Observations on Parenting... from someone who isn't one.

As I'm watching some news about the school shooting in Ohio yesterday, I have to say that I think a lot of the fault in this situation falls under lack of parenting... (17 year old shooter lived with his grandparents/parents had been arrested) lack of example, lack of lessons in personal responsibility. I have a few thoughts to share on these things...

I grew up in a house of guns and I don't know that they were ever held behind lock and key. I learned how to shoot a shot gun when I was a kid, but more importantly I learned from my daddy that you only shoot to protect yourself, provide food for your family, or practice your shot. (...and if you HAVE to shoot to protect yourself {meaning that someone is coming to attach you or your property}, you shoot to kill.)

I know I'm not a parent... but I work with students every day. I love my job and working with college students, but I have seen a consistent decline in certain areas of development that cause me to be concerned for their own personal development. I consistently observe students who do not want to take responsibility for their actions, who do not honor the contracts they sign, who are scared of failure to the point that they forget to use common sense, are so used to everyone on the team getting a trophy that they do not accept "No" or a differing opinion for an answer, and who cannot communicate verbally to their peers about their concerns.

I don't write these observations to be critical of any students in particular, for these observations are from different groups of young people that I have observed personally and professionally. But I write these, and reflect on this sad situation in Ohio with a challenge for those of you who are parents, and are willing to listen to someone who may not have a child, but works with a lot of them...

My challenge for you who are parents, please teach your children personal responsibility. By the time they get to high school and college, let them handle their own responsibilities with commitments, regulations, etc. Let them (at least) attempt to fight their own battles before you step in. Teach them to respect authority, because if they don't respect your authority, they will never respect anyone elses. Don't be their best friends... be their parents, until they are adults and have proved themselves to be mature enough to be someone you would choose as a friend. Let them fail. I don't know that I can stress this one enough. It is not reality for everyone to be a winner. Logically, if someone wins then someone has to lose. However this is where one of the most important parts of parenting (or mentoring for those of us without kids) comes in to play. If they don't win, don't treat them as or allow them to feel as if they are a loser. Ultimately if they make a mistake or  fail at something, as long as they take responsiblity and learn from it... then that mistake or loss is NOT a failure, but a lesson.

I can only imagine that you want every day of your kid's life to be a successful one. But some times in life we have to have those days that aren't so great... because they make us appreciate the good ones that much more. I'm sure that as a parent you want to walk every step of their lives with them, but eventually that isn't going to be an option, so it seems that it would best to not only practice seperating yourself from some of that decision making and at the same time you are equipping your child to mature and develope into an adult who can take responsibility for and make decisions for themselves. Independence is not a bad word, as long as your kid knows who they can depend on when/ if they need someone.

The Bible says in Proverbs 22:6 that you should, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." This training is not limited to behavior... but also includes responsiblity, integrity, confidence, and the use of common sense. It is training that I value, and use every day... and thanks to my mom and dad, who I did and have grown to call my friends in my more mature years, I have been equipped to live life independently and not fear failure, but recognize those challenges as lessons rather than losses.

Love y'all,
Kacey

10000 Reasons

It has been a great week of celebration at Shades... and I'll reflect on all of that when I collect my thoughts... but in the last song of tonight's joint worship service with Greater Shiloh MB Church truly brought me to tears.

The song is called Ten Thousand Reasons and you can listen to it here, and read the words below. It's a beautiful song that brought me to another point of peace in missing my daddy.

Ten Thousand Reasons (Bless the Lord) By: Matt RedmanBless the Lord, O my soulO my soulWorship His holy nameSing like never beforeO my soulI'll worship Your holy name
The sun comes up, it's a new day dawningIt's time to sing Your song againWhatever may pass, and whatever lies before meLet me be singing when the evening comes
[Chorus]Bless the Lord, O my soulO my soulWorship His holy nameSing like never beforeO my soulI'll worship Your holy name
You're rich in love, and You're slow to angerYour name is great, and Your heart is kindFor all Your goodness I will keep on singingTen thousand reasons for my heart to find
[Chorus]Bless the Lord, O my soulO my soulWorship His holy nameSing like never beforeO my soulI'll worship Your holy name
And on that day when my strength is failing The end draws near and my time has come Still my soul will sing Your praise unending Ten thousand years and then forevermore
[Chorus x2]Bless the Lord, O my soulO my soulWorship His holy nameSing like never beforeO my soulI'll worship Your holy name
Jesus, I'll worship Your holy nameLord, I'll worship Your holy name
Sing like never beforeO my soulI'll worship Your holy nameJesus, I'll worship Your holy nameI'll worship Your holy name

