Pentecost Sunday

Yesterday was Pentecost Sunday and Mother’s Day all wrapped up into one. My mom passed away from cancer about a year ago so she is not around for me to celebrate that day. Sadly enough I have not celebrated mothers day with my mom in quite some time. My mom lived in Point Texas and with my being in Goose Creek SC I was not able to make the long trip back home to see her. The long and short of this is that if your mom is still alive and able to enjoy your company do your part to go hang out with her very soon.

Our moms all received a red candle because the color red is significant during Pentecost. The oldest mom, youngest mom and the mom with the most children all received a red rose. Every year our church celebrates Mother’s day and Father’s day and the church always does a little something to show their appreciation. The dads usually wind up getting some sort of manly gag gift like WD40 or duct tape or a cheap pocket knife.

The church service was very good yesterday and we had a good time singing praise songs and listening to the sermon that our pastor had prepared for Pentecost Sunday. Several years ago I had a pastor say something that made a lot of sense and really stuck with me. He said that if what he preached on Sunday could not be used by his congregation when they were at the office on Monday then he was not doing his job effectively. With that in mind when I am listening to the sermon I try to ignore the messenger as much as possible and listen to the small quiet voice of the holy spirit in my heart and listen for the parts of the message that I can take with me the following week.

For some of you the question might be this. What is Pentecost Sunday?
I did a quick search on Google and this is what I found.

“While baptizing with water, John the Baptist prophesied of the first Pentecost where Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Matthew 3:11). Jesus confirmed this prophesy with the promise of the Holy Spirit to the disciples in John 14:26. He showed Himself to these men after His death on the Cross and His Resurrection, giving convincing proofs that He was alive. Jesus told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the gift from the Father, the Holy Spirit, from whom they would receive power to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:3-8). After Jesus’ ascension to Heaven, the men returned to Jerusalem and joined together in prayer in an upper room. On the Day of Pentecost, just as promised, the violent wind filled the house and tongues of fire came to rest on each of them and all were filled with the Holy Spirit. They were given the power of communication which Peter used to begin the ministry that Jesus had prepared him for. After the coming of the Holy Spirit, the disciples did not stay in the room basking in God’s glory but burst out to tell the world. This was the beginning of the Church as we know it.”

What does it mean to be a christian and how does this happen? Quite simply you must confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and repent of your sins and be baptized. Being baptized means that you make a public profession of faith and in most protestant churches that includes some sort of water immersion which signifies being dunked under water and dying to the old self and rising up out of the water signifying the newness of life through Christ. The second part of being baptized has an important spiritual significance because the Holy Spirit indwells the heart of the believer and gives them the ability to live a life of righteousness and obedience to Gods word.

Now that I have established what Pentecost Sunday is and the significance in the life of a believer in Christ now we can examine why it is important for a christian to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. As a christian there is always a constant battle between the worldly nature within us known as “the flesh” and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit which does several things. The Holy Spirit gives us guidance and direction which lines us up with the will of God in our life as well as gives us power to live for God.

The following three things were outlined as things that happen when people are filled with the Holy Spirit.

A. We will be witnesses. If the power of God lives in our hearts we will be motivated to share who Jesus Christ is with others. We will want to share our testimony or life story of how God has entered into our life and changed us from the inside out. There will be a definite change in how we lived our life in the past and how we live it now.

B. The power of God will make us want to work for God. We are not saved by our works but rather through the Grace of God. Our salvation is not works oriented and there is nothing we can do to earn or keep our salvation. However we should be thankful for all that God has done for us and want to serve him through love and appreciation.

C. The power of the Holy Spirit will make us worshippers. We go to church on Sunday because we want to join others and worship Christ the King through singing of praise songs to Him. Our singing is not a performance but rather praise FOR Him who saved us from sin and death. We should want to worship him in truth and in spirit. We should want to be in an attitude of praise and prayer all the time.

In summary it is important that we be reminded as Christians that the power of God indwells us through the power of the Holy Spirit and that this power is available to be tapped into 24 hours a day 7 days per week. The power of the Holy spirit is only empowering if we engage it in our lives. If we chose to ignore that power and never tap into it then it would be like having a powerful sports car sitting in your driveway full of gas but never use the key to start the ignition. How powerful would the sports car be if you could never get it out of the driveway?

Month of Birthdays

I can not believe that it has been over a month since I last wrote something in my blog. I was reminded of that because one of the church members that attends Grace fellowship by the name of John was asking me about how to connect with me on the Internet. I thought that he was wanting my email address but it turns out he is familiar with my blog but because I had not written in it since March 28^th he was wondering if he was missing me somehow. 

John is one of the elderly gentlemen in our congregation and I suppose he has more time on his hands than some of us younger folks and therefore he can surf  the Net and read this and that.  Somehow John ran across my blog and became interested in what is there.  Maybe John is curious to learn more about me and my family.  No matter what the reason for his reading of my blog I am honored that he would talk to me about it.

 

John’s question reminded me of the fact that I am just too busy.  Between the responsibilities of being a husband, father, employee, church member and several other things I seem to run out of time.  The truth of the matter is that I have allowed many little things to distract me from doing what I love to do the most and that is write.   One of the things that has distracted me from blogging is the world of tweeting.  If you visit www.twitter.com you will find the world of micro blogging.  Microblogging means that you have to write down your thoughts in 140 characters or less.  For people like me who love to write I am just finishing up my first introductory sentence at 140 characters.  Learning how to compose my thoughts with more brevity certainly is a good exercise for me.  It helps to prune out some of the useless fluff from my writing. 

Twittering or tweeting is the act of micro blogging and telling people what is on your mind or what you are doing at whatever point in time that you decide to tweet in.  In some ways tweeting is fun and addicting however I think that it has caused me to try and make it a substitute for blogging which it is not.

