Today we took a trip to Charlottesville to see Uncle Michael! We talked about it all morning and Vivian kept saying, "Michael, Michael, Michael" over and over. We went out to lunch with him in between his classes.

When we first got there, Kate ate and then we waited for Michael to meet us after his class. We started out waiting in the car like this... and then decided it would be more fun to wait outside in the grass and eat a little snack.

Uncle Michael with his nieces.
Great day trip for us!

Sorry these pictures are so blurry. I took them with my camera and I couldn't hold my arm still. Anyway, I am so happy that my girls are starting to play together! They played with these refrigerator magnets while I made dinner tonight. Such a sweet, sweet sight.

After she finished eating dinner last night, she asked to see the Scholastic Book advertisements I was looking through. She sat here like this for another 15 minutes after dinner, looking at the pictures of the books. She looked like an old man reading his newspaper at breakfast to me! I thought it was hilarious :)

This is what I live to know and long to experience. The mission statement of my life and the church I serve: "We exist - I exist - to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples."

You don't have to say it like I say it. You don't have to say it like Louie Giglio says it (or like Beth Moore says it or like Voddie Baucham says it).

But whatever you do, find your passion and find your way to say it and live for it and die for it. And you will make a difference that lasts. You will be like the apostle Paul. Nobody had a more single minded vision for his life than Paul did. He could say it in different ways.

Acts 20:24: "I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may accomplish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God."

One thing mattered: Finish my course, run my race.

Philippians 3:7-8: "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ."

Here are all the pictures that Gramme took with her camera while they were at the beach. It looks like they had so much fun! We can't wait to go again this summer...all of us :)

Can you believe these are the only pictures I took from the bridal shower yesterday?

Don't waste your life. It is so short and so precious. I grew up in a home where my father spent himself as an evangelist to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost. He had one consuming vision: Preach the gospel. There was a plaque in our kitchen for all my growing up years. Now it hangs in our living room. I have looked at it almost daily for about 48 years. It says, "Only one life, twill soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last."

I am here at One Day in a sense as a father. I am 54 years old. I have four sons and one daughter: Karsten is 27, Benjamin is 24, Abraham is 20, Barnabas is 17. Talitha is four. Few things, if any, fill me with more longing these months and years than the longing that my grown sons not waste their lives on fatal success.

So I look out on you as sons and daughters and I plead with you as a father - perhaps the father you never had. Or the father who never had a vision for you like I have for you, and God has for you. Or the father who HAS a vision for you, but its all about money and status. I look out on you as sons and daughters and I plead with you: Want your lives to count for something great and for eternity. Want this. Don't coast through life without a passion.

Three weeks ago we got word at our church that Ruby Eliason and Laura Edwards had both been killed in Cameroon. Ruby was over 80. Single all her life, she poured it out for one great thing: To make Jesus Christ known among the unreached, the poor, and the sick. Laura was a widow, a medical doctor, pushing 80 years old, and serving at Ruby's side in Cameroon. The brakes failed, the car went over the cliff, and they were both killed instantly. And I asked my people: was that a tragedy? Two lives, driven by one great vision, spent in unheralded service to the perishing poor for the glory of Jesus Christ—two decades after almost all their American counterparts have retired to throw their lives away on trifles in Florida or New Mexico. No. That is not a tragedy. That is a glory.

I tell you what a tragedy is. I'll read to you from Reader's Digest (Feb. 2000, p. 98) what a tragedy is: "Bob and Penny... took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30 foot trawler, play softball and collect shells." The American Dream: come to the end of your life - your one and only life - and let the last great work before you give an account to your Creator, be "I collected shells. See my shells." THAT is a tragedy. And people today are spending billions of dollars to persuade you to embrace that tragic dream. And I get forty minutes to plead with you: don't buy it.

About 5 or 6 years ago Aaron and I listened to this sermon by John Piper about boasting only in the cross. We were reminded about it after Pastor Nick's sermon 2 weeks ago, "The End of all Human Boasting" and so we reread it on desiringgod.org and talked about it. I thought I would share...great sermon. He preached this at the One Day Passion conference in 2000 and it's memorable. He used a lot of this text in his book Don't Waste Your Life. I will post it in sections so that it's not too much to read at one time.

Galatians 6:14
But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.


You don't have to know a lot of things for your life to make a lasting difference in the world. But you do have to know the few great things that matter, and then be willing to live for them and die for them. The people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but who have been mastered by a few great things. If you want your life to count, if you want the ripple effect of the pebbles you drop to become waves that reach the ends of the earth and roll on for centuries and into eternity, you don't have to have a high IQ or EQ; you don't have to have to have good looks or riches; you don't have to come from a fine family or a fine school. You have to know a few great, majestic, unchanging, obvious, simple, glorious things, and be set on fire by them.
But I know that not everybody in this crowd wants your life to make a difference. There are hundreds of you - you don't care whether you make a lasting difference for something great, you just want people to like you. If people would just like you, you'd be satisfied. Of if you could just have good job with a good wife and a couple good kids and a nice car and long weekends and a few good friends, a fun retirement, and quick and easy death and no hell - if you could have that (minus God) - you'd be satisfied. THAT is a tragedy in the making.

Pray for me. I sent Vivian to the beach with my mom FOR 5 DAYS! I am sad. I know she'll have a great time with her Gramme, Mama Dot, and Angel (Mama Dot's dog), but I also know I'll miss her like crazy!
When they left this morning, I tried to get a picture of her saying goodbye. She's giving her smile in this picture but it's hard to see because she looked down...