The words I put in bold... those are the ones that brought me to another realization of peace... which hurts a little, but is just another reason to celebrate Daddy's life and not mourn his death. Daddy did not have many reasons to stay here on earth with a sickness that would keep him from the things he loved. Mom, Shane, and I... his parents, his family is truly the only reason I think Daddy would have stayed on this earth to fight Leukemia if God had given him the option. But oh.... I can only imagine the reasons he had to leave this earth for his Home above. He had ten thousand of them... or more. 

I am sure he fought a little as his time came close to ending and as his strength began to fail, but I am sure that as he caught a glimpse of just one of those reasons, that one was enough... 

And then I think of him singing. Daddy had such a strong voice and I'll always miss singing with him... but the throught of his voice as he sings out to our Lord... it's just overwhelming the thought of how much more beautiful it is... Daddy loved music... he loved to sing and to play his guitar. I think that knowing he could sing his Praises to God live and in person forevermore was also reason enough for him to go... 

And lastly, I think that the fact that he knew his family were all believers, having faith in the Lord and thus fulfilling his responsibility as a husband/father, and knowing that we would one day join him at Home... that was another reason, and probably the most important to him, that he could go Home. 

We all have ten thousad reasons to worship His holy name. Today... my reason for praising him is the wonderful man he paired me with as my father. I praise God for the 26 years I had to share with him... I wouldn't trade a day of it for anything in the world. 

What is your reason today? 

Love y'all!

Kacey

Lesson (of how not to act) from... the Israelites

So as usual a blog post hits me late at night... hence the 2:15am post. But... I have a confession that I've made to God and feel the need to share that lesson with whoever might take the time to read this thing. 


Lately, I've acted like an Israelite. 


Yes, those folks that wandered around for 40 years in the desert to find their eventual Promised Land...
Those folks who sometimes listened to their leader Moses who did some pretty amazing things via the power of God if they paid attention...

"Then all the congregation of the children of Israel set out on their journey from the Wilderness of Sin (location not an action, notice the proper noun!), according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped in Rephidim; but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people contended with Moses, and said, 'Give us water, that we may drink.'
So Moses said to them, 'Why do you contend with me? Why do you tempt the Lord?'
And the people thirsted there for water, and the people complained against Moses, and said 'Why is it you :have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill is and our children and our livestock with thirst?'" (Exodus 17: 1-3)

Ummm... Excuse me people of Israel - did y'all forget the whole Red Sea, Bitter waters made sweet, Manna, Quail, etc thing... you know God provided for all howevermanymillions of yalls needs?!?! I know it's been an inconvenient trip and y'all been walking for a heck of a long time... but do y'all not think that if God led you through all that, brought you out of slavery and allowed you to cross a SEA on dry land (not a creek y'all... a SEA), that he would just then let you dehydrate in the middle of nowhere on that family vacation y'all are having called the Exodus. 

The answer to that, dear Israelites... is NO. 

You see... the reason I am like the Israelites is that lately I have been doing THE EXACT SAME THING!!! Okay, let's subtract the walking through the desert, slavery, and being chased by Egyptians part... but add in Cancer, Leukemia, Death, missing home, and being unsettled in my job. Just as God brought them through their mess... He has brought me through mine!!! 

And what do I do about that sometimes?? 

... I complain and grumble about what I don't have. 

I definitely had one of those moments in church on Sunday where I literally laughed out loud with the biblical truth that was slapping me in the face:

{SHUT UP AND STOP COMPLAINING!!! HE BROUGHT YOU OUT OF THAT VALLEY, WHAT MAKES YOU THINK HE WON'T BRING YOU OUT OF ANOTHER-- TRUST!!!}

I have recently had the experience of questioning His plan as I try to discover what it is... and that has truly become a mental debate for me of whether I am trusting His plan or (because I am pursuing different opportunities as I actively search) testing it! During the sermon on Sunday Past Danny said this: "Every difficulty will be a test that makes us better or a temptation that makes us worse." That is such a simple truth for all of our lives. We either trust or we don't... simple as that. The Israelites did not trust, but their leader did. Moses sought help from the Lord, (because he literally feared for his life because of the contention of the people) and the Lord provided a plan for him: hit a rock with your staff and it will become a water fountain (Exodus 17:6).

