I know a lot of us could easily insert our own name, title or profession into the statement "A ________'s work is never done". But of all the titles this could apply to, none are more appropriate than that of mother.
A mother is constantly working, even when she isn't awake. Mother's seem to always have their children, their families and their homes on their minds and can often be seen drifting off into space sometimes when their minds start to tackle all of the things on a mother's to-do list at the drop of a hat at any time of any day.
Mothers make sure the home functions properly, that the kids are healthy and tended to, that dad is taken care of, that homework is done, that dishes are clean, that dinner is made... the list can go on forever. Mothers also are the level head in sometimes turbulent families and can usually be seen moderating, with sensitivity and gentleness, the more complex issues of the family dynamic. They are the glue of a family and work tirelessly to keep things together and in order.
Mothers are often the budget managers of the home in addition to being the general manage of the home. And many mothers take on this role even though they are working full time to provide for their homes. In a world of dirty, thankless, tiring jobs, I'd say that being a mother ranks up there toward the top.
And because of that, I want to take a few seconds this morning to say thank you to all mothers everywhere, especially for the mother of our home, my wife Sandi. As often as you go overlooked, as often as your day ends without a thank you, as often as you are defied and as often as your patience is tested it is my wish that you are also reminded form time to time that without you the world would not work properly. Homes would fall apart. Families would struggle.
Mothers are the very core of a family, and because of you mom, yes, I'm talking to you, all families are made better each day. Thank you so very much for putting in the effort every day to be the best at your job that you can be and for making sure that life is livable for the rest of us.
He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.
Matthew 28:6
Today is an international holiday for people of the Christian faith. It is the day that we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Today is meaningful for so many reasons, but the most significant reason is that it gives the Christian the basis for our belief that, as part of our salvation, God the Father can literally allow us to die to our former disbelieving selves and be reborn into a new creation, one who can believe in the heart and declare with the mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, that He died for our sins and was reborn as we must necessarily be.
For years I have taught my kids that today is not about rabbits, eggs, candy or baskets. While the holiday that most of us know as Easter has been historically wrapped up in all of these things - much like Christmas has become about gift giving and wrapping paper and trees and lights - I think it is important to know that for Christians, today is about one thing: the rebirth of our Lord after death and entombment.
Yes, the colorful aspects of today are fun. By all means, enjoy that time. Get your kids Easter baskets. Color some eggs together. Get fatted up on chocolate bunnies and Peeps. But if are a Christian, I would encourage you today to consider the sacrifice made on Calvary for you and I, and the subsequent victory ensured us by the happenings of today all those years ago.
He endured punishment of the worst kind so we wouldn't have to. He died in the flesh so we could die to the flesh. And He rose so that we might, in Him, have victory even over death. Because of today, we have an open door to God the Father and eternity in heaven.
If you are a Christian, today is a big day for you and you should celebrate it as such. If you are not a Christian, enjoy the bunnies and eggs and the family time. Either way, enjoy your day today. Because regardless of your spiritual beliefs, if what the Bible says is really true - which I believe it is - Christ didn't just die for me. He died for all of us. And He rose for all of us, too.
I am forever blown away by the talents of my children. As we prepare to bid adieu to 2009, I'd like to share with you all something my daughter Sarah wrote. For the record, she is 13.
On the day of New Year’s Eve
The world is sitting, waiting
For the day we all believe
Has cause for celebrating.
Staying up till late at night
Watching on TV
Down pole to drop a ball of light
And then we scream, “Yippee!”
Another year is o’er and done
And we are satisfied
Recalling days of mirth and fun
And fear, and hope, and pride.
Another year has started up
A new age will begin
We drink from a newer cup
And cast the old to the wind.
May you find the cause to celebrate the ending of 2009 and the start of 2010. Happy new year from me and the rest of the Gonzalez family.
Merry Christmas from the entire Gonzalez family. As the end of 2009 approaches I hope you can look back and find the blessings in your life this past year. I also pray that you will be able to consider 2010 and what the new year holds for you.
I will be announcing shortly some changes to this web site and some of the projects that I have been working on recently. It will be sort of a refreshing of my online identity or, in more practical terms, a Christmas gift of a fresh outlook for me.
But that is for another post, at another time on a different day. Today, I am going to celebrate Christmas with my family. And I hope you do the same thing with yours.
It's hard to believe that we are almost done with the first decade of our century. Even more strange to me is that we are within a month or so of 2009 coming to an end as a year. If I didn't know better I'd say someone pushed the fast forward button on life toward the beginning of February and left it there until yesterday. And as I take a moment to look back on the year, and especially the day we are celebrating today, I can't help but begin to think about some of the things I am thankful for.