May is the month of birthday celebrations and a wedding anniversary.  Kristina “Princess” Moffitt turned 16 on Sunday May 4^th and Justin “bambam” Moffitt turns 13 on Tuesday May 6^th.  Katy and I celebrate 18 years of marriage on the 12^th of May and Katy turns 49 on May 21^st. 

Courageous Kidz organization that Katy and I support and volunteer for is gearing up for an event called Rattlin Pins which will take place at Sandpiper Lanes in July 2008.  We are excited about supporting this organization because we know that kids with cancer and their families are ministered to in a special way.  If you live in the low country area I would encourage you to try and participate in some way.  We are in need of bowling teams and lane sponsors as well as help for the bowling teams on the day of the event.

Just recently I decided to learn more about how to support  Apple OS  and hardware.  The college that I work at has quite a few faculty staff and students who use Apple products.  Because of that the support staff in our I.T. department needs to be able to support them.  Just recently we decided that in order to support  the products we need to start using the products.  There is no better teacher than hands on experience if you ask me.  I have a dear friend of mine that is echoing something in my head as a write this.  Her question would be “did you read the manual?”  There is something to be said about reading the manual. Sometimes reading the manual can shorten the learning curve somewhat and make the learning experience a little less painful. 

You can read more about my Macbook experience by viewing my Mac related blog at http://web.mac.com/chiefpropellerhead/Site/Blog/Blog.html

James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Beautiful day

Today is a beautiful day here in Charleston. The sun is out and it is 74 degrees heading to a bearable lower 80’s on the thermometer according to our local weather folks. Instead of being in my office I want to be outside walking around with the rest of the students and tourists eating lunch and catching some much needed sunshine. I spend so much time inside in my bat cave staring at computer screens that I must be white as a sheet. I feel like a CHUD most days. Do you remember the CHUD movie from years ago? CHUD stands for cannibalistic humanoid underground dweller. That describes me very closely, everything except for the cannibalistic part. I love to eat and I get hungry on a regular basis however I have yet to have seen another humanoid I wanted to munch on. For my close friends and family I guess that is a much wanted revelation. LOL
I guess LOL is not an appropriate word with regards to grammar or writing but since this is going to be posted to my blogs I am not worried too much about being PERFECT with regards to my grammar or spelling. Ok, I confess, I am like most folks. When I write something I want to portray a semblance of intelligence and writing ability. I cheat and use Microsoft Word and the built in spell check. Ok, there it is , confession time from a free lance wannabe writer. LOL… I know, I know, you do the same thing.

This has been the week of “end of life” events for our church family. I say church family because I consider the folks at my church as my extended family. I spend a lot of time with them during the month and so I have gotten attached to them. One of the ladies at our church lost her husband. Louis was 77 years old and they were both married for several years and lived together at a nursing home. We had the memorial service at our church on Easter Sunday afternoon. There were not a lot of people at the memorial service but the people that were there had some neat and interesting things to say about Louis and his surviving wife.

My pastors mother in law passed away at 3 pm yesterday. Nonnie Grace Rushing was in her early 80’s and her health has been failing as of late. The fact that she has passed certainly was of no surprise but the timing certainly was. I wish that I could have spent more time with her before she left us. The only time I really saw Nonnie was at church. Nonnie was always in Sunday school when her health allowed it. Nonnie would sit in one of the front pews and listen to her son in law preach every Sunday. I will certainly miss seeing her there and I know she will be missed by many.

Our resident princess will be turning “sweet 16” in May and as of yesterday she passed her learners permit exam and got her official South Carolina Learners Permit ID. Kristina was so excited about this new turn of events in her life. If you live anywhere near Goose Creek SC you might want to be very very careful if you see a grey 93 Ford Taurus station wagon heading in your general direction. It will be some time before my princess gets behind the wheel of the 2006 Durango. LOL… I am glad that my insurance premium will not go up until she is an actual licensed driver in SC. In the next year or two I will need to get my wife a newer vehicle to drive around to work and do errands and then the 93 Ford can go to my newest and less experienced driver. My 12 year old son who wants to be a rock star has decided he wants a motorcycle to fly around on. Can you say MOPED?? LOL. Katy told him that he would have a motorcycle AFTER he turns 18 or she dies, whichever happens first. What is wrong with him, telling his MOTHER that he wants a motorcycle? LOL…

We recently spent the weekend up in Myrtle Beach where we attended the annual Renaissance Weekend. This event is sponsored by Camp Happy Days and we have been attending it since our Jessica died on August 5th 2001. Camp Happy Days provides this weekend for parents who have lost children to cancer or other diseases. This is a time for us to honor our children for who they were in our lives and to cherish our memories of them. We had a very small group of people this year which was unusual but it gave all of us some extra time to talk about our beloved children. We are so thankful to Camp Happy Days for the ability to come together and be supported by them and to support one another.
I hear my tummy growling so I am going to go for a walk in Marion Square and get something to munch on. Have a great weekend and let the folks that you have close to you that you love that you appreciate them.

James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Create South Conference in downtown Myrtle Beach SC

Saturday April 19th at the historic train depot in downtown Myrtle Beach, the CREATE South conference will occur. It is a meeting for those interested in blogging, podcasting, video, social networking or any other form of self-expression. Serving the residents of the Grand Strand and beyond, it is a venue to bring together like minded people to network, to teach and to learn. If you would like to get involved in these arenas but don't know how to start, this is the place to be. With introductory presentations and hands-on detailed demos, the beginners and the experts alike will have plenty to learn.


Whether you blog as a hobby, to generate income, or for promotional purposes there will be something for you. If you would like to attend this free conference, the registration page is now live. If you would like to present, mentor, or assist in any way with this grass roots effort, please send Dave Slusher an email: dslusher@gmail.com.






James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Beware of mugglers

I took Katy to Isle of Palms so she could spend the weekend with some other ladies at a house that was either rented or donated for Courageous Kidz. I spent the night playing cards and had a blast Friday night. I paid for that fun all day Saturday but that is ok.

