The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Category: Valerie (Page 10 of 17)

It Was Only a Matter of Time

September 20, 2016 / / 0 Comments

seniordiscountWe ate at the Town Crier here in Abilene last night, a traditional stop in our rotation of local eating joints for us every year while attending the ACU Summit. But it wasn’t until I was sorting through my receipts this morning when I noticed that, for the very first time ever in my short life, I was given a Senior Discount. She didn’t ask. She apparently just punched it in. First time ever. Humiliating. Depressing. The only explanation is that the Town Crier must give the senior discount to those 40-years-old and over.

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Our daughter Valerie is posting pictures of her friends and herself attending last week’s Delta-Theta Luau at Oklahoma Christian University. I reminded her that we have a picture of her mom and me at the same Delta-Theta Luau back in 1989. That’s kinda cool, huh? Weird. Seeing the two pictures side-by-side kinda got up in my feels. And I realize maybe the senior discount thing isn’t so far-fetched.

deltathetaluauselfiedeltathetaluau

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markmclemore3The Rangers’ magic number is 3.

Peace,

Allan

First Day Pics

August 22, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Today’s the first day of school and I must join the rest of humanity in posting a few pictures of my children. Give me a break; you know you’ve already done it.

Valerie has transferred this year to Oklahoma Christian University: the home of the Eagles, the former home of Enterprise Square USA, and the place where Carrie-Anne and I met and fell in love. The whole family piled into a couple of cars Friday to deliver Valerie to Edmond, to her new dorm room at Tinius Hall, and to meet her new roommate, Aimee, who lives in Childress.

OCAimeeOCClosetOCTiniusHall119

It’s at once wonderful and strange when your daughter enrolls at your alma mater. Valerie’s Bible professor this semester is a Delta brother I went to school with at OC, Jeff McMillon, and her history professor is her uncle, my sister Rhonda’s husband Geoff. There are twice as many buildings and ten times as many trees on campus as there were thirty years ago. Goldie’s is gone and I can’t even find Johnnie’s or Pumps. But OC still feels like a wonderful community of smart and caring Christians who will support and encourage, teach and challenge, shape and guide our daughter.

As for Carley, today begins her Junior year at Canyon High School — she’s an upper classman! Still playing golf, still completely obsessed with her grades, still totally driven to be Valedictorian, still incredibly social and motivated to spend time with her friends and, yet, still unbelievably void of any desire to get out of bed before 11:00 am.

I sang the song at 6:15 this morning. She rolled over and groaned.

JuniorMirrorJunior

 

 

Carrie-Anne is beginning her third year as the culinary arts director for Canyon and Randall High Schools with three packed out classes. She has really grown that program into a regional powerhouse around here and they’re having to turn students away.

For Whitney and me, nothing much changes. We keep the same routine we’ve been managing all summer: getting up, going to work, and wondering why the Rangers can’t win a weekend series against a last place team.

Peace,

Allan

New Jobs & Old Friends

June 20, 2016 / / 0 Comments

BigTexans2Valerie and Carley are now both working for the city of Amarillo’s most widely known tourist attraction: The Big Texan. Yes, the home of the 72-ounce steak that comes free of charge if you can eat it and all the appetizers and sides and dessert in one hour or less is employing our two youngest daughters. Valerie is serving, Carley is hosting, and they’re both keeping alive every Texas stereotype you can imagine for the hundreds of foreigners (anyone outside of Texas) who eat dinner and kill time in the giant gift shop. Carley is instructed to greet all guests with a hearty, “Howdy, y’all!” They wear cowboy boots and cowboy hats and serve up huge steaks and country sides and a lot of sweet tea. They are not yet toting guns or riding horses.

All three of our daughters are now hard-working, tax-paying, productive members of society. Yee-haw!

