Here are a few thoughts after week one of reading through the Bible using the www.youversion.com chronological Bible plan:

1.  I don’t know/remember a lot that I have read in the past.  I completely had Noah and Lot mixed up.  My apologies to Noah for all the times I have accused you of sleeping with your daughters.  I hope I still get a fist bump when we meet.

2.  There are some tough things to reconcile about God.  If you do not have an understanding and real belief in the complete and deserved soverignty of God I understand why you would have doubts.

3.  Speaking of doubts, my man Job went through some challenges and said some stuff I bet he wishes he could get back.  We have all done that.  At least I know I have.

Seriously.  You know what it is.  You know you need to stop but for some reason you just keep doing it anyway.

In order to do the thing that God has called you to do you will have to stop doing a lot of other things.

To write that book you may need to cut back on television.
To get in shape you may need to work out during lunch.
To know you wife better you may need a no-twitter zone at home.
Theoretically. (or those could be my actually things)

So when are you (am I) going to stop doing ___________________.  You fill it in.

[box]What do you need to add to your to-NOT-do list? Get some accountability in the comments section.[/box]

I have a lot of heroes on my life to be honest.

My wife.

The single mom that does so much on her on while still giving to others like my friend Allison Keane.

The business man who truly does all that he does for God and does not cheat to get ahead like my Dad.

The Pastor who spends time with a group of young guys to invest in them is not puffed up and who is who he is all the time like Greg Surratt.

Volunteer at Seacoast Church who give time each week to make sure the vision of helping people become fully devoted to Christ continues.

Dad’s like Rich Young and Brad Singleton (and a host of others) who I get to live life with in a great parenting community.

[box]Who is your hero and why? Talk about it in the comments.[/box]

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My wife designs a photo book about every six months on Shutterfly to catelouge our lives.  They are awesome.  Every time I look at them my eyes start to sweat and I realize what a blessing they are going to be in our children’s lives.  She sometimes uses comic sans (and has on occassion used papyrus).

Having two children in preschool we get a ton of invites and evites to birthday partys.  I have noticed a trend.  Mom’s use comic sans a lot.

In spite of the previous truths I have never been around a group of designers or church communication proffessionals when there was not some joke made about people designing things in comic sans.  I have to admit I have made the jokes myself. 

But the other day I had a thought.  People like comic sans.  Its obvious from every invite, poster and flyer ever created by those not in the “creative class” that it is a hit.  

I wonder if sometimes I am not more concerned with creating things I like than I am helping people create things. 

Just a thought.

Confession.  I want to write more on my blog.

Confession.  I have a lot I would like to write about.

Confession.  I am way too scattered in what I write about.

Confession.  I sometimes wonder if you care.

Confession:  I sometimes wonder if I care.

So, over the next few weeks I am going to try and find my voice as a husband, father, pastor and see what happens.

Confession:  I secretly really hope you care.  Too much.

Scripture memory is very important to our family.  Over the last few years we have really struggled with how to set our children up for success in this area and have tried a couple of different methods…not so successfully.  Then our friend Jenna came up with a great idea called truth cards.  Already this last month Isabelle has learned three verses and I am confident she will learn 52 this year!

You need to check them out at www.truthcards.org

New years day is a strange day to me. it’s kind of like the new trapper keeper and the box of pens I would always get the first week of school. By the end of the first nine weeks I would have no idea where either of those items were…in fact I would be lucky to have not lost my text books.

I love the idea of a new start to things. I also hate the fact that I know in reality I am the same me in the new year and I will struggle to be consistent after the newness of a shiny new start wears off.

I have gotten slightly more organized since third grade however and here are two things that will help me this year stick to some of my goals:

1. Leverage technology. I track my spending, eating, running and bible reading through technology and that will help me stay consistent. If only there would have been a “find my trapper keeper” app back in the day…

2. Have a MIT (most important task) in my four major role areas everyday. Spiritual, physical, work and family. If I accomplish those four things 365 times it will be an awesome year.

What are you planning to do to help you accomplish your goals in 2011?

Are you looking for an opportunity to serve a church in the worship arts or creative area?

I have heard about two opportunities lately that I wanted to let you all know about. 

1. Creative director for a church in PA.
2. Asst. Worship pastor for a church in San Diego.

Interested?  Email me at shawn@shawnwoodwrites.com and I will pass you info along.

Pass the word along to folks you know….

In addition to planning christmas at our churches its also time to start planning christmas in your homes.  One way that my wife and I really try to communicate with our friends and family is through pictures, and more specifically for Christmas cards from Shutterfly.com.  In fact when my little girls was born almost 5 years ago now Connie started making a photo book every 3-6 months to catelouge our kids lives.  We now have more than a dozen of them and this will also be our 5th Christmas sending out a shutterfly.com christmas card with their pictures on it!  the first one was a birth announcement for our Christmas baby (December 29th Birthday for Izzy for those needeing to send gifts )

Here are a few great ideas as you plan christmas:

·         Christmas photo cards 
·         Christmas invitations
·         Christmas cards
·         Canvas wall art