Satuday afternoon our friend Eillen from church met up with us at Hardees and we had lunch and then went geocaching. One of the caches that we went to was Lake Greenway Park which is right around the corner from our house. Kristina had not been there yet and our friend Eileen is the cache owner. As we were walking through the woods on our way to the cache Eileen found a container from another cache owner just tossed off the path like a piece of trash. Apparently some mugglers had taken the cache, stole everything from the container and threw away the container in the woods.

We moved down the trail and Kristina marched into the woods with her brother to find Eileen's cache. When they got to the cache coordinates they found the hiding place but the ammo box where the cache goodies were inside was no where to be found. That means that someone or a group of folks have taken it upon themselves to be mugglers and remove the geocaches from this particular location. My teenagers told me that this particular park has a high concentration of kids their age so there is a very good chance that some of those kids have decided to steal the contents of these caches. Most of the cache contents consist of the same things that you would find in a dollar store. Eileen was not very happy that someone took the liberty of removing her cache and now will have to go through the expense and trouble of making a much more secure cache. I suggested that we put the cache back and then hide in the woods near the cache with paintball gear and catch the next mugglers in the act and plaster them with tons of paint.

Justin and Kristina are so excited about geocaching that they want to set up their own cache. Eileen was nice enough to let them pick out one of their very own ammo cans from her stash of extra ammo cans. The kids will have to figure out where to put this cache, what to name it and get it approved so this should be interesting. I am happy that they have so much interest in this and that we can all do it together as a family.





James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Geocaching for beginners

Several weeks ago I began to develop an interest in Geocaching. A couple from church invited me to go with them to Walterboro to find several of these geocaches. Once I went with them and learned a little bit about it I was hooked. To learn more about the history of geocaching and to read some of the very informative faq’s go to this link. http://www.geocaching.com/faq/
I am brand new to the world of geocaching so I am writing this from the perspective of a newbie in this hobby. I am hoping that this will help you and/or peak your interest in this cool hobby.

It took me a little while to scrape up the extra coin to buy my own GPS but I found a good deal on Ebay for a used handheld Garmin GPS. My friend from church spent 3 hours with me last night at ABC off of 78 and we installed the waypoint software and usb drivers for the GPS so I could download the caches directly to my handheld gps.
One of the things I learned very quickly today as Justin and I headed out to do our first geocache expedition was that you have to be very patient with yourself and your equipment. I also learned that you cannot rely on the GPS 100%. It will get you pretty close but you will have to use your head, common sense and whatever hints that the cache owner might leave you online. It also helps to print out the “Google Maps” map that is also provided so you will have a general idea of where you are going. If you have any experience with using a GPS to find a street address then you will understand what I am saying here.

When you start learning about this GPS adventure game you will realize very quickly that this is an outdoor game that requires lots of walking and possibly jumping and climbing. Each geocache is rated 1-5 on complexity for location so the higher the number the more physically challenging it will be.

You will find yourself looking for these caches in parks, nature trails and even off the beaten path. It is a good idea to wear appropriate clothing when you go. I did not follow my own advice today but hey that is what learning is all about. If you have blue jeans, a long sleeve shirt and/or jacket and some outdoor shoes with sturdy souls then you will be in good shape. Wearing shorts, flip flops and tank tops will earn you lots of scrapes, cuts and possible bruises.

You will also want to go to a Dollar General or a local department store of some sort and get some inexpensive knick knacks that you can leave in the cache in case you find something you want. If you take something you like you have to leave something and make a note of it in the enclosed log. You will also want to equip yourself with a clipboard or covered clipboard you can carry your maps and geocache information sheets in so you can be organized.

One of the most important pieces of equipment that you will need other than your brain and a dependable vehicle is the GPS unit. You may already have a GPS in your automobile and that can help you find the general area where the cache is. That GPS probably won’t allow you to input necessary latitude and longitude coordinates which means you will need a hand held unit for out of vehicle use. Earlier in this article I gave you a URL which has that type of detailed information.

I wound up with a used Garmin c60 GPS which has built in memory and allows you to download the cache information directly into your GPS. You can spend around 100.00 for a GPS that you have to manually enter in the cache coordinates or you can spend between 160.00 to 1000.00 depending on the hardware and its bells and whistles and the corresponding mapping software.

Be aware that if you buy a used GPS and you get the install media from the previous owner you may not be able to unlock the software for that unit a second time. The mapping software is hard coded with the GPS serial number on the Garmin website registry. I am in the midst of trying to get the previous owner of the unit I purchased on EBay to send me the 25 character unlock code for the software that easily costs 100.00 t0 purchase new. The more updated the mapping software is on the GPS the easier it will make it to find the cache locations. Looking back I should have held off on leaving feedback for this seller until I got ALL of the necessary information from him.

I know this because I was in a new subdivision today and neither of my GPS units showed any of the streets. That means that the subdivision streets were newer than 2006 when my mapping software was written. Since then new updates have come out that will enable me to see the newer streets and points of interest. All in all today was a very educational day in the world of geocaching and I got to spend some quality time with my 12 year old son. Apparently Justin is a very good at physically tracking down the cache once we get on foot. He showed me how it was easier to use the electronic compass to find the caches vs trying to use the map with a purple line pointing to the cache instead.

There are also local geocache interest groups that meet on a regular basis where you live. I am thinking that someone in one of the forums on http://www.geocaching.com/ can probably lead you in the right direction to find meeting times in your area.



James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
james.moffitt@comcast.net

My first ever 200+ game at Sandpiper

My first game was a 153, second game 122 and last game a 210 to give me a 163 average for the night. My average is a 137 on this league so I had a very good night. SWEET....