To put my problems into perspective, no matter what they may be, they were not as bad as what Israelites faced... so if God can make a water fountain out of a rock, He can surely provide new opportunities for me! Even though I have always very much appreciated and valued the Journey on my way to whatever my destination may be, I should never forget His blessings and the lessons learned a long the way. 

Lessons from... paint.

Lately I've been very uninspired... and how incredibly dramatic does that sound?!! I think I've just gotten myself into a stagnant place... and that's not a comfortable place to be. I think too much... I analyze too much. And when I analyze too much I think too much... see my confused pattern. I'v been reading Chambers' My utmost for His highest and there is much talk of His Will and my calling... so I'm trying to take the hint and reflect on those things. I've made these lists, of things I love to do, things I feel called to do, and things I'm good at... and I'm reflecting on those to try and recognize what I am supposed to do when I grow up (a little late, aren't I?). Sometimes when I get to that point where I've been thinking too much. I pick up a brush, I pick a color and I begin to paint. Usually I don't know what the plan for the painting (much like life...)... but I proceed with painting.

Art is therapuetic for me. I enjoy painting... and often I just do it for myself but recently I've been toying with the idea of selling painting to help make some extra money for a mission trip and other things. I was staring at a canvas the other night... and really began to think of the beuty in the paint. You see, I don't like the paint to be crisp and clean, lines unmarred and straight. I think it's beautiful when the colors mix and bleed and run... when they come together to create something I didn't intend... it's a beautiful thing. One the pallate where I put the paint, it ends up being layer over layer throughtout time... and I love the way the paint looks, in it's rubbery texture, when the colors mix, but are still representative of their original hue. I think that pallate represents community... and can represent the individual. Everyone brings their own color to a community... and eventually you mix together to become one, but you are still an individual... but the beauty of the mixture would be less without you... the depth and diversity not as strong, you... the individual are important and you have your place in your community, whatever that community may be.

I was working on this canvas with a lot of different colors the other night... I didn't want it to have a solid background, but wanted it to me more of a faded colors effect. While I was mixing the colors, I realized that my life, our lives, is very much like a painting. It started with different colors squirted onto a white canvas. The white canvas can represent how we enter the world pure, with no experiences. The different colored paint... our life experiences. The brush, I think the brush represents God's will... and what He allows. He said himself in my favorite verse, that " we are his workmanship..." (Ephesians 2:10) so He is calling Himself the artist. With every stroke of that mixed paint across the canvas, the painting changes. Perfection is unattainable on a painting like this becuase it's not the goal, in fact, every mistake can make it better. I believe this is true with life too... I know my name isn't Jesus, so I can't be perfect. And though I try to avoid the mistakes, if I learn from them... they make me better. Maybe this is why I like painting so much. It's controlled to a point. I can pick the colors and where they go... but I actually don't determine how it turns out... because I don't know how those colors are going to dry until they do. I love the way you can spray water on a canvas and the colors will run... but it can make it look better. You can paint in circles or straight lines and it will make things turn out completely different... just like life's choices... what we choose to do can make things turn out completely differently.

I also like that painting is completely personal. They may not be the most beautiful things in the world... but when I give someone a painting or when I make something for someone... I'm showing them what's in my head... and yeah generally it includes bright happy colors... but it will represent me as long as someone knows that I painted it, and that makes an impact on me.

So there are a few life lessons from paint. I'm going to go back to working on that canvas now. :)

Love Y'all,
Kacey

Lessons from an amazing book...

Yesterday I finished reading "Hinds Feet on High Places" by Hannah Hurnard. The book was sent to me by a friend in October of 2010. Now, I pride myself on being a quick reader... I mean I generally read 300+ page books in one sitting, but this one was different. This book was special because I 100% believe that God placed this book in my life, and enticed me to read it only when He thought I was ready to learn. I've written a few other posts about this book before and as I think back to the times I picked up the book I am overwhelmed by God's sovereignty through something I love to do like reading!

