. My Dad gave me the saw and told me to cut it down and I got down on the ground and started sawing. I was going at the tree pretty well when some older man who obviously worked at the place saw me sawing away at the tree. "Someone go help that young lady cut the tree" he said. I looked up to see what parents would make their daughter cut down a tree when he said, " Oh, that's a boy." Oh, he was talking about me. Come on people. My hair isn't that long. It doesn't even touch my shoulders yet. Well, I decided that I could cut down the tree on my own and told the helpers that I was fine. I had it down about 30 seconds later. My Dad then said, " Lets go pick out a Charlie Brown Christmas tree."

For those of you who haven't seen it, A Charlie Brown Christmas, is one of the best Christmas movies ever made. You have to go see it. Anyways, a Charlie Brown Christmas tree is really small and not very good looking. The fact is that in the movie, it was the only "wooden" Christmas tree and Linas says,"Gosh, Do they still make wooden Christmas trees Charlie Brown?" It's really funny how he says it. So Charlie Brown decides that he's going to take the tree home with him and try and get it a part in the Christmas play that him and his friends are going to put on. Turns out no one likes the Christmas tree he brought home and they all make fun of him when he brings it in. After that you'll have to go see it because it's beside the point.

So, we pick out the skimpiest Christmas tree we can find and cut it down. We bring both of the trees home and put them up. The next night, my Dad had some of his students come over and we had a Christmas party. We all snacked and talked for a while and then my Mom brought out some ornaments for the tree. The students then decorated the tree and socialized for a bit while I disappeared up to the computer to check my email. When I finished I came down to help finish up the tree, and then we watched, what else but A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Sorry, this is sorta off the point but one of my favorite quotes from that movie is when Linas and Charlie Brown are walking and Charlie Brown starts complaining about how he doesn't feel the Christmas spirit. Linas tells him, "Charlie Brown, you're the only person I know that can take a wonderful time like Christmas and complain about it. Maybe Lucy's right. Of all the Charlie Browns in the world, your the Charlie Browniest." I think that's the coolest thing ever said.

After that we decorated our Charlie Brown Christmas tree. This is the second year we've done this and I really enjoy it. If we do this again next year I can officially call it a tradition but right now it's well on it's way. If it's up to me, we'll keep doing this until I leave for college and I'll keep doing it then and after I leave college. For some reason, A Charlie Brown Christmas, has an extreme impact on the way I look at Christmas and helps me to remember the real reason we celebrate it. It's not to give presents to people or to get the presents. It's to remember that our Savior, Jesus Christ, was born and that this was when he came to earth to begin the process of saving us from our sins. In a couple of months, we will celebrate the day that ends that process and ensures those of us who believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins and to give us eternal life with his and our father in heaven, but now it is time to celebrate his birth.

"For behold, I bring you tidings of great joy. For unto you a savior is born. And this will be a sign, the savior is a babe, dressed in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger."

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Jack

Friends

2006-10-07T18:37:00.000-07:00

The other night, I went tailgating with my church. I was making plans with a friend I hadn't seen in several months to meet up at the foot ball game. I was really excited. She was bringing some of her friends that I didn't know and I was eager to hear about how she had been doing at her new school. I called her on my cell phone 20 minutes before the game to find out where she was and where we should meet. While I was dialing her number, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I spun around and wouldn't you know it, she was right there. She was with one of her friends she had met at her school so she introduced us. We exchanged hellos and I took some time to talk to Jessica (my friend I was meeting, obviously). So we hung out in front of the stadium for a while waiting for her other friends and talking about how life was and about new things in our life. About five minutes after we met up, her second friend came. Jessica introduced us. We waited for Brianne's boyfriend to come (her first friend) and then we headed up to the stands. We sat where Jessica said she always sits so that her boyfriend could find her. We hung out in the stands until her boyfriend came and then sat down to talk and watch the game. I did some catching up and tried to meet everyone there and catch up with what the people were like and get to be friends. It was pretty fun. Sarah and I, (Sarah was Jess's second friend) had a couple things in common. We knew only Jessica. We talked a lot because everyone else was talking to people they knew so we decided to talk. It had already been a night of new people and friends, new and old, and we weren't even past the first quarter yet.

Right before the half time show began, I saw another friend, her name was Annna, who I hadn't seen in several months. This was a friend I hadn't expected to see. Anna walked across the bleachers in front of me not even noticing I was there. I called out her name and she looked up, smiled, and ran up and gave me a hug. We talked for a little while and I asked her if one of our mutual friends, Scottie, was there at the game. He was. She pulled me off the bleachers, I told my other friends I'd be back and we ran off to see Scottie. I went and sat with them through the half time show and decided I needed to head back to my other group. I told them I'd try and come back and see them if I could and I said good bye.

I got back to my seat and started hanging out with my friends again. Our convesation made it to someone I never would have expected it to lead to. I asked Jessica if she had met a guy named Colden at her school and she said that she hadn't but Brianne had asked her the same question just a little bit before I had. I asked Brianne if she knew him and she said yes and asked how I knew about him. I told her he had been my next door neighbor from when i was three to second grade. I hadn't seen him since 5th grade so I asked her if she thought he would be at the game. She told me he would be, so I kept an eye out for him.

The rest of the game went by pretty uneventfully. The home team lost sadly but it was sorta expected. We got up and left the stands. We were outside of the stadium and everyone was saying goodbye's, when Brianne got my attention. She said, "hey Jack, Colden's right over there." I looked to where she was pointing and there he was. I hadn't seen him in four years but he looked the same as ever. I yelled out his name and he looked at me. He looked confused for a second, like he recognized me but didn't know who I was, and then he realized it was me. "Jack! Long time no see! What's it been? 4 years?" We got a handshake in said hi and goodbye and left. I was really excited. I had seen a bunch of friends I had never expected to see and met a lot of new friends. It had been a good night and I was ready to tell everyone who would listen about it.

Unlike my other posts, this post doesn't really have a morale or a deep meaning, this is just like a journal entry. It had been an important night for me and I wanted to make sure I never forgot it so I blogged it. So this is my post. I hope you liked it.

Jack

From the Eyes

2006-09-27T05:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I think this is the first post I've published as a 9th grader. High school is pretty fun. I still see a lot of my friends and we still hang out a lot and for some reason the football games are a lot more interesting this year. It's fun to watch our team go and win a bunch of games. While I've been in high school, I've been really busy so I haven't been able to blog as much as I would have liked. I know I've said this before but I'm gonna try and get back in the habit of blogging at least twice a week.

Since I've been in high school, a lot of things have changed. I've actually had to start studying for tests, I'm working harder on school work and home work than I have in a long time, and I've been getting more involved in church and with friends. I've made some new friends at school and It's good to realize I can spend time with them as well as my friends from middle school. Some of my friends are a little crazy and some are normal. Some are boys and some are girls. Some are smart and some still ask for my help with homework every time they see me.

Yesterday, while hanging out in study hall, I was hanging out with some of my friends and one of my friends that is a girl and crazy and still asks for my help on homework, started talking to a friend who is a guy and crazy and is smart. During the conversation John noticed that Jennifer wasn't looking him in the eyes when she talked. When he asked her why, she said that she felt uncomfortable talking to anyone while looking into their eyes. John thought this was interesting and told her that he liked to look into peoples eyes when he talked. He also said that he could pretty much sum a person up by looking into their eyes for about a minute. She thought this was freaky and stopped talking to him for a while.

When he laughed, I asked him if he really could and he said yes. I wasn't surprised, I can tell a few things from a persons eyes. I asked him to look into my eyes and see how much he could see. He looked straight through my eyes and told me after a minute, " done. You're a christian, you like music, you're always there for your friends, you work hard in school, and your trying to learn guitar." This was scary. Everything he said was true. I thought that he would be able to do that but not accurately. I looked back into his eyes and tried to see as much in him as he could see in me. Most of what I got was stuff I already knew but I think it was pretty cool that his eyes could tell me as much as they did. I could tell he was observant (obviously) he was caring, faithful, I couldn't tell if he was a christian but he defiantly could be. I could also tell that he was funny, flexible, and ready to help anyone who needed it.

When we tried this experiment, it reminded me sort of what God does. God doesn't look at your outside appearance to determine who you are. God looks at your character and you inside; your heart. Jon was looking into our eyes and could tell some of my character, and not only was it freaky, but it was sort of, I don't know how to say it, but it made me feel , for search of a better word, good. Thats such a horrible word. It made me feel like I was who I was to other people and not just to my self, and that my character could be recognized by someone. I hope you understand what I'm talking about because its a wonderful feeling and it's really hard to explain.

