Parasites

Have you ever sat there and watched a mosquito suck out your blood? Or maybe a tick that locked itself onto your leg? They come quietly (long as the mosquito doesn't buzz next to your ear) and then they latch on you without anyone ever noticing, next thing you know you look down and there is this bloated insect full of your blood. Full of your life.

My Child Are You There?

There once was a new family that was just starting out on their own. The Couple had just had their first child and had moved into a new neighborhood in a small town. The Father beamed brightly at his new son as he dreamed of all the times they would spend together as he grew up, oh the things he would teach him!

The Cornmaze

Several years ago, and when I say that I mean when I was around 10 or so, our family was on one of our annual vacations to New York visiting family. It was in the fall and all the leaves were changing colors and the air was cool. This particular visit we had the awesome pleasure of getting to see pretty much all my cousins, particularly my Cousins Josiah and Nathan and their family. 

The Water Faucet

I was visiting with my accountability partner, about a month ago now, and I was bemoaning the fact that I just didn't seem to be coming up with any new blog ideas. In fact I had been feeling pretty dry for a while now with all the different roller coaster things that had been going on in my life. 

  His response to me was pretty simple, but it struck me upside the head a couple days later as I thought about it more. 

The Acorn

There once was a young man that had recently moved into a new home. He loved everything about his house and property except that he had no trees nearby to give him shade.
   One day he went out into the woods to find a plant near his home to provide himself some shade, as he walked he happened upon a small acorn. He picked it up and brought it home, and placed it into a small pot to let it start growing.

The Birthday Cake

There was a little boy not too long ago that had a birthday. He woke up excitedly knowing what the special day was and like all little boys knew that birthday's meant birthday cake. He eagerly ran into the kitchen where his mother was getting ready to mix his cake. 

   He pulled up a stool and looked over the counter top that was filled with the ingredients to make the cake. He looked at his mother and asked, "where's the cake?" his mother softly laughed and told him, "I have to mix these ingredients and then bake it together." The little boy following the logic that most little boys have responded, "Well cake is sweet and yummy, so are all these ingredients sweet and yummy too?"

Too Quick to Forgive?

A few weeks ago me and a friend were sitting down and talking about things going on, just catching up when at one point in our conversation the phrase came up, "I'm too quick to forgive sometimes."
  I admit it was me that said it, and any of you that know me well know that I am probably one of the faster ones to throw out the "hey it's all good, I forgive you." I absolutely hate letting anything sit for more than a couple days (much to the amusement of my friends sometimes after I say something like "I refuse to chat them for the X amount of days" and then end up trying to fix our differences that night)

 But as I went home after hanging out and I laid in my bed the phrase kept going through my mind. "Too quick to forgive."

Too quick? What kind of phrase is this? This is a phrase that has permeated our life and our culture, I've heard it everywhere in all sorts of different circumstances. But really, is this a valid phrase that we as Christians can be or should be using?

Life Update

Hey Guys,
    I know I've been slacking a little on the blog lately. (okay let's be honest this blog almost doesn't exist anymore, and I know you've all been tearing out your hair because you haven't been getting your daily dose of Ryan's life lessons, no? oh.. )

Life has been keeping me pretty busy as of lately, putting in a lot of hours at work and procrastinating with everything else. (should do a post on that sometime soon.)

Keep me in prayers as I'm still in the midst of the testing phase for the Cincinnati FD and the next test is the Physical Agility testing.

Stay Patient! A new post is just around the corner, I just have to find some extra time to finish reading up for it and then I'll get to work on it soon as I can, consider this an accountability post. If you don't see a post by the end of this week you all better start messaging me and asking about it.

If you have any particular topics you would want me to cover feel free to leave a comment and I'll see what I can do. I'm getting ready to update the blog pages again so if you don't see another post for a while that's probably why, I'll be updating the style of my blog with an added section for Theological posts and then there will be my normal devotional side.
  This why I can alternate weeks and gives me more time to get content for either side.

Hope you all are doing well!

God Bless,
      Ryan

It Is Well

I don't have much of a story today, but I wanted to share something that has taken me a long time to learn and put in practice. A twofold lesson today actually.