I first picked up the book when my friend sent it to me, and I didn't get it. I read the first few pages and felt like I was reading a cartoon (it's a 221 page allegory). But ultimately I know that my heart and my head weren't ready for the impact that book would have on me at that time. I picked it up again on a Saturday in June and only read a few pages, but the following Sunday in church I was impressed to give up a big burden which I wrote about in this post. Little did I know that one of the supporting characters in the book would be named "Sorrow." In September
I wrote this post about learning to wait on God and his timing... I was getting back into an unsettled state and the Lord revealed himself to me through the book once again. I have written in this book more than I ever did a textbook or my own bible even. I just wrote the truth's that occurred to me as I read, I wrote notes to help myself look back and understand, and I wrote comments to show where I was in my Valleys, as Much Afraid traveled through her own. Seriously, here is the evidence...

Any one who has read my blog before knows that the Valley I have traveled through since June of 2009 is learning how to live without my best friend... without my daddy. This entire book is about journey, from a Valley into the High Places (Heaven) to be with the Shepherd (God). There were times when the journey seemed as if it would never end, but then the traveler, named Much Afraid, would come to a place of rest. She literally built altars as she learned different things, and in the end... well... I don't want to ruin the story... but those monuments were used for His glory in a very specific to the character way. At the end of the first chapter I wrote the following notes:
- God plants the seed of salvation - though he may use others to do it.
- God chooses specific people to support and guide us on our journey out of the Valley.
- We have the power to resist temptation and not fall victim to our disfigurements through Christ, but we have to choose to use that power.
- God suffers through our sorrows with us. God is not exempt from being vulnerable to pain as a result of love even though He created both. He feels our sorrows, but He also feels pain when we cause Him to by disobedience... because He loves us so much.

Today I sat down and wrote a few major lessons I have learned from this book. I asked God after Daddy died to teach me through it, to not let me waste the heartache and not learn from it... so I'm going to add these to the list of lessons learned, and therefore answered prayers since his death.

1) Sorrow and Suffering do not have to be your enemies - if you let them, they can be the most comforting friends you can ever know... they can eventually become Joy and Peace. I have learned more about my God, about myself, about my faith with them as my companions than any other time in my life. Joy is easier to obtain than Peace, but I don't believe you can truly have Joy in a situation without Peace.

2) The Valleys in life are for a purpose... even (I believe) one of Daddy's biggest tasks/goals in life was for his children to know and love the Lord - How much satisfaction must he have knowing that my darkest valley in life has brought me closer to God.... I mean I am physically farther away from my earthly father as I can ever be, but closer to my Heavenly Father than I have ever been.

3) I have been challenged to live in the place He puts me (physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually)... to really be there and to learn all I can and serve all I can because I will be there "until he makes me what he has determined I ought to be. (HFonHP, Chapter 13)" He has me here for a reason and I may never understand why, but I will not move on until I have learned what I need to, or served who I need to. I have to come to peace with the unknown factor of my future ... which is always on my heart. For if I am constantly living for the future (thoughts of future jobs, husband, children, etc...) then I can't learn what I need to learn now.

4) If I'm in a valley... learn from it. And as hard as it is, rejoice in the lessons learned there. In fact, lessons learned in the valleys are the hardest to learn, therefore they should be celebrated even more.

5) There will always be unanswered questions... but peace with the unanswered questions is the ultimate goal.

6) Don't be your worst critic like "Much Afraid" (the main character) was. She was not confident in who she was, and members of her own family were sent to highlight all of her insecurities. Those insecurities, much to their dismay were the things that the Shepherd used to turn her into her new self (trying not to give anything away!). We should not be out own worst critic, because Satan already has that job. The more confident we are in the person He has created us to be... the easier we are able to ignore Satan's criticisms that come in all different forms.

There are so many comments that I wrote in the margins of this book that I could share, but after reading back through it... one in particular caught my attention:

The Shepherd laughed too. 'I love doing preposterous things," he replied. "Why, I don't know anything more exhilarating and delightful than turning weakness into strength, and fear into faith, and that which has been marred into perfection. (HFonHP, chapter 9)

My comment from this passage,

{HE is the only one who can do this...} 

When we are in those moments of fear or weakness... maybe both, our faith in the One who created us... the only One who can turn our weaknesses into strength, the only One who can lead us from the Valley to the Mountaintop, the only One who can change Sorrow into Joy... that faith is what guides us on this journey through life. He is willing to do those preposterous things in us if we are open to it... You see I think this concept of choice is both freeing and convicting, because we choose to follow or disobey. We choose to listen or to ignore. We choose to be open to Him or we don't allow Him in. Along the Much Afraid did have doubts, but she followed even when she have peace about it... but eventually that faith to follow led her to a place like none other. It led her to become who He determined she should be... 