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What a glorious weekend with two great and dear friends, Chris and Liz Moore. They rode their twin Harley Davidsons up here from Mesquite on Thursday and stayed with us through Sunday afternoon. They rode the Palo Duro Canyon, spray painted a heart on a car at muddy Cadillac Ranch, and spun a couple of times around Lake Merideth. We ate catfish together down in Umbarger, grilled fajitas, stayed up way too late, prayed together, and laughed and laughed and laughed.

Chris&LizKitchenChris&Liz2016

When we moved to Dallas-Fort Worth in 1999, Chris and Liz just happened to be sitting at the end of the pew we chose at the Mesquite Church of Christ — for the record, yes, they were there first and had been there a long time. We walked in to church with an almost seven-year-old Whitney, a barely two-year-old Val, and six-weeks-old Carley in a car seat / carrier. We plopped down on that same row with the Moores and they immediately welcomed us with their generous hearts and joyful sense of humor. Somehow, we clicked. And we’ve been clicking with them for 17 years now and counting.

Chris and Liz, we love you and your sweet family. We’re so grateful for the time we were graced by God to spend together this past weekend. Let’s see each other again before Tulsa.

Peace,

Allan

Happy 19, Valerie

January 24, 2016 / / 0 Comments

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No official birthday party. No sleepover with all your buddies on sleeping bags in the living room. No special breakfast. No huge surprise gift wrapped with colorful paper and a fancy bow. Maybe a check in the mail from a grandparent. Maybe a transfer of funds from mom and dad for a big girl trip to the mountains with college friends. Welcome to almost complete full-on adulthood, daughter. Today, you’re nineteen.

Today begins your last year of being a teenager. Maybe the last year I can keep on pretending you’re still a little girl. Maybe the last year you’ll ask me to have lunch with you, or want to ride home with me from church, or tell me you want to go skiing with me. Ah, you’re growing up fast! Fast!!!

I don’t see you as much as I used to and, honestly, it’s a little weird for me. Letting go, pushing you out, telling you to follow your dreams and, at the same time, trying to pay close attention and still parent you and still watch out for you and protect you, if even from a distance, is proving to be a difficult task for me.

But, I’m learning.

BabyBlueI’m learning by God’s grace that you do not belong to me. God created you in his holy image and you belong to him. That’s a tough lesson, one I’ve stubbornly refused to accept. But it’s true. You don’t belong to me. God made you and he created you to be a certain kind of person. And my attempts over the past nineteen years to shape you into the person I want you to be have not always been in harmony with God’s plans. I’ve made plenty of mistakes. I admit, sweetie, that I don’t understand all of this. But you are who God made you to be. And, for some reason — I’m assuming he just really loves me and wanted to bless me — he gave you to us as a gift. We’ve got you only for a little while. We’re charged with loving you and teaching you and protecting you and keeping you safe. We’re ordained as your parents to train you and nurture you in the ways of our Lord. But I cannot, nor should I ever try, to make you into someone you’re not. You’re going to be who God made you to be, to his glory and praise. And the times I’ve tried to make you something else — please forgive me.

Senior7I’m learning more how to just enjoy you. What a blessing you are to me, Valerie. How I smile when I think about you. How I burst with joy when I watch you interacting with little kids or messing around with your friends. How my soul soars when I hear you pray. How my heart swells with pride when others comment to me about how beautiful and talented and sweet you are. How much happiness you bring to your mother and me!

I am so very proud of you, daughter. I’m honored to be your dad. I will always move heaven and earth to protect you. I will always do whatever is necessary to provide for you. And I will always relish every moment I get to spend in conversation with you. But I’ll try not to force it. As you grow and become everything our God has created you to be, I’ll try to let the game come to me more now.

I love you. Happy Birthday, Val.

