Who do you hang with?

Do you remember how our mothers would always tells us, "people will judge you by the people you run around with"? Well, I do, and now that I'm older, I'm beginning to wonder just how true that is. Do we do that? Do must of us, whether we consciencly do it or not, judge people by who they hang around with? Now, I know us Christians have a hard time with the word "judge"...I don't necessarily mean do we "judge" in the scripture since of the word, but do we see people differently by who they hang with? Has there ever been a time when you met someone, and you didn't know them very well, but you thought they were a pretty cool person, and then you found out who their best friend was, and it was someone you thought was a total jerk. Have you ever caught yourself trying to find a "jerk" part of the first guy that you thought was cool?
Another thought along these lines are, do our friends represent a part of who we are? I mean, I think about all the people in my life that I call friends, and I would be proud for people to "judge" me based on them, because, of course, I think all my friends are cool. But if I didn't think they were cool, and were proud of who they were, then why would they be my friend? WOW, this is getting deep.
Anyway, what sparked this is I have a coworker...we'll call her Jill. I don't know Jill very well, but from the conversations I've had with her and stuff, I thought Jill was really cool. Of course I"m a happily married man, so I don't think she is "too" cool, but you know what i mean. Anyway, I found out who her best friend was, and it is another coworker we'll call Jamie. Jamie gets on my nerves, is not a very good employee, and has many other personality flaws (like we all do) that get on my nerves. Well, I caught myself re-evaluating how cool Jill was, strickly based on the fact that her best friend was Jamie. And that bothered me. So I would love other people's input on this subject. Let me know your thoughts!!

Date night

Every Tuesday night my wife and I go out and have datenight. The first thing we do is go out to eat. We have a list of all the restaurants in Waco, and we chose one and go. But the problem is coming up with fun ideas for after dinner. We have a limited amount of time, since we have a 12 year old son. We leave the house at 6:30, and have to be back by no later than 9:59. Mostly all we do is either go see a movie, or go wander around at the bookstore, or go get ice cream. A couple times we have gone bowling. But I'm having a hard time coming up with new good ideas for our date night. Sometimes (like right now) money is short and we need ideas of cheap things to do, and other times we have a little extra spendin' money. Anyone out there have any great ideas of fun things to do around Waco on a Tuesday night????? Help a brotha out!!

Where I am week, He is strong

You know how we as Christians talk about how many times God calls us to do something that we are week in so that His strength shines through, instead of our own? Well, that is VERY true in my life. Because I’ve realized something……I don’t like people. Now, don’t get me wrong, I have best friends, close friends, and good acquaintances, as well as family, and I love (and like) them all very much. But in general, people get on my nerves.
But where has my career taken me? God called me to go to college to be a Social worker. I worked a few years doing community social work, meeting people in their homes and trying to help them with community services and help them talk things out. After that, I took my social work into the nursing homes, where I was surrounded by people for 8+ hours a day! Then God sent me back to school to get my nursing home administrator’s license. And now I work as an administrator, where not only do I have to deal with the residents, but also with ALL my staff, and with family members, other healthcare businesses, etc… But even with my dislike for people, every time I’ve stepped into my building, I have automatically been consumed with love for my clients/ residents/family members. It’s amazing. My life has been so blessed by many of the people I’ve had the pleasure of helping. And it is all God. Same goes for mission trips. God has called me to go on many mission trips, and every time I get off that plane, I am consumed with love for that people group; sometimes to the extent of tears.
But I know it is all God, because I can be walking around my nursing home, loving on people, and then leave for lunch, run up to Wal-Mart, and be ticked off at the ignorance of some people. But as soon as I walk back in the doors of my building, I “love everyone”. It’s really amazing how God calls us to things we are the weakest in. It always reminds me of Moses, who had a stutter, and was called to be the spokesman of God’s people.