If you are in one of those Valleys, and can handle a really long allegory... I definitely suggest this book. But... even if you can't handle it, if you ask Him I am confident that He will use something in your life to teach you the lessons you need to learn... and I'm truly thankful for these He has taught me.

Love y'all, 

Kacey 

Roots,Trees and a lesson on Seasons of Life...

I was driving back to Birmingham today, and once again an observation of nature brought forth thoughts to ponder...

If you drive I-20/59 thru Tuscaloosa it is very obvious where April's tornado traveled. You can see trees blown sideways and the path the storm took. It was these trees, and this path which got me to thinking... you see there were bare trees next to fruitful ones. There were tall pines with needles next to skinny trunks without a stitch of green to be seen. Some of both, the bare and the fruitful, were interspersed right next to each other. It caused me to wonder how one could have been hit by the storm and not the other, and also (this thought just occuring to me now as I write this) that maybe both were hit but only one recovered... only one's roots were strong enough to bear fruit again. I think we, God's children, are just like these trees. We can only see each other on the outside, we can only see the physical scars of life's storms... we can't see the roots that have created us to be who we are. Those roots may be strong, they may be weak... they may be rooted just enough to help us hold on during the torments of life, but praise God we have those roots and they are what we make of them.

Daddy once pointed out a twisted little tree to me as we were walking through the woods by our house. Now you have to know, the land I grew up on was literally twenty or thirty yards from acres and acres of pines that are harvested every twenty years or so... so there were a lot of trees to look at. This little twisted tree though was a lesson that I'll never forget. I asked Daddy why the tree was growing differently than all the others, and he explained it like this...

{... it had a rough childhood.}

Now I know that the rough childhood he spoke of was weather, but once again... we are like these trees. That little one who was twisted and marred by a storm still grew strong and tall, it just carried the "memories" of the bad times with it. But ultimately, it grew... isn't that what matters? We must, as indivuduals, determine how we are going to make it through the rough seasons in life... whether our roots are supporting us or are holding us back in a place (or a person) we don't want to be.

As I looked at those trees in Tuscaloosa I wondered how God picked the path of that F5 tornado that took so many lives... How did one tree survive to bloom this season and another not. Though that other tree may bloom in a year or so... right now it looks dead, it looks sad. How much are we like those trees sometime in life. One friend may be having a fine season of growth, while another is dealing with a death in the family or loss of a job. We must always remember, however, that though this season we may be blooming, the next tornado or hurricane of a cancer scare or quarter life crisis may hit us and hit us hard. What shall we do in those situations? We must make the decision to grow. We must make the decision to use these storms to dig our supporting roots deeper in our faith and our experiences and not to let them hold us back and stifle our growth because if they do, we cannot progress and process through that season. Lucky for us, the seasons in our lives don't stick to an Equinox/Solstice calendar. They may last a day, a month, a few years... but once again, we are put in those seasons by our Lord, for a reason. I think the goal for me during any season is not to find out why I am there, but simply to learn from it, to add it to my roots... because no matter what season in life it may be, I choose for those scars, those storms, those blooms to help me grow in my own time.

I am in a season right now, and have been for quite a while, in which I am seeking to determine God's will for me professionally. Frankly, I've been in this season longer than I would like...but it's the season He has me in and it is where I will be till I have learned what He wants me to. I accept that and I seek to learn.

I pray that 2012 is a good one for us all. I pray that the Lord sees fit for me to move on to another season in life and that I will have learned from the one I am in now. I pray that storms won't hit me or those I hold dear this year, but if and when they do I pray we will learn, and process, and progress thru them.

Love y'all,
Kacey

Curse of the Night Owl... an observation on Choice

I don't know why... but over the last few months I have seriously reverted to my college ways of being a night owl. Only difference, during college I took naps, now... not so much. Maybe it is because I live within earshot of 150 other girls and they just wear (off) on me. But oh well, I guess my curse of being a night owl is your reading material. 


I thought it would be good to explain a bit in this post... a bit about where I am in life at the moment. 2011 has been a growth (and loss - in a good way) year for me. In March I had a weird dream which kicked my hypochondriaticness into overdrive. But that dream led to a doctor's appointment, which led to (at this point) a loss of 65 pounds (The first picture is in April of 2011, the second is in October). 

In the months since that change I have been doing a lot to physically change aspects about myself, making better choices about food and activities... but I have more importantly been working on improving my wisdom of the Lord and my knowledge of myself... my interests, developing my creativity, and trying... trying to hard to just listen to what the Lord has to say to me.

The choices we make can change our lives, and as I was reading back over some notes in my bible tonight, that theory was strongly reinforced. Though he made a GIANT mistake, I can identify a little bit with Esau and his hunger, and that hunger, and the choice that resulted from it, should serve as a warning to us all. 

Isau's issues all started with being hungry: 

²⁹ Now Jacob cooked a stew; and Esau came in from the field, and he was weary.

 ³⁰ And Esau said to Jacob, “Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary.” Therefore his name was called Edom.

³¹ But Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright as of this day.” 

³² And Esau said, “Look, I am about to die; so what is this birthright to me?” 

³³ Then Jacob said, “Swear to me as of this day.” So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. 

³⁴ And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then he ate and drank, arose, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. 

(Genesis 25:29-34)

Sometimes in life we take our God given blessings for granted. In this situation, Esau took his God given birthright for granted... and it changed his life forever. He considered that birthright nothing if he could not survive ("I am about to die, verse 32) to claim it. Often times when talking about God in the Old Testament, we reference him as follows...

"The God of Abraham, Isaac, and _____"

That blank is generally filled with the name Jacob. But consider this, if Esau had not been so desperate for his desire (food) that he gave up his birthright... his name would be in that blank. His name would be tied to powerful God who did so many mighty works in the Old Testament (and of course for all time, but for this point I'll stick to the OT). He would be considered one of the giants of the Old Testament, not his baby brother. 

Now of course if you read the story of Esau and Jacob frankly it reads like a soap opera (Chapters 26 and 27). There are lies, deceit, elaborate costumes, and games, from both sides... no one in that family was innocent of being dishonest, not even Issac himself (for he knew that Esau had given up his birthright, but intended to give him the blessing of it regardless, 27:1-4). but ultimately, my reflections on it lead to one simply, but lifechanging word. 

CHOICE.

Esau made a choice. He made a choice to give up his father's blessing for some food. 

“Ah, the smell of my son 

is like the smell of a field

that the LORD has blessed. 

²⁸ May God give you heaven’s dew

and earth’s richness—    

an abundance of grain and new wine. 

²⁹ May nations serve you    

and peoples bow down to you. 

Be lord over your brothers,    

and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. 

May those who curse you be cursed    

and those who bless you be blessed.”

If you read this blessing closely, Esau gave up  Property, Power, and Place. And because of that he lost hope. I mean literally, the heading in my bible of Genesis 27:30, says "Esau's Lost Hope"... all for some stew. 

How many times in life do we give up our Father's blessings for some stew? I think practically applied our "stew" can be the opinion of other, the approval or our peers, Keeping up with the Jones'... How many times do we put our faith on the backburner for friends, for work, for other passions? His blessing should be something we are desperate for. Over the last few months I have laid it all out for Him, and become willing to sit and wait till He is done with me, or to pack up and go wherever He leads.But if I am to bypass those peace's I have come to for a whim of an adventure, am I not making a choice to give up His blessing and His plan for me? Think about how that applies to you and your life. In the places that God is leading you... if you choose to meet some other unnecessary need becuase you don't know if you'll ever receive his blessing or not, well... then you are making a choice... and a really really bad one. 

Esau took his birthright for granted. At the end of the charade put on by Rebekah and Jacob, Esau truly realizes what he cannot have. 

³⁸ Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? 

Bless me too, my father!” Then Esau wept aloud.

Genesis 27:38

He weeps desperately for his father's blessing that he has given up. Do we not, should we not do the same? 

Please, let Esau's mistake serve as a warning to us all... a warning that when you are to receive a blessing from your Heavenly Father... don't let ANYTHING come between or distract you from that blessing. Don't let your name be left off of the most powerful family tree of the old testament. No one can take God's blessing from you, unless you make the choice to give it up. 

Choose to keep it... and don't let anything pursuade you to give it away.

Love Y'all, 

KC