Another of Payton's little lessons

Well my baby girl is just over five weeks old and she had two big accomplishments this past week. First she slept for five hours straight the other night and it felt like 24 to mom and me. Than Saturday night we made the move. We moved Payton from our bedroom to her nursery and she slept in her big girl crib for the first time. And you know what? I don't even think she noticed :) It was probably a little harder for mom and I than it was for her. My wife spoils me so much I have to admit. I sleep like I am in a trance for the most part and I don't hear a whole lot so she handles ninety percent of the middle of the night stuff. I knew I got lucky when she said yes but I realize it more and more as each day goes by. She loves being home and taking care of Payton and the house.

I had the privilege and opportunity to meet an amazing man with an even greater testimony this past week. Siran Stacy is a former all SEC running back from Alabama with a testimony that is off the charts. I won't get into that because I really want anyone who reads this to take a sec and google him and read his story. It is a powerful testimony to our Lord and Savior. If you ever get a chance to hear him preach I would encourage you to cancel all plans that may conflict with it and make sure you are there. I was lucky enough to get to hear him witness to me and some friends while we were eating some lunch. I was so enthralled by his story I could barely blink while he was telling it. Anyway during his story he made a statement that has been ringing in my head ever since. He said "if you are only half way in with God, than you are all the way in with satan." I have never seen a hammer hit the head of a nail more directly than that

Parenting can be described in that very manner as I am so patiently learning. Being a Mom or Dad is not something you can do halfway and have work out successfully. In fact Jes and I have become so wrapped up in Payton’s wants and needs we realized the other day that our DVR list was almost maxed out. Six weeks ago I could list the scores of every game being played that week. Today I can barely even find ESPN on the TV. Funny thing is it doesn't bother me a bit. I love taking care of my wife and daughter and I hardly miss the endless wasted hours I would spend in front of the TV. The commitment to being a parent demands sacrificing a lot of things for the better of your child. The commitment God wants us to make to Him demands double the sacrifices. If I only came home and was a dad every other day how hard would it be for Jes? If Jes only wanted to take care of Payton on the even days of the month how hungry would she go?

Having faith in God means turning everything over to Him. Faith in Him is not a part time thing. We can't just be good followers on Sundays after a great worship session. Living a selfless, faithful life for His glory is what He desires. And He desires it day in and day out 24/7. Very similar to what Payton needs. She needs me to be a Dad all the time. God wants us to have the desire to bring glory to His name all the time.

Anytime I choose to go against His will I am essentially choosing satan over Him. And by doing that I am making the choice to fully go against His will. Anytime I choose to do something over taking care of Payton I am essentially moving her down the totem pole a bit. She and God probably feel the same way about me when I do stuff like that. They probably feel a bit unloved.

Deuteronomy 6:5

You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength."

The two most important words in that verse are love (for obvious reasons) and all. The word all is used three times in that short verse. He drives home His point with that word. He commands us by saying "you SHALL" not "you SHOULD" and He says all. Meaning we are to love Him ALL the time with ALL that we have. In a similar fashion I am to love Payton ALL the time with ALL I have. Half way parenting won't cut it and half way believing in the Lord won't either.

He loves us so much and wants nothing but the best for us. All He asks is that we follow His directions.

Proverbs 3:5

Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding

There is that word again, all. He will faithfully provide ALL of our daily provisions if we just make the commitment to give it ALL to Him.

God's Love

Well it has been quite a couple of weeks for Jes and I. We are finally starting to get back to some sort of normal routine. The amazing addition of Payton has been a great blessing to the both of us. Jes and I have been enjoying spending a great amount of family time together. It has been fantastic. I love coming home from work to see my "two girls". We have been blessed by many gifts from food for dinners to diapers for Payton from all of our great friends. Our little baby is already growing. I can tell that her newborn size diapers are already getting snug :) The first 25 days of her life have been a true joy to us, and each day after this is just good surprise waiting to happen. Its amazing how sitting up at 3 AM with Payton on my chest sleeping has replaced all of my favorite pastimes. That early morning edition of Sportscenter is now my favorite. Jes and I were laughing the other day about how neither of us knew what was going on in the world outside of our home.