Being thankful is not something that is reserved for one day a year in my house. In fact, it is something that I have tried to instill in my family through nightly "thankfuls" and through regular giving of thanks. It is a lifestyle that I think everyone should live lest we become bitter, cynical and "victimized" by circumstance. So for me and my house it is rather easy to recognize those things that I can be thankful for.
For example, I woke up early this morning and got out of bed to make a pot of coffee for my wife and I, and took a moment for myself to read my email, write a little in my blog and warm my legs with a little red fleece blanket. I was watching my dog sleep for a little while until my daughter Adriannah woke up, joined me in the living room, greeted me with a hug and kiss and began to watch TV.
In just the first few minutes of the day today I am thankful for:
- A beautiful, smart, funny, warm, loving wife
- An awesome tribe of beautiful, smart, talented children
- Having a home for my family
- Everyone in my family having a bed to sleep in
- Running water
- Coffee
- Cups to drink our coffee from
- Having a working computer
- The internet
- Email
- Warm blankets
- Wonderful, smart, loving, caring, beautiful children that love me
- Hugs and kisses
- A great dog
- A TV
- Electicity
Now of course these are more of the tangible variety of thankfuls. Still, these are all things I am thankful for just within the first few minutes of my day. There are so many other things to be thankful that extend beyond the tangible, like:
- Not having to go to work today
- Sharing today with family and friends
- Having the freedom and liberty that comes from living in the United States of America
- Being protected both at home and abroad by the most awesome of protectors ever, the US military
- Worshiping how I want, when I want and with whom I want
- The freedom and ability to have an opinion, and voice that opinion
The abundance of thankfuls in my life always seem to extend beyond the limits of one day a year. And while I am thankful for today and what it represents, I would offer this challenge to you: For the next 365 days, until next Thanksgiving day, see if you can find one thing every day to be thankful for and share that thankfulness with someone.
If you are anything like me, no matter how heavy life gets on you, you will always have something to be thankful for. May God bless you abundantly this day and all the days of your life.
Wow, what a day today was. There was drama, haircuts, cleaning, traveling, assembling, masquerading, trick-or-treating and lots of exhausting.
The day started out with my neighbor returning my dog. Why did my neighbor have my dog? Because my dog decided to dig a hole under our fence and invite himself into our neighbor's yard. So in the midst of a cold fog, I was out shoveling dirt, reinforcing fences and making barricades to keep my dog out of my neighbor's yard.
Did it work? Nope. By the end of the night he had managed to get past my barricade and dig another hole.
After that I took my son with me to get my haircut. Then we hit up Office Max to get a printer cartridge refilled. If you have an inkjet printer and would rather save money than spend money on the cartridges, go to Office Max. For $10 they will refill your black ink cartridge ($15 for color) and it only takes a few minutes. Not to mention that it saves you from spending $60 on a new one. Sweet.
When we got home we had to get to work cleaning out our truck. That is because today we went to Morgan Hill and picked up a new bunk bed set my wife found on Craigslist for Alaynah and Adriannah, who broke her bed a few weeks. The new one we got is a "T" style bunk that sits on top of a desk at one end and a bookcase and dresser at the other. It is a beast of a bed, but strong enough for out two daughters. I know this because it literally took me a total of six hours to put it together. 
Of course in the middle of that assembly marathon, I had to get the kids ready to hit the streets in full costume. I took them this year because Sandi had to drive to Hayward to pick up Alaynah from a Halloween party she was at. So at about 7:00 or so I left the house with Lucy Ricardo, Captain Hook, a leopard and Buzz Lightyear in search of huge sacks of goodness and sweets. And boy did we find it.
It was a great night with a great take. The kids got loaded up on candy, we got our exercise, I got a break from building the bed... it was a great hour. And it was a great day, if not way more exhausting than I would have liked. Still, it was totally worth it.
I hope your Halloween was as cool as ours.
Today is Labor Day in the United States, a day when Americans celebrate the working people, and our work in general, in our country. As is my usual, I would like to wish every working person in the world a happy Labor Day today.
Something that I do want to do different this year, however, is that I want to stress that labor in this country, or in any country for that matter, does not necessarily mean paid labor. There is plenty of work done around the world that is not done for someone that is paying you to do it. Like parenting. Or mothering, to be specific.
Most mothers are the real workers in their households, whether she is a single mom raising her family by herself or a working mom who rushes every morning to get the kids out of the house on time for school before heading to work or even a stay-at-home mom who tends the house and family during the day. And it is my opinion that of all the mothers that labor every day, without weekends or vacations or days off or bonuses or even thanks, the mothers that seem to be the hardest working yet most overlooked are the stay-at-home, homeschooling mom. To you I want to wish an enormous happy Labor Day. The work you do is hardly ever noticed and even less seldom recognized. But the work you do cannot even be described, let alone appreciated to its full value. You are the truest laborer there is.
