Arm Wrestling Session with Daddy

Oh, this is gonna be good....

Maybe I'll just squeeze in a little closer...

Ha!  I made it all the way into Daddy's arms!

Daddy getting some good competition from his eldest son.

Baby showing we really do have talents other than arm wrestling!

We had a restful Sunday this week.  We spent the entire day resting and playing with the kids and just enjoying each other's company.  We watched our church on live stream video feed in the morning.  Two of the littlest members of our family napped and Mama did too!  Our churches website is http://www.biblebaptistfairbanks.com/index.shtml  You can click on past sermons to get a flavor for the pastor's style of preaching.  His name is Doug Duffet.  It's a very large church and Mike has met with the Pastor once to talk.  I shook his hand once and I've never met his wife but we have enjoyed listening to his sermons.  As with any church, it's not perfect but what is?  They do preach the Bible and the truth, so we are growing.  A word on growth:  my mom had a great analogy after having spent several weeks up here, visiting.  The plants grow twice as fast with all this sunlight!  Same with people... spiritually speaking, you have to be in the light to grow.  If you're walking in the darkness of the world and listening to their advice, then don't expect to grow much.  Don't forget the rain clouds... without them nothing would grow either.  Soil.  Important medium for continual growth with the addition of fertilizer because most soil depletes rather quickly of its nutrients.

Where do fellowship and relationships with fellow believers come into this?  What part of the growth cycle are they?  We seem to really be lacking in this area even though we have truth to listen to, we haven't made a lot of friends and there is no family here.  I don't want to whine about this, but relationships are so important to growth.   I don't know where I'm going with this post, just thinking out loud, possibly not wise.  Usually gets me into trouble...

Another thought, I am thankful for the relationships within my own little unit of seven.  They are rich, they are sweet, they are occasionally sour and bitter but quickly remedied with the antidote of forgiveness, always ready at hand.  Maybe what I have is so much more then I realize.  Maybe what God is building in us will far outweigh all the ideal social engineering practices out there...

I know I worry to much.  Shouldn't be worrying at all, should I?  I'm being paged now, gotta go...