Idol Issues

Tuesday nights have become one of my favorite nights of the week! Kids are in bed by 7PM. I finish cleaning up the house by 7:45PM. By 8PM, I'm on the couch watching American Idol with my hubby! Although it's nice, I can't tell you that it's the most relaxing time of my week. It's definitely FAR from that. My husband consistently ruins the experience by being completely irritated at the judges. One night it's Paula, the next night it's Randy. He never disagrees with Simon but he insists that Simon's vote is influenced by the judges who speak before him after each performance. For the past three weeks during the show, Steve has literally got up during the middle of the show to "write American Idol a letter." He wants them to know how terrible their judging is. Last night, his letter would have consisted of something like "You can't ask them to choose inspirational songs and then criticize because you're going to compare them to the original artist!!" If you read that statement back in your head with a YELLING voice, that's my experience for 1 hour every Tuesday night as we spend time together watching Idol. So far I've been successful in intercepting these letters and emails before they end up in Mr. Cowell's hands. I'm trying to convince him that it's a SHOW! And the REASON it's so successful is because of people like him who are heavily affected by each episodes content!!

Anyway... Tonight we'll watch Idol Gives Back. I've been anticipating this show since their first attempt at it last year (which rocked!). Should be good! There will be NO more judging until tomorrow night. Hopefully Steve will be a little LESS fired up about tonights show since it IS about LOVE and giving back!

Good Stuff!

I've decided to post one of my favorite Ellen moments EVER! I found it on her blog a week or so ago. She just might be my favorite celebrity of all time! For all of you Ellen haters, get a grip! This is GOOD stuff!!

Woo Hoo!

Thanks to Kansas' last minute comeback, I managed to win my very first NCAA Fantasy League Bracket!! I need a trophy or something! What a ride! Can't wait until next year!! I was bummed to leave my San Diego football and baseball, but I've definitely acquired a new love for college hoops!

Beyond Church

Since before I graduated High School, I've dedicated the majority of my life, time, money, and passion to Church. I love the Church and the refuge God intended it to be. I don't regret any choices I've made in various ministry roles, and in our new church plant endeavor, I'm amazed at how God has allowed us to use our long time experience with "mega church" as a tool to give us a leg up on planting a church from scratch.

I'm reading a great new book by Nelson Searcy, called Launch. Searcy gives great foundational advice for us, crazy church launchers. A few learnings that have managed to sink their way into my bloodstream are:

- "Your call to start a church is the most critical factor to success."

- "Build your church from the outside in."

- "Don't try to gather the churched, stay focused on the unchurched."

- "80% of all church plants in the U.S. by the 5 year mark will have been declared DUDS!"

- "Keeping a new church outwardly focused from the beginning is much easier than trying to refocus an inwardly concerned church."

- "God's dream for your church is BIGGER than your dream for your church."

As these ideas (some scary, some encouraging) marinate in me throughout the day, I've become aware of changes I need to desperately need to make in my life, NOW!!

I have "lived for the weekend" ever since I've been in ministry. Just about every moment of my weekday has been primarily focused on either prep, prayer, or planning for SUNDAY. I'll have to embarrassingly admit that good days and bad days have often been determined by whether or not our church service was executed well or poorly. Ugh...that's hard to admit!

Church planting is hard work. It takes a lot of time, and effort just to meet people and network, let alone plan weekly services. I could devote 100% of my day doing things for Sunday or just consuming myself with all we need to get done before we launch in August. And...I would enjoy all of that thoroughly, because I just love that stuff. But another sentence of this book I'm reading says:

"Structure is essential in the life of a leader."

As I tried to make a list of pillars of structure in our attempt at a church launch, God literally turned my face towards Him and made me realize that instead of assessing the "structure" of my church, I need to be assessing the structure of my LIFE! Yes, a "duh" moment, to say the least, but I needed this slap in the face this weekend.