Dad

The Creed & Christian Formation

January 18, 2016 / / 0 Comments

SkiTrip2016A group of ten college kids (nine from OC, 1 from ACU) showed up at our house Friday night and left with Valerie for a weekend ski trip to Angel Fire. Four of the young men grew up at the Legacy Church of Christ and were in the youth group when we were there from 2006 – 2011. Colten Pace is standing on Valerie’s right in the picture. Behind Colten and Val is Dillon Byrnes, the son of David and Shanna. We were in small group with the precious Byrnes family for three year and still count them as great friends. Hudson Enger is behind Dillon’s left shoulder and Trevor Jones is standing behind Dillon’s right shoulder. It was so great to see them now in such a different context. They’re college kids now, out on their own, growing and learning and experiencing life together in new ways. And so full of God’s joy. The other six kids — I have no idea who they are. I know a couple of them are in Delta and at least one of them is a Bible major. Good enough!

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CrossElderLinkWe’re memorizing and reciting the ancient Apostles’ Creed as a church family here at Central because we believe it can help cultivate Christian formation. We believe God is in the business of changing us. He’s making us more and more into the image of his Son. That’s what God is doing in us. So church is more like school than a show. It’s more like boot camp than a country club. We’re all in and have committed to the difficult process of being changed. And we think the Apostles’ Creed will help facilitate that. To order your life around these timeless statements about God and Christ will shape a person.

If you believe that Jesus Christ will return to judge the living and the dead, that will have an impact on how you live. Think about that. He’s coming back to judge. What a great guard against sin. What a great tool for the counsel we give each other. What a great pause that gives us as we make decisions every day between right and wrong. It’ll affect the way we live.

If you believe in the forgiveness of sins, that’ll change the way you view yourself and it’ll affect how you act toward one another. We’ve all sinned this past week. All of us. In some way you haven’t loved the Lord. You said a mean thing to your spouse or a hurtful thing to your children. You’ve been dishonest with a co-worker or a friend. Maybe it’s a little sin you just can’t shake. Or maybe you’ve done something horribly out of character this week. We’ve all betrayed our Lord in some way this week. But if you believe in the forgiveness of sins, you don’t run away from the forgiver. You run to him. If we believe in the forgiveness of sins, then our church becomes a place of forgiveness and when you betray God you run to the church, not away from it.

And you will forgive others. Has anybody sinned against you this week? Has anybody lied to you or hurt you or let you down in some way this past week? Do you believe in the forgiveness of sins? It’ll change you.

Peace,

Allan

Holy Spirit Lives

September 26, 2015 / / 0 Comments

WTHomecoming15West Texas A&M is celebrating its Homecoming this weekend, which means we wound up at the WT Homecoming Parade in Canyon this morning supporting our Little Middle and her Zeta sisters and cheering for their float. The whole week has been hippie-themed: “Peace, Love, and Buffs!” Perfect for Valerie. She’s always been our flower child.

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The faithful proclamation of the Kingdom of God springs from the experience of a changed life. Transformed lives just explode with Christian testimony.

HolySpiritFilled“Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want… But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control… Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” ~Galatians 5:16-25

Our lives will not be changed without the Holy Spirit. I mean changed, radically transformed. Our lives must be different, obviously different, if we’re going to effectively proclaim the Lordship of Jesus.

But I’m not sure about the Holy Spirit. What does the Holy Spirit do in our lives? I have a lot of questions about the Holy Spirit. I don’t feel the Holy Spirit. Are we even sure about the Holy Spirit?

Part of the disconnect for us with the Spirit is our nominal discipleship, our Sundays only Christianity. You don’t need the Holy Spirit to achieve a comfortable lifestyle. Our problem is that our churches are only asking you to come to serves, write a check, be friendly, don’t go to R-rated movies, and don’t cuss.

Well, I don’t need the Holy Spirit to do that.

Listen, you don’t need to be a Christian to do that! If you won’t get out of your comfort zone, why would you need the Comforter?

A changed life is the loudest and clearest declaration that Jesus really is who he says he is and he is really doing what he said he would do. But your life won’t be changed until you submit and start paying attention to God’s Spirit.

Peace,

Allan

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