I also wondered during the experiment, if more people looked in to the eyes of everyone else, what kind of world would this be? The answer I came up with was pretty cool. If we all looked at the character of a person, then most likely we would all have friends that could understand us extremely well. We would also be able to see what we wanted to be like and be able to change ourselves much easier.

I hope this all makes sense to you. It makes sense to me but its a really hard thing to explain. If you don't understand it or if you really like it, please leave a comment. They help to keep me blogging.

Thanks for reading another blog.

Jack

Sibling Rivalry

2006-08-01T07:36:00.000-07:00

Well, I know I haven't blogged in a really long time but I have made some drafts that didn't really make the cut. The last time I blogged It was six days until school finished now it's sixteen days until it starts.

As I have gotten older, a lot of things have changed in my life. I've gone from thinking girls have cooties to thinking they are some of the coolest thing's on this earth but they do have some serious thinking issues. I've gone from being the quiet kid in the back of the classroom making A's on all his tests to being the kid who loves to socialize with his friends and amazingly still makes pretty good grades. I've also come from the point of knowing that there are some things that you can be good at and some things that you can't, to thinking I have to be good and better at everything than every one, mainly my siblings.

I didn't used to understand what sibling rivalry meant because I would be good at something and Will, my brother, would be good at something else and that was fine with me. But now as I go into my teenage years, I suddenly feel like I need to be really good at everything he is and be able to prove to my self that I'm better. I know I'm not deep down, but my brain just thinks it.

Yesterday ( and the day before), Will had one of his friends over and Molly had gone to a sleepover. Since I had nothing to do, I hung out with them and had a pretty good time. We played foot ball, smear and spear, and a bunch of video games. Everything we did I tried to do better than everyone else. Sometimes I won sometimes I lost but I finished the days feeling pretty good. Well, before Will's friend went home, my Mom and Dad called all of us out back where a tree had fallen down. my dad was sawing it up and wanted us to lay down bricks so that we could chop up the wood and then stack it on the bricks. My Mom went inside to finish dinner and get ready to go to the gym while Dad kept working on the tree. Well, as soon as my Mom left we started arguing who would be able to chop the wood, cause that's our favorite job. We each thought we should and we spent so much time arguing about it that we forgot that we were supposed to stack the bricks before anything could be done. I finally got the ax and Will got the wedge and hammer.

I cut a couple pieces until I got to a peice that was especially hard and couldn't cut it Will was to it like a bee to honey and hammered the wedge in until it could be broken. Well, after Will chopped the wood I asked for the wedge and hammer so that I could finish that piece of wood and he gave it too me. As I was chopping I was listening to my Ipod and Will thought I couldn't hear him. He was talking to his friend while I was chopping and said, " He just can't stand the fact that I might be better at something." This made me mad because I thought I was better at chopping wood than him but I just couldn't use the wedge. I started hammering faster and harder because I was getting angrier. Now, I'm pretty sure most people have tried hammering accurately and fast and hard at the same time. It doesn't work. Eventually you miss. In my case, I missed before I even got the wedge fully in. I slammed the hammer down and instead of my hammer hitting the wedge, my hand hit the wedge with a force that would have sent the wedge through the piece of wood. It resulted in my right hand middle knuckle bleeding like heck and my right hand pointer finger feeling jammed. I didn't cry ( at first) because it didn't hurt that bad. My pride was hurt more than my body. I ran up to the house to be alone and to get some ice. I sat there having a little pity party and thought to my self. " Does it really matter if he can use a hammer and wedge better than you?" " Of course it does, I'm his older brother, I'm supposed to be better at every thing.", " Well, if you are, then you have a long ways to go cause he's good at a bunch of stuff that you are and you are good at a lot of other stuff. " I finally decide that I don't have to be better at everything, just almost everything ; ) .

I know that Will is really good at something's but I like being better at things than him even though that can't always be. I guess it's just an older brother thing cause my dad said that he remembers when his younger brother was better at something than him he would practice really hard to get good at it too. So like I said, I've come a long way in the past couple years and I'm still learning a bunch of lessons.

Well I've got to go now. I hope you enjoy the rest of the summer.

Jack

Aureolus

2006-05-18T18:01:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm going to start this off with something completely off topic.... WE HAVE 6 DAYS UNTIL SCHOOL'S OUT!!!! We have 4 days that we are actually in school but it's those days and the weekend until we are out. Then I'm going to be in 9th grade, or highschool! It's gonna be awesome.

Ok now to get back on to topic. Some of you may be wondering what the heck my title means and you shall find out soon enough but first I need to tell about why I chose the title.

Today in school I was talking to a friend of mine who is a girl and a goth. She isn't a hard core goth but she does have some major troubles in her life and is depressed a lot. She was hanging out with some of my other friends today and just having a good time when my friends started talking about a certain girl that they liked. It wasn't my goth friend and it just so happens that the girl that they were talking about wasn't exactly high on her favorite person list. She simply stated her opinion to them about how she didn't like the girl they were talking about and they told her that she was just jealous about how much prettier the other girl was than her. This hurt her incredibly because she, like other people, didn't like hearing that other people are prettier than her, especially someone she doesn't like. She came to her 2nd block class upset and silent. I went to my seat ( which is across from hers) and asked her what was wrong and she kindly told me. At the time I had no idea what to say because I have never had this problem happen with me before. Most of what I hear about are girls that think they are prettier than everyone else and can't figure out why no one likes them. I've never had to encourage and tell a girl why she was prettier than some one else. So at the time, I was silent and couldn't say anything.

When I got home from school I went to my room and started drawing and listening to music. I was listening to the band Switchfoot and jumping around to all my favorite songs and just chillin' when one of my songs finished and went to the song after it. I was about to skip it when I saw the title. It was called "Golden". I couldn't remember what it was about so I decided that I would listen to it and as I listened the song made me think about what happened to my friend today. The song talks about this girl who locks herself in her bed room after staring down the "demons" in her life that tell her she is just another person, just like everyone else. She wonders what her life is supposed to be like and wonders if she can do anything about how her "story goes". It's then that the singer gives her her own book. He tells her " You are Golden, you are Golden child. Don't let go, Don't let go. Youre a lonely soul, in light of broken hearts far from home, you're in the perfect place to be."

I think this is a message that everyone needs to have. You are Golden, you are God's child and he made you as special as everyone else. No one is prettier or more special to him. We are all Golden and we are all special to him. No matter what we do he is there and still loves us. That is what Aureolus means. It is the latin word for Golden, splendid and brilliant. We are aureolus in God's eyes and we all have someone out here on this earth that thinks we are aureolus too.

So I hope you have a wonderful and golden summer.

Thanks for reading and I hope you feel aureolus.

Jack

Mother's Day

2006-05-14T14:45:00.000-07:00

Well as many of you know, today is Mother's day. Several families around the globe celebrate how wonderful the queen in their family is and everyone celebrates in their own way. My family celebrated Mother's day by trying to show our mom some extreme respect by being practically silent all day. Our mother's day has been this way for the past couple years because of our mom's work schedule. She works every weekend from 7 pm to about 8am and is always extremely tired when she gets home. Because of this schedule, our family really celebrates mothers day on the day after. But we still do a little something for her on the actual holiday.

Today, we all woke up and got ready to go to church when Will thought up a great way to make mom feel special. We would all wear orange to church where we would meet her ( orange is a special color for her and symbolizes several things for her like happiness, freedom, and family). We met her at the church and lined up to hug her and say happy mother's day and then stood back to make sure she could tell what we had done for her. It took her a minute to figure out what we were doing but then she looked at us from a different angle and saw that we were all wearing orange. " aww, you guys... come here.", she said, and gave us all another big hug. We then made her a cup of tea ( yes at the church. we are alowed to use the kitchen in the morning).
Then we talked to her like we always do and then we went off to church, exactly like normal mornings, just a little bit sweeter.

In the youth building, we watched this really funny video about how to treat your mothers and then we had a speaker talk to us about what makes a mother's heart happy. The speaker, Mrs. Mary Brock, told us that the main thing that made a mother's heart happy was a peaceful home and that there were three ways to keep your home peaceful. They were practicing respect, obedience, and I think the other one was forgiveness. ( I personally think that my mom would say that every room in the house needs to be clean in addition to those three things.) So now I am trying to practice these things in order to make my mom's heart happy and I think you should too to give your mother a happy mother's day.

So in tribute to all the mothers all over the world, Thanks for all you do for us kids and happy mother's day.

P.S. go to http://www.stupidvideos.com/video/song_dance/your_mother/ to see the shortened version of what we saw today in the youth.