I don't think it was coincidence at ALL that my son was sick this weekend. I haven't missed a church service in well...as long as I can remember. In San Diego we had so much family to help us with the kids. Even when my boys were sick, I wouldn't think twice about having my mom watch them, just because we HAD to be at church. With NO family here in NC, I knew when Cameron was sick on Saturday night that I was going to have to miss church in the morning. Although I have a HUGE desire to be with my friends doing church on Sunday mornings, I didn't even think twice about the fact I had to stay home with my son.

After researching lots of different churches and their roots, I'm realizing that every successful church has become that way mostly if not ALL because of the fact that God just blessed it!

In this foundational time of Church at the Triangle, I need to be spending less time brainstorming services 80 weeks in advance, and spending more time being the woman, wife, mom, and friend God has called me to be and devote more time praying for God's incredible blessing on our church. I need to structure MY life before I even start trying to structure what I think God's church should look like.

I have a good feeling that God's blessing on our church will be a result of us living our "beyond church" lives in a genuinely "care for others" way which will ultimately glorify God more than the best creative service idea I could ever come up with.

I love how God is pursues me and cares enough to remind me of areas of life I often neglect.

I hope some day I'll be able to say my life was a testimony of Luke 6:48.

"It is like a person who builds a house on a strong foundation laid upon the underlying rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against the house, it stands firm because it was well built."

Sick Sweetness

Having a sick child stinks. Watching Cameron in crippled over pain from an ear infection this week has literally crippled me in sympathy for him. Any parent would much rather deal with the pain of a fever or earache than have to watch their child endure it!! It's seriously a form of TORTURE!!! Ugh!!

But...isn't it true, that when our kids are sick, they just become cute to the tenth degree?!?! Of course, I'd rather Cameron not be sick, but the things that came out of that boy's mouth today were just so awesome! I've already called my mom about 4 different times to tell her the things on Cameron's mind. But they just keep coming, so I decided I needed to post about them!



1. I made Cameron cereal this morning. When he was finished he looked at me and said:
Cameron: "Excuse me, Mom?"

Me: "Yes Cameron?"

Cameron: "I hope you won't be mad at me, but I really need to go rest for a little bit."

Me: "I'm not mad at you. Sure you can rest! I want you to rest."

Cameron: "Ok, goodnight mom. I'm not watching cartoons either because then I won't be able to rest."

Me: "Ok. Goodnight, Cameron. I love you."

5 minutes later, I went in to check on him and sure enough...he was out!

___________________________

2. Putting his shoes on, getting ready to go to the doctor.
Cameron: "Ouch MOM" (he proceeds to hit my arm)

Me: "What happened"?

Cameron: "You pinched my foot, mom!"

Me: "Oh, I'm sorry baby. It was an accident"

Cameron: "It's ok mom. I'm not mad at you. I can't be mad at you because I just love you too too much."

Me: "Thanks Cameron. I love you too too much too."

____________________________

3. I hear moaning in the bedroom. Cameron is tossing, and turning and moaning, obviously spiking another fever.

Me: "Cameron, Mommy's going to give you some more medicine, ok?!"

Cameron: (half asleep) "No, that's ok, mom. I don't need any medicine. But thanks anyway mom."

Me: "Ok...but you need to take it anyway."

Cameron: "Ok mom. Hey Mom? (still half asleep) When I get better, can I play your Guitar Hero?"

Me: "Sure bud. I love you, Goodnight."


Now...if only the sickness could leave and the sweetness could stay!!

We're ALL Winners!

Cameron has always been a caring boy. Besides having a small territorial anxiety over toys he's playing with, his sweetness towards his friends and people in general has always amazed me. He's full of kisses and hugs for everyone, even people he's met for the first time. He's constantly encouraging his brother and, on more than one occasion, I've opened my eyes in the earliness of morning to find my sweet boy stroking my head and whispering "you're so precious to me, mom". Yes, sometimes it can get borderline corny, but I wouldn't change that about him for the WORLD!