The last week has been pretty hard on me, without going into too much detail about the events that have happened in my life I'll tell you that it left me feeling lost and totally out of control. At times it left me on my floor crying out to God and asking him why things were happening that were so opposite to what I wanted that they were completely changing my plans that I had for my life.

Working Out

A few weeks ago I made the decision I need to lose weight and get in shape. Not just for my career and stuff but also for my long term health. I've really applied myself to getting in shape and trying to work out everyday for at least an hour. I walked into the gym absolutely lost and having no idea what to do or how to do anything. But I figured out a couple of the machines and read how to use the dumbbells and proceeded to start my workout. Those first few days were terrible, my body hurt, I sweated so much I looked like I jumped in a pool, and really I felt like just quitting and leaving it be. But as I kept it up it slowly got easier.

Keeping the Watch

~

There once were two young men back during the Roman Empire, their jobs were to patrol the walls of their small city and keep watch for any suspicious movement and upon sighting of an enemy force would sound the alarm to alert the city so everyone could get prepared.

 Day after day they would attend their training's and day after day their overseeing commander would remind them that they always much keep watch no matter how calm the times were. And indeed times were at a calm, there was a great peace through much of the Empire.

The Golf Game

~

There once was a young man that decided one day he wanted to learn how to golf. He went out and bought himself a set of clubs and he bought a nice of pair of golfing gloves and shoes. The next day he went out to the local golfing club and started practicing. He swung his club as hard as he could and hit the ball with all his strength. He stood there for about an hour, his ball flying off to the left and right, his club digging into the ground but they just wouldn't fly straight down the course like he wanted them to.

Building the Campfire

~

One year just a few weeks before Valentines day, there once was a Scout Leader that was trying to think of a fun way to teach them their lesson the next camp out. His boys were teenagers now and were getting to the point where they would begin starting their first relationships, he figured that since Valentines day was just around the corner it would be a good time to bring it up. 

As he sat down reviewing the material for the next camp out he realized that their next merit to work on was the Fire Merit. As he read through it he took particular notice of the different styles of campfires that the boys needed to build and how they had to build it. "ah," he thought, "there's an idea."

The Music of Sin

~

There once was a young boy, he loved his music and he loved to sing. His Mother raised him up on the old Gospel songs and the Hymnal from church, she didn't really enjoy any of the other music that was more modern and as a result there wasn't much of it at all in their home. 

As the boy got older and began attending more youth events from his school and going out with his friends he began getting exposed to some of the music they listened to. At first the music he heard absolutely repulsed him, "this isn't music" he would say to himself, "It's nothing but noise." But he would tolerate it and quietly hum to himself so as not to bother his friends.

Blog Update

Hey Everyone!
     Just a quick update keeping you guys informed, I'm going to be going through my blog posts and getting rid of the intros and streamlining a lot of the material, so there might be a small update here and there to old posts. But for the most part this is just to streamline a lot of the material to just go straight into the story part of the blog. That's all I got for ya till later this week!

 God Bless,
      Ryan

P.S. This pic was from when we went to see the Nina and Pinta ships a couple years ago, for those of you who were wondering.

I Got Your Back

~

Long ago there were two youths that lived in a small village, they grew up together and became the best of friends. They worked, played, they did everything together. They were like Brothers they were so close to each other. If one got into a scrap the other would join in to help in the fight, if one got into some trouble with debts or had trouble with work the other would do everything he could to help out.

   One day the news quickly spread across the country side, "The king is looking for young men to fight in his army!" The two young men quickly volunteered together, and just like back in the village they stayed together.

Look Ahead

~

There once was an old farmer, his entire life he had spent tilling the land and raising his crops. He'd been around long enough to see many changes in the technology and the new equipment for farming come and go, but he still enjoyed using his old tools and tractors much as he could. 

   One spring as he was getting ready to plow the fields getting everything ready, his grandson who was now a young teenager come up to him and asked if he could drive the tractor. The old farmer laughed and allowed the boy to ride with him out to the fields and after doing a couple laps around the field he let the boy take the wheel and drive the tractor.