Maundy Thursday

2006-04-13T20:03:00.000-07:00

When I started this unit sorta thing in studying the bible, I did say that I was going to make some other blogs in between the sections of the over all unit for those of you that didn't like the major unit or just didn't enjoy it as much. This blog is one of those blogs in between the over all unit's sections.

Now for those of you that don't know, today was Mondae Thursday, the thursday before Christ was crucified. It was also the day of The Lord's Supper and the night Jesus washed the feet of the disciples. This was an extremely important night for those reasons, ( and some other reasons but those are the reasons I'm listing ). Also for those of you that don't know, tonight we had a small bible study group at our house. There were several people here and my Dad decided that he would do what he did with our family last year for Mondae Thursday with our bible study. Exactly a year ago, my Dad decided that we would do some things to remind us of what happened that day. He read a passage out of Luke ( I think ) and then went to every one and read a very touching passage to each member of our family and then washed our feet like Jesus would have done to his disciples ( he did this for everyone except Molly, she wasn't there. Oddly enough, she wasn't with us again today because she was and is at a friends house ). After we let this symbolism settle into our hearts we all had a short quiet time with GOD and then had a communion. Like I said, that's how it happened last year.

This year, I was in my room and had no clue of what we were about to do. I was talking on the phone to two of my friends and I was really tired. My Mom suddenly called to me to tell me to come down stairs with her. Me and my brother went and my Dad started the ceremony. This year unlike last year, we had ten people (six extra ). My Dad still washed my Mom's, brother's, and my feet but he let the other three couples wash each other's feet. Afterwards we stilll had communion and I felt like GOD was there with us, trying to break into some of our lives and trying to help other's lives through there problems. After the communion we all talked for a little while and several people expressed there gratitude.

This event meant a lot to everyone and I'm sure that they will remember it for years to come. I must express speacial greatitude to my Dad for all that he has done for me and my family. We all appreciate what he has done and admire him for how close he is with the Lord. Before he read the "touching" passage to me, he whispered to me "Wake up". I was awake but he wanted me to be completely ready for the events that were coming up. He read a part about a journey that we are on and how we are there for one another. Instantly as I heard this line, my mind shot back to the memories of the Grand Canyon trip and how my Fathers ( my earthly father and heavenly Father) were looking out for me. As my mind shot back to the Grand Canyon I know my Dad's mind went with mine because as he read this part of the passage he squeezed my hand in acknowledgement. We talked afterwards about it and I realized that we had really taken the trip back to the Canyon together and that I was right, he was thinking about our trip too. This meant alot to me, that we were that alike and we had experiences that we could share.

I know I've said this before but I'm going to say it and type it now. I really look forward to being a Dad so that I can put some of the same awesome experiences on my kids that my Dad has put on me. This sort of goes back to my blog
" Fathers Legacy" but I think it sort of fits in here too. So anyways, I want to say thanks Dad for the most awesome
child hood/teen hood/ young adult hood you can give me.

I want to take up the next couple paragraphs to type exactly what my Dad told me so that you can sort of see what I was feeling while this was all happening ( of course you will never be able to experience exactly how awesome it was unless your Dad is as cool as mine and can do awesome things like this). So here it is.

Thanks for reading,

Jack

" Brother, let me be your servant,
let me be as Christ to you.
Pray that I may have the grace
to let you be my servant, too.

We are pilgrims on a journey,
and companions on the road.
We are here to help each other
walk the mile and bear the load.

I will hold the Christ-light for you
in the night time of your fear.
I will hold my hand out to you,
speak the peace you long to hear.

I will weep when you are weeping;
when you laugh I'll laugh with you.
I will share your joy and sorrow,
till we've seen this journey through.

When we sing to GOD in heaven
we shall find such harmony,
born of all we've known together
of Christ's love and agony."

From the "Celtic Daily Prayer"

Chapters 23-24 The End of 2nd Samuel

2006-04-08T19:33:00.000-07:00

I know we just got started with 2nd Samuel but we got started a little late so we're already at the end. But Its a really good book so it wouldn't hurt you to go back and read it.

Chapter 23 starts off with Davids last words but don't let this confuse you. This is just foreshodowing so David is still alive and he is mentioned in 1rst Kings so don't get too worried. David talks about how GOD chose him to lead Israel. How God took him to the top of the game from being a sheperd, to a king. He also talks about how he was helped through it all by GOD and how GOD guaranteed his success.

Then the chapter goes on to list all of Davids most trusted men and soldiers. The leading three were Josheb-Basshebeth, Eleazar, son of Dodai, and Shammah, son of Agee. It also goes to say that Abisai son of Zeruiah was the head of his thirty most trusted soldiers. Then they go and list the 37 most trusted soldiers that " The Three" were in charge of.

After this GOD decided that he would test David and gave David the idea of taking a census of Israel and Judah. Though Joab fought against David's decision to do this, David insisted. So Joab took the census. There were 800,000 able bodied men in Israel and 500,000 men in Judah. When the results came in David was ashamed of himself; replacing trust with statistics. GOD tells David that he will be punished but gives him a choice of punishments. His three choices were, " three years of famine, three months of running from your enemies, or three days of an epidemic on the country." David told Gad the prophet that he would rather be punished by GOD who is extremely merciful, than by man so GOD sent forth an epidemic that killed 70,000 people when GOD couldn't take it any longer and ordered the angel that was killing all the people to stop and the angel did. Gad then came to David telling him to go build an alter and sacrifice to GOD. So David went and built an altar and then went to buy the sacrifice. He went to Araunah the Jebusite to buy the threshing floor and the ox and Araunah tried to give it to David as a gift. David wisely said, " I've got to buy it from you for a good price; I'm not going to offer GOD, my GOD, sacrifices that are no sacrifice." So David sacrificed to GOD and GOD ended the disaster.

This is the end of 2nd Samuel. I hope you were enlightened of what you heard from it. I'm still excepting comments and suggestions from readers so please tell me what your thinking.

Thanks again,

Jack

2nd Samuel Intro and Todays Reading

2006-04-07T18:18:00.000-07:00

Well like I said, I'm going to try and write every day this week so here is the topic that I'm going to start. It's going to be sort of a series but if you don't like this series don't just stop looking at my site. I"m still going to write about other things but I'm going to write on this series ( or try) every day. Now, you may be wondering what this series is. I've been reading through the bible since January first of this year so right now I'm on second Samuel 21&22 so I'm going to try and write about it so that I can help myself understand the passage and maybe even help others in there walk with christ.

So. 2nd Samuel starts off when David, son of Jesse, is given the message that King Saul and his son Jonathan have been killed. David mourns for them for a long while and then something clicks in his brain. The messanger that came to David said that Saul had asked to be killed. David realizes that the messenger had killed Saul, God's annointed, and that the messenger had to be killed for this crime. David orders him executed and instantly the messenger is cut down by foot soldiers. Shortly after the news of Saul's death, David is annointed king over all Israel. He had a very succesful reign over Israel but like every one else he was human and sinned. But unlike everyone else, he was very close to God and asked his forgiveness often. David was a man after God's own heart.

Today's reading in Second Samuel was 21-22. It starts off with a famine in Israel that lasted for three years. David asks God why this was happening and God answered back, "This is because there is blood on Saul and his house, from when he massacred the Gibeonites." So David went to the Gibeonites and asked if there was anything that he could do to gain there forgiveness. At first they declined but then they answered, " We will take seven of Saul's children and execute them for pay back ( Im trying to look for a better word but I can really think of one.). So David gave them seven children but did not give them Jonathan's , son of Saul, heir, because of his love for Jonathan. After the execution, God forgave Israel and started answering there prayers again.

War broke out again between the Philistines and Israel. David fought hard and became exhausted. The Philistines tried to kill David but Abishai helped defend him. After that David's men kept him from fighting on the front lines. There were some extremely bloody battles and God helped David win all he needed.

After the war, David prayed the words of a praise song to God. If you want to look it up it is 2nd Samuel chapter 23 but it is really long and I don't feel like interpreting it. It's really important though, so I'll give you some details.

" I can put all my faith in God who will rescue me. I find myself safe in his word no matter what is after me. He protected me and was there for me in times of trouble. God made my life complete. I stand here saved. God armed me well, then pointed me in the right direction. My enemies called for help but none came. Complete strangers came and served me. Bless you God, my towering salvation. I praise you here and now."

That was David's interpreted prayer but you should really go back and look at the enlarged version ( which in my bible takes up three pages.) It is really enlightening.

Thanks for reading this with me.

Jack

P.S. I would really like comments on how much you like this so that I know what I can do better. Thanks again.