James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Raising teenagers is like herding cats

I was speaking with my pastor the other day and he said that men’s ministry at church is like herding cats. I had never thought about it that way but I think that he is correct. I also think that raising teenagers are sort of like herding cats as well. I can relate to this as being truth because I have had several cats in the last 20 years. Currently we have a male cat named KC that we adopted from downtown Charleston. I have to say that he is the sweetest most loveable feline that we have ever had. That does not mean that KC is not a typical feline though. I also have a twelve year old son and a fifteen year old daughter.
One of the nice things about our furry cats is that they are pretty self sufficient. They do not require a lot of maintenance. Yes, you have to provide them with four walls, roof and food and a place to do their business. Once those requirements have been met you can liken them to a windup toy. You wind them up, sit back and enjoy the show. Have you ever noticed that a cat is never really bored? That is because they have a mind of their own and they pretty much do whatever they please. Have you ever tried to make a cat roll over or shake hands with you? How about inviting the cat into some nice warm bath water for a bath?
The chances of you getting a cat to do exactly what you want when you want it to would be slim to none. Have you ever tried to get your teenager to do something that you wanted? Teenagers are sort of like cats because they have a mind of their own and they are working overtime to create their own identity in this world. You can talk to teenagers until your tongue falls out of your head but that does not mean that they are really listening or that they will actually take anything to heart.
No two cats are the same and neither are teenagers. It goes without saying that we are all unique and individual creations. The problem with raising teenagers is that you have to find a healthy balance between being a guide, coach, friend and disciplinarian. Several years ago my pastor likened raising kids to that of a basketball coach. You as the parent are the coach/referee and the kids are playing the game of life. It is our job to provide the boundaries and set up the rules of the game. We must over see the game and how it is played and provide life skills guidance so that the kids can learn how to play the game successfully. We must instill upon them a spirit of excellence so that when they play the game the y play it with integrity and put everything they have into it. One of the ways that we do this is to show them how to play the game with our actions. Some parents (coaches) fail at being an effective coach because they spend more time communicating “don’t do as I do but do as I say”. It is very critical that we not only teach the game of life to our teenagers but that we also live what we preach. If we do not do this then we are compromising our integrity and our teenagers will not respect us.
How does playing the game of basketball relate to herding cats? Setting boundaries and teaching life skills can be tricky at best. I can guarantee you that as soon as you set up boundaries the teenagers in your life will not only deny that the boundaries exist but they will also do everything in their power to violate the boundary and then act as if they did not even know where it was. Teaching the rules of the game to your teenager will be lots of fun as well. You teach them the objective of the game and the skills needed to obtain the ultimate goal. In basketball the goal is to stay within the boundaries, do not foul the opponents and put the round ball through the hoop more than the opposing team. The game is simple however the execution of said game is not so simple. In the game of life your goal is to teach your teenager how to be successful in life and be a law abiding, God loving , self sufficient member of society.
At some point you will find yourself in direct opposition to your teenager as they will most certainly challenge your authority to teach them the game of life and they will question your ability to do it to begin with. I have been told that a teenager challenging authority is normal unfortunately if this challenge becomes severe enough you can have a serious case of rebellion on your hands. Thus we come back full circle to learning how to make a cat do what you want despite its apparent efforts to do what it wants instead.
One of the problems with raising teenagers is that you are dealing with an individual with raging hormones and an ever developing emotions and minds. That means that if you force the cat to get into the bath water you could very easily get scratched. What I am saying is that you will find yourself doing a lot of soul searching to examine what you can do within your own heart and mind to prepare yourself to be the best coach that you can possibly be. You cannot wait until your child is 13 years old to establish a loving and respectful relationship with your child. I do not consider myself to be a parenting expert and I have four children ranging from the ages of 12 to 21. I have made my fair share of mistakes but along the way I have learned some very valuable lessons. One of the lessons that I have learned is that I cannot respond to my children the way that my parents raised me. I fully believe that my parents did the best that they could with what limited knowledge that they had at the time but I certainly know that they made some mistakes with me in the area of discipline.
Before you can be a good coach you have to unlearn the garbage from your past. You have to recognize the mistakes for what they were and forgive those that did them to you. Then you have to learn how to do things differently. I can’t tell you how many times that I have caught myself reacting to my children out of anger. I responded to them by reacting out of emotional anger because of a specific thing that they had done or failed to do. The child either directly disobeyed me or they made a mistake because they are a child. We have to remember that our children are going to make mistakes as they learn how to play the game of life. Not only are we supposed to teach them good life skills and live them in front of them as a living example but we are also supposed to be a loving parent that they can turn to when they fail. We cannot expect our children to be perfect because we are imperfect people living in an imperfect world. We live in a performance centric world that gauges our worthiness by our ability to perform and be the best that we can be. Life can be very harsh with regards to failure. Life is not very forgiving for failures that are made and there can be some circumstances to live through because of that failure. Our job as parents is to teach our teenagers how to be successful at failure. It is ok to fail because that is how we learn.
One of the challenges for parents of teenagers is to help our children learn the importance of balancing the many aspects of their very busy lives. As the teenager becomes more and more socially active you will find yourself running ragged as you shuttle them from one event to the next. The problem with that is that while the kids are enjoying the ability to spread their wings and share their individuality with their peers other things can fall between the cracks such as their scholastic goals. I can remember when I was a teenager. I could not wait to become an adult so I could move out of my parent’s house and be a real man. I wanted to do what I wanted to do and I was tired of the parental control. I thought that my parents were blithering idiots and were out of touch with reality. My parents constantly stayed on my case about my grades and told me that my future would be directly affected by my ability to pass classes with good grades. My desire to get good grades had nothing to do with my future but had more to do with making my parents happy and get them off of my back. The mistake that my parents made was that they placed more importance on the consequences of failing them and their expectations vs the consequences of not getting a good college education as a young adult. Currently I am working overtime to find creative ways to convince my children that their future will be directly impacted by their ability to have good grades and further their education past high school.
So my teenagers do not think that dear old dad is out of touch I make sure to use my life and the mistakes that I have made as a living example for them to learn from. That requires a lot of honesty and the willingness to be transparent before your kids. I am hopeful that in doing that I will encourage them to learn from my mistakes and know that there is hope for them especially if they can learn where I went wrong when I was their age.
Raising teenagers or herding cats can be challenging at best but it also can be very rewarding as you watch your young adult spread their wings and learn how to fly in the game of life. Being a coach, referee requires a ton of grace, prayer, patience and faith.





