Today’s my son Josh’s 21st birthday. If you want you can bless him with your happy birthday wishes here is his Facebook page.

Twenty-one years ago Amy, my wife, and I had to decide what name we would choose if we had a little boy. We went back and forth trying to pick the perfect name.

Finally we landed on Joshua Scott which means, “God is my salvation as I wander along.”

It’s a fitting name.

This past weekend I was in a conversation with a group of people about when they received their first pair of glasses. I received my first pair of glasses in second grade. I couldn’t read the blackboard in school very well.

One person said third grade.
Another said fifth grade.
A fourth person said, “in junior high.”

“Really?”, I asked.
He added, “Well, I needed them years before, but I was just faking it.”

Just Faking It

Ah, just faking it.

Too often we fake reality wishing it was different, when it’s not.

I have some friends who are choosing to start a new or refreshed relationship with God.

Those decisions made me think of these wise works:

“To live as God’s child is to know, at this very instant, that you are loved by your Maker
– NOT because you try to please God and succeed,
– OR fail to please God and apologize,
– BUT because God wants to be your Father. Nothing more.

All your efforts to win God’s affection are unnecessary.
All your fears of losing God’s affection are needless.

Believe in people.

Yes, believe in people, but not too much.

Beware “relying on human beings”, wrote C.S. Lewis.

(They’re) going to let us down.
The best of them will make mistakes;
all of them will die.

We must be thankful to all the people who have helped us, we must honour them and love them. But never, never pin your whole faith on any human being: not if he is the best and wisest in the whole world.

There are lots of nice things you can do with sand; but do not try building a house on it.”

This week I was asked several times about turning fifty.

I was asked by twenty-somethings who now realized that I was twice as old as them. The gap that seemed more about experience than age now felt a little different.

I was asked by thirty-somethings who wondered aloud how old fifty seemed, but asked silently, “What will I be like when I’m fifty?” 

Turning 20

Twenty was the year I was going to school full-time, and working full-time, but I was spinning my wheels. When I turned twenty I had yet to make some healthy changes in my life, and the future didn’t look bright.

This weekend my dear – and very pregnant – friend Angi had a baby shower.

“Pumpkin seed” is Angi’s first.
This was also my first baby shower.

I know husbands, boyfriends, significant others and the like who have attended baby showers, but I never had.

I was feeling a variety of feelings as the moment to leave for the party arrived:

I love thunderstorms.  Wait, let me clarify, I love non-threatening thunderstorms.  So much so, that right now it’s absolutely pouring outside and I’m all excited.

So, that makes my decision easier.  Today is my daughter Shannon’s birthday.  There are many things I can tell you about her, but with this wonderful storm in my eyes, I can barely focus.

I’m going to re-post what I wrote last year on her birthday.  I think it will bless new readers and old readers alike. 

Oh, and thank you Steve Towler for this great picture that you took of Shannon and I at Nate & Manna’s wedding recently!

In the past couple weeks I’ve found myself in several conflicts. 

Sometimes it was clearly my fault, other times it was a miscommunication, and I’ve also been attacked by others.

Whether it’s listening to someone we’ve hurt, listening to someone explain their perspective, or listening to someone we’ve been hurt by, almost everyone I know agrees that we need to become better listeners.

Here are six helpful tips that I’m learning.

6 Attitudes That Get In The Way Of Listening:

Last night my wife and I renewed our wedding vows in front of many, many friends old and new.  1

Today is the first day of our second twenty-five years and my first day with my new vows in place.

New vows?
What did I promise?
This is what I said:

Twenty-five years ago I repeated traditional vows that I hoped to keep:

I, Scott, take you Amy, to be my wife
To have and to hold
From this day forward
For better, or for worse
For richer or for poorer
In sickness and in health
To love and to cherish until we are parted by death
As God is my witness,
I give you my promise

I had a dream Sunday night.  I couldn’t wait to tell you about it, but I did.

I was riding on a flat bottom rail car through an unnamed city.  

Our flatbed train was kind of like a ten-foot wide airport moving walkway. We were traveling in an open flatbed rail car with no safety features at all. It seemed normal. 1

I traveled with my son Josh, and a third person who was a combination of my wife Amy and daughter Shannon.  Since they are so close, it didn’t seem weird at all.