However....

Over the past couple of years, I've realized that my sweet boy has a MAJOR issue with competition. I'm not sure where it came from, but oh my, I think I've created a monster!!

I only noticed his competitiveness (or lack of it?) in small, subtle ways until 3 weeks ago, when we were at the beach with our friends, the Spruills. I know I already posted our wonderful family beach pictures, but there was ONE picture I intentionally omitted from my post or ANY other Faiai memory collection!!

Exhibit "A":

hmmm... what do we have here? Kai boy is just strolling along, and Cameron is...oh no...did he step on a sea shell and hurt his foot?!

I WISH that were the case! And that's what I probably would have told you, had there not been 5 other people around watching what had just taken place!

The boy got his little Samoan butt BEAT in a race against his friends Kai and Kalia. "Ready, set, GO!" The three of them dashed full speed ahead about 20 feet to where we were standing. After 10 of those feet Cameron had collapsed to the ground crying because Kai and Kalia pulled ahead of him. I scolded him for a while and he was back to playing nicely after his few minutes of agony and defeat. Well...the incident happened about 3 more times on that same trip. We talked to him about it on the way home, because we knew it was an issue that he needed to deal with now (I'm just not sure if it would suit his later NFL career!).

Since we got home from the beach, we've kind of been helping Cameron out in this area, trying to put him in situations where he can learn and improve from his weaknesses instead of getting upset and giving up because of them.

This week, Steve bought the boys a child size basketball hoop. For the past week, both Cameron and Riley have been making up their own type of basketball games, throwing a basketball at different targets in the house. So we decided that their chances of playing in the NCAA Tournament together in 2025 would be greatly increased if we promoted their desire to play hoops in the house.

As soon as I set the hoop up, I let Cameron shoot a few free throws. He would take turns with his brother, and even gave the ball to me saying "we all get turns, we're all sharing!" After a few more shots and showing him proper form, it was time to put a little pressure on, so I started boxing him out and blocking his shots. Wouldn't you know it...the boy CRUMBLES to the ground in tears. I yelled at him to "GET UP" and "get the rebound", but he didn't hear it. He just RAN into his room and cried and cried and cried!!! After a short pep talk (actually, it was kind of long), Cameron came out of the room to play again. I decided to take it easy and just let him work on his shot. After each shot, he'd hand me the ball and in his most cheerful voice say "Now it's your turn, mom!" I, of course took my shots from 10 feet back in the kitchen, and when I'd miss, Cameron was quick to get the ball for me and say "It's ok, mom you're doing really good. Just try again!" He'd give me the ball back try after try after try before he ever asked for a turn! I started making some sweet shots from behind the couch and across the dining room table. It was pretty incredible! As I just kept swishing them Cameron just kept getting the ball for me and cheering "Wow mom, you're the BEST basketball player in the world! Do it again!" After a few more incredible sinks, I sat down for a breather and told Cameron to keep practicing...and he did. He even made one in over my shoulder that I was trying to block! When that happened, I responded "Oh MAN! Good job Cameron, you're the WINNER!!" Thinking this would greatly encourage my boy, I ran over to give him a hug...and that's when he said "You're the winner too, mom! We're all winners!!! Yeah for both of us!!"

I'm definitely learning that I need to be way more encouraging to Cameron. But, on the flip side of that... if he can't ever grasp the fact that it's OK to lose, I have bad feeling that his chances in playing for the San Diego Padres in 2022 are going to be greatly diminished as a direct result of his lack of sportsmanship!

as for now, "We're ALL Winners!"


Even Riley boy!

iPod Juice

Here are 5 of my favorite jams today:

1. Glory of it All - David Crowder

2. Realize - Colby Caillat

3. Stop and Stare - One Republic

4. All Because of Jesus - Fee

5. Take Me There - Rascal Flatts