James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Gator Award for Kristina Lynn

I am proud to annonuce that Kristina Lynn "Princess Moffitt" was awarded a Gator Citizenship award from her teachers at the High School she attends. I am so proud of her.

Beautiful weekend

On Saturday a couple from church introduced me to a new hobby called Geocaching. I had heard them talk about it a couple of times but really did not have my interest peaked until I spoke to them again on Saturday morning when I was showing my friend some pointers on her new Blackberry Pearl.

One thing led to another and I told them that I needed to get out and walk and was going to try and get my wife to join me which caused my wife to roll her eyes and sigh. LOL... My friends said that I could get plenty of exercise by joining them on their geocaching expedition. Not onlly did I get some exercise but I also became very interested in a new hobby. I was out in nature enjoying a beautiful day and killing two birds with one stone.

Saturday was a good day as far as calories and exercise is concerned. Sunday I worked 11.5 hours trapped in my office doing server maintenance however around 4 pm while I was waiting on some processes to finish I escaped the five story building I was trapped in and walked down to the Aquarium and back. I remember how when I did this the last time I was worn out when I got to the water front and had to ride the bus back to the college. This time I had plenty of energy when I got there and was able to walk back without any problems. I was tired of course but not so physically tired that I did not think I could do it.

Slowly but surely I am making better decisions about what I eat and drink and I am trying to find better ways to get exercise plus have fun doing it. I think I will stick with that much longer than trying to force myself to go to the gym day in and day out. This week I want to lose one more pound. That means I will need to make sure and climb stairs here at work, get exercise on my non bowling days and eat the right things. I can do it!!




James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Good morning

I resisted the urge to get the Biscuit with Sausage Egg and Cheese this morning and got the Special K cereal and a banana with 2% milk. I made a very good choice this morning and I know I will be healthier because of that. I need to learn how to get more excited about being healthy vs satisfying my tastebuds. I could literally taste the Biscuit with sausage egg and cheese. I have noticed lately that when I walk into the breakfast place that the smell of the breakfast cooking does not appeal that much to me anymore. The smell sort of reminds me of the fact that the stuff is not really good for me even though it tastes good.

I need to walk some stairs here at work today. I have been slacking off in that area lately even though I have been walking and bowling regularly. I lost the 13 lbs that I had gained recently because of being off my BP meds. I am pretty happy about that. Now I need to go to the next level and lose another one or two lbs the rest of this week.

Have a good day







James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Up way to early

I went to bed around 11:30 pm and my bladder woke me up around 4:58 am. I wound up in my recliner around 5:08 am thinking I could nap for another 90 minutres. That is when my wife's Motorola Razr phone beeped real loud because it had a reminder on it. I went and picked it up and cleared the reminder and brought it back with me to my chair so I would not have to get up again should it go off. What I should have done is open a window and throw it out on the front lawn for the ducks to get it. Sure enough, 15 minutes later her phone rings. Sangaree Elementary school wanting Katy to sub for them today. I told them, thanks but no thanks, she makes more money on unemployment benefits than she does working for them part time. How sad is that? I end the call, close my eyes and think, maybe I will get some sleep now that this call is over. I was circling Neptune on the far side when this thing goes off again. This time it is Sedgefield Middle School. A lady was on the phone asking for Kathy. I should have said, I am sorry, no one by that name lives here and hung up. Instead I said, no Katy is not here she is still asleep. The lady on the other line says, I am sorry but I need for her to sub for me today instead of Friday. I told her that I woukld wake her up and have her call her back. I end that call and begain to curse the inventor of cellular telephones. I close my eyes hoping for a few more moments of blissful rest when I hear my 12 year son in the bathroom enjoying the effects of bronchitis. Poor fella is not feeling well and when he is sick he is like me, a big baby. By this time I finally decided I need to go to work to get some rest and that is how my day started.



James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Good choices

I went over to the hungry cougar this morning and smelled the smells of eggs, bacon, sausage, gravy and biscuits. I overcame the urge to splurge and get what I wanted. It was difficult but I know that if I justify eating what I want when I want to then I will never get this weight off. Instead I got Kellogs Special K cereal , 2% milk and a banana for breakfast.

Last night at bowling one of the ladies on the other team who has known me for several years asked me if I had been losing weight. I told her yes and she said that she could tell and for me to keep it up. I was able to share with her some of the things that I have learned about exercise, eating right and cutting out some of the junk out of my diet. She was impressed and supportive. Her telling me that I was losing weight has given me the courage to keep doing what I need to do.

My weight loss is the right choice so that I can enjoy a better quality of life and hopefully extend the longevity of life as well. My goal is to lose a minimum of 1 lb per week and I will be successful if I make the right choices one meal at a time.


James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
james.moffitt@comcast.net

What choices will we make

Today is a good day. The rain has stopped and the sun is out and it is cold outside. I went to the gym and worked out for an hour and that is the first time I have done that in months. Back in December I started walking the five flights of stairs in my office building and walking. I am ready to go to the next level which means going back to the gym and reaquainting myself with the elliptical trainer and weight machines.

