The Weekend That Was

Now you might wonder why I am writing this at 9:30 p.m. on Monday talking about the weekend. Well in my mind Monday does not exist (it is my day off). Well last time I blogged I told you about how relaxing it was on Saturday. That is true. But then came Saturday night. Saturday night was, well, not good. Samuel was not cooperating, and he did not want to sleep for anything. I finally got him to sleep. Now I wish I could say that was the end of it, but it wasn't. It was a rough night. But I did manage to get about 5 hours of sleep.
It is always fun when you have a night like that and you have to bring your A game on Sunday morning. But you end up saying "ok I got nothing, God help me!" And sure enough he does help every single time.
Had a blast at church. I like the just the atmosphere that we have lately. This week was really good. I could tell people were following right along with what I was saying. I wonder why that happens some weeks and not other weeks. Maybe I should keep a record of the temperature inside and outside, amount of sunlight etc....Probably will never do all of that. Even if I would I don't know if it would tell me anything.
Well after lunch with my brother and his family, and my good friend Blake who I did not know was even going to be around, we went home. I watched the Nascar race and just basically hung out with my family.
All in all, a great weekend.

Relaxing Day

I have not had a day this relaxing in a long time. I did not do a whole lot today. I mowed the grass, played with the boys, took Isaiah to a friend's house. Great day. Those days just don't come around too often. So when they do you need to make sure that you take the time to enjoy them. It will be interesting to see how the relaxing day effects church tomorrow. I could see it going both ways. Great to have relaxing days. I love spring!

Planning a Service

I have been thinking about something lately and maybe some of you will help me think further. Most churches (including Bakerstown Alliance) have a main service (or services) once a week. Now planning a service is a lot of work. I calculated that on average for our 60 minute service there will be about 60 hours of preparation that will go into it.
Now what is interesting is that our church's main service has gone from 90 minutes to 75 minutes to 60 minutes (normally, but there are always exceptions). This whole process has not been so much cutting stuff out as it has been tightening. Little things here and there. Work on the transitions of the service so they are less awkward.
Now I have been to a lot of other churches over the years. One church I am thinking of goes about 80 minutes or so. But that 80 minutes flies by. I also have been to the 45 minutes service that goes seems to go on forever.
I wonder then if it is the time or the quality that makes a difference? I wonder of there is an "ideal" length.
If you have any insights I would love to hear them. I just am really convicted to try and make sure that quality is of utmost importance. And sometimes to increase the quality you have to decrease the length. Any thoughts?

Eating, Sleeping, and Learning about God

There are certain things that we sometimes forget about: basic building principles. Now, you can actually find stuff about this in the Bible. It is basic living stuff like sleeping and eating right. Now I know that sounds so basic, but I think it is a huge problem especially here in America. So every week we are trying to minister to a bunch of people who can't concentrate or can't focus all because of a lack of sleep and a lack of nutrition. Now I am no health food nut or anything like that. I enjoy my desserts. But I do try to eat three meals day. I do try and go to bed at a reasonable time. It is just something that we have to take in account when we are trying to teach people about God.

Have any thoughts you would like to add?

Weekend Thoughts

Just a couple of quick thoughts from my weekend:

I mowed my grass -- now I know you are thinking, whoopee, who cares. For some reason my yard and my tractor always make for an interesting adventure. But this time, I mowed the whole thing in less than two hours! That is like a record for me. All that with no break downs or anything.

• I got to go to wedding of a good friend of mine. I am happy for him and his new wife. They are off to Hawaii. A bit envious? I would like to go to Hawaii right about now :)


• Got back from the wedding and had to run to Walmart. I made it there at 10:55. They close at 11:00. I sort of felt like I was on a shopping spree. I ran and got everything I needed before 11! Go me!


• Because of the wedding our boys slept over at Heather's mom's house, so there were no kids in my house. That was a little weird.


• Unfortunately Saturday ended late and Sunday morning comes really early.