And to my wife, who has been staying at home AND homeschooling our five kids since my oldest was four years old, I want to not only wish you a happy Labor Day but I also want to offer you a great big thank you for all the work you have done over the years and continue to do every day. It is not at all easy to do what you do (I know I'm not cut out for it, that's for sure). Your patience, kindness, grace and love are tested everyday, without thanks, without appreciation, without a pat on the back... but every day you stay in the fight. Every day you labor, intensely, to provide for our home. And though your work does not come with a paycheck it will someday come with a giant pay day. For your labor carries with it a return far greater than money. I just want you to know that without you our family would not be where it is today.
So today my wish is that we all enjoy our day off. May you rest, celebrate and take full advantage of your day to celebrate the work you do.
The barbecues are probably hot and the meat is probably marinading as the day pushes forward into the afternoon and evening. The celebration and revelry will be abundant today for sure. But as we fellowship around the fire, sipping wine and scarfing down the grilled meat, it might be a good idea to reflect on why we have today off of work and why we are enjoying this time with our friends and family.
To all families and people who have lost loved ones on the battlefield, today my thoughts and prayers go out to you. But even though today is a day set aside to remember those that have paid the ultimate sacrifice in war it is my belief that we should not wait an entire year to remember our heroes.
For families who have lost loved ones there isn't a day that goes by in which they don't think about that person. And while the pain of loss, and the memory of loved ones lost, does diminish over time remembering our loved ones is important. So today think about those who have laid down their lives in the service of their countries and remember those they have left behind. And throughout the year try to keep in mind that for some families memorial day is every day.
Every day men and women around the world offer their lives in service to the United States and her allies. Every day they should be remembered.
Man I wanted to barbecue today. I have been waiting all week to get my grill on and when the morning came I got all kinds of excited at the prospect of eating seared and seasoned beef cooked over an open fire. Apparently the weather had different plans.
The day started out gloomy and cold, but I have seen that before and was holding out hope that I could actually end up BBQing later in the day. But the stupid fog bank never lifted and I ended up spending the entire day wanting grilled meat and getting nothing at all resembling grilled meat. Crap.
And no, I can't grill tomorrow because I will be at a party all day for my nephew. So Monday better be my day for grilling because Memorial Day weekend just isn't the same without some fired up meat.
On the first day He was betrayed, brought before the religious leaders of the day and stood before those that hated him, accused of committing crimes that He did not commit. He did not defend himself against His accusers and did not hold them in contempt. He knew what He had to do and what He had to endure to bring to completion His mission. For His resolve He was forsaken, lied about, teased, mocked, beaten, humiliated, spat on, cursed, laughed and murdered. On the first day He died.
On the second day, while in the tomb prepared for Him, He battled against the enemies of God, taking back those that had gone before He had come. On a mission, He didn't waver and kept the commandment given Him by His father. On the second day He battled.
On the third He did something He promised He would do yet none gave Him the slightest chance of accomplishing - He conquered death, rose from the grave and took back the dominion man had given Satan over us. He took His place as the resurrected son of the most high God and began the last events in His ministry that would ever see Him in person. On the third day, He rose again, conquered death and brought victory to all those that would call Him savior.
As we enjoy the festivities on this day - the candy, the bunnies, the eggs, the color, the food, the family, the friendship and the fellowship - I pray that we remember that today is a celebration of life, rebirth, grace and victory. Christ died for all.
Yes, all, the whole of humanity. Saint and sinner alike. Actually, mostly for the sinner since all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. He died for the murderer, the cheater, the adulterer, the fornicator, the liar, the thief, the blasphemer, the rapist. He died for the man that cannot control his eye or his mouth. He died for the woman that has sexual inclination for another woman. He died for the disobedient child and the rebellious parent. He died for mankind, so that through His shed blood we could be cleansed of our sin and once again be able to fellowship directly with God the father.
Through grace we have been saved by faith. Faith that Christ was born of a virgin as the only begotten son of the living God. Faith that He walked the Earth as a man. Faith that He was betrayed and crucified. And faith that He ultimately rose again on the third day.
There is no earning salvation. There are no prerequisites to it either. The person that you are right now, the success or the failure, the dirty or the clean, the broken or the complete... you are exactly who Christ died for. Because God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.
Even if you are not a Christian or are resistant to the message of love that embodies who Christ is, my prayer today is that you remember why we celebrate the day we celebrate today. May God bless you, whoever and wherever you are.