Track/Concerts/Spring Break/ Everything I've needed

2006-04-06T17:24:00.000-07:00

Ok, I know I haven't blogged in a long time (since the trip to the canyon) so before I go into all the awesome things that I'm going to write about, I'm going to get you caught up with my life, ok? Well if it isn't too bad, skip the next couple paragraphs. ( I'm joking, I'm in a good mood so I'm going to play around a little more than usual).

So, since the grand canyon and my birth day, I've been having a good life overall. What am I talking about? I've had a GREAT life. I've become the best long distance runner for the Irmo track c-team, I've gone on a trip to Williamsburg, Virginia, I've gone to an awesome concert, been to a birthday party, and I've brought my language grade up 11 points. I've also got an awesome family (that volunteers to do projects for me) and awesome friends (that humor me and come to church and put up with the rest of my crazy friends, who are also awesome). Hows that for exciting?

In case you didn't know, I do run track and I'm actually pretty good. I run the mile and the half mile ( or for you metric people the 1600 and the 800 meter events) and my best time for the mile is 5 mins and 39 secs and my best time for the half mile is 2 mins and 30 secs. I've also been invited to run the 4 by 400 meter relay which I've saved my team from dead last in. Sadly tonight was the last track meet ( it was also where I made these awesome records) and it was at White knole high school. It was a rough meet and on the second event one of our best sprinters (who is also a pole volter) fell on the cheap White knole track ( which was asphault instead of tar) and practically skinned himself. His shoulder was torn up, his elbow was bleeding all down his arm, and he looked like he got in a serious game of bloody knuckles with someone. (sorry for those of you with tender stomachs). We were still proud of him for giving the race his best and we knew he was having a hard time. So even with track over I'm going to keep running. There's a pretty good chance that I've made the Varsity team for next year and I want to keep hanging out with my awesome friends so we're going to make our own "cross country conditioning*. It won't be mandatory ( because we won't have a coach) but I'm sure plenty of people will show just to hang out.

Now the awesome concert was in Myrtle beach and even though I enjoyed it thoroughly, it would have been better if Rush played in the concert to but like I said, it was awesome. The concert was of a band that most of you have probably heard of. It was........ SWITCH FOOT!!!! It was really cool. It took place in "The House of Blues" and we had to stand up for three hours straight but it was worth it. The band Mute Math also played as an opening band. If you've ever heard of a band called Earth Suit, then you would recognize Mute Math. That's because Mute Math is Earth Suits new name or something like that. ( actually I think it's what is left over of there band). Anyways, Switch Foot. They were really good. They played all kinds of songs like "Stars, Company Car, This is Your Life, Fine, Dare You to Move, Daisy, Lonely Nation" and a couple others. Oh, yeah. They also played " Meant to Live". Yessss. That is one awesome song. It's pretty deep too. If you've never heard it then you need to go find and buy Switch Foots album "The Beautiful Letdown" and while your at it go buy " Ode to Chin" "A New Way to be Human" and " Nothing is sound" ( the rest of there albums). Molly and Will went with my Dad and me this time. The last time my dad and I went to a Switch Foot concert for his birthday by ourselves. I have to tell you, they had a lot of fun. If you ever have time to go to one of there concerts, do because they are really cool. Of course, you need to learn there songs before you go because it's alot funner that way.

Now for what's coming up in my life. After tomarrow I"m out of school for an entire week! It's our spring break and I'm going to have fun. I've got planned a major " Risk" tournament that will last all night ( Its at our church and it's going to be a blast). We're going to stay up having snacks, playing foozball, listening to music, and killing eachother..... in risk. (Though last time we played, I almost broke my head open so who knows we might just get someone this time... just kidding..) I've also got a couple cats to take care of and then I've got to baby sit for my violin teacher which should be fun, really, it normally is. I'm also going to try and start a habit of blogging again so look for a blog each day this week and you'll see something new. I've got a cool idea so that I can get a blog in every day and help people grow closer to christ, including me so try to get on. I'll try and start tomarrow.

This in many ways is what I've been needing for a really long time. I've needed help on settling my life and I've gotten it. I'm getting closer to christ in many ways but I'm still fighting a bunch of battles that I need his help in and they don't look so good right now. I know that I can do all things through christ who strengthens me and lately he's been showing me this more cleart than ever. I just hope that these battles can be won quickly before they get harder then they already are. I'm really having a good time and I hope that it will keep up.

Thanks for reading.

Jack

Sunday/ Concluding Section

2006-02-12T17:21:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry to say that this is going to be my last journal on the Grand Canyon. The day after sunday I spent the entire day on the plane and there really wasn't anything exciting that happened.

On Sunday morning, I woke up before my dad and made him get up before the sunrise. I knew he wouldn't be ready for another couple of minutes so I decided to bundle up and go outside with the camera before him and take some awesome pictures of our last morning in the Canyon. It was supposed to be cloudy sunday so I didn't expect it to be as amazing but it was still an extremly awesome experience. After I had gotten cold ( which wasn't long after I went out) I decided to go in and check on my dad. He was just about to come out so I didn't have a lot of time to warm up so I just sat down on the heater which needless to say didn't take to long to warm me up so I was ready to go hike when my dad was so after a half hour of hiking the grand morning we decided that we would go get some breakfast and drive along the Hermit's trail and stop and look over the trail which ended up being a good idea because after breakfast we realized that hermit's trail was 8 miles long and we wanted to be able to see the desert in the day time.

I don't think I enjoyed this day as much as the first day to tell the truth because I didn't really want to get back to the rest of the world because I had alot that would be waiting for me when I got back and I didn't want to face it all at the same time so I was worried. Worrying is something that you should never do because it gets absolutly nothing done and makes you not enjoy anything that you are doing so you should especially not do it in the grand canyon because that is where some of the best things in the world are and if you are worried you won't enjoy any of it,

Anyways, let this be a lesson to you teachers. Don't assign alot of work to students when they are going on a trip to an awesome place and don't know it. ( just kidding ).So even though I was worried, I still enjoyed some of it. I mean, I was standing 8,000 feet in the air looking down in to the Colorado river. How could I not enjoy myself? Every minute I forgot more about my worries and was able to enjoy more and more of it. It's really hard for me to describe my days at the Çanyon for you because no matter how I describe it I know that words don't do it justice.

Everything was different farther down the path. The perspectives were changing everything. There were rivers, plants, and calm animals. My dad kept finding new things to take pictures of and kept making me take pictures of him that he thought would look awesome and they did ( I'm going to try and find some.). We drove up and down the trail looking for new pictures and got a lot so if I can find them I'll show you.

Around 2:00 we got into the car for the last time and said good bye to the Canyon. We were off to the desert.

We drove in the desert for hours and couldn't help but marvel at the vastness of the land and the gigantic mountains. We drove til it was dark outside and finally we got to our hotel. We were both tired so we finally got to our room and fell asleep.

That's the end of my awesome trip and journal. Thanks for reading.

Light Vapor/Rite of Passage

2006-02-11T10:24:00.000-08:00

Well when I left off, I was awestruck by the beautiful canyon and how the light waves were effecting everything. Only two words can describe what the light looked like just then. They are Light vapor. It looked like the light was more of a liquid that anything and it was misty and thin. Everything it touched would soon light up and you could see exactly what you were looking at. It makes you wonder what exactly did the Navahoe think when they saw all of this. It was no wonder why they decided to stay there. Even though it was extremely cold and life would most definately be hard to live there.

Every second there was something different to see from another perspective. We ended up walking down the south rim trail to the east where we could see different parts of the canyon and take more breath taking pictures. We walked until our feet were frozen and we were starving. We decided to go back to the hotel and get brunch ( it was 11:00 and we still hadn't had breakfast ) so that we could get warm and enjoy more of the scenery. I ate a big bacon burger and my dad got a big beef sandwich. By the time we had finished, we were warm and full of good food and couldn't wait to get outside and enjoy more of the canyon.

We had walked down part of the hermits path when my dad suggested that we walked down into the canyon. It looked amazing so I agreed. On the way down we saw a sign that said " Do not try and walk the entire canyon in one day. People have been known to die or be seriously injured from exhaustion." at the time my dad had scoffed at it in his head but later he knew what it was talking about. Inside the canyon was just like the sunrise. Every time we moved we could see some new awesome thing we hadn't seen before all because of the perspective. There was still a little bit of light vapor left but mostly the entire canyon was lit up by now. We met some people on the way down who were doing what we were doing but going much slower. We never stayed with anyone for long. After we had past somebody the only time we saw them was when we were taking pictures or walking back up. We took nearly 150 pictures down there but I'm only going to show you a few. Some people were taking mules to the bottom so that they wouldn't have to worry about being exhausted but those mules sure were tired. We went down a mile and a half to the first rest station and my dad decided it was time to head back so that we could see the sunset and see if it was anywhere as awesome as the sunrise.