• Sunday was a fun. It is not everyday that you get to say the word "prostitute" several times in a sermon. (It was about Rahab)


• Sunday afternoon we go to my parents house. Basically it is like a family reunion every week. However, there are a bunch of dieting people in this family. Therefore, the desserts have been getting pretty pathetic. I am not sure how to fix that :)


• Kyle Bush has 3 wins in the Nationwide Series in a row -- impressive


• For what it is worth I feel my brain starting to work again. It goes through these thinking faces. I think I am about to have one :)

That is enough for now

The Trophy Husband

Tonight I got to go on a hot date with my hot wife. We went a musical at the school where she used to teach. The musical was great. The kids did a great job. All and all a fun night.
So how does this relate to my being a trophy husband? Well being that it was at Heather's old school, she was able to see a lot of former students and co-workers. They were happy to see her. It felt really good to be the trophy husband. Because of my job, I have to be in the spotlight a lot. So when you are not in the spot light that feels nice. It is also nice seeing how much they love and appreciate my wife. Yes, that makes me happy.
Great night. And now good night!

Postive vibes

If I don't stop and blog about things, I forget them. I was looking over the attendance figures for the last couple of weeks. Now before you start giving me all this religious junk about how numbers are not important blah blah blah, numbers represent people. I am interested in reaching people not numbers. Our attendance at Bakerstown has been really good. Now I am not going to take credit for that, because it is all God. That led me to think about some other things that have happened in the last six years that I have been there. Wow! The more I think about it, the more amazed I am at God. How does God use such messed up people (I being the most messed up) to accomplish his will?
I like the positive vibe. Now we got to keep the big mo going and dream bigger! Remember:it's the beginning of something legendary, not the end of something legendary :)

Post #200!

Yes folks, you are reading that correctly. This is my 200th post. Wow! Who would have thought?
I like this blogging stuff. I am never really sure who I am blogging for. Sometimes it is just for myself. It helps me flesh out ideas in my head, and get things off my chest.
Sometimes I blog about what God has been teaching me, so that others can gain from the lessons God has taken given me
Sometimes I blog to communicate information.
Sometimes I blog just have a place to share some random thoughts.

Let me tell you about my run today.
Today I chose a short run for the sole purpose of working on increasing my speed. While it was short, I was running at a much faster pace than before. The course that I ran today basically goes like this:

• First 1/3 was all downhill


• 2nd 1/3 was flat


• last 1/3 was all uphill

Now for years I have always thought that the Apostle Paul was a runner. There are numerous running references in his writings that only a runner (or at very least; some sort of athlete) could fully relate to.

With that in mind as I was running I thinking about this:

"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Phil 3:12-14)

Now I have thought about that verse many times, especially the part: "forgetting what is behind." When I would think of that I would go right towards all the bad junk that has happened. When I got to the last 1/3 (the all-uphill part) I was laughing to myself. "I want to remember what was behind me." That got me thinking. We shouldn't be consumed with the good stuff in the past. Our focus must be on the finish line. With that in mind I put my energy into finishing strong.

So with this being post 200, yea! That's good. But I am going on. After all this is not the "End of Something Legendary," this is The Beginning of Something Legendary!

Christmas in April?

In 13 days if you come to Bakerstown Alliance at 10:00 am, you will be able to hear LIVE the Todd R. Peden Christmas Eve Story! You don't want to miss this one. I know it still is 13 days a way. But I thought that I would tell you early so you will make plans to be there. It is an incredible story. You will want to hear it!

How I Tell My Wife "I love You"

Before I begin let me make a little disclaimer. I am not perfect. I am not the greatest husband in the world. I have many flaws that I am aware of and many more that I am not even aware of.
This morning Isaiah decided that 6:45 was a good time to wake up. If you know any thing about Heather, she is not a morning person. Saturdays I usually get to sleep in, so I like to take advantage of that. Well with Isaiah up, I knew I could stay in bed and have him jumping all around the bed, annoying both me and Heather, or I could just get up. I chose to get up. I went downstairs with Isaiah ate breakfast, played a little. This allowed Heather to stay in bed until about 8:30. You would have thought that I got Heather some fancy bling bling. She was so happy.
I also finally (see I told you I am not perfect) fixed the problem with our water pump switch. I pretended to know something about plumbing. It actually worked. The project did take me all day though. But hopefully this will solve some of the issues with our water. Again, Heather is happy.
Hopefully I didn't destroy your fantasy about what love is. :)

I had a hard time concentrating today

Some days I just can't think that well. I think today was one of those days. I don't know why, but for some reason I just couldn't think that well. Those days are frustrating for me. What it means is that tomorrow I have to focus twice as hard. It will be one of those days that at the end of the day my eyes will be sore because I will forget to blink. Maybe some people are good and can focus everyday the same amount. Me? I do kind of like the pressure, but I also like getting things done early. It is just one of those strange things about a strange person. Can any of you relate?