So the other night Payton taught me about what it means to love unconditionally. It was a funny little lesson in life that I know is going to have a profound effect on the rest of my life as a husband and a father. God has unconditional love for us. He takes us and loves us as broken and as ruined as we are. And when we sin He forgives us and loves us even more. We on the other hand are not capable of that type of Love. You see as humans a majority of our love is based on feelings and emotions. Those things can run hot or cold causing us to love more or less based on our "temperature". The closest thing to unconditional love that we can experience is the love that a parent has for a child. I am learning that day by day. So anyway the other night as I was changing Pay's (that is her nickname) diaper, right before I could put the other one on her she peed all over my hands and her pj's masterfully not getting a drop on the new diaper. At 4:30 in the morning that actually is amusing. In fact she was kind of smiling when she did it. I laughed as I calmly cleaned her and the changing pad up and got some new pj's and a fresh diaper on her. So here we are 7 minutes later in my lounge chair watching some Sportscenter Lil Pay decides to projectile spit up all over her daddy, her blanky, and her new pj's. Again at this hour in the morning this is all a little amusing. So I marched off to change her for the 2nd time in ten minutes. And just as I was zipping up her 3rd pair of pj's for the night cute, beautiful, wonderful Lil Pay gave me one more little bit of spit up that covered the entire front of her clean pj's. As I was putting on her 4th pair of pj's in 15 minutes I got a glimpse of what unconditional love is. In her own adorable little way Payton had just taught me one of the greatest lessons I have ever learned.

Here I was looking down at my smiling little infant having nothing but a feeling of love and joy in my heart. Did I enjoy having her spit up and pee all over everything at 4:30 in the morning? Not particularly. Was it a tad of a nuisance to have to change her four times in 20 minutes? Yeah a little. But in a small way that little 20 minute exchange with my daughter made me realize how God must feel when we repeatedly commit sin after sin. We are the infants in His hands that continually do things to upset Him yet He still loves us. He loves us more than we can comprehend.

John 3:16

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,[a] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.


We all know that verse. It is, arguably, the most well known verse in the entire bible. I've read it hundreds of times yet 25 days ago when I became a father myself it hit home harder than ever before. God loves me, you, and everyone else in this crazy, mixed-up, sometimes ass backwards world so much that He sent His ONLY son to come and pay the price for our sins. Sins of old, present, and future were all forgiven when Jesus died on that cross some 2000 years ago. I have a hard time leaving the house to go to work because I know I will miss my daughter so much throughout the day, and here God loves us so much that He sacrificed His only son in a horrific manner to cover the cost of our sins. I love my daughter more than I ever imagined possible but it fails in comparison to the love that God has for us.

In that instance when I was staring down at Pay all covered in spit up I imagined this must be kind of how God spends His days. Staring down at us confused, broken, sinful humans and saying "its ok, I love you more and more each day". We are all broken and not one of us is without sin, but what we do have is the Lord's grace and love. We don't have to be clean or perfect to get that gift of love from Him. God created us to be in a loving relationship with Him, because He is love.

1 John 4:8

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

I'm sure Payton will teach Jes and I many more lessons throughout the course of our lives together, but potentially none more important than this one. I am so thankful for the blessings of my wife and daughter. I feel as if I am richer than Warren Buffet in the blessings department. However I am most thankful for God's unconditional love for me. Without that I wouldn't be where I am right now. I hope and pray all of you will come to accept the unconditional love He has for you.

PS - As I was writing this I took a break to go kiss Pay and guess what? She spit up on me again. Man I love that girl!!!

Wow!!

The title says it all guys. This week has just been an amazing gift from God. It’s been a little while since I've been able to get on here and put my thoughts into words. Just 6 short days ago, and I do mean short, Jes and I were blessed to meet little Payton Ellen Drago for the first time at 1:04 in the morning on Saturday February 6th. What a miracle I got to witness first hand. I've said before that I wasn't there when He fed 5000 or turned water into wine, but I am so thankful that He allowed me to witness the birth of Payton. The emotions that I was overcome with were indescribable. To hear her cry and look into her deep blue eyes for the first time was just amazing. All you dads out there know what I am talking about and for all you dads-to-be just trust me on this one. I got to find out that my wife is even more amazing than I originally thought. She delivered Payton sunnyside-up without an epidural. Yikes!! That was painful. Her labor progressed fairly quickly and we didn't to really get a chance to decide on having an epidural. The docs and nurses at Scottsdale Osborn Hospital were amazing and after about 40 minutes of pushing out she came smiling at the world.

John 4:48 reads:

48"Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders," Jesus told him, "you will never believe.