It had taken us two hours to get down to the mile and a half point and we thought that going up should take double the amount of time because of another sign that was in the canyon so if it was 3:00 and we needed to get back to the top before sunset, or 6:00 then we should start heading back then. We started back but this time didn't stop to take several pictures like when we were going down. There weren't to many changes. When we finally got to the top we realized it was 5:30. We had gotten up alot faster than we had come down! It was amazing at the time but the more I thought about it the more it made sense. We actually had a goal coming up and we didn't take nearly as many pictures on the way up so naturally it didn't take as much time.

We did make it up for the sunset but I'm sad to say that it was no where near as cool as the sun rise. We went inside around 6:30 and my dad decided to start my " Rite of Passage" ceremony. We basically had communion and made a few spiritual christian commitments but it meant alot to me. The fact that my dad cared this much about me and wanted so much for my future could have been the most awesome experience that day. My dad afterwards said that it was a rite of passage for both of us and that it meant a lot to him that I could be there with him. I will remember these days for the rest of my life.

Thanks for reading,
Jack

The Grand Canyon

2006-02-10T19:37:00.001-08:00

Again I'm sorry I haven't been blogging lately but I'm going to start writing on some of the bible readings that I'm doing each day.

So, some of you may know that my 14th is this saturday so last week my dad woke me up for school and told me he was going to drive me. I was ready to go thirty minutes later and my mom asked if I was ready to go. I said," I am if my violin is in the car." " It is." she said. I noticed it behind the couch and asked her why it was still in here. She used the lame excuse that she forgot ( no offense mom). So I got in to the car and fell asleep which is unusual for me and when I woke up I realized that it was time for school to start and I wasn't even close to school. I told this to my dad and he said he was getting me there as fast as he could which was a lie as I was about to find out. I fell asleep again and this time I didn't wake up until we were stopped. I woke up to see we were outside the charlotte airport. "Dad, I don't fly to school." "I know. You're just going to have to trust me." I was trusting him less and less every minute but I still followed him. We got our tickets and flew to Chicago. This was the first time I had ever flown to get to a different location and it was also the first time I had ever flown above the clouds. It was amazing and I doubt that I will ever forget it ( I'll never forget any of this trip but oh well.)

We flew into chicago and sat there in the air port for four hours. My dad and I went to get lunch at a mexican restraunt and suddenly realized how far north we were. We had gone into the restaurant and looked at the menus and realized that there was absolutely no mexican food on the menu! It was weird to get a hamburger at Chili's but it was still good. A couple hours after that phony mexican restaurant, we got onto the plane again and flew to Phoenix Arizona. The clouds were amazing then too but I was too busy listening to my ipod and trying to fall asleep to pay too much attention to the outside. After all, we were going to be on the plane for at least another 3 hours and I wanted to see what we were going to see in Phoenix so I was trying to catch a few z's.

When we got to Phoenix it was about 6:00 and we were about to rent a car and start traveling. That was the last thing I wanted to hear. I had been travelling all day and I was tired. We rented the car and set out into the desert road that looked like it went on for an eternity. When we got out into the desert a good ways, we could see so many stars it was amazing. If you ever go to Phoenix, that is what you need to look at the desert stars ( of course the Grand Canyon is always a given so go do both of those). At this time I still had no idea why we were in Phoenix or traveling at all and I honestly had no idea I was going to the Grand Canyon so I was puzzled but still enjoying the views. I soon fell asleep and didn't wake up until we got to the hotel. We were extremly tired and could barely make it to our hotel rooms. We fell asleep as soon as we hit the beds and the next thing I knew, it was 6:00 saturday morning and my dad was waking me up. Get dressed warm and come outside with me. That was all he told me. I got dressed and went outside and walked with my dad to the edge of a mountain and as the sun began to rise, man, it was like the entire world was being created again. The sun was slowly getting into the Canyon and every second the sunlight reached a new place. It was truly amazing. Everything there was getting lit up and nothing was ever the same long. Words can't do it justice. Nothing can. You really have to see it for yourself. Anyways, I gasped as I saw everything and one thing came to my mind. If you have ever heard of the band Rush, then you have probably heard the song Tai Shan. The song basically describes the beauty of this mountain in China. For me, this basically was what the song meant to me only with a Canyon in Phoenix Arizona.

I'm going to end this first journal here and try and post some pictures. I will make up several journals for this trip and my goal is to make you extremly amazed of what you can see.

Jack

The End of the Spear

2006-01-21T07:02:00.000-08:00

Sorry again, I haven't blogged in a really long time but between stress and school and violin and church, I really haven't had time to blog. Now I have a computer that I can get on every day and as soon as I get on to the internet, my site comes up so I should blog more often now.

So, who has heard about that new movie that came out last night called,"The End Of The Spear"? Probably alot of you. I went to see it last night at 9:40 and it was awesome. It was about five missionaries that went to go reach these fierce Mexican tribe in Ecuador that were famous for killing there own people with spears.
The five missionaries made contact with the people and a few hours after they made contact, they were speared. There families of the missionaries later went to the tribe to try and finish what there husbands had done. The tribe spared them by a slight majority vote and the missionaries started to help the tribe learn about God and how he is here to help them.

This got me thinking, why don't more of us go to help those who don't know Jesus, especially those who kill eachother every day. There are more people spending an eternity without Christ because no one ever went to help them. If it is because we are scared, I don't blame you I would be too, but it also doesnt' have to be those natives in Mexico. It could be your neighbor or the friendly people of Moldova, who will help you do what ever you need in there country. It makes me very sad to think about all of those poor people that didn't have people to go and tell them the truth and now they can't do anything about it. This summer I will have a chance to go to Mexico with my youth group. I'm not scared of going but I will need the money. My youth leader told me" God made Mexico. If he wants you to go, you can go."

So if you can't go and reach the world don't act like it is the only you can do. You can always pray for those people who do have the chace to reach out. If you do that God will surely answer your prayers.

Jack

P.S. I'm going to see the movie again at 1:25 today : )

Laundry

2005-12-24T07:40:00.000-08:00

I was going to blog about this yesterday but I went on an unexpected shopping trip to get some extra presents for a certain family member.
So, yesterday, I was sort of bored, and my mom thought that I had nothing to do ( which wasn't the case, I just didn't want to do anything) so she gave me some chores to do with my brother. The chore, folding laundry. Now, for those of you that don't no, I hate doing laundry ( and I am bad at it but who cares.). My brother and I can't help but to throw all of the clothes at each other while we are doing laundry ( I don't know why, it's just a habit.) It took us forty-five minutes to do a load that should have only taken us five minutes. My mom by then was starting to think that maybe she should have done the laundry instead but then decided to use our crazyness to her advantage and told us that we couldn't do anything other than laundry until we finished a load in the time it should take us. I know that sounds impossible but me and my brother can do almost anything if we are threatened with alot of laundry so we finished the next load with around five minutes to spare ( It probably should have taken us around seven minutes, we did it in around two!). My mom was very impressed and didn't want to give up her really good helpers just then so she used her " power of making kids do whatever she wants them to do" and made us move the next loads of laundry from the washer to the dryer and from the hall to the washer. After that, Will and I used our "power of running away from parents before they can use that other power I just talked about that I don't want to type all over again". Any ways this just goes to show that if you do things the way your parents or superior person wants you to the first time, you probably won't have to do extra work.

Thanks for reading,

Jack

Plain Day

2005-12-22T12:38:00.000-08:00

Today I have pretty much just relaxed and done nothing but read, eat, play video games, and listen to music. I was invited to go shopping with my mom and sister but seeing how I have gotten all of my christmas shopping done, I didn't see any reason to go. My dad normally says, when I have a cay like this that I need to do something productive but he seems to have forgotten to say that to me. He has blogged today too and it is a pretty good blog if I do say so myself. I hope someday my bloggs can be that funny and good, but until then I'll just have to practice. Today is also different because it is the first day in about three days I haven't had anything to do ( as you can see from my last blogg.). This is mainly because I haven't had any company ( I have for the past three days.
So right now I'm blogging (obviously) and I'm also helping my brother on a video game we just got back called Metroid Prime. It's alot of fun but it is also very challenging. I have beaten it but I haven't gotten 100 percent of everything, which is what I've been working on today (I currently have 76 percent.) .
I don't have anything to do really which is the reason I'm blogging so I'm sorry if I've been talking to much. Anyway, thanks for reading again.
Jack

There is No I in Team

2005-12-19T16:23:00.000-08:00

Today, I was extremly bored and I couldn't think of anything to do. I woke up and worked on a few video game files and then I played with my rabbit, Dipper, and made sure he was well fed and watered and then I went to play with my neighbor and his cats. I was having alot of fun but I was getting bored fast. Then I used some of my RISK board game pieces to make two armies that could attack eachother. That took an hour and a half and finally I finished. I played with the pieces for a while and then I got bored, again. I finally went to work on a racingvideo game with my brother and made a major break through. After an hour I won the race in first which resulted in winning the game I kept saying "Yes, I won!" and Will would keep saying, "No, we won." He had to keep reminding me that we won together and we deserved equal credit. "There is no I in Team" I had to keep reminding myself. I wanted to take all the credit for myself but I guess Will deserves a little credit. We got a new car and a new opening page that was really cool.
Afterwards, Will and I did some time trials with the new car and had a lot of fun working with it. Then we had some fun versing my sister and beat her every time with that new car.

