kylegilbert

Well, if Legos are the ultimate in coolness in toys, Playmobil comes in for a close second.  Well, except for the fact that they have a nativity set, which probably pushes them above Legos on the coolness factor.

Yes, having kids is the perfect excuse to play with toys!

Not only can familiarity have a negative impact on our marriages and friendships, it can have a similar impact on our relationship with our Heavenly Father.  Our relationship with God is not immune.  What once was a dynamic and thriving relationship with God can turn into something that is rote, programmatic, or at worst, legalistic.  Our deep love and gratitude for God’s grace can be lost in the busyness of life.

Just like our relationships with friends and spouses, there are simple steps we can take to start moving back in the right direction.  What is different is that God is always ready for us return to Him.  Unfortunately, human relationships often take some time to warm back up to the idea, but God is constantly pursuing us and desires that we share deep fellowship with Him.

Today I made a quick trip back to Fort Worth to participate in a rehearsal dinner and officiate a wedding. Although I feel very inadequate, I love doing weddings and spending time with the couple during the weeks leading up to the wedding. Most of the time, they’re very affectionate with one another, and they don’t care what anyone thinks. I love that!

It reminds me of when Keri and I first got married. We would constantly hold hands, hug, and kiss. Seeing it in the lives if others makes me regret every missed opportunity to treat my wife with that kind of affection today.

So why do things change? The complexity of having kids certainly plays a part, but I think the real culpret is familiarity.

Familiarity does a terrible thing to relationships, if you let it. It blinds you to the wonder of a husband or a wife or a friend. Irritations that would have been dismissed in the past become problems. Things that used to be special are overlooked. Acts of thoughtful kindness fall away.

But I don’t believe things have to stay this way. I believe the romance and fun can be recapatured, and I aspire to see my love and affection for my wife increase each year, beating back familiarity.

Here are a few questions for reflection: When was the last time I wrote my spouse a love note? What is the tone of my voice when I talk to my wife on the phone? Do I sound excited or bored? What can I do immediately to show my spouse how much I love her? What are some things we can do together to make sure that we battle against this beast of familiarity?

I’ve only been in Tennessee for a few weeks, but I can already tell that one thing in particular will be my downfall – a nearly irresistible temptation and a wonderful libation: sweet tea.

It’s not that it couldn’t be found in Texas, it just couldn’t be found everywhere.  On occasion, in Texas, I would think, “Oh, yeah.  I’m at a place that serves sweet tea!”  But now, I have that thought any time I go anywhere, whether it’s small group, a church function, or a restaurant.  I’m surrounded by the sugary goodness, and it’s very hard for me to resist.

I have it in good authority that the over indulgence of this elixir can have a negative affect on one’s waistline, so I’m treading lightly.  But still… I think it may be a struggle.

My oldest brother-in-law almost always has some crazy idea up his sleeve, and on occasion, he’ll do some pretty radical stuff.  For a while, he spent his free time pushing his Nissan truck along the road.  Last I heard, he had a combined distance of quite a few miles (Gorilla, help me out with the specifics here).

His most recent adventure has been to purchase a sailboat, and that’s where he lives now.  In the boat.  The only problem is that he’s also been going to school in Amarillo, TX, which is not exactly known for its lakes.

So the “Great Gorilla”, Nate, lives in a dry docked boat, parked next to his pickup truck.  You really have to see it to believe it.  (The missing front grill on his truck is due to a wreck in an ice storm a few years ago).

I’ve asked about what he does when he needs to take a shower or go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, but I’m still without answers.  I’m also wondering if the colder weather has forced him to find other forms of shelter.

Don’t freeze, bro!

In a world full of bad news, I found this to be an encouragement today.  This week, several Internet service providers came together to shut down a California-based internet company that was responsible for about 67% of the spam in the United States.  Evidently this host had become a home for a lot of spammers because of their loose controls.

So, if you notice that you aren’t getting as many online pharmacy emails, you’ll know who to thank.

The bad news: it’s only a temporary solution, and the spammers are already finding new places to hide.

Finally, a video that justifies all that time you spend on Twitter and Facebook.

Every once in awhile I have a bad computer day.  Hard drive crash, memory failure, or power supply burnout.  These things happen, and that’s why we back up our data (you do, right?).  But today I had a couple of unrelated computer problems that 1) I didn’t cause, and 2) were completely unrelated.

The first problem happened a few minutes after installing Adobe CS4, a wonderful suite of programs including the new versions of PhotoShop, Illustrator, Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and a few others (I use these programs almost as much as I use email).  I got a “your running out of hard drive space” warning.  That’s strange, especially on a brand new computer – not yet cluttered with tons of applications and files.  Hmmm.  Even after I freed up some memory, I was still getting errors.

When I checked my hard drive, this is what I saw:

You don’t have to be too computer savy to figure out that this is a bad thing.  No free memory means that you can do almost nothing on a computer.

The second issue:  While, I was trying to figure out what to do with my dying computer,  I remembered something that a person mentioned in a meeting today .  They said that when they looked at the code of the Faith Promise website, there were a bunch of weird pharmaceutical links listed there.  I quickly confirmed that this really was the case, and I sent an email to the ad agency who currently takes care of the website.  Here’s an excerpt from the email I received in response.

So in one day, I ended up with a computer that was mistakenly trying to syncronize all the personal folders on the server and a website that had been hacked.  Crazy.

The good news: both issues were resolved before I left the office today.

A few weeks ago I purchased an iPhone.  It was a tough decision to make because I had to switch from Sprint and I knew that the required data plan was going to end up costing us more, even if I cut back on our minutes.  I also had a negative influence, who was trying to convince me that a Blackberry was the way to go.

Well, fortunately, I threw caution to the wind and picked up an 8Mb iPhone, and I have to say that it’s pretty much amazing.  The user interface really is revolutionary, and the applications are pretty slick.  It’s just like when I bought my first Palm Pilot.  I’m back to my technology-loving self.

For those of you out there who are iPhone or iPod Touch users, let me know your favorite add-on apps, and I’ll share a few of mine here too.  My brother, Phil, introduced me to almost all of these, and most of them are free:

Pandora – kind of like having custom XM radio stations on your phone.  Check out the free computer application if this sounds interesting at all.  I promise, you’ll like it.

YouVersion – LifeChurch.tv’s team of awesome has put together this great free Bible application (also available for your computer desktop or Blackberry).  I like it so much, that I’m using it for my quiet time a majority of the time now.

Facebook - pretty cool to have Facebook with you all the time.  Not so useful, but pretty clever.

Hidden Expedition: Everest – Brynna and I play this one together, and she loves it.  It’s kind of like “Where’s Waldo,” but not nearly as dorky (no offense, if you happen to like red and white stripes).

Shazam - In about 15 seconds, this program can accurately identify a song that you hear on the radio or at the store.

Disclaimer: I hesitated to write this post because I really hate to stir up materialism in the hearts of anyone.  After all, it is just piece of plastic and metal with zero eternal impact… but I do think it is pretty cool (and so does my wife – she keeps trying to steal it from me).

Yesterday, I decided to hang a swing in the back yard. My parents gave it to us a couple of years ago, but we’ve never had a good place to hang it until now.

Although I was able to throw the rope over the branch from the ground, I had to climb up to get it placed correctly on the branch (and also to show my wife that I hadn’t lost my tree-climbing touch).

My kids love swinging, and it turned out great.

Lan was in town for the weekend, and she’s the one who took the photo of me in the tree.