The Return of the Saxophone Player

For my birthday/Christmas, Leanne gave me a gift certificate for taking saxophone lessons at the Providence School of Music and WiFi Cafe. Yesterday, I had my first lesson. For those of you who don’t know, I played that saxophone from fifth grade through the end of high school. I thoroughly enjoyed this time; however, I permitted the business of life and the demands of college and work to push this skill/talent/escape to the wayside. Well, I’d like to say that I’m back. (Hopefully, it will last!) I believe I’m the first woodwind student at the school. If you are interested in taking woodwind lessons (sax, clarinet, flute, etc.) and you live in the Collegeville area, I’d encourage you to check out the school.

Marriage Group Week 1 Recap

For those of you interested, we had a great first night on Wednesday with our marriage home team. This week we specifically talked about how are expectations coming into our marriages were sometimes unrealistic. We also talked about how important it is to communicate about these expectations with one another, so we can work things out. I know that many of the expectations that I had coming into my marriage have been shattered – and this has not been a bad thing. If you want to keep up with our groups homework assignments in the I Love You More book and workbook by Drs. Les and Leslie Parrot, here’s the group assignment for this Wednesday night:

Read chapters 1-3 in the book.
Do exercises 1-8 in the workbook.

Until the next post, what did you expect…?

2008 – Week 4 Exercise Review

As I mentioned last Sunday, I expected this past week to be a bit of a break after the previous three weeks of building, so here’s my brief recap:

Sunday 1/20 – 4.5 miles
Tuesday 1/22 – 7.0 miles
Thursday 1/24 – 8.0 miles

Total for the week – 19.5 miles (96.5 miles so far in 2008).

I’m hoping for another three weeks of building mileage starting today.

Until the next post…

Marriage Group Starts Tonight

Tonight is the start of our marriage group based on “I Love You More” by Drs. Les and Leslie Parrot. Hopefully, all will go well.

Until the next post…

2008 – Week 3 Exercise Recap

So far so good, here’s my recap for the week:

1/14 – 7.7 miles
1/15 – 7.3 miles
1/17 – 5.2 miles
1/18 – 7.8 miles
1/19 – 1.0 miles

Total mileage for the week – 29 miles.

Three good weeks in a row. This week coming up will probably be a bit of a step back and then we’ll keep building.

Until the next post…

Praying for Success

Yesterday, I was reading from Genesis 24 which recounts the story of when Abraham’s servant traveled to the city of Nahor to find a wife for Isaac (Abraham’s son). I’ve read this story many times before, but there was one small detail from verse 12 that popped out at me this time. The verse reads: And he said, “O Lord, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today and show steadfast love to my master Abraham. (NRSV) Specifically, I was struck by this part of the verse – “please grant me success today.” When I pray, I ask God for the healing of those around me, I ask God for a “good” day, I ask God to help me make the most of opportunities around me, and I thank Him for all the blessings I’ve been given. Besides asking for a “good” day, I’m not sure how often I’m specific about asking God to grant me success.

I’m convinced that God cares about the daily happenings of Jon Stolpe, and I’m sure He wants what is best for me; however, I’m not sure that I always give God the okay to help me succeed. It is clear in this passage that God does answer these types of prayers. My guess though is that Abraham’s servant was clearly following God. In other words, he was asking for something that lined up with God’s will. When we put God first in our lives, I believe we will ask Him for success in the areas that truly matter. So where do I specifically want God to help me succeed? Here’s a brief list:

1. I want to succeed at being the best husband that I can be for my wife.
2. I want to succeed at raising my kids in a way that honors God.
3. I want to succeed in my workplace through advancement and through leading with integrity.
4. I want to succeed in making a difference in my community.
5. I want to succeed in helping others to know Christ.

I’m sure there’s more, but these are some of the majors.

Until the next post, may our prayers for success be answered…

Supernanny Parenting Study Guide Complete

For those of you who may have been following our Supernanny parenting discussion group, I finally finished the study guide for the series that we completed in November. It’s currently posted on the smallgrouphelp.com website. I’m extremely excited to see how it could be used to help parents. Here’s an excerpt from the introduction:

Parenting is not easy. And there are not any perfect parents. Our parents were not perfect. Their parents were not perfect. Our kids will not be perfect parents. And we are not perfect parents. While it is a fact that we have all screwed up at one time or another through our past parenting, there is still hope. We can make a change today by deciding to do parenting differently from this day forward. This discussion guide is designed to help parents make positive changes starting today.

Check it out.

Until the next post…

Blog Spot Light – Facing Things Head On

As I’ve dug myself deeper into the blogosphere, I’ve come across some great blogs that have become part of my normal blog-reading routine. One blog that is on my list is entitled Facing Things Head On. This blog by Els Karchner divulges the honest mental wrestling matches of someone who is truly seeking to know Christ. I’d encourage you to check it out and even consider adding it to your regular reading list.

Until the next post, have a spectacular day…

Iso

Meet Iso. He’s the fifth member of the Stolpe Family. Iso has been part of our family on and off again for the past four years. On Tuesday, Iso will celebrate (if dog’s are capable of celebrating) his fourth birthday – which I think makes him 28 years old in dog years. We originally got Iso when he was eight weeks old. The Seeing Eye lent him to us to raise him through his early puppy times until he would be reading to be trained to be a full bore seeing eye guide dog. So we had him until he was about 1 1/2 years old. Then they came and got him.

He was up at the Seeing Eye in Morristown, NJ for eight months, and we were fairly certain that he would pass the program with flying colors. This was made even more certain when we went up to Morristown, NJ to see his “town walk” final exam. He did great guiding a “blind” trainer through the streets of Morristown. I was amazed to see how much Iso had learned during his training. When we left that day, we were happy to see that Iso had done so well, and we couldn’t wait to hear where Iso would be headed to work.

It was a few weeks later when we received a phone call from the Seeing Eye indicating that Iso had not made it through the program due to his distraction when other dogs were around. We had a big choice to make. We could adopt him for free, or we could let him find placement through the Seeing Eye’s adoption program. After much debate, we decided to take him back.

Iso has been a great addition to the family. He is very friendly. And he likes to know we’re around. If you’re thinking about a dog or would like to help out as a puppy raiser in this program, I’d greatly encourage you to give it a try.

Until the next post, who let the dogs out…

Ecclesiastes 7:20

Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins. Ecclesiastes 7:20

This is the first verse that I mentioned last Sunday. The verse reminds us that all have sinned. This is echoed by Paul in the New Testament when he says, “This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:22-24

I wish I could say I was perfect, for this fits by perfectionist personality type. But I’m not. Actually, I’m quite far from perfection. So what’s the big deal. If all have sinned, aren’t we all in the same boat? You bet. When you stack up God’s holiness next to our sinfulness, we all fall short. We all need to be saved if we are to have a hope of being in God’s presence. We’ll talk more about this in the next few posts.

Until the next post…