That was pretty much my day. I almost felt like going back to school I was so bored, but in the end it was pretty cool.

See ya,
Jack

Commercialized Christmas

2005-12-18T11:41:00.000-08:00

Sorry about this. I'm trying to get back in to the habit of blogging every day but I can't always think of something to blog about. When ever I do find something to blog about I forget to blog.
Anyway, today, I was watching a cartoon on one of my favorite websites, www.stupidvideos.com called Christmas lights when my brain suddenly linked the cartoon to another movie I had seen recently. A Charlie Brown Christmas. That is one of my dad's all time favorite movies and it is getting to be one of mine. In fact, I think my dad has blogged on it recently. If you haven't seen it then you should know that all throughout the movie, Charlie Brown is trying to figure out what christmas is all about because all he sees it as is "commercialism". He goes around trying to find out what it is about and finally Linus tells him that it is about the birth of Jesus Christ and the hope that he brought.
So back to the video. The video, as the name of the website shows, is pretty stupid but it is also funny. It basically show a house that has completely commercialized there house and put up a light show that is coreographed (I think that is spelled wrong but I have no clue how to spell it) to a christmas song that is long and not commonly heard as far as I know because this was the first time I had ever heard it. So this got me thinking, I wonder how many people actually know why we have Christmas because it obviously isn't for light shows. So I decided to put a sitation on my blog. If you have your bible please open it up to Matthew chapter 1 verse18
" Mary was engaged to be married to Joseph. Before they came to the marriage bed, Joseph discovered she was pregnant. ( It was by the Holy Spirit, but he didn't know that.) Joseph, chagrined but noble, determined to take care of things quietly so that Mary would not be disgraced. While he was trying to figure a way out, he had a dream. God's angel spoke in the dream " Joseph, son of David, don't hesitate to get married. Mary's pregnancy is spirit conceived. God's Holy Spirit has made her pregnant she will bring a son to birth, and when she does, name him Jesus or "God saves" because he will save his people from their sins" This would bring the prophet's embryonic sermon to full term:
Watch for this, a virgin will get pregnant and bear a son; They will name him Immanuel or "God is With us".
Then Joseph woke and did exactly as the angel commanded but did not marry her until after the baby was born and then he named him Jesus." as told by Eugene Peterson in the Message.

Merry Chistmas and Happy New Year.

Jack

Orchestra Anyone

2005-12-08T03:55:00.000-08:00

Wow! I just realized how long it has been since I blogged. I'm sorry, but after this blog you should understand. Well, I have been really busy lately with extracurricular activities, school, and homework and I have barely had time to do anything else. Two days ago, I had my first basketball game and we lost 32 to 12. I didn't get home after that until around nine, so I didn't have time for anything but homerwork and bed. Yesterday, I came home from school and did as much homework as possible and then went to church where I had an orchestra rehersal for the christmas pagent for church. I'm in the orchestra along with a few grown ups. One is even my teacher at school! I'm hoping I don't mess up to many times!
Anyways, today, I have to go through the normal school day and I have orchestra around 2:00. Then I come home around 4:15 and leave for private lessons. Those finish at around 5:30 so I will come home do as much homework as I can, practice my violin, and then go to another orchestra rehersal at 7:00! That is alot of violin! Anyway, I have to get ready to leave for school. Thanks for still reading after this long period of time.

See ya,
Jack

What to do

2005-11-29T17:29:00.000-08:00

Today was my church basketball teams first game. I figured out just a few minutes ago that we lost 14 to 18. I say that I just figured out because I wasn't there. I couldn't be there to play with my own team. Instead, I had to go to an orchestra concert for school (it was for a grade). I would have rather gone to play the game because I have to do the same concert in the morning and I don't get to play the game again. The concert went pretty well but it wasn't as fun as I think the game would have been, even if we lost. Luckily, this should be the only game I have to miss. I can't wait for the next one.
Any ways, enough about what I didn't do. At the concert, we played a total of seven songs and listened to the chorus sing around seven songs. Everything went very well and I must congratulate the chorus on how well they did, espeacially the soloist that sang "Can You Hear What I Hear?" at the end. The song that the chorus sang and orchestra played together was "Cold and Fuge Season" by Bach. The song is very serious but the lyrics are nothing less than crazy. Throughout the entire song, the chorus was singing nonsense sentences that were completley random. It was pretty funny. The lyrics are mainly about how everyone has a cold and they don't think that they should sing with a cold. The last word is "ACHOO!" but the orchestra, once we were done playing, added two words to the song," Bless you!" Everyone got a kick out of that.
I have to go to bed now so that I will be ready to do that concert again in the morning.

See ya,
Jack

Road Trip 2 ( and a little thanksgiving)

2005-11-24T22:42:00.000-08:00

I didn't blog yesterday because all day I was in a car, with my entire family, with (if you remember my last road trip) fighting and yelling and very little music. I don't know how anyone can do it. I don't even know how I do it. When ever you put our family in the same car, you are bound to have atleast one fight (every five minutes). And every time, before yesterday, I was in the middle. The middle not only has the least space, it also is the space that everyone forgets about so that they all get in your personal space. I'm ranting again. Any ways, today we had a big feast here in Milton, West Virginia, and we have had another family get together. In fact, my crazy cousin, Nolan, he is so awesome, he has done nothing but bounce off walls all day and I have had someone to play with. It was also snowing up here for a while and my other cousin, Tyler, got me involved in a snowball fight and while I was running to get another snowball he pegged me right under my knee and I fell down from a "dead leg". Well after that I got a chunk of snow that looked and felt more like, ice and pegged him in the back. Then my funny brother, acted like a body gaurd for me and tackled Tyler and he, although two years older than Will, fell like a rock. Then we all came inside finished off the food and played games and socialized. It was really fun.

Anyways, we have been playing really hard and I'm tired so I'm going to rest.

See ya,
Jack

Let us Pray

2005-11-22T20:49:00.000-08:00

My mom asked me to blog about this crazy thing that keeps happening to me so that is what I'm doing. A couple of months ago, my mom was missing a whole bunch of important papers that she desperately needed. She started looking and got really stressed out about them and she couldn't concentrate any more. I came down a hour after she started and asked her why she was so stressed out. She explained her situation to me and I asked her one question. "Have you prayed?" She looked at me as if I was crazy and then decided to go on seeing how it wouldn't hurt anything and then, when she was done she looked up and guess what. The papers were on the shelf above her head! She was so happy and then she prayed again in thanks to God and then went back to the business she was doing and hour ago. Now I said "keeps happening to me" because today, we were looking for a ring of keys for my dad and after a hour or so everyone got tired of looking. My dad was getting kind of angry and we were all tired. I finally got fed up and asked him "Have you prayed?" He like my mom looked at me strange but didn't pray. I did. The next thing he knew, he found his keys in the pockets of his jacket, where he says he checked five times before but then when he looked there again, they were there! I was pleased because I could finally rest and so could the rest of the family; but then I thought, what if everyone prayed all the time. Wouldn't it make our problems disapear much quicker than if we did them on our own. I mean, what if the Carolina Gamecocks prayed before the Carolina-Clemson game. Would they actually win?( just kidding all you major gamecock fans. I'm a fan of the gamecocks too.) Any way, I wish that everyone could solve their problems this easily but not everyone prays for every problem. If we all did, everything would be much calmer.

I don't have a verse today but I'm sure that there is one in the bible to explain how I feel right now. In fact I sort of remember one but not well enough to actually write it down.

Anyways, see ya.

