August 3 – “Any excuse”

Yesterday I was consumed with preparations for this weekend.  We are hosting (and I am teaching) a True Love Waits emphasis for the high schoolers at Seaside.  Looks like it will be a relatively small group (five or six), but that doesn’t change the preparations any.  Still have to arrange for food, where to go for the mystery fun time and the ministry time, who sleeps where, what supplies we’ll need, and of course the actual teachings.  We have to combine five sessions into three to make it all fit into our allotted time.  We also have to figure out what will happen in small group (guys only and girls only) and what we will do all together.  Oh, and did I mention that we only have one copy of the book?  That’s all the Book Store had, so we are sharing it.  Oh, and we will have a Sunday here in a few days.  That was what that sermon was all about that I was working on, too.  It has been an interesting week or so of prep, as you can imagine.  I think we have it figured out, though.  I still have to make another trip to WalMart for some last-minute things, and I want to put some things onto a CD to get them all in one place – an ease of access thing. 

I even managed to squeeze in a grocery run for Chris.  I think she wanted to get me away from the computer for a while so I would walk around.  Gotta admit that I needed the break.  My joints have been pretty stiff the last few days, and she couldn’t talk me into going with her on her walk.  My knee has been swollen, though, so I wanted to rest it some more.  I know, I know, any excuse to get out of exercise.  Slap me on the hand.  Ouch. 

Jachin and Micah and Josiah (and their Mom) were here when I got back.  We are babysitting their dog while they go to a homeschool conference in the Woodlands.  Guess that adds one more to the guest list for the weekend.  We’ll leave it to Fritz and Heidi to do the entertaining on the canine front.  They can handle it. 

Psalms 19:1-4 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.  Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.  There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.  Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”

Father, use all this preparation to your ends.  Help Kelly with her final readiness and with her presentations.  Amen.