I had a good time in our church service yesteday. The praise and worship music went very well and I could sense the presence of the Holy Spirit moving about the sanctuary as we lifted up His praises in song. I spent several hours this morning on my day off reaching out to people in our congregation that are missing in action. Some are absent because of travel or illness. Some folks are absent because they just have better things to do. Lets face it, there are plenty of other fun things to do other than going to church. Am I right or what? I guess it all depends on your definition of fun and the reasons why you go to church to begin with.

We have been attending a local church here in Goose Creek now for about 7 years. I like attending church because of several reasons.

A. I can reconnect with God in my life there
B. I hear his word being preached and taught
C. I can be around other like minded people
D. I get encouragement from the other folks I am around
E. I realize that I am not alone in the many struggles or trials I face in life
F. I have opportunities to serve when I sing on the Praise team and help with technology
G. I am in a place where I can renew my committment to serve God and be the best husband, father, employee,church lay leader etc.
H. I can minister to the needs of others around me as I am led by the spirit of God
I. I can support the pastor and his wife as they minister to us


I was speaking to he pastors wife in e-mail about some of the lost sheep in our congregation and she told me that some folks seem to think that the relationship they have with the Lord is enough. Why should they bother with going to church or responding to our reaching out to them. This was my response to her question.

I guess the question for all of us is this. Do we want an intimate personal (daily) relationship with the Lord or do we want a superficial relationship?

I fully believe that there are people who think that going to church once or twice per week is enough.

Relationships require work and the harder you work at them the better they become. How do we get close to God? We get close by reading his word, praying and being around other believers. Reading his word reveals his character and will for our lives. His word gives us direction and a purpose for living. Reading his word gives us HOPE and reason for going on through this world despite the garbage and heart ache. Reading His word gives us power to live by. We connect to the power of Holy Spirit by allowing His word to saturate our hearts.

When we pray we enter into his presence. It allows us to interact with a God that loves us. It allows us to be still and quiet in his presence and allow him to minister to our needs. How can God get close to us if we are always moving away from him and distracted? How can God talk to us in the still quiet voice of our hearts if we are always listening to the clamoring of the many voices out in the world?

When we fellowship with other believers God gives us a chance to minister to the needs of others and be ministered to by them as well.

Jesus said in his word , Be encouraged and be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.

We can get that message from not only God but also Jesus in others. We need to connect one to another so that we can all have the same goal which is to glorify God which is in heaven through both our words and deeds. If we don't love our brother and sister then the love of God is not in us.

Learning HOW to do these things takes commitment and practice. The longer we do these things the easier it gets. We need to learn how to do it ourselves and then we can mentor others and show them how to do it. We are not responsible FOR people or the decisions they make. We all have to take ownership of our issues and our decisions and realize that while their are some consequences for sin that does not mean that God or his people will not forgive.

Yes, there are some people who are self righteous and judgemental and they wont know how to forgive. That does not mean everyone within a church is the same way. We are responsible to God for how we treat one another. If our vertical relationship with Christ is healthy then our horizontal relationship with other people will be ok. Our job is not to change people, save them or be judgemental. Our job is to love them as Christ loves us. We are not to love the sin someone entertains nor are we to engage in that sin but we are to love the person and help them to walk into restoration in whatever way we can.

One way that we can help people to come into a place of restoration is to love them just the way they are and try to invite them to join with us as we attend our local churches and be in a place where they can get help and healing right along with us. Ultimately the church is a spiritual hospital where all the hurting people come together and find out what is wrong and get the healing they need.

As Christians we are surrounded by hurting people who need Christ in their lives. I do not care where you find yourself you never know what is going on in the lives of people that are in the community that God placed you in. We might be the only Jesus that those people may ever see or hear. I want to encourage you to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth to those people. Work on a healthy relationship with God yourself so that when you come into contact with another person that is hurting or sick emotionally, spiritually or mentally you will be equipped to help them just as Christ has helped you.


James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Blah day

Today seems to be one of those BLAH days. I am not really depressed about anything in particular but I am not really excited about much either. I am sort of just costing through the day hoping that things stay quiet around here and nothing breaks. In some ways I am like the Maytag repairman, part of my job is to fix servers and associated peripherals or hardware if it breaks. I do both hardware and software monitoring , repair and reporting. My job title is server analyst but I am also a systems administrator with all that I have to keep an eye on. Luckily we have systems in place that will notify us in case of some sort of failure, I just have to respond to it in a timely fashion.

I am averaging about 1800 calories per day and I am trying to remember to climb the five flights of stairs here at work at least 2 times per day. I did it once yesterday and once today. I need to do it one more time this afternoon to keep in line with my goals. I am going bowling tonight so I am looking forward to that. Hopefully I will do good tonight and at least get my average or higher.

Hope everyone is having a good day today.



James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Healthy choices

Good morning fellow calorie counters and friends.

I am happy to report that instead of buying a biscuit with sausage egg and cheese this morning I purchased Kellogs specia K individual container at the Hungry Cougar across from my work place this morning. I was so tempted to get the former but chose the later in an effort to make better choices. Instead of doing what I am used to doing I am chosing to retrain myself to realize that part of losing weight is losing bad thinking and renewing my mind with good information. Having information is useless if we do not put it to action.

I have been losing half a pound per day thus far this week. That means that the weight is coming off slowly but surely. I need to increase my exercise a bit but that should be easy to do. Monday was a pretty high energy day with two trips up the five flights of stairs and bowling for two hours so I took a break from the stairs yesterday and instead went for a 30 minute walk at lunch.

I am holding myself accountable to others by sharing my journey with folks in my life such as yourself and my extended family and friends on the Internet. I am doing this so that I can be transparent with myself, God and you. If I am transparent and honest then it will be easier for me to face facts and do what I need to do. One of the people that I shared this with agreed with me that I needed encouragement. In the very next sentence this friend told me that walking stairs at work was not going to cut it but if I wanted to lose weight that I need to walk 45 minutes continuously every day and that the secret to their success was to join weight watchers so that they could lose the 30 lbs they needed to lose.

