Happy Thursday!

Yesterday, I took my family to watch Disney’s: A Christmas Carol in Digital 3D! It was our very first DIGITAL 3D experience… and WHAT AN EXPERIENCE! With that kind of quality, who will ever want to watch a regular movie again? Wow, you guys… please treat yourselves to this adventure!

The story was much darker than I remembered it as a kid. The impact was profound! Here are a few of the real life messages my family took away from A Christmas Carol:

• Self Examination: In the character of Ebenezer Scrooge is depicted-one of the greatest glitches of fallen human nature… that evil seed found in each of us at birth… that if we are not very cautious… it grows… and grows… and grows… until we are obsessed with OURSELVES. Throughout the film, I found myself wondering if I am like Mr. Scrooge in too many ways. We walked out of the theatre wanting to be better people!
• Empathy: One of Ebenezer’s employee’s lived in a very humble abode and had a sickly son-without much time to live. And the man never complained… he worked hard, was always positive, was always smiling. When the reality of his situation unfolded, we all found ourselves in PAIN for the hurting people throughout our world facing similar circumstances. It made us realize… that hidden safely out of sight-underneath most mens public facade, there is a very REAL LIFE of blood, sweat, and TEARS.
• Benevolence: Ebenezer was a rich man… hoarding all of his riches to himself… he was a miserable miser. As the movie came to a close, I wondered what the world would be like if more people were FAR MORE benevolent. We all thought about the biblical principle of giving, “It is more blessed to GIVE than it is to RECEIVE.”
• Compassion: My son said that it made him feel compassion for all the nasty, lonely people in our world… because each one of them has a story about how they got that way.

I do hope you all have the opportunity to experience A Christmas Carol!

Today, my 15 year old cousin (Katie Dobzeniecki) is having a very serious heart surgery. Apparently, the doctors just recently discovered-Katie is missing one of her major heart arteries. Starting at 7:30am, Katie will be in open heart surgery for an estimated 5 hours. Please pray with us for a successful surgery and a perfect recovery. And please keep praying for my amazing Father-In-Law Merle Wall… as he goes for the miracle of outliving blood cancer. The doctors report is still very bleak… but Merle has FAITH like nothing I’ve ever seen before! Thanks everyone!

I’ve been out of town with my family these past few days… and God is really talking to me about becoming a far more patient and caring person. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very thankful for the great guy I’ve become… I’m thankful for the metamorphosis God has taken me through… I just want to LOVE so much more than I’ve been ABLE to love so far… I want to care like Mother Theresa cared. I want to be far less self absorbed… far MORE focused on the things that really matter to God concerning my life. When I die, I want people to KNOW that my WHOLE LIFE was all about the difference I could make in theirs!

Have a super day everyone! I just finished praying for you all!