Now I didn't need to see my daughter being born to believe in our one and only almighty God, but seeing that strengthens my faith even more. There is no other way to explain how two people in our own power could create such a beautiful thing. It was miracle created by God and we are just fortunate to get to be a part of it. Jes and I are so blessed to have God work through us to produce this little angel.

1 Timothy 4:4-5

4For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.

Payton was a gift from God. There is no doubt about it. I only pray that He will continue to give me the love, strength, wisdom, and grace to be the Dad He desires me to be. A daunting task, but one I know I can handle because:

13I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
Philippians 4:13

Speaking of God giving us strength I got to experience this first hand this week. After we left the hospital my angel got jaundice, and we had to go back to the hospital for the night just 3 days after coming home. Pretty scary deal for first time, emotionally drained and sleep deprived parents. It was during that 24 hour period that I got to experience the strength God gives us all when it is needed most. As I was sitting in the hospital room Tuesday night watching my daughter sleep under the blue lights and with my wife sleeping on the window bench I began to choke up a little. I started to wonder how I was going to make this better. I was trying to figure out the next move. I was trying to figure out how the rest of the week was going to go. All I wanted to do was get my two girls home so I could love on them and take care of them. But here I was not even strong enough to hold myself together. I was browsing around facebook to pass the time and I came across a quote a friend of mine had put up.

Meet today's problems with today's strength. Don't start tackling tomorrow problems until tomorrow. You do not have tomorrow's strength yet. You simply have enough for today. God will provide the strength, answers and needs when the time comes.

I read that and it absolutely struck a chord with me. Here I was worrying about the next move. What was I doing? I began to pray and God answered. I realized that I am not equipped to handle this on my own. Heck my wife and I aren't equipped to handle it together by ourselves. But we do understand that by leaning on God He will provide our daily needs in all areas, including strength. There is no need for us to worry about tomorrow. God has it handled and He will faithfully provide for our daily needs.

Isaiah 41:10

10 So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

It wasn't long after that that the doctors came in and tested Payton again and her levels had dropped dramatically. We got released later that day and were home by dinner. Thursday we just spent all day loving on that precious little angel. God delivered the strength we needed to handle the adversity we were facing. We realize now that jaundice is fairly common and happens quite frequently to babies that are born a little early. We also are very thankful that jaundice was all that Payton had to deal with. The floor we stayed on that night had many very sick children and it tore at my heart to see some of those little babies who weren't going to be leaving anytime soon. The whole experience was emotionally moving for us and I thank God for it. It made us realize just how much He wants us to lean on Him.

As we move forward now I am so thankful for the experiences of this week and for the weeks to come. Little Payton is just an amazing blessing. I know there are going to be more bumps in the road. Nobody travels a perfectly smooth path. Our paths aren't designed to be smooth and easy, but I do know who I will lean on in all situations. These lyrics from one of my favorite songs say it all:

You are my strong tower
Shelter over me
Beautiful and mighty
Everlasting King
You are my strong tower
Fortress when I'm weak
Your name is true and holy
And Your face is all I seek

Strong Tower – Kutless

God is my strong tower!! I pray that all of you can come to know Him in the same way.

Trusting the Truth can be powerful

Well today marks the beginning of our 37th week of pregnancy. God willing lil' Payton will make her grand appearance sometime in the next 2 to 3 weeks. Funny, I always say "we are pregnant" or "our 37th week". There is no "we" or "our" in the physicality’s of being pregnant. My beautiful wife is shouldering the physical burden by herself. All I’m good for is a foot massage and I can run down to the frozen yogurt shop and pick up some treats. It is an amazing miracle this thing called pregnancy, and man is it physically demanding for the women. I am so blessed to have such a great wife who has been handling the load, metaphorically and physically. We are super excited for the little one to get here. It is now just a waiting and praying game now. The timing of all things is kept by the watch of the Father; all we get to do is abide by it.

Today in my Men's group we were very blessed and fortunate to have a special guest appearance by Steve Barger. Steve, a successful man in real estate, is also the Executive Director of Truefaced. It is an amazing ministry that teaches believers to realize who they really are in the eyes of Lord. I have attached the link to their site here on my page. Anyway he made a statement today that has been stuck in my head all morning. "To accept God's great gifts, you must first Trust in the Truth."