Instead of encouraging me this person sort of drug me down for a few moments. Sometimes people do not realize or they forget how hard it is to actually motivate one self to make the life changes that are required. I reminded my friend that for me to carry all 365.6 lbs of me up five flights of stairs certainly is an aerobic exercise because it gets my heart rate up into an aerobic range. I get more of an aerobic workout by doing that than getting on the eliptical trainer for 15 minutes. The bottom line is this. I am doing SOMETHING different which is better for me and has added value that burns calories. No, I may not have a high octane work out that some other person that is in better shape than myself. The important thing is that instead of taking the elevator on the way up into the building every time I come into it I make the effort to take the stairs.

I figure that every good choice that I make , the less calories I eat and the more exercise I get the better off that I will be and those things put together will equate to slow permanent weight loss. Every day I chose to learn from the day before and make better choices and not make the same mistakes from the day before. If I can continue to do that I will reach my goal both in weight loss but in other areas of my life as well.

Have a great day folks!!







James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Starting over Tuesday 2008

I blew it big time with my calories yesterday coming in at 2300+ The only thing that saved my keister is that I burned 2450 calories with walking , climbing five flights of stairs twice at work and two hours of bowling. I probably burned more than that with my other daily activities but I dont feel like micro managing every single activity like typing, reading etc.

I want to keep my calories around 1800 a day. Some days I get close but it is usually on the MORE than that side of the number line. I need to get better at reducing how much I eat at night. I ate a tuna sandwich last night at the bowling alley because I was starved. Then when I got hom the family had ordered pizza so I warmed up two pieces of pizza and had a cinnamon stick. Then before I went to bed I had some cereal.

I guess I just rationalized the fact that I had gotten a lot of exercise on that day and it was ok to blow it a little bit. The problem with that justification is that I am not going to lose weight by doing that. I must eat less, eat right things and exercise more. Repeatr after me. I must

Eat less

Eat the right things

Exercise more

Msriff, I saw what you said and I am honored to be your friend and I will do whatever I can to encourage you. The truth of the matter is that we all need encouragement. We need to be willing to be transparent with one another and be honest about what is going on. Amen ?

We need to explore why it is we make bad life choices with regards to over eating etc. Some of us are emotional eaters and some of us (like me) have gotten where we are because we have made some terrible choices with regards to exercise and eating choices and now we are where we are at.

My choice in 2008 is to do whatever it takes to make the right choices so that I can lose weight. My goal is one lb per week. I think that goal is quite reasonable and I fully expect to lose more than that every week. My expectation is 1 lb and if more than that comes off then praise God.

One of the ways that we can support one another is by communicating BEFORE we blow it and stick the wrong thing in our mouth or get trapped by our emotions which can cause us to get down in the dumps and give up. Trust me when I say that I understand what it is to get depressed about life's circumstances. I have my days when I think about all the negative crap in my life and Just want to quit and say to HE** with all of it.

The only thing that bails me out of that mindset is my belief that God is real and that my faith in Him to keep his promises in His word gives me the HOPE I need to go forward. When the going gets tough I call out to Him and I say Abba father , please forgive me for my gluttony (and other sins or failurs) and help me to turn over the junk to you (He is more able to handle it than I) and give me the strength to carry on.

If you dont have that type of faith then you will be grasping at what the world has to offer and you will find yourself coming up short more times than not. If you are depending upon your own self determination and discipline and nothing else then you are going to be dissappointed. If you are thinking you can do this alone without reaching out to others then you will be in trouble.

Keep on keeping on and know that God loves you no matter how fat or skinny you are or perceive yourself to be. Lets all make the right choices with regards to life today with the idea that we want to be healthier in 2008.

Take care








James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Monday all over again

I had a busy weekend but managed to get some personal TO DO things accomplished. That is always a good thing. One of those tasks was to redo the church website and update it. One of the tasks was to wipe Vista OS off my laptop and put XP Professional back on it. Those two tasks took most of the day Saturday to accomplish. Luckily for me I was working with my buddy Luke from church so that was nice and made the time pass by nicely. I loaded Dreamweaver on my laptop so I can learn how to use it with regards to website design. I need to redo www.lightourworld.com as well.

Sunday consisted of Church and watching my favorite team give away the season to the NY Giants. I am still angry about that stupid mess. Dallas was penalized for so many stupid mistakes and their receivers could not catch a football unless you walk it to them and stick it in their hands for them. GRRRRRRR

I did ok with regards to calories. I asked my wife to go with me for a long walk to Wendys last night. We drove the truck out to the main road and walked on the lit up sidewalk. I guess it is about half a mile to Wendys and back. Other than that walk I had not gotten any exercise this weekend which is bad.

A friend of mine is offering to help me with paying for a BMI test in Mt Pleasant. That will tell me how many calories I burn per day and also give me a plan for what I need to be eating , how much and how frequently. My friend has been doing this for ten days and she is working out three times per week with a personal trainer. I am so proud of her and I am praying for her continued sucess with this.

I still do not understand how I burn 4300 calories per day and eat less than 2000 calories per day yet I still struggle to lose 1 lb per week? One of the things my friend told me last night on IM (she is a pharmacy doctor and really smart) is that when we eat refined sugars that there is an enzyme (?) chemical that is blocked that tells our body to burn fat. In other words our bodies are in starvation mode storing up the fat for a rainy day.

I am sure I have part of that wrong but I think I understand how that works. Less sugar for me indeed. I love sweet tea though..... Whaaaaaaaaaa OH HUSH UP you big baby... Do you want to lose weight or what?? YES.....

LOL..

Have a good day.