Jack

A New Song

2005-11-21T20:45:00.000-08:00

On the family computer downstairs, there is a program called Garage Band. On the program, you can take loops of music that have already been downloaded on to the computer. I recently completed my first song which I entitled "New song". I was very happy with how it turned out and I was pleased with how much other people liked it. In fact I was so pleased that I started another new song that I entitled "Second song" tonight. I was thinking about what I wanted it to sound like when like usual, my brain drifted to something else and like usual, it eventually came to God. God must feel like this in some way when he has just painted another sunset or completed the life of a person and what is going to happen in our later life. He has to feel some sort of accomplishment and almost pride because he, our creator, has made all of this. When ever I make something I always want it to be known and for people to know that I did it, I created this masterpiece (or something a little less) and that I made it to help other people through times or to make people laugh or to prove a point, but that kind of credit isn't given to God all the time. There is so much out there that is so hard to explain, so ingenious, that we and our prideful selves, can't think far enough to give the person who made them thanks or gratitude or credit even. Now I'm thinking how he does it. I'm looking out my window at the moon, stars, sky (and air plane that just passed by) and I have to wonder, "How does he do it?" and, "What will he do tomarrow?" That is always another question. What will he do tomarrow? Only he knows and we will have to wait until tomarrow to see the new day and creation. The new song.

" For I believe in this. The one who created me has begun a good work in me and will finish it before my time is done." I think it goes something like that. Any ways thanks for reading and supporting me.
Jack

Hide and Seek

2005-11-20T20:35:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry I didn't blog yesterday. After the sleep over, I came home and fell asleep for around five hours. Anyway, today, I went to my small group for the first time in weeks due to all kinds of difficulties, and realized that, when we got there, it was going to be to dark to play our normal football game so we decided with the light, or lack of it, we should play hide and seek tag. However old that game gets to be, I will always love it.
We had twelve people and we all started off running to the base to try and figure out who was it. Someone walked so he was obviously it. We ran to find a hiding spot because we only had fifty seconds to hide before he started chasing us. I suddenly realized that I was wearing all dark blue which meant I could hide in the shadows of anything and no one would see me. So that is just what I did. I even watched ten of the eleven other people run past me and not stop to look if some one else was watching them. While I was sitting there I could also get information about what was going on outside my hiding spot. In fact, I even heard where the tagger was one time so I just walked out and went to the base. On the last game we counted only ten people but thought that was as many as we had and went on to play another game. Three of the nine people hiding, hid in the garage. The tagger, as it just so happens, checked in the garage first so that the three people in the garage kept him busy for an entire fifteen minutes! This gave everyone else time just to walk to base. No one got tagged that round because the tagger was in the garage the entire time and the leader got fed up with waiting and called us all inside.
While we were snacking, I thought about the speacial music at our church this morning called "Hide and Seek". It was about how in real life, what do we do. Hide or seek? Do we hide from God or do we seek him? This was one thing I thought. I also thought about how we act in life. Are we the kind of people who don't have enough faith in God so we just hide from everyone until we have enough information that we have gathered without them knowing before we go and tell them about God? Do we not trust him enough that he will take care of us enough when we are doing what he wants us to do? Or are we the kind of people that can't wait to seek the lost and we want to serve God and really want to help him out. I know that I'm guilty of hiding instead of seeking and I know that I want to seek instead of hide and I also know that it is hard to actually do what we want when it pertains to God but we need to keep trying and eventually he will help us do what we need to do.

" And Jesus told his desciples, ' Go and be fishers of men. Seek men of all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy spirit.' "

Go and seek my friends.

Jack

Of Lunch Time and Ice Cream

2005-11-18T17:09:00.000-08:00

You might read about my lunch time alot if you keep reading my blogs in the future. My lunch times are very speacial at school because it is a time where every one can relax and not worry about what grade they got on the quiz in last class and just talk, socialize, and have fun. Now recess isn't quite like that because it only distracts you from what is coming up or what you just did and you have to concentrate if you are playing a sport. You can still talk, socialize, and have fun but it only leaves you more worn out than you were before.
Anyways, at lunch I sat with my friends, who I hadn't been able to talk to all day. We were just having our normal old weird conversation, when one of the Andrews who sits with us (not the one who I blogged about in Irony in Health Class, another one.) went off to get a refill for his tea when I had an idea. I would go and hide his ice cream from him and see how long it would take for him to notice that it was gone. So I hid it and he came back and didn't notice for about two minutes. When he did notice he started freaking out. "WHERE IS MY ICE CREAM? I WANT MY ICE CREAM!" We were all laughing really hard. He looked around at us and tried to figure out which one of us would be most likely to take his ice cream. Then we looked down the table and saw that someone else that we knew was eating the exact same kind of ice cream so we said,"Kala is eating it." "KALA give me my ice cream!" She had no idea what he was talking about so she just looked at him and continued to eat her ice cream after that I couldn't stand it any more. I gave him back his ice cream. He was so happy and you would have thought he would have eaten it right away so no one else could steal it but he didn't and guess what happened? He got it stolen again. This time this girl named Stephanie took the ice cream and as soon as he turned around we all started laughing. He quickly looked around and realized tha his ice cream was missing. He went through the whole concept of screaming and then he started guessing who had it. He guessed every person on the table except for Stephanie. Then Stephanie was nice and gave him his ice cream back. Any way we had a fun time teasing Andrew and even he laughed when it was all over and he ate his ice cream.

Now I have to go. I got invited to a sleep over last week while I was at the birthday party. The sleep over is happening right now so see ya.

Jack

A Fathers Legacy

2005-11-17T20:24:00.000-08:00

Tonight as I sat down to blog, I couldn't think about what I should blog about. I was sitting down at the table and I couldn't think straight. Molly was screaming about what she should do about her last minute project that she didn't think she could finish and my brother was, well, being his normal hyperself. I finally decided that I couldn't take it any more and went to do what my dad always does when he is blogging. I went out on to our back deck. Now, as I look out at the moon, stars, and planets, I am thinking about how much my dad and I have in common. In fact I just read his latest blog about the moon metaphores and such and I'm starting to understand his rants and all of his interests in astronomy. In some ways I like to think of our likenesses as a legacy that my dad is passing down to me. His interests in music, astronomy, and of course blogging. I really like how much we have in common and some times I even like what we don't have in common. ( On him, these things are really cool but I am glad he has somethings to himself.) For instance, now that I have tried blogging on the deck, I realize that I really do like it but I look forward to the summer months when I can type without freezing my fingers off. It's a legacy that I like to think about that has now been passed down to me for my dad to share and maybe in a decade or so I will pass it on to my son. If this happens, and I am still blogging I will go back and look at this blogg and show it to my son and I hope that he will keep the legacy and share it with his dad and granddad and maybe in the far future, his son.
Well I'm going to leave you to dwell on this and go inside and warm up my fingers.

Jack

Another Day Gone

2005-11-16T20:47:00.000-08:00

Today I was really tired. You know the feeling when, it's the middle of the week and you just can't wait for it to be over. That is exactly how I felt today. I went through the day, barely staying awake ( my French teacher can tell you that ) and trying real hard to really understand what was happening. I kept wishing for the day to be over so that I could finally relax but when I got home, I had to zoom off to the church for a Thanksgiving dinner where my sister was singing and dancing. I just got home an hour ago when I remmembered that "Channel One News" ( a news that airs all across the country for middle schoolers and high schoolers to watch )had a Switchfoot concert and they were showing it online! I was really excited to go watch it. When I got online I watched the music video of there new song "Stars" and it was so cool I went to get my dad so I could show him. While I was waiting I saw my dad's screen saver and I saw some of the pictures that were on it. One I was in,( making the biggest muscles I could back then which was a sight to see ) and another Will was in just being himself, and then the last Molly was in and it was in this one that what I saw startled me. I remembered the picture from just a few years ago but in the picture it looked like she had grown seven years instead of three! This overwhelmed me. We are all growing up and we can't stop. If we keep wishing our days away liked I did today, our life is going to go by so quickly that we are not going to notice. Thinking about this brought one of "Switchfoot's" best songs to my head which is entitled "Gone". The purpose of the song is to let everyone know how our days are limited and how we need to spend more time doing what God wants us to do instead of what we want to do. It also talks about how all the time we spend down here is Gods and how we need to spend less time with our earthly possesions and more time with God. A part of the song goes, " Don't spend so long, in that cell phone, don't spend today away. Today is almost Gone!" I love those lines because they remind us of what is really important in this world and we can easily forget it. So I hope you don't spend your life away and do what is important in God's sight.

See ya,
Jack

Chair Auditions

2005-11-15T20:49:00.000-08:00

Well, today we had chair auditions in orchestra class. I had completely forgotten to practice and when I got to school I suddenly remmembered. I was totally stressing out. I made it through my three classes before orchestra by luck and by the time orchestra was here I was feeling sick. Then Mrs. Calore tells us to practice while she puts the camera up. Score! I looked up at the board to figure out what we were going to play when I felt a very good feeling, releif. We were playing two of the easiest songs we had and their easiest parts. Well, after we practiced Mrs. Calore said that the violas would go first, the cellists would go second, the basses third, and the violins next. That was really good. That would mean that I go second to last because of where I was sitting. We might not even get to me! Well I'm sad to say that they did get to me but they didn't get to the last person, who, in my opinion, was very lucky. I was just finishing my audition when the bell rang. I quickly ran to pack up and catch up with my friends and my bus. I did catch up with my bus and friends and I also caught them by surprise (I jumped behind them and pulled on their book bags :) ) Then we walked to the bus and got a ride home.

