I wrote my mom a Mother’s Day letter. I wasn’t able to be there to read it to her in person so I read it to her over the phone. I cried as I read it to her. Here is what I wrote.
Mom,
The longer I am alive and the longer I experience being a dad and watching Elizabeth be a mom, the more I appreciate you. I see now more than ever what you did for me and for our family. I appreciate you;
for the countless hours you spent with us attached to you when we were babies.
For changing my dirty diapers.
For playing with me and teaching me how to talk and laugh.
For making me your life and not a career or money.
For enduring potty training with me.
For breast feeding me.
For letting me sleep in your bed.
For creating a warm and comfortable home to grow up in.
For changing years worth of my wet sheets in the middle of the night and not acting frustrated about it.
For making sure I never went hungry.
For homeschooling me.
For being willing to look weird in order to keep us sheltered from the nastiness of the world.
For helping to guide me through the awkward years of adolescence.
For helping me know how to act around girls.
For making me wash my face and brush my teeth and for making sure we were clean…and for pinching blackheads off my nose and face even though i hated that.
For making sure we didn’t walk around looking like idiots and for dressing us nice.
For showing me how to garden and grow flowers and letting me have an herb garden.
For being my source for common sense when I need it.
For being tough on me where you knew I needed it.
For showing love to me when you knew I needed it.
For crying with me (those two times) when you knew I needed it.
For laughing with me (or at me).
For not being afraid to say no to me.
For disciplining me.
For buying me my first pair of Birkenstock’s.
For staying with Dad and loving him when it was easy and hard (because I know what that is like more now too).
For keeping the finances (I know it is a pain!)
For 23 years of constantly buying groceries for me.
For finding ways to make money when we needed it.
For always giving to me first before you gave to yourself.
For going shopping with me. (I loved that!)
For teaching me photography.
But more than anything else I am thankful that you have a faithful and authentic love for Jesus Christ. More than anything else about you I know you love Jesus and that it is all because of Jesus that we have anything good to say about our past.
I thank the Lord for you Mom. I wish I could be with you today, even just long enough to give you a hug and smell the distinct “Mom” scent that you have and feel that “tap-tap” you give me on my back every time I hug you. I miss you very much, but it has been a good thing to think back about what a great mom you are to me. I hope my sons will feel the same about me as a dad someday.
I love you very much. I look forward to shooting the next wedding with you soon!
Your oldest child.
I also took some pictures of the other Mom’s in my life. It was a good day.
Published: February 20th, 2010|
Categories: blog|3 Comments
There are certain times in the life of a man when you find yourself in a moment of passage. When your in a situation and you think “wow, I’m my own man”. Some are more significant than others, like the birth of your first child, or your first mortgage payment, but all are important nontheless. Today was one of those moments for me… I purchased and assembled my very own grill. A modest but manly, grill. I filled it with charcol (which is the manly and only way to grill), lit it and thirty minutes later my family was eating steak. There is something about standing over an open flame, having the smell of a charcol fire on your skin, watching meat brown and cook. It is an ancient art that hasn’t changed much since the beginning of mankind. I’m far from a grillmaster but today was one of my moments in becoming a man.
“Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.” 1Cor. 16:13
Published: February 20th, 2010|
Categories: blog|1 Comment
Oh do I agree with Spurgeon here!
As I prepare to preach 1 Peter 1:13 to a group of teens this weekend I want them to see this! Be Christian teenagers that are alive! Not just the average, drowsy, lifeless teen that walk into most youth groups.
Live with your eyes open; do not go about the world half asleep. Many Christians are asleep. Whole congregations are asleep. The minister snores theology, and the people in the pews nod in chorus. Much sacred work is done in a sleepy style. You can have a Sunday-school, and teachers and children can be asleep. You can have a tract-distributing society, with visitors going round to the doors all asleep; you can do everything in a dreamy way if so it pleases you. But says the apostle, — be watchful, be alive; brethren, look alive; be so awakened up by these grand arguments with which we have plied you already, that you shall brace yourselves up, and throw your whole strength into the service of your Lord and Master.” (Spurgeon, C H: A Seasonable Exhortation)
Published: December 22nd, 2009|
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I would like to think that if I instantly became rich or over time for that matter, I would still be a cool person. I would hope that I would still remember those who were my friends while I was not rich. I also know that my life would change if I were to become wealthy. Because I’m not talking just a little rich, but I’m talking about mega wealthy. I mean why not, right? If you’re going to dream why dream little? So, let’s say I pass up Bill Gates as the person with the most money. I mean the guy is so wealthy he can’t even give money away as fast as he gets it. He’s so wealthy that his full-time job is figuring out how to give his money away. His property taxes for one year are more than I will ever pay on my mortgage. His dinning room is bigger than my whole house. Read More »
Published: August 18th, 2009|
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I love books and (usually) I love people who love books. I don’t know where your favorite place to buy books is, but I thought I’d pass along my first choice. Better World Books is a company that was started by a few friends at Notre Dame and their HQ’s is practically across the street from where I live. They have great selection and price and free shipping anywhere in the U.S. They are not just a great bookseller, but they have a soul. Here is their mission;
Better World Books collects and sells books online to fund literacy initiatives worldwide. With more than two million new and used titles in stock, we’re a self-sustaining, triple-bottom-line company that creates social, economic and environmental value for all our stakeholders.