James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Starting over 2008

Today is January 1, 2008 and for some of us this is a day of reflection and renewed purpose as we turn our hearts and minds towards the New Year. Instead of making New Year resolutions that I can not keep I have decided to learn from the failures of 2007 and to start over in 2008. Like most years 2007 was full of good intentions, successes and failures. The reason I want to reflect on this last year and all that transpired is not for the purpose of beating me up. It is so easy to be super critical and pass judgment on my failures or inability to achieve some of my goals.
I believe each and every day that God gives me to live is a glorious gift. How I treat this gift is up to me. I can either waste the time away frivolously or I can chose to live through this time with purpose and set some goals. I have found that if I do not have goals that I find myself wandering aimlessly through life wondering what my purpose is. Wandering from day to day without purpose is dangerous because left to itself the mind and flesh lends itself to making itself happy.
One of my favorite books other than the Bible has been The Purpose Drive Life by Rick Warren. I do not feel that Rick Warren has all the answers nor do I hold him or his book in higher regard than God’s word. It is so easy for us to latch on to someone or some thing and become fixated on it to the point that we make the mistake of worshiping it or them more than the creator. I always tell people that they should eat the meat of what you are reading or hearing and throw away the bones. In other words no matter who the man or woman is that is doing the teaching they are looking through the same piece of stained glass that we are. No matter who the person is or what they are teaching us we need to remain diligent in holding the material up to the light of God’s word.
One of the things that I like about The Purpose Driven Life is that it reminds me in many ways that God has a purpose for my life. Purpose gives me focus and a reason to live from one day to the next. Some people call purpose a mission statement or statement of faith. My family attends and serves at Grace Fellowship Church in Goose Creek and our mission statement includes the words from Mark 12:30 which says “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind and with all your strength (31)The second is this ,love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment that is greater than these.
In this New Year I want my life to have purpose and meaning. I want that purpose and meaning to have eternal value and not just value for the here and now. In order to do this I have to focus on the right things and purpose in my heart and mind to be in a place where I can do these things. The only way that I can love God with all of my mind, soul and heart is for me to get in touch with Him through his written word, prayer and fellowship with other believers. I need to spend less time being a man pleaser and more time being a God pleaser. That means that I will need to prioritize the time that God gives me each day to fulfill His purposes in my life. It is so easy to be caught up in a whirlwind of useless activity.
Sometimes we fail at meeting our goals because of poor planning and commitment. A dear friend of mine shared this with me today about goals. The goals must be RUMBA. That means they must be reasonable, understandable, measureable, behavioral and achievable. My friend told me that he learned this principle from one of his Franklin-Covey seminars years ago. I plan on applying this principle to my goals this year.
One of my goals this year is to take better care of the temple God has given me to live in. I am sick and tired of the weight loss and gain roller coaster. I have a 20 lb window that I keep bouncing around in. My goal is to lose one pound per week throughout this year and keep it off. That means that I will need to do whatever it takes to do this. There are tons of diets out there but simply put eating less food, eating the right foods and getting more exercise is the key to the right kind of permanent weight loss. I spent most of 2007 learning some things about exercise and what foods to eat and what not to eat. In 2008 I need to put that knowledge to work and do what I know I need to do.
One of my goals is to be a God Pleaser and not a man pleaser. I need to serve God and do those things with the gifts He has given me because I love Him and not because of what others will think of me. I can not worry about what people are doing or not doing. That is between them and God and not me.
One of my goals this year is to work together with my wife and make wiser financial decisions. In the past I have had a bad attitude with regards to credit issues and debt. I looked upon those issues as some sort of insurmountable task or unmanageable disaster and my response to that was to just not care or ignore it and hope it will go away. I have learned the hard way that was the worse thing we could have done. A good friend of mine kicked me in the pants several years ago and showed me that it is possible to pay off debt and better our credit rating.
One of my goals this year is to be a better husband and father. Simply put I need to be more selfless and less selfish. I need to be a servant leader in my home. The only way that I can do this is to care less about my needs and care more about the needs of my family. There is more to being a husband/father than bringing home a paycheck and barking orders. I do not think that I am a total failure in this area but I know that there are things that I can do and should not do in order to be better at this.
Now that I have outlined some of my basic goals and identified some needs for 2008 I need to create a plan on HOW I plan on doing these things. Once I create these mini battle plans I will have my marching orders or my purpose for the coming year. I feel that once I have a plan in place that this will help me to keep my focus and I can have a more productive and successful New Year. You can join with me and help me to achieve these goals by praying for me during this coming year and feel free to ask me the tough questions and hold me accountable.


James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Weight Loss

December 2007 is almost gone and I still have not lost much weight. I have this 20 lb window that I yo yo up and down in all year long. I have weeks where I have tons of will power and determination and I eat the right things, the right amounts and find a way to get some semi regular exercise.

Apparently those moments of energy and determination are few and far between. I think I finally gave up on trying to find someone in my life that had the same desire and could help me with my motivation during times when I needed help being motivated. If I am going to do this then I am going to have to do it. No one is going to do this for me.

During Christmas I managed to lose 5 lbs instead of gaining. That is only because FAT BOY had gained four pounds BEFORE Christmas even got here. I went walking on Monday afternoon and today at work I walked up five flights of stairs several times in an effort to get the heart pumping some and to burn a few extra calories. Why do I need to go to the gym when I have an opportunity to walk several flights of stairs in the course of my work days. The answer is because my flesh is tired and lazy and just does not want to put out the effort. It is what it is and boy howdy it is just freaking ugly huh?

I am going to try to do the stairs routine at work as much as I can. I take my time and walk up one or two flights and then stop and catch my breath. I can walk up about 2.5 flights of stairs before my lungs start begging me for more oxygen than normal so when that happens I stop and take a break.

I have slim fast at work in the fridge and I have been telling myself I need to drink one of those for breakfast. I have not had much luck at that thought becoming reality.

My goal for 2008 is to lose one pound per week.
I have not given up. I am not a quitter. I still want to be successful at this. I think I can do it. I want to try harder. I want to be accountable.



James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net