Pressed on all sides

2 Corinthians 4:7-9 We have this light from God in our human bodies. This shows that the power is from God. It is not from ourselves. We are pressed on every side, but we still have room to move. We are often in much trouble, but we never give up. People make it hard for us, but we are not left alone. We are knocked down, but we are not destroyed. (This post was from July 5, 2015. It is even more relevant today. ) This little flower seems fitting with this verse. Last fall we planted purple pansies in our flowerbeds. We never planted a white one. Yet here in the crack of our porch in the summer heat this little white pansy sprouted from seemingly nowhere and shines bright! Being pressed on every side it still continues to grow. Things press us on all sides everyday. Influences from everywhere intend to knock us down. We cannot be destroyed tho!! Let the world see God's light that is shining from within you. This little pansy did!

Onward Christian soldier

“Onward Christians Soldiers marching as to war with the cross of Jesus going on before.” It was time to rename this cross, just as the times seemed to have changed before our eyes. It was known as the Christian Flag Cross. It is now the Christian Soldier’s Cross. This was never a simple battle anyway, was it? It’s not something we can just wave a flag at as going to war. We can’t just make a stand and hope it will all blow over either. This is a constant and daunting spiritual war that we’ll have to fight head on with all our hearts, till the day we go Home. God save us. 🙏

Sixty Feet six inches

60’6” 

For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. - 2 Timothy 1:7

2006 

Daniel was five years old when they asked if he would throw out the first pitch at our local farm club’s game. 

He wanted to practice every singe day for a month to get ready. So we did! 

We started at 15ft away which scared me pretty good!  He may have had a “bad leg” as most called it but he had an “amazing arm.”

We got to the 60 ft mark in the yard and he easily put them in my mitt over and over. 

The day came for him to walk out on that mound and I proudly walked out along side of him.

They fumbled over announcing his last name and  it didn’t phase him.  I told him he could do it and right away he reached back and threw the ball. It dropped about 10 ft in front of the plate...

The crowd cheered and the catcher ran straight to him to shake his hand and give him the ball. He didn’t move... 

He was so disappointed he didn’t get it across the plate. He looked up at me and said “Dad? I get to throw it again don’t I ?” I reluctantly told him “No, that was it.” 

It almost broke my heart because I knew he wanted to prove all that hard work he had put in to get that ball across the plate. 

He was 5.. No one else expected him to get it across the plate. But He did! 

We walked off the field that day and the last thing he heard was a “No...that’s it.” 

He had a lot of surgeries, Botox injections, castings, and braces ahead of him after that. 

2010 

He made a fall ball kid pitch team 4 years later with the other kids no other team  wanted. He sat the bench a lot that short season. The coach really wouldn’t give him a chance. 

I sat in that dugout with him often. The other kids who sat with us  eventually stopped coming. Yet, Daniel still wanted to go to every game be ready for that moment he got to play. 

I told him even though we were in the dugout we had a job to do. We were a part of the team and had to encourage the others in the field. 

He had yet more surgeries ahead and braces to wear. 

I honestly thought that was it for him.. 

2016 

6 years later after his last Achilles lengthening surgery at the Shriners hospital he was wearing his long clay stained baseball socks. They were the only socks that would go as high as his brace did and made it comfortable to wear. 

The physical therapist asked him if he was a baseball player. He didn’t hesitate and said “Yes.”

I almost said something to him because it had been 6 years since he even stepped on to a field, but I let it go. I mean, what do I know? If he was a baseball player in his heart, then I knew that sometimes, that’s all it takes to be one. 

2018

One year later in his tenth grade year he tried out for his high school team. He didn’t make it... The JV coach approached him later at school and told him he wanted him on the team but the Varsity coach in charge told him “No.” 

I felt a range of emotions knowing that! I almost let all those emotions slip out of my mouth but I held them in for him. 

But, he wasn’t even given the chance... 

2019

In his 11th grade year he tried out again. He came home defeated with his head down. He told me he did horribly and that he might be done with Baseball. I supported him either way and told him that it was up to him.

Over the summer before his 12th grade year he was constantly at the community ballpark. He never asked me to go. He’d just go up there and throw to an empty home plate at the fence. 

As his senior year started he still wasn’t sure he wanted to try out again, but he’d go out to the baseball field and practice with the team like he was part of it anyway. He just loved the game itself and wanted to be a part of it. 

They had a new base ball coach this year so he decided to try out for the team the third and final time. 

I told him he had already went further than I would have. I was being completely honest with him and said that he had something I didn’t have. Because, I would have given up by now...

2020

He made the team!!!

On February 29, 2020. On a day that only comes around every four years, I got to see my son throw the ball across the plate again. :) 

They got three runs on him which were errors really, but he still took the blame on him self. He was pitching with a cut under his eye from a ball that hit him during warm ups. And he took a line drive in his “good leg” that left the imprint of the stitches in it! They miscounted the outs and he had to get four total... 

He literally had everything working against him and was playing hurt, but he struck out the last two batters! 

When he came in the coach told him to sit because he was done. It did not phase Daniel! 

After the game he said to me right away that he’s ready to throw again and wanted to get back out there. 

Is this a proud dad post? Sure it is, because I am proud. 

But it’s really not that kind of post. It’s about what God gave Daniel and gave all of us! 

He gave us a spirit that does not make us timid. It is a Spirit that gives us Power, Love and self-discipline. 

That is what people refer to as Heart ❤️. 

It can’t be given to you by anyone or taken away from you by anyone either. 

And.... 

A simple “No” won’t stop it. 

PLAY BALL Daniel!

We Love you and your Heart.

Can I throw it again?