To me the “Trusting in the Truth” means making the decision to submit to God and to live by faith in him alone. He is the only one equipped to guide us along our crazy journey. Completely Trusting the Truth means we need to believe and have faith that the miracles in the Bible really happened. Unfortunately none of us were there that day Jesus fed 5000. We weren't in the boat when he casually awoke from a nap only to tell the wild storm to mellow out. And we certainly were not there the day he got hung on a cross. But that doesn't keep us from believing the Truth. One of the greatest and most powerful gifts God has given to us is the gift of faith. Blind, unfailing, and unwavering faith was handed down to us from our almighty Lord. It’s up to us to do with it what we may.

Faith is defined in Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

The two most important words in that verse are sure and certain. To have true faith you have to first and honestly answer this question. Are you sure God is who He says He is? If we can cross this hurdle together and say “yes, He is who He says He is” than we can move on to the second word. Are you certain that God will deliver on His promises? Now this is important because this is the stuff that you can’t always see. God has made many promises to you and me, and when they are fulfilled, we may not always get to see the fulfillment of them. Heck we may not even get to see the process of the promise materializing. That doesn’t matter though because all God wants us to do is have a pure faith in Him. You see living a truly faithful life requires us to take that crazy step into an area where we can’t see the ledge. Living by faith was portrayed perfectly in the Indiana Jones movie where Harrison Ford, in his search for the Holy Grail, had to make a leap of faith over an abyss. Remember that scene? Indy just leans forward knowing in his heart that God would provide a step. And He did, because Dr. Jones’ faith was pure.
Now do we come across giant caverns that we need to cross blind on a daily basis? Physically? No, not typically, but spiritually yes we do. God calls for us to awaken each morning with a new faithful spirit that He has given us, and charge out into the day led by our faith alone in Him. Do you know how powerful that faith can be?

Read Matthew 17:20

He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

God says that even the smallest amount of faith in Him can move mountains! Imagine what unwavering faith in Him could do?

Faith trusts God to forgive us. Faith trusts God to make us holy. Faith trusts God to make us effective. Faith trusts God to never abandon us.
Faith is what the Spirit uses to light the fires within you. When the Holy Spirit gets to work inside of you, the Spirit causes an internal revolution. All of your life gets turned in God's direction -- thoughts, aspirations, behavioral standards, priorities, and such. It's not just about how you come to Christ, but how you live your life by way of Christ. The Spirit works overtime to lead us to be obedient. The Spirit does this through faith.

I borrowed that last part from http://www.spirithome.com/faith-sp.html I thought it was quite fitting to what I am chatting about.

Ultimately living by faith is what we are called to do. The only real way to achieve that is to Trust in his Truths. But just think of the possibilities of what living that life could be like. Amazing stuff huh?

There is an old saying that states you should never put all your eggs in one basket. I beg to differ and I'm no expert but it seems to me that God has constructed a pretty solid basket for us to put all of our eggs in. It just takes faith to Trust the Truth that He's got it covered.

A Great Event

Just want to drop a quick note with some info about an amazing event that is coming up here in Phoenix. One of the reasons I started writing this blog comes from an outreach that I attended just under a year ago. It was an outreach put on by David Cook and some of his fellow christian friends who happen to play on the PGA and LPGA Tours. He is back again this year with some of his other friends to spend a night here in Phoenix telling Tales From The Tour. It is going to be a great night February 22nd at the Bird's Nest by the TPC of Scottsdale. And the best part of it is the cost of the event, FREE!! Thats right you can attend this great evening free of charge. I added the link to the page here. All you have to do is click on the link and follow the directions to get your free ticket. I will go into more detail about this event later, but trust me, you don't want to miss it!!

