Looking Forward - Ryan Merriman

In an effort of being a little different and my anxious nature, how about we start looking to the future. What will my future hold?? This is a question that has been plaguing me too no end right now. As I am always trying to gain the next position with my company and what will that mean for my future, and what will it look like?

If you take a snap shot of my life right now you would find some great things and some may say the best that most could ask for. I enjoy the life that I share with my lovely bride Angie, someone who has to put up with way too much and whom I love and she loves me to no end. I have the two best boys that any father could ever ask for; they act just like me. (a little scary) I have a great job with a great company and I am enjoying great success right now. So what is next?

This question scares me way too much, but I seem to be obsessing over it now. I recently applied for a position with my company in Tampa FL. It is the next step for my career with this company and somewhere that I would not mind living some day. Although, my parents just moved there! Not too bad now, but times with my mother around can be trying. Anyway, due to applying for this job it made me think what is next and how can I plan for this. I do want the job and I wouldn’t mind a change in climes, but I know that this would rock my wife’s world. She hates change and she has really built a great place for her spiritually and socially with her friends and our loving church family. I don’t think that it is fair to up and move her when she is so happy right where we are. This is my dilemma.

Question for anyone out there:
What has been your experience with change such as this and how did it affect you significant other?

Ryan, an IronMan

Reflection

As this weekend draws to a close, there are some things that i am extremely thankful for. Some of these things i remember often, but others i do not. Here goes:
1. My wife and all that she does. I kept the kids Friday and Saturday while Paige went to WOF conference. I did survive, and i must say i thought it went pretty good. However, my goal was surviving. I can't imagine how Paige is able to survive everyday and also mix in some good teaching and contructive game time where the kids learn so much. she is incredible and i am continually amazed at her gift! I love you babe!
2. My children are incredible. I loved having time to spend with them this weekend. I look at Emaline(7 months old) and i see the joy of the Lord in her eyes. When she smiles, i melt! She is really going through some changing and really starting to cuddle and love much more. I love this time!
Parker and i got to go to the Ranger game Saturday night. That was a spiritual experience for me. Baseball is the game i grew up loving so much and to be able to take my son, well, that was just heavenly. He loved it and we even stayed the whole game!
I love you kids!
3. Our health is so sacred. Within the last 2 weeks, Paige and i have had over 10 family members in the hospital. It is amazing that our bodies work as well as they do being that they are so intricate. Please keep our families in your prayers.
4. I need to keep my focus on serving others and making myself a vessel of God's love. There are people everyday that God puts on our hearts, what are we going to do about it? I need to be more about serving and less about gaining!
5. Often times i do things so that people will notice. That is terrible! I need to reevaluate my life and actions!

thanks Rick for the great message the other day (see previous post "Leaving Home"). I encourage you guys that are reading this and other posts, to comment and share your thoughts on these subjects. Just click the "comments" button below and you can share your thoughts.

Thanks STP

Leaving Home - Rick Morgan

Brenda and I reached another milestone this week. We dropped Zen (our oldest son) off at ACU. As we reach this time in our lives, we now have to say we have a college age son. It is hard to imagine we are that old. Since coming home, I’ve spent some time reflecting on other milestones. I can actually remember the time we didn’t have children and then the joy I had in learning we were having our first child. The birth, first word, first step, riding a bike for the first time, first day of school and then High School graduation were all great occasions but none that measure up to this event. But leaving your child at College is more than a milestone; it is an accomplishment of sorts. Brenda and I have been preparing Zen for this day for 18 years. We’ve been teaching, molding and grooming him for adulthood or a passage to this new chapter in his life as well as ours. Of course, our work is never quite through, but we now need to step back or take a back seat and “cut the apron strings” and let him make choices and decisions on his own. The question that keeps coming to my mind is, will he thrive or flounder without us? Well, God can only answer that question, but we truly believe he is ready to step out and be the Christian man that he was groomed to become. We have been fortunate to have him with us and he has been a blessing to all of our lives. He is, after all, a gift on loan from God.