Papa went with us to the Kite Festival today at Green Hill Park. It was a blast! It is a very windy day here, so the kites were everywhere and flying well. There were a lot of people. I had no idea it was such a big deal...it was our first year to go. We will definitely plan to go again next year and make a whole day of it!

She is getting in to everything, everywhere.

Believe it or not, today was the first time I took both girls to grocery shop! Maybe I took them both when Kate was a newborn, and then decided to not do that anymore. The biggest reason was because Kate's carseat took up the whole cart and I had nowhere to put the groceries. So for the last 8 months, I've been arranging it so that I only had one of them (usually Kate when Vivian is at Preschool on Thursdays), or neither of them (after they go to bed, or while napping at Gramme's). But today I had to get some food for our house, so we made the effort and it was a success! Now that K can sit well by herself, she rode up front. And V absolutely loved driving the cart. In fact, the only discipline issue we had was when we were leaving and she didn't want to get out. They were very patient and content, and I was thankful.
Now, if I could only start couponing...

Vivian's hair in the morning when she wakes up:

Yes, I am finally posting about Kate turning 8 months! Now she's about 8.5 months, and the crazy thing is that if I had posted last Monday on the 5th, I wouldn't be able to say some of the things about her that I can now a week and half later, because that's how fast things change at her age! She is a jewel. She is becoming much more predictable and I love it. We went to Dr. B last Monday because I thought she might have an ear infection (just a cold), and she weighed 17 lbs, 5oz. We will get more stats at her 9 month check up in May. Her hair is darker than Vivian's, but still has a hint of an auburn color. Her eyes are still blue. She has two bottom teeth and is getting a third one right beside them. Her top gums are still pretty ridgy, so I don't foresee any top teeth for a while.

Kate is crawling fast and always on a mission. She pulls herself to standing. She climbs the two steps that connect our kitchen and living room. I have seen her take a few baby steps while holding onto our activity table or her music table. Her physical abilities are developing quickly. Crawling at this age has been difficult because she is a little young to understand "no", but we're working on it.

She will not sit still. Ever. She wiggles and squirms and wants to play on the floor. Even when I try to sit with her for a few moments before her naps, she wiggles and squirms for me to just go ahead and put her in the crib. She isn't crazy about the exersaucer or johnny-jump-up anymore

We have realized that Vivian just cannot get the hang of singing songs. I know she knows the words and the tune, but she just can't figure out how to make the sing-song sound with her voice. So recently we have been singing songs with her and leaving out words so that she can fill in the blank. Hopefully it will help her learn faster. For example, we start the ABCs and leave out letters for her to say. ABC __ EF __ HIJ __ LM...
Anyway, the other night I was doing this with Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. I stopped singing after "Little" so that she could sing "star". But she said, "Bug". I laughed at her and started over, and she said bug again! She insisted that it was bug. I know she knows the song...we sing it a lot to Kate, and it is on one of her DVDs. I was so confused.
Finally I remembered that one of her Elmo books has a version of the song that goes:

Twinkle, twinkle little bug
Elmo reaches for a hug
But up above the world so high
You cannot reach a firefly
Twinkle, twinkle little bug
Now Zoe's ready for that hug.

So we sang the song with those words and she knew it :) I guess Elmo even trumps classic lullabies.

After the worship time this morning, we went to the duck pond with Gretchen, Cami, Gabe, Jody, and Ansley. I cannot believe we haven't done this before...Vivian was completely wrapped up in watching the ducks. She was overly excited. All she could do was point and say "duck, play". I am looking forward to going here a lot this summer...it's free and she loved it! As I was taking these pictures, she started running towards the ducks with excitement...right into that huge puddle of water. I was too late. She ran right into it and fell down, soaking her shoes and shorts. The funny thing was that it didn't even phase her because all she cared about was the ducks. She immediately stood up and said "ducks, play, play?!?" and didn't care about being wet or falling.
Gretchen walked over to Burger King and brought back some lunch for us to eat by the pond. Vivian didn't pay any attention to Ansley or me or anything...just the ducks and dipping her chicken in the ketchup. She was so quiet and happy. It was a fun morning until Kate decided she couldn't stay awake any longer!

Our little cutie wants to say hi to everyone! This picture was taken about 2 weeks ago and I need to get some new ones of her with Raggedy Ann because today she is 8 months old! I'm not going to take them today because she has bad cold and doesn't feel well. Her eyes are puffy and red and she is in a daze :(
V is also sick...I took her to Dr. B this morning and she has an infection in both ears. So we are taking it easy around here!
Praying that everyone had a great Easter, praising God for the power in Christ's resurrection! Also praying that everyone is still thinking about the worship and teaching from yesterday morning...not just moving on without some significant contemplation about the glory of Christ.
And not that this is important in light of the gospel, but the girls did have on beautiful outfits for Easter and we didn't get any pictures of them. I'll dress them up again soon and try for some good pictures for everyone.

Saturday afternoon our neighbors the Duncans invited V over to egg hunt with their grandchildren. The kids were 8 and 5 and wouldn't let V find any eggs because they were so excited and were too fast! We had to re-hide them after they went inside so that she could get some. But the 5-year-old Sarah was sweet to show V around:

She loved this tricycle and I had to trick her into walking home because she didn't want to leave it.