Mr. Fix-it had to call in reinforcements

I like to fix things. It gives me great joy to fix something and to get something to work. I love finishing a project. With that being said this past weekend was lawn mower weekend. Last fall I totally messed up my lawn mower. I sent my mower deck to a mower guy to get fixed, which he did and did a great job. So I brought it home, hooked it back up to mower, go to start the mower, and... nothing. Ok. I hooked up the jumper cables...still nothing. Ok. I looked around at it and noticed a bad fuse and fuse holder. I went to the store get a new one, hooked it up... still nothing. At this point I have no idea what it is. I decided it was time to call in the reinforcement and time to call in the big guy: my dad. I called him up, talked to him, and he says, "Ah. The motor's seized." I say, "That doesn't sound good." Well I have no idea what to do, but I had my dad. He came over and after two trips to the hardware store (it always takes several trips) a can of wd-40 (either duct tape or wd-40 is needed to fix everything) it fired up and away I went. Man it is great to have my dad. And to be honest, the the hours we spent fixing it were a blast. We talked, gave each other a hard time, and even managed to drink some coffee.

Yet another running update

I thought I would take a second and give you all an update on my running. I have pretty much recovered from my half marathon. Last week I only managed use the elliptical at the gym once and run a short two mile run another day. But this week, I ran four miles on Monday and about four miles today. I am not fully energized yet. I will run two more times this week. Hopefully next week I will be back to normal. I admit, I have been thinking about my upcoming pack-on- the-miles training for a marathon. There will be a lot of weeks were I will be running more than the half marathon, thirteen miles. It should be fun/scary. I'm still confident that I can do it. My wife tells me that I can do it. And who am I to argue with my wife? :) It is so nice to have her and all my other fans that continue to root me on in this crazy adventure. This whole thing, well, all I can say is, legendary!

People chasing their dreams

I was driving to the store the other night, turned on the radio, and heard Aaron Shust. Now if you have never heard of Aaron Shust, you need to check him out. You can check him out here.

I have known Aaron for a long time. I met Aaron at Edinboro Camp many moons ago. Then we were both at Toccoa Falls together. I really got to know Aaron at Toccoa. I was his first band's first groupie/roadie/manager/sound tech/ticket taker. Didn't pay too well. :) But the thing I realized is his dream is to do what he is doing know. It took him a bunch of years. It is not like someone handed him a free ride. He earned it. He is a man of God, and I couldn't be more happy for him. He had a dream and went after it. And he is accomplishing it. What dream has God given you? Are you chasing it?

Movies and My Mind

Tonight was great night. Heather and I got to watch a movie. (Gotta love Netflix). While I was watching this movie, which I can not remember what it was called 30 minutes later, my mind was in a different place. That is what I love about movies. It is like you just totally forget about everything else. You have no recollection of all the things that you should be doing. You forget about everything that is going on in your crazy world. I love having my mind being "shut off" for 2 hours. Quite relaxing. Unfortunately it doesn't last that long. 30 minutes later I am slowly remembering all those things that I forgot. Oh well.

Tough Week

This has been a hard week for me. I have had to do something that I did not know was possible. I have been surviving without my laptop since Sunday. Ahhh.... It is so weird not having it with me like 24/7. I get up in the morning and I don't grab my book bag to take with me. It's just been odd. I wonder sometimes how I used to go through life without a laptop.

Now there were some things that were just not running right, so I got my brother to clean it all up. I decided to go back to windows XP. Vista is just not worth the headache. I will wait for the next one after vista to upgrade.

It makes me feel really fortunate to have my brother. If I were to do it myself, it would take me like all week constantly working on it. And there is more than a possibility of me royally messing things up. But my brother, I know will do it, do it right, and for the right price for his favorite brother (yes I am his only brother)

I love my family. They have been so supportive of me. I am not sure where I would be without them. I believe firmly that the love and support that I get from my family is what God had in mind when he created the whole concept of family.

And yes this is why I have not blogged that much this week.