Well it's time for me to go. See ya.

Jack

French Card Game

2005-11-14T18:34:00.000-08:00

Today at my school, we had a test that lasted around three hours. It started around 8:15 and ended at 11:15. When we finished the test we all went and attended a lecture from Dr. Strom who spoke about his life and the bad choices he's made in gangs and how he's now trying to get rid of them. It was very interesting. When he was finished talking, we only had lunch and French class left. In French, our teacher told us that because she didn't have any other classes that day, she would be teaching us a French card game. We were all happy. The object of the game was to "travel" 1000 miles in your "car" before your opponents. In the game you could run out of gas, get in an accident and get a flat tire( which all of the above your opponents conveiniently cause to happen ). You could also get a spare tire, an extra tank of gas, and a repair shop which help you instead of harming you. Well, on my second game my friend Tristan got in an accident in the beginning of the game. Now he had to find a repair shop. He looked and looked until we realized, I had one of the few repair shops left! After that, he started attacking me in every way possible. We laughed at him because he had now been in an accident for around 28 turns. Then Tristan finally found a repair shop! He was about to go 100 miles very quickly when Andrew (the other person I was playing with) laid another accident on him! Our laughs could be heard in the gym. Tristan was so mad he almost forfeited. Soon after that I won and finished the game. After that me and Andrew went to get candy that we won and Tristan was trying to bribe us for it.
Anyway, my dinner is ready so, see ya,
Jack

Bowling

2005-11-12T23:51:00.000-08:00

Today I went to a birthday party and at around 5:00. It was me and four other friends and we all played capture the flag, flashlight tag, and then went bowling. Now Tristan, the birth boy, was a really good bowler and so was Jon ( another friend). They teamed up against me and the other two friends so that we had more people but a lower score. We played three games, and found out that we were pretty evenly matched, untill the last game. By the second game we were 5 points down and we were all getting better. Then my group got really tired and started missing the pins. The end score ended up being 650 to 730, their lead. They bragged about it the whole way home. My friend and I listened to it and took it pretty well for the most part. Anyways, I'm blogging from his house because I'm spending the night. I hope the night gets better and so far it is getting better ( very slowly ) but I'm feeling good about everything.

So I'll see ya around,

Jack

Irony in Health Class

2005-11-11T23:57:00.000-08:00

Today, my friend and I were thinking about why we had to attend a health class during team time which is also when our recess is. Andrew was thinking about all the soccer practice we were missing and how much time our rival team had to practice. I on the other hand, was thinking about what we were gaining from the class which as the case ended up to be, we were learning nothing,(we had already learned all this in third grade.) When we put our ideas together, Andrew thought of a hilarious idea. "What would happen if at the end of the of the nine weeks our entire health class went to the doctor and the doctor told us all that we were all over weight because we had not been exercising for nine weeks." I laughed very hard after that and thought out loud, "Now that would be entirely ironic." We entertained ourself with this idea the entire way down to health class when we figured out that class was canceled for today. "Wow," I thought," now we actually get to exerecise!" After that we all went back to class and then to recess. I am still laughing about how convenient that our class was canceled on the same day we wanted it to be canceled. Well, I'm tired and need to go to bed after all the exercising that I fit in today. :)

See ya,
Jack

God is Always There

2005-11-10T21:42:00.000-08:00

Well today, I had a much shorter, less busy, and fun day today. One of my friends came back from being sick for 5 days, in my Math class I got a 94 on a test, in French I got a 92 on a quiz and we had time to play a couple of games, and I got invited to a birthday party this weekend. After school I had my violin lesson and my teacher invited me to play at a recital! As I went back to think about my day, I thought about how much better I felt today than yesterday. I then thought about last night. The worship leader for our youth had talked about how God was always looking out for us and how much he loves us. Since I had had such a bad day I went back and thought about this. I went and thought to myself, "How many times have I thought about God today? Not many times." So then I thought I wonder if I looked to God more often if I might feel better about everything I'm doing. I experimented with it today. Every time I felt stressed or unhappy I looked to God. He helped me see a bright side in everything which really helped my day along.
Now that I look back, it seems like every day that I bring God into seems like a good day. That's probably because it is! I have recently been going to a sunday night bible study with a whole lot of kids my age that is alot of fun. One of our goals is to read a bit of John every night or morning and I'll admit I have been getting off track but now that I have seen exactly what God can do, I'm going to try and get started again.
Well see ya,
Jack

Long, Busy, Day

2005-11-09T16:47:00.000-08:00

I have had a very long day today. It seemed that during my classes, all day long, time was going alot slower. Sometimes, on wednesdays especially, it feels like I am just something that can't control what it is doing. I feel that I have a specific duty to fulfill each day and that everything I do is part of a schedule. Every morning I wake up at around 6:00 and leave the house at 7:18. Then my bus comes at 7:25 and I am off to school. I then go from language class, to science or South Carolina history. Then I go to math (with lunch and team time) and then to orchestra or French. As you can see my day is strictly run by a schedule that I didn't make. This results in me feeling like I am controlled by the school or something else. I came home so tired today that all I could think about was resting and writing everything that I was feeling down on a piece of paper (or typing it down on a computer screen). Now that I am home I will have to go get my sister Molly from choir practice in about five minutes and then go straight to church where I won't get home until 8:00. Then I will have to go to bed. Not much time to relax, right? Well, thats why I like my room. It is always different and disorganized and it really doesn't look like anyone controls it. I get to choose what I want to do and read and what time I actually go to sleep. Then I get all rested up and have to make sure I have enough energy to be "controlled" again in the morning.

Well I have to go.
See ya,
Jack

Basketball Practice

2005-11-08T20:00:00.000-08:00

Today was my first day at basketball practice for church. It was really fun for the most part. Our coach Matt Cavin was back and we had a new coach, David ( I didn't learn his last name.). He ran us through all kinds of drills we had slacked off on during the summer and by the end every drill he would tell us how to improve and then make us do it another few times. After we had run through all the drills he could think of, he let us do a scrimage. In it he made us do all of the drills we had practiced and if we didn't make atleast three passes before we shot he gave the other team the ball. At 7:30 my mom came to pick me up and watched us do a couple free throws. We finally finished and then we said a prayer and left.
I think I speak for the team when I say it was fun. We have a couple of things to work on but I think this year the team will be even better.

See ya,
Jack

Road Trip

2005-11-07T22:06:00.000-08:00

We went to West Virginia on Friday for the funeral of a family member. We stayed their until today when we left for home. Our trip lasted for about seven hours. If you have ever tried to put two preteens, a teenager, and a father, in to the same car, and hope that you won't have any fighting, yelling, or more fighting, you're chances are about 1/1000. The entire way home I could hear yelling fighting and every now and then I could actually hear the music that was playing. I was about to go crazy. Near the end of the trip my sister decided to entertain us with her theories that were pretty random if you ask me. Will (my brother) decided that he didn't want to here them so he started interrupting her which made everyone mad because it caused Molly to start crying and take longer too finish her theories. Well we got home after nine and we are still tired so I'm going to finish this blogg and go to bed. It has been a very slow and aggravating day but I'm glad I'm going to bed.

See ya,
Jack

The Bet

2005-11-06T10:50:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm finally starting. This blogging thing has been something done in my family for years but now I'm starting. Actually it was only my dad who blogged for around three years but now my sister and mom started. I started because, when my sister started, I made a bet with her. If she could blogg every day for a week, I would start. She agreed. So she blogged for six days and on the seventh day she forgot. Well I pointed this out to her and she complained. She had blogged twice on monday so it should make up for the blogg on wednesday. I said no. Then she smiled mischieveiously and then went off to the computer. I didn't follow her because I didn't think I should but now I don't know why I didn't. When I got on to the computer the next time, I saw that she had one blogg for monday and one blogg for wednesday. She had redated the blogg. I smiled. I knew she just wanted me to blogg so now I am humoring her and doing it anyways. If you want to check hers out it's called A Dancer's Day. You won't be able to tell she redated but now you know. Well, that's my first blogg and I hope I can keep going. Thanks for reading.

Jack
(p.s) Today is her birthday. Happy Birthday Molly. You are now 10 years old. :)