The Plan

Well Jes and I are officially within one month of meeting little Payton!! We are so excited to step into the giant shoes of parenthood. We are both very thankful for all of your prayers and support during this great time of change for us. Jes has been an amazing trooper through this whole pregnancy. I know I say thanks every day that I was not born a female. Kudos to all you moms and moms-to-be out there, us guys get off easy during the whole pregnancy. Hopefully I can make up for it after she gets here. I am already to be a part of the nightly feedings! I am extremely blessed to have such a great wife. I know she is going to be a fantastic mom.
Today as I was studying The Book I began to realize another amazing gift that God gives to us. You see throughout this whole pregnancy Jes and I have been planning and preparing for every possible scenario that may come up after the arrival of our little girl. We’ve prepped the nursery, we’ve stocked the changing table, we took the birthing classes, stocked the freezer, we’ve packed the bag, and we’ve even been reading some books. All done to plan as much as we can in advance so that we will be as prepared as we can to be the best parents possible. For all of our planning and preparing we are still left with many questions unanswered. This is where the beauty of The Bible comes in. There is scripture on planning.
Proverbs 16:9
9 In his heart a man plans his course,
but the LORD determines his steps.
Do you see that wisdom? It is here where the Lord says yes there are going to be times where you need to plan things out. Do some testing and figure some things out on your own. But it doesn’t say He won’t be there. As we go about our planning God will be right there by our side directing us along the path He has chosen for us. If we are faithful He will be faithful. He will not let us falter in achieving what He has planned for us. He will perfectly guide our steps along the route he has chosen ultimately leading us to the destination of His choice.
There are a lot of things that we don’t know about Payton yet. We can’t say for certain she will fall for any of our planning. All we are praying for is a healthy baby. Sure we have some things ready for her as I mentioned above. We have done some test runs on things in hopes of easing the beginning of the parenthood process. But our faith is with God. We will do our very best to abide by Him in this whole process.
This works in all aspects of life.
Proverbs 3:5-6 5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.
Take serious note of this verse. Trust with ALL your heart, don’t rely on just YOURSELF, and ALWAYS give credit to the Man above. Do all these things with complete and total faith and He will take care of your path. Why wouldn’t He? I mean He drew it up right?
I have come to realize that He knows what He is doing. That took some convincing a few years ago, believe me. But during this whole pregnancy I have learned, once again, that my worries are futile. Yes there is going to be some bumps and yes we are going to have to work, sometimes hard, to figure things out. But ultimately He has it all drawn up somewhere and all we have to do is follow the directions. Our life, with the birth of Payton, is going to look like quite a different roadmap. Fortunately for us our almighty Father knows where we are going and He has laid out all of the directions in His Book. All we have to do is follow the signs.

Just let God do His work in us

On Sunday my pastor made one of the most profound statements I had ever heard during his sermon.
Well let me re-phrase that. I have heard this statement before, however after listening and reflecting on this weekend’s sermon the statement clicked with me in a way that it never had before. He said that God must work in you so that later he can do great things through you. I just kept saying that over and over in my head until it sank in. You see he was kicking off a series on the prophet Elijah, and in describing his obedience to God he said that phrase.

Elijah was arguably the most famous of all of Israel’s prophets and to quote my pastor “he kind of got the shaft” because he didn’t even get his own book in the Old Testament. But the work that God did in him, so in turn He could do great things
through him was a lesson that we all need to take notes on.

When God sent Elijah away in solitude he had nowhere to turn for his daily provisions except to God. And God was faithful in providing what he had promised. Elijah was fed and given water on a daily basis to the point that all his needs were met, and remember this was during a great drought. Let’s think on that for a moment. Imagine if you, in your daily obedience, were to just wake up and wait for God to provide what He has promised all the way down to your basic needs. What would that look like? Well to most of us it would be a little scary. You see we probably take for granted our daily needs, but that is a topic for a different day. During Elijah’s three years of isolation he learned to solely lean on God for his provisions. It was during this time that God was doing some serious work in Elijah so that later He could do some great things through Elijah.

In 1 Kings Elijah gets to perform the most incredible miracle, he raises a boy from the dead.

1 Kings 17:21-23
21 Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried to the LORD, "O LORD my God, let this boy's life return to him!"
22 The LORD heard Elijah's cry, and the boy's life returned to him, and he lived. 23 Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, "Look, your son is alive!"

Not too many people in the bible were entrusted with the gift of raising the dead, but Elijah had it. Throughout his whole isolation God was preparing him for that moment and many others to come.
This is happening to all of us now. If we could take the time to push all the other stuff off our plate and just for a moment lean on God for all provisions He could begin His work in us. By allowing that, He can transform us to His desire so that later He can do great things through us. Will we be able to raise the dead? Who knows? That isn’t our concern, but think of all the great things God could do through us if we just would allow Him to prepare us.

When I look back and reflect on my life experiences I start to pick out the spots in which I realize God had been preparing me for. For instance there was that conversation with a non-believer, the opportunity I got to teach youth, and the moment I met my wife. When I think of those moments, it is at that point, that I realize how long God had been preparing me for those chance moments.

I say chance because to us it seems like it was a chance meeting, or ironic happening. I now realize that nothing has been left to chance and that nothing happens ironically. God has it all laid out perfectly. All we have to do is get on board and ride along by faith. I pray that we can live by a faith so strong that we lean on Him for all things.

How amazing would the world be if we all lived by a faith that will allowed God to work in us so that in time He can do all His great things through us.