Going Home

“You know the way to the place where I am going.”
John 14:4 

Yesterday Lord,
you welcomed home the most Beautiful blue eyed fiery redhead that you may have ever created. 
I want to thank you for her humor. She made me laugh like no one ever could. I will forever chuckle at her pointing her finger down the hallway and saying “On Jeeves!” as I wheeled her back to her room. 
No matter how serious life was she always had a way to make your cheeks hurt from laughing. 

I want to thank you for her kisses. As a child we made it a game to catch me to get them. I always let myself be a caught. 🙂 They were the best! 
And I really won that game, because I got to kiss her on her check last. 

I want to thank you for my biggest fan. She must’ve introduced me to hundreds of people in my lifetime. She’d always say “This is my handsome grandson Brad and he is with me today.” It was like it was her privilege that I was seen with her. It was embarrassingly awesome. 

I could write you a thank you note every day for the rest of my life about her. Because I can’t thank you enough Lord, for my NANNY.

IN HIS TIME

This cross was made by special request for a wedding and was taken from the Ecclesiastes verse. The only change that was made was instead of it’s time it says His time. It is fitting. Because it truly is, in HIS time.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 New International Version (NIV)

11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

How many times in our life have we felt like we are behind? That we should be more successful by now. We should be done with college by now. We should be more secure by now. We should have had kids and been married by now. Who puts this timeline on us and these deadlines on us??? The world puts these pressures on us…These are not from our God. He has a specific plan for each of us.

We will all bloom in His time and not before. No matter how hard we push to succeed, it will not happen if its not in His plan and on His time. Don’t despair and please don’t give up… The time is coming.

One day we will look back and see that a plan had begun for us before we were even born and we cannot fathom where this plan will lead us. Turn your face to God. Let His light shine upon you. In His time you will bloom for Him. Be ready!

Together With Christ (Junto Con Cristo)

UNTO CON CRISTO 
Together with Christ 

Here is the Cross that God had planned. 🙂 (continued from last Thursday’s post)

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Colossians 1:17

This year my wife and I celebrate our 20th Anniversary. It became clear early on that we wouldn’t be able to do the dream trip we had planned 20 years ago. 
So we decided that we’d stay close this year and see our own state of Florida! 
We’ve taken for granted what God has had right in front of us all along. There is so much beauty all around us! And our State is such a wonderful melting pot of God’s children. 

On our sporadic trip to 
St. Augustine last week together God showed us every piece of this cross! 
This cross is made from the Sycamore Tree that fell violently during Hurricane Michael last year. Most of the wood has cracked as it does when it’s stressed like that before falling. 
I was pretty disappointed until I realized when we got back, that it is exactly what I needed to make these crosses. 
God had this planned last year! Wow! 
The Spanish influence can be readily seen. I didn’t mean to make the standing one look like a ship on the sea driven by the wind. Yet, I saw that clearly when it stood up! 
The bow ties we saw that held their cracked furniture together influenced the shape of the cross. The color of the Red Cross signifying Jesus’s blood on it and the Crusade’s Cross! 

The arrival of the Word of God with them. The acceptance of the Native people already here is shown in the Sycamore. It’s natural state left as is. God led people to our state to take refuge here to escape slavery or religious persecution. 
Open arms of the cross. 
The two pieces signify two becoming one Together with Christ. 
And, the Trinity. 
It’s says so much that I haven’t really taken it all in yet. 

My wife and I have wanted to run from the state we were born in, that our ancestors toiled in, and are buried in. But, God has kept us here for a reason. His plan supersedes ours and it may have began the day those Spanish ships arrived! 
He is before all things. 

Él es antes de todas las cosas, y en él todas las cosas se mantienen juntas.
Colosenses 1:17

Vaya con Dios 
Go with God 

God's Business

GOD’S BUSINESS 🙏
A post and almost two weeks ago I wrote about Resting our souls. My own post slapped me right in the face. 
Have I ever really learned to rest my soul? After that post I disconnected from social media and posting for the longest time in 3 years. 
I had a talk with God about this disconnect and why I felt so distraught. I questioned Him about dropping off social media all together and what would happen. Would we still be making Crosses if I didn’t promote on social media to sell them? What if I never design another “new” cross? Could I really just wait to see what happens? 
There are bills to pay, kids to feed, cars to fix, a leaky roof to fix. You guys know the list... it’s why we work. 
But, I felt like I was taking on more than he wanted me to. There was this pressure driven by needing to “sell” crosses instead of just wanting to make them for His Glory. But, could I just be quiet and do nothing? 

Everyday I fought this “resting” my soul in Him. I got up the courage to bluntly ask Him whether I post or not would we still sell crosses? It was quiet for the beginning of those two weeks. I thought that silence was the answer..
Brandi had a couple days off so we decided at the last minute to just go somewhere together. To just be as one going in a direction instead of two being pulled in opposite directions. 

Last Thursday we made that decision to just go. We didn’t tell anyone where we were going. Only the boys knew. The day we were getting ready to go, a cross was ordered. 
Everyday we were gone we received a cross order! I woke up everyday to the question being answered.
In those 5 days 5 crosses were ordered. I did nothing to “sell” those crosses. 
The truth is, I didn’t start this business and can take no credit for it. If you’ve read our story on the website you see this also. This is not my business to mess up! 
Because I can’t mess up something God created. 

On the last day as we walked on the beach, I realized God showed me every piece of a new cross design on that trip also! 
Now, I can’t wait to show y’all on social media what God has designed next!

Resting your Soul

Have you ever rested your soul? 
We can rest our bodies by simply sitting still or lying down.. This is called “Taking a break” We can try our best to rest our minds by getting away from our daily life schedule. By going on vacation or taking a sabbatical. By exercising, or doing yoga. 
But, how do we rest our soul? 
Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from him.
Psalm 62:1