Many of you reading this have experienced this passage and know the same emotions that we are having. Some of you young fathers will get here sooner than you think. I find myself wanting and wishing for more time, but just think that is a natural emotion. I urge all you young fathers to prepare yourselves and your children for the time they leave home. Spend as much time as possible with your kids and teach and guide them in the way of the Lord. “Train a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not turn from it.” Proverbs 22:6

In retrospect, our emotions are primarily of excitement. We fondly remember our time at ACU, and know that Zen will flourish in his new surroundings. We really feel that Zen is where he needs to be. He is surrounded by peers that are walking in His steps and can help each other in drawing closer to each other and to their Savior. Yes, it is sad to see that empty chair at the dinner table and know the dynamics of our house will change. And when he walks through the front door, he won’t be a child but an adult, a man of God. Zen will be missed more than words can describe but we pray and we even know that the past 18 years have been years that have prepared him to be where he is now. It is exciting to imagine where God will lead him.

I do find myself longing to talk with him and want to sit down and visit about his new life and what lessons he is learning. I know now how Paul felt when he left a city and church that he planted and know the feelings behind his words as he wrote about wanting to visit and talk about their faith. I also can identify with John as he wrote in his third letter saying, “There is no greater joy than seeing your children walk in the faith.”

---Rick Morgan, an IronMan

Interesting Week

I don't know if yall had an interesting week, I did! There were some up and downs and some in the middle. Goes something like this:
1. A stuggle - Paige brought to light some comments of mine that did not come across the way i wanted them to. She shared this in such a loving and compassionate way that i totally understood where she was coming from. I am so very thankful for her heart and love for me that she cared enough to handle the situation the way she did. At the same time, it was hard to hear. I end up teaching some class each week at church and I now realize that i need to be extra careful how i say things. Not everyone sees things the way i see them or hears things the way i hear them. I thought i understood that (and i think i do for the most part), but reality is that i need to be ever aware of that situation.
2. A stuggle - Cooper's friends (the Tanner's) situation make me so thankful for my family. I hurt for them so much and wish that it could all be worked out imediately, but i know that it's not going to happen overnight. I hurt for the Cooper's (who do so much for so many people) that they are stuggling with the Tanner's and are stretched so much trying to help out. It really brings reality to know that there are so many hurting marriages out there. We have to keep our marriage healty by communicating consistently and correctly!
3. A praise - Two guys called from another softball team and said that they wanted to play with us this next season. This is incredible because we have had a run in or two with this team. However, the run ins seemed to stop after the last one several months ago. We went and talked to them face to face about it all and we both applogized and there have not been any problems since. Now, they are not going to have a team and two of the guys want to play with us! Wow! That is the whole reason we wanted to play softball in the first place. We wanted to have fun but more than that, we wanted to promote Christ by our actions and efforts! I believe this is one step in that direction! Yall keep this situation in your prayers.
4. Prayers - We got word that Paige's SF has multiple spots of cancer that has returned. Just when you think you have it beat, here it comes again.
5. Prayers - My grandmother is in the hospital. She is getting older (93) and is suffering from things they can't trace. They are doing lots of test to try to find out, but no answers yet.

This is a lot of "stuff", some good and some not so good. However, i am continually reminded that God is good all the time, and all the time God is good. He is making good of things whether you know it or not. We just have to trust Him and let him lead. That is the hard part.

Prayers needed

Let's remember Mark and Beth Tanner. They are friends of the Cooper's and are stuggling right now. Please keep them in your prayers.

Let me just say, it is so amazing the way God works. No matter what we do, God still is there for us and loves us and that is displayed everyday in our lives. Just look around you and you will find hopeless cases where God is working in mysterious ways. Ways we cannot understand or even see sometimes. I have been amazingly reminded of this in the past couple of days. Things don't happen by coincidence or luck. I don't believe in luck or happenstance. God is God and he is in control and thank goodness He is!!!

Stay strong, PLD!

STP

Grace vs. Mercy

I recieved this from a friend of mine today and thought it very worthy of sharing:

God's Grace is giving us what we don't deserve
God's Mercy is not giving us what we do deserve.

Very cool thought. Thank the Lord for both!

Thanks JW for this message!

STP

IronMen blog starts!!!

Here we go! IronMen, start your typing! We are beginning an IronMen blog for all IronMen out there. The format is very simple. If you have something to share or want to communicate, let me know an I will show you how to blog it! Then, other folks can come to this site and comment or leave their own blog post. Let's just see how this goes, you never know. This could be a great idea or maybe not. Time will tell. I know that blogging has become very popular these days as a way to communicate things that you may not take time to communicate verbally. Well, anyway, I just sent this idea out to the IronMen, so I don't expect many entries very soon. But, hopefully it will get rolling soon.

IronMen, you're the best! Stay strong and PLD!

STP