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As a family Naomi and I try and have consistent family fun events with the kids. I found great comfort when someone once told me that these don’t have to be the big, well thought out events we sometimes think we need to plan as parents. Often they aren’t even close to being well thought out. They are however intentional times where we as a family can laugh, play and have fun together. This time round I decided to do a quick round of “Egg Olympics” prior to me leaving for church.

Pre competition prep while the kids still sleep

Kids just waking up

The choosing of the eggs

Choosing which egg will run in the first race

Judah taking his mark

Esther still sleepy but getting ready to race

They're off!

Almost at the finish line

Winner of Heat #1 Esther!

A little less enthusiasm from Judah with a second place finish

Next Heat, egg smash. Egg left standing wins.

Judah's egg starts to explode (wish I had set a faster shutter speed)

A mess is now unavoidable

Oh, oh!

Judah declares himself the winner & incredibly Esther believes him.

Good sportmanship

It was declared a draw.

The spoils of battle go to Jackson

Anyways, a quick snapshot into some “Egg Olympics” at the Herbold household early Friday morning.

Do you ever find yourself in a situation where you need a file and you don’t have a usb key on you, or you forgot to email yourself ahead of time?

I love having information and files at my fingertips. I also love having my files backed up, and I want it all for free.So, who can do this all?

Introducing dropbox.com

Here’s what I love about this simple service.

• Free (you get 2 GB free initially)
• Great for backing up files
• Super easy to use. (This is a big deal, because a lot of online backup tools are not so user friendly)
• *This is awesome — keeps a history of all file changes (30 days) so that you can undo “mistakes”
• Refer your friends and get additional storage space (its free for them too)
• Love the service and need lots of storage space fast (they offer paid upgrades)
• Ability to share your dropbox folder across your network(great for shared resources in a home or office setting)
• Replaces the need to email files to yourself, use a usb key, rename files so that you keep copies of older versions, etc, etc.
• Works on Mac! (works on windows + Linux as well)
• Web access and iphone app accessibility.

Check out the video tutorial below to see how simple this truly is!

Action Step:

• Sign Up Today and benefit from this free service
• Sign Up Today and help me get some additional storage space (Update: I am now capped in additional free space, but you should still sign up!)

4 Steps to reading this post. (Yup, this requires some time and work)

• Read 2 Peter chapter 1. (ESV version of this text is here)
• Check out the awesome 6 minute video from Granger Community church below.
• Re-read 2 Peter chapter 1. (ESV version of this text is here)
• Write down what stuck out for you. Meditate on that this week and act accordingly.

For me, this is what I loved, felt challenged by, and what stuck out to me:

• A great history lesson on Nero, the burning of Rome and how the Christians suffered because of it.
• Incredible context on 1&2 Peter. (I will never read these books the same way again)
• A good reminder that I have never had it “that bad.” That was incredible suffering they endured for Christ’s sake.
• I love Peter’s passion to be constantly reminding other believer’s of the faith, hope, and power we have through Christ.(2 peter 12-14)
• To also share and be a “reminder” of Christ’s good news to others. (it’s funny to me how easy it is to separate being a disciple and disciple maker)

So, what stuck out to you?

So I’m sitting home alone, I just took a nap and feel like crap. However, my foggy head is starting to clear. A good cup of Starbucks helps with that. I’m feeling quite reflective at the moment and am missing Naomi and the kids.

So this past new years I caught myself staring out the window praying and asking God for what He thought I should focus on in the coming year. I felt like he said, “people”. In my mind I replied back to Him and said, “but God that’s my job, that’s what I already do every day. My whole job description is about people.” And yet it felt like He just said, “focus on who they are, who i have made & called them to be. Pray that you would see them as I see them. Be more intentional. Don’t be so rushed always.” I agreed and didn’t think much further about it, except that I would try and do so.

This past Monday I went and saw Avatar with my sister. Fresh off of my conversation with God I was struck by the phrase “I See you.” The Na’vi, when they meet each other, greet each other with the phrase “I see you.” Of course they physically see each other, but to the characters in the movie there was a much deeper meaning.  There was this understanding, a shared empathy between both individuals, a recognition of sameness (why they greeted Jake that way even before he was fully Na’vi), an acknowledgment of the divine.

While I don’t want to get carried away with over analyzing a plain ole fun movie to watch. It did serve to remind me to fully “see” people as God see’s them. Deeply loved, full of promise, unworthy of Christ’s grace and still the great potential to be called sons and daughter’s of the most high God. So, a good reminder for me to see people not as “us vs them” or “me and you” but see you as Christ see’s both of us.  Simply, the same. Unworthy, yet patiently loved beyond measure. I don’t have that perspective nearly often enough.

So, there’s my New Years resolution for 2010. Praying to have His eyes.

Malcolm Gladwell is by far one of my favorite authors. He recently released his new book, What the Dog Saw.

Besides being a very insightful researcher and author, he is also one of the few authors to have all four of his books on the Best Seller list. Incredible considering his first book came out over 9 years ago.

As a speaker he is just as insightful. C-Span recently did an hour long interview with him. So, if you have some time and like Gladwell, you will enjoy the interview.