They also have a sense of humor. Here is a snippit from the email I got from them telling me my books were ready for pickup.
Hello Kyle,
(Your book(s) asked to write you a personal note – it seemed unusual, but who are we to say no?)
Holy canasta! It’s me… it’s me! I can’t believe it is actually me! You could have picked any of over 2 million books but you picked me! I’ve got to get packed! How is the weather where you live? Will I need a dust jacket? I can’t believe I’m leaving Mishawaka, Indiana already – the friendly people, the Hummer plant, the Linebacker Lounge – so many memories. I don’t have much time to say goodbye to everyone, but it’s time to see the world!
I can’t wait to meet you! You sound like such a well read person. Although, I have to say, it sure has taken you a while! I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but how would you like to spend five months sandwiched between Jane Eyre (drama queen)and Fundamentals of Thermodynamics (pyromaniac)? At least Jane was an upgrade from that stupid book on brewing beer. How many times did the ol’ brewmaster have one too many and topple off our shelf at 2am?
Published: June 30th, 2009|
Categories: blog|1 Comment
Our church is launching a theme based on Romans 15:5-6 “with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…”
I made this graphic for it. Fun stuff.
The Dowagiac River originates somewhere north of Dowagiac, Michigan. It starts as a creek and winds south over Pucker Street dam and into the St. Joseph watershed. It is a scrubby stream from what I have discovered of it, not much like the pure waters of the Muskegon, Pere Marquette, or Au-Sable to its north..
Having grown up learning to fly-fish on the Muskegon River I am tempted to think of how good I had it as a youngster.
If I close my eyes I can still feel the anticipation as I turn off of Pine Street onto a two-track in my boxy, 1984 Volvo 240 to a favorite spot called Charmical Flats. I can remember each step down a high ridge to the place where the sky clears and the glistening flats lay open in front of me. I can feel the swarm of the cinnamon caddis while wading cautiously away from the bank tying on a #18. I can feel the pressure of the water closing around my canvas waders and the cool temperature of the superb trout habitat. I can feel the warmth of the late evening sun on the back of my neck. I can hear the hiss of my fly line as I lay out my presentation to the wild rainbows below the surface. I can feel the breeze and see the caddis-flies bouncing on the surface around me. The anticipation has built moment upon moment. Then it happens, in a flash my fly-line goes from a drag-free drift to a tight arch bending through the guides of my six weight. On the end a silvery rainbow trout tries to dance away. I can feel the energy of the beautiful creation as I slide my hand over her gills. She is cool and very clean as she bursts from my hands back into the current.
Yes, I can’t help but think about the privilege of learning to fish on such a wonderful river, but the Dowagiac is now my home water. It is the closest water to me that holds the finest of all fish species; trout, therefor I love it too.
I spent five hours exploring a quarter mile stretch on Monday. Taking mental note of holes, runs and undercuts. Toward dusk my line was taught with the weight of a nice brown. Holding him in my hands admiring the beauty of the fading brown and red halos I realized there is something mystical about holding a wild trout in your hands. There is a relationship, one of respect. One that recognizes man has just proven his top spot in creations chain, and one that shows he had to work hard to make it happen. As he twitched and raced back to the far side of the small stream the Dowagiac felt a little more like my river.
I’m not much of a builder but over the years I’ve had many opportunities to work for builders. I began when I was fifteen years old with my Uncle Bob who built custom homes, he did great work and it was a good experience. I worked on a couple jobs for a man who restored barns. I roofed a small barn on my own once. I worked on and off for a builder in South Bend, IN who is one of the most creative men I know. I married a girl whose father is a well respected builder in their community. Her brother built a beautiful home of his own. Working for a painter and an air duct cleaner has fed my growing family for the past three years. Now is the only time of my life that I haven’t worked for somebody doing something in the construction trade. Even though I do not consider myself a builder I know the importance of getting a good builder when you need one.
I heard a story the other day about a family that moved to the area and has been forced to live in an apartment for two years because their builder fouled the job and is yet to finish their home.
Jesus used builders as an analogy in Luke 6:46-49 to teach us a simple and important truth. He says; “if you hear my words and do them you are LIKE A BUILDER with brains that digs deep into the ground and pours a foundation and builds a house on it.”
I don’t want to be a builder that fouls the job when it comes to life. I want to hear and understand the words of Jesus and do them!
