Saturday, April 11, 2009
Peter is 8 1/2 months old now!
Wow! These little guys change really, really fast. In the last week Peter is doing several things he could not do previously: rolling from back to stomach (and then stomach to back etc.....until he hits the wall), making new noises (he now says mamama... and dadada...-adorable!), eating new foods (he loves avocado and sweet potato), is really playing with toys now and knows when they are taken away (a temper like his old man!). Right now he is standing in his "sled" while I make the blog entries. We are so thankful and blessed by the gift of Peter.
This Holy Week and this Lent season have been more special than usual. One reason why is because of my experience fasting. My fast was to not eat chocolate. It sounds very simple and to be honest, quite lame. Our priest even started the Lenten season on Ash Wednesday by explaining fastsing and even gently making fun of those who fast from things like "chocolate". Lisa has been much more rigorous by giving up all sweets! She has been perfect with her fast, an excellent demonstration of self control. I, on the other hand, have completely blown the fast on three different occasions, all quite unintentionally. I accidentally ate a piece of peanut butter and chocolate dessert pizza at Larry's Pizza (incredible!), I ate a bite of a cookie at a board meeting without thinking (and before Lisa literally slapped my hand), and I dove into my mother's incredible, fresh-out-of-the-oven brownies (I ate three) and didn't even recognize my mistake until 1.5 hours later when she announced that after dinner we could eat brownies. What an amazing failure I am at fasting. Each time I began to beat myself up over this because I am usually much more disciplined about such things. Then one day my friend Dustin reminded me that my failure in this fast may actually help this fast to quite valuable to me. He reminded me that "the whole point" of fasting is to remember our weaknesses, recognize our sin and turn to God whole-heartedly in remembrance that we rely completely on Him and are truly utter failures without Him. In the past my meek, pathetic little fasts have been "successful" but I don't recall gaining any deep spiritual insights from them. I know the discipline itself is also important as a form of self-denial and at this I was really bad, but thanks be to God for his mercy and His grace, of which I know a little bit more than I did 40 days ago. We love you all and hope you have a wonderful Easter. He is RISEN!!!!--Nathan
This Holy Week and this Lent season have been more special than usual. One reason why is because of my experience fasting. My fast was to not eat chocolate. It sounds very simple and to be honest, quite lame. Our priest even started the Lenten season on Ash Wednesday by explaining fastsing and even gently making fun of those who fast from things like "chocolate". Lisa has been much more rigorous by giving up all sweets! She has been perfect with her fast, an excellent demonstration of self control. I, on the other hand, have completely blown the fast on three different occasions, all quite unintentionally. I accidentally ate a piece of peanut butter and chocolate dessert pizza at Larry's Pizza (incredible!), I ate a bite of a cookie at a board meeting without thinking (and before Lisa literally slapped my hand), and I dove into my mother's incredible, fresh-out-of-the-oven brownies (I ate three) and didn't even recognize my mistake until 1.5 hours later when she announced that after dinner we could eat brownies. What an amazing failure I am at fasting. Each time I began to beat myself up over this because I am usually much more disciplined about such things. Then one day my friend Dustin reminded me that my failure in this fast may actually help this fast to quite valuable to me. He reminded me that "the whole point" of fasting is to remember our weaknesses, recognize our sin and turn to God whole-heartedly in remembrance that we rely completely on Him and are truly utter failures without Him. In the past my meek, pathetic little fasts have been "successful" but I don't recall gaining any deep spiritual insights from them. I know the discipline itself is also important as a form of self-denial and at this I was really bad, but thanks be to God for his mercy and His grace, of which I know a little bit more than I did 40 days ago. We love you all and hope you have a wonderful Easter. He is